Sleepy and sleepless in Barcelona

My children do not seem to like sleeping, alone or otherwise.  Last night, Mati refused to pass out until almost 11:30pm, at which time her younger brother decided it would be the ideal time to wake up and have his own party until almost 3am.  So he got treated to a midnight-ish showing of Baby Einstein and I tried to catch a few winks while trying to prevent him from whacking the computer with his face as he tried to get as close as humanly possible for the ultimate Baby Einstein viewing experience.

Yet, we managed to wake up nice and early at 6:30am to get ready for school and put in the second to last day of work before February Ski Week.  Today was face painting day at Keane's preschool, which actually meant that you had to send your child to school with something painted on their face.  Keane was not having his face painted this morning, no matter how much I tried to distract him with toy trucks and gummi bears...all I managed to get were a couple of wonky colored lines on one cheek before throwing in the towel.  However, when I arrived in the afternoon to pick him up, he was sporting quite the curly face paint mustachio.  He looked like a carnie from the 1920s.

How is it that I can't manage to get three stripes on his face, while his preschool teacher can paint a symmetrical 'stache with 12 other rugrats terrorizing the immediate area?  I think she must have done it while he was asleep. 

Home again...

So after three days and nights in the children's hospital, and continuous ups and downs with the fever, the doctors finally gave in and prescribed an antibiotic.  Poof! 24 hours later the fever went bye-bye.  I know that antibiotics need to be given sparingly, and that the development of some super-resistant mutant virus looms just outside the doorway, but virus or bacterial infection, the antibiotic always makes the fever go away for Mati, so for her health and our sanity, bring on the antibiotic, I say.

The little guy fought off his bug in a couple of days and has now returned to his somewhat clingy and mama-centric self versus a constant need to be attached to my hip/neck/chesty area.  My second grade class also endured the epidemic, and during the week I seriously debated hanging a quarantine sign on the room...despite watching videos on the proper method of handwashing, coughing methods to minimize germ dispersation, and keeping most work solo versus group, the highest attendance for the week was 16 out of 22, and even then, one of the girls went home with fever by the end of the day.  Most kids were out for a minimum of four days, so here's hoping that attendance is better next week...since so many were out, we got a bit behind on what we are supposed to be mastering, so they'll will be working at doublespeed next week so that we can get that double-digit addition hammered out before the February break.

I myself have a cold and am trying to minimize my own germ impact in the house, which is difficult with two ragamuffins using me as a climbing apparatus for the better part of the day.  Plus, the littler one has become fascinated with wiping his boogers on my shirt, while the bigger one has decided to employ the bizarre and gross habit of rubbing her runny nose on the carpet when I can't get to her in time with the kleenex.  Ew.  Where did she learn that method???