Well now what.

The kids have been in virus limbo for the better part of the week and as such we have kept them home from school. But today they go to school and I will have blissful quiet in my home. Maybe I'll get to watch the Walking Dead.

Yesterday my Mother-in-law came over and watched the kids while I went to a job interview. Yes faithful reader for the first time in five years I went to a actual job interview and got the call later that afternoon and got hired. It is in my industry of haunted attractions and I start April 3rd. Thankfully I will be a contract employee and still be able to work for the Haunted House that I am helping startup. I find my self so blessed to be able to do what I love to do with my children and new profession.

Ug..

So all three kids are missing school with a virus and there seems to be very little we can do other than cocoon on the couch and watch T.V. The fevers are running about 100 or so and the throats hurt. Poor kids don't really get the process. They go from dead on the couch with shivers to an hour later feeling better and wanting to get up and run around which gets them winded and need to go back lay down. I can only think that with a singleton it may be easier to manage one child where as with the trips they tend to spur each other to activities that may normally be ignored by one. You live with your best friends and you're all sick. I hope that at least helps.

Another one down.

Anytime the weather changes we have the slew of sickness that runs rampant through the children. The shitty thing is that before they went to school they never got sick and now it seems we can count on the crud at least once every time change. Except the girl, the girl hardly every gets sick it's always the boys. So instead of all the kids going to school today I will have at least one with me at home all day and going grocery shopping with a sick child sounds like a lump of awful unless I get him in the doctor's office and then I have no idea what we're going to have foe dinner. At least it's never boring.

New school thoughts.

In the town I live in we have a choice of which school the children go to and we are required to decide yearly. It make for a more competitive school district reaching for those tax dollars.

Now this might be fine and dandy for your normal spaced families or the singletons, however for the triplets it has it's own set of challenges. The big one is we are given the choice on if we want all of our kids in the same school or in three separate schools. What? I know that's crazy. Could you imagine that morning chaos of triplets going to three different schools?

The problem for us as parents would be I could handle the kids in different classes in the same school though that has it's own set of problems. Lets think about birthdays for a second. I take cupcakes to the school on the kids birthday now instead of oh say 30 I have to take 90. What about when the kids have a birthday party. You want to pay for 90 kids worth of cake much less be around 90 kids at once after they have had cake? Then lets think about class photos, school pageants, parent teacher conferences, different homework, etc etc. It can get a little over whelming when you think about it.

When you're in the depths of sleep deprivation during the first few months of newborn multiples, you have easy milestones to achieve like sleeping through the night, moving to solid foods and you think in your naivety it will all get easier once they start going to school. Well, I'm here to tell you that you are only exchanging one set of problems for another.

My daughter don't play.

So the other day I was talking to my daughter while she sat in my lap and all of sudden I thought it would be funny to "play dead" So I went slack let my tongue loll out and let my head fall to the side.

 Iris said "Daddy?"
 she took my head in her hands and shook my head, she lifted my eyelids and moved my head from side to side. I gave no response. She said my name a couple of times and gently patted my face trying to get a response. She stopped to listen to my chest for my heartbeat.

 Then she sat up and full on slapped me in the face and said "snap out of it!"
When my eyes opened in surprise she nodded at me said "that's better." and walked out of the room.

The post springbreak wrap up.

We started the week with kids not all feeling well and it's been real busy so I will only talk about yesterday. We went to the Ripley's Believe It or Not! Odditorium  and Louis Tussaud's Palace of Wax. The kids had a great time. There was a few things that they would not interact with, for example, No matter how hard I tried I could not convince anyone to pose in a sharks mouth. Nor could I get anyone to pose next to the tallest man in the world. I did however get them to pose with Oprah and David Letterman as well as Batman and Catwoman and I have this great picture of my daughter holding the Joker's hand. The kids went on a Dinosaur hunt had a shoot out in the wild west. met all the presidents and wandered the life of Christ all cast in wax. They only had to bypass two areas the Toronado Room but on the other side posed with the Wizard of Oz companions. And they would not go into the Monster part of the show. They went with me into the mirror maze and when I got turned around and lead us to the wrong exit Cooper took over and lead us out of there faster than the three families that went in before us, "the boy likes mazes." We ended the tour with the lazer maze which they didn't do real well with it. And then I took the kids to their first pizza buffet. All in all I think it was a good day.

fairness

It's a struggle to keep all things fair between the children. We try to make sure that as one gets they all get. They each get a toy, they each get a treat, they each get to pick a movie in rotation. However when one gets sick all this careful planning gets thrown out the window. And clothing is difficult as well. You see Cooper is almost half a foot taller than the his older siblings and the boy has big feet. So often times Bobby gets his younger brothers hand me downs. Now that it not something I would have ever thought about before multiples. 

Currently Cooper is ill and the other two are going to school while Coop stays home with me. I still have to run errands so off we go. I bought him a Icee from Target while we shopped and after wards took him out to lunch, bought him a dollar toy and got a movie for Friday movie night. I had to get new toothbrushes and he helped pick those out for his brother and sister. It's not that I didn't enjoy spending the one on one time but sure as the others got home Cooper starts going on and on about all the fun he had outside of school which upset his siblings.

The others understand when someone is sick but they don't understand the party atmosphere that Coop detailed for them. I fear that as this sinks in they are going to start doing the whole I'm too sick to go to school routine and trying to Ferris Bueller their way out.

Oh noes.

It looks like one of the kids came down with the strep throat. Well there goes the neighborhood. Because as one goes they all go and soon I will have three whiney clinging crying kids who will consume the little time I was able to carve out for my self every day. Good luck out there in the free world and hopefully we will weather this storm and get right back on track.

You ever have a sick kid?

Sometimes the kids come down with something although it's not that often. But when they do it becomes a nightmare for getting anything normal done. For one they of course become super clingy. I can tell you that having three fever ridden children cleaved to you is enough to make you feel like you have a fever. That said generally when one gets sick they all get sick. Also when we give one medicine we either have to hide the dosage or make sure that all three get a dose "because everything has to be equal" For the record we keep a false bottle of medicine for the non sick children.  Currently Cooper is feeling a little sick we know this because a) he is not eating and b) he will snuggle up to me on the couch and watch TV for more than thirty minutes at a time. He prefers Mommy in all things and tends not to cuddle with his dad. And now it's only a matte of time till the others start to get the sickness as well and once that happens it's all over but the crying.

Trapped

When the schools shut down due to the weather, where does that leave the parents? It's crazy to think that while I was still working the types of jobs I had before kids that on days like this and worse I still made it to work. I have no idea what I would be doing at this moment other than freaking out about what to do with the kids. It appears that the corporate overlords who live in other states give not a whit about the safety of their employees and you must then come to work at personal risk to car and physical safety. I have no doubt in my or the wife's ability to navigate the icy conditions however I can't control all the other texting ice drivers that will assuredly plague our roads this day.

Back to the point at hand, what am I supposed to do with the kids trapped in the house all day. Today they will be helping with their laundry and they will be going with me to get the groceries today. Maybe I'll bundle them up and throw them in the back yard for a bit, maybe I'll get a fire going and make hot chocolate for everyone. Maybe I'll buy some art projects at the store and that might buy me an hour of peace. Or most likely I will have to do all these things to keep them from driving me crazy. Good luck out there today.