Surviving

It looks like we might be reaching the end of Emmett's illness, but the unfortunate part is that I think that the parents' version is about to start. Andrea and I have both been feeling pretty icky and I feel worse today than before. No fun. Emmett has been sub-100 temps all day fever-wise, so things are looking up. Two nights ago he woke at 2am and was basically up until 6am. We tried all kinds of tricks to get him back to sleep but nothing was seeming to work. Finally Andrea got him to snooze a bit with her and I got a couple of hours of sleep (I had been up working on lesson plans until midnight before his waking so was a little beat). Andrea spent the day with him at home while I went to work, and then that night the whole house was in bed before 9pm. Oh yeah, that was our first night on the new 4"-thick mattress cover that Emmett and I had picked up earlier in the day via bike. It was pretty funny getting everything loaded up and hauling the both of them back up the hills toward home, but Emmett was a good sport about it all even though he wasn't feeling tip-top. I took a picture:
The good thing about going to bed so early is that when your kid wakes up at 5 it doesn't seem to be such a big deal. He did it again this morning and we hadn't gone to bed early and aren't feeling well, so today is dragging a bit. I am not happy that this illness had to hit this weekend as Emmett and I had plans to go up to Oregon to see family, but now are not going to make the trip, I think, so as to save everyone else getting sick.

The days this week have been different as we have to stay away from our usual haunts (playgrounds, the Academy of Science, etc.) to avoid spreading the plague. Twice we have gone to the botanical gardens in Golden Gate Park which was nice. The first day Emmett basically stayed in my arms the whole time and we sat on a bridge to watch the ducks. The second day (yesterday) he was feeling much better and was walking around and excited to see the squirrels, ducks, etc. We had a deep conversation while seated under a tree about the pine needles and pine cones that were on the ground and how they fell from the tree above. I illustrated this by holding them up high then dropping them to the ground, which he would have me repeat while he tried to mimic my tale about them coming from high above. I think he got it.

I will just add some other photos without much explanation. First, from yesterday at the botanical gardens where we were watching turtles climb on a rock (in background).
A moment later when Emmett decided he didn't want his picture taken.
Later in the day when Emmett was showing me that he had figured out how his pockets work.
From about a week ago when I was watching Emmett and Augie at the same time and gave them a family-style lunch by stacking everything in the middle of the table and having them go for it.
From a few weeks ago at the park. Emmett loves to hang and swing pre-slide. (poor photo quality for this and the last as they are from my cell phone).