day o' blogging: part 2

Am I the only parent who lets all rules go completely out the window when there's a sick kid in the house?  I sure hope not.

Also, am I the only parent who lets all rules go out the window with there's a sick parent in the house?  Yeah, I hope not on that one, too.

MooHooVille has been germ central for about a month, and it's felt like our routine has been completely disrupted as a result.  Natalie had many sleepless nights (and, therefore, so did her parents), and much of our daylight hours together have felt like I'm just powering through to survive until the end of the day.

We seem to have made it through this first bit of seasonal yuck, but really only because I made up my mind that I just didn't care if juice boxes replaced milk and popsicles replaced bananas and the binky was permanently glued in Natalie's mouth and Yo Gabba Gabba was on repeat throughout the day. 

We're back on track now, but the transition has been a struggle at times.

Here are some shots of our little miss, entertaining herself while she and Mommy felt under the weather:

Mike and I found this old easel leaning up against a dumpster (who knew we were such dumpster divers?!), and I painted the front with chalkboard paint.  Voila!  A new toy for the Natifuss.  She has been having lots of fun coloring all over the bottom half of it.

Coloring pages were a lifesaver, as was play-doh.  Any activity that would occupy her hands and mind for a few minutes helped to get through those moments when all she wanted to do was cough and cry.

This picture kind of kills me.  In the interest of keeping the babe happy, we encouraged her sloppy mealtimes, including her lovely yogurt-mittens.