Biophilliac Mommy: The week of Blizzard Nemo and the stomach virus

Mattimeo's first week of being 18 months was one crazy week. The week began on Friday the 8th by being dumped on with over 30 inches of snow, aka Blizzard Nemo. Friday was supposed to be mild, but when we woke up in the morning, the ground was already covered with a thick layer of snow, and the snow was coming down quite thickly. Robbie ended up working from home and we had a snow day all together. Friday night into Saturday was when the blizzard really went wild; we had such strong winds that that snow came in sideways creating the crazies snowdrifts. New England was covered in snow! It was certainly the biggest snow storm of the season. That morning, the snow was as tall as Mattimeo.

The day the snow was as tall as Meo

Looking at all the snow the morning of Blizzard Nemo

Excited to play in the new snow

Dusting off the stairs

Helping to shoevel

Having so much fun snow-blowing through the deep snow

Watching Daddy snow-blow

Run away!

Our car and a Meo head

Lots of fresh new snow meant lots more snowshoeing for us this winter! Sunday, we went out to the trail behind our house to test our endurance in the deep, deep snow. Turns out when the snow is that deep and fluffy, it is still difficult to walk around in even with snowshoes. We still managed it however, we just got in a really good work out breaking the trail! Robbie and I ended up switching who led the walk multiple times to give one another a break. But despite the difficulty of the walk; it was beautiful. There is nothing quite like looking over a wood covered in fresh, untouched snow. It was magical out there!

Kisses from a neighborhood dog as Robbie tried to put his snowshoes on

Meadow vole tracks

Trudging through the deep snow

Sleeping bear

After our snowshoe, we packed up our backpack (ond promptly forgot to put it in the car) to head into town for our friend Greyson's very first birthday party. While we packed, we also had fun making Meo's hair stick straight up from static electricity.

Static electricity

Christina (Greyson's mama) made the party Muppet themed and did a great job with all the food and decorations. Meo had a lot of fun playing with his friends, and Greyson seemed to enjoy himself as well.

Meo and Carter both wore Elmo shirts for the birthday party

Reading a book with Leela

Trying to push Leela on the truck

Leela sitting in the dump truck

Christina tickling Greyson

The next day, Monday, was not the best of days. First off, we had a bad morning where everything kept going wrong and Robbie ended up getting to work a little late. Then Meo and I headed into Kennebunk to go to the library for story time. There, he was tired and nursed for a long time, then suddenly felt energized and started running around being silly. He especially enjoyed running out of the room where story time was being held to play peek-a-boo with me. Whenever I went out to get him, he would squeal in delight and giggle hysterically.

Playing puzzles in the library

Running off with a toy dog

Peeka-a-boo!

Silly boy, bracing himself to be tickled

library

After the library, we headed over to our friend, Erika's house for toddler yoga. Erika is a Chiropractic Doctor and runs her own office outside of her house. Since there is a lack of toddler yoga classes in Southern Maine (if you recall, we had to travel all the way to Dover, New Hampshire for Meo's last class, and when we moved to our new house, 3 hours of driving was simply too far), Erika found a teacher to use her office to teach a small, month long trial class. Kennebunkport is still a bit of a drive for us, but not nearly as bad as Dover. The nicest part about it is Meo knows all the people in the class, so there was no adjustment period of feeling nervous surrounded by unfamiliar people. The first class was pretty good; I think it was a little too much for the toddlers though. I think she was trying to fit too much in and moving through poses too quickly for the babes to really get much out of it. They seemed to have fun though.

Right after class, I started feeling extremely tired and a bit nauseous. The heavy snow that had been falling before class turned to rain, and the roads were a slushy mess. I did not feel like driving around for the rest of the day, trying to find things to do while feeling like crap. I called Robbie, and to my relief, he offered to be picked up early and have a half day so he could finish snow-blowing the driveway. This was very fortunate, because once we got home I felt so ill, all I could do was lie on the couch and feel sick. I lost my appetite and couldn't eat dinner. I couldn't do much of anything but moan and try to sleep. I was miserable. Eventually I was able to vomit, and that made me feel much better, though I was still tired and slightly queasy. I ended up going to bed shortly after I put Mr. Meo to bed.

That night, I woke up to the sound of Meo coughing and Robbie running up the stairs to check on him. Shortly after that, Robbie had brought Meo into our room, asking if I was okay enough to take him. At first all I could think about was how difficult it was for me to find a comfortable position to sleep in with just me, but then I asked what was wrong and Robbie told me that Meo had vomited all over his bed, I instantly forgot about my own sickness and scooped him up. My poor baby had never thrown up before, and he was scared and confused and sick. He was comforted being held upright in my arms though, and together we sat for a couple hours, just leaning against the bed while Meo occasionally vomited onto a cloth in my hand. Poor Meo did not understand what was going on, or that he wasn't supposed to swallow the nasty bile crawling into his mouth. Fortunately he understands "spit" and I was able to coach him so that most of the vomit cam out instead of back in. In between sessions, I offered him water and pedialyte which he readily drank in small sips. I knew he would just through it back up, but I hoped eventually something would stay down and I figured throwing up liquid was better than dry-heaving anyways.

Our cat Pi is very sensitive and was worried about Meo and I. He sat close beside us, and at one point decided to sympathy vomit.

Holding sick Meo, with a sympathetic Pi close by

Sweet Meo slept in our bed that night, once the vomiting slowed down. We piled on receiving blankets and stocked my side of the bed up with burp cloths. He only threw up about 4 times that night, but in the morning we had a lot of laundry to do! We had changed him into about 8 different pajamas by the time morning had come. Fortunately, in the morning, he seemed to feel great. All night it had been tricky getting him not to nurse too much so he wouldn't throw up. In the morning he was thirsty, and downed nearly a whole cup of pedialyte, only to immediately throw it back up onto the bed. That, however, was the last time he's vomited, and that was probably because he drank too much too fast.

I was really tired that second day, and my mom came over to play with Meo so I could nap all day and try to recover. That was a huge help! I really needed the rest. Robbie came home early and took over, and by then I was well enough to make a yummy barley and vegetable alphabet soup and visit my boys.

We had a low key kind of week after that. Turns out, almost all of our Mama and baby friends caught this nasty stomach virus too, and most of us were all sick together on the same night. Thus, everyone kind of stayed home and away from germs for a while. We enjoyed having some quiet time around the house to recover and got some fresh air by snowshoeing in all the beautiful new snow.