March comes in like a lion...

We're all familiar with the phrase, "March comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb", right? I have to say, I've only ever thought of it in terms of weather.

But this year is definitely different.

We managed to go pretty much all of winter without anyone being sick. Just one time recently with very short stomach bugs being the exception.

But suddenly, since it turned March, it seems like everyone in the house has been sick, one thing after another.

Right after I started having pain last week, I noticed Melinda's eye looked pink. We had been to the park earlier that day, and she had run quite far from me with her friend. Since she had been out of close watch, I asked her if she bumped her eye on something. She told me that yeah, she bumped her eye on the bleachers next to the field. Okay, makes sense enough, so I brushed it off. But no, the next day, both eyes are pink. And not just a little bit. The kind of pink that makes you think someone's been crying hysterically for hours, you know? Not to mention, all around her eyes sockets were puffy and swollen looking. So, pinkeye it is.

Thankfully, it cleared up by this morning, and never had a lot of eye goopiness/crustiness associated with it. So my guess is just a mild viral pinkeye. But we had to skip playgroup, much to everyone's sadness, and also had to keep Melinda home from church. It was a very boring weekend for her. But pinkeye being contagious as it is, Jacob came down with it as well. I was all set to take him to church with me, and leave Melinda home with Jesse, but Jacob still hadn't woken up by the time I was already late heading out the door (I guess we can blame that on Daylight Saving Time changes, bleh). When I got home, Jacob wanted to snuggle, and I noticed his eye looked pink. Sure enough, closer inspection showed that it was.

Of course, Jacob just thinks it's the coolest thing ever. We said "pink eye" so much over the past few days, while talking about Melinda, that when we said Jacob had pinkeye, he got totally excited. "Pinky eye? Pinky eye?! OH!!! Go look in da mirror!" [runs off down the hall to get to the full-length mirror, where he inspects his eyes by pulling down each lower eye lid with a finger.] And suddenly Jacob is dancing down the hall, triumphantly declaring "PINKY EYE!!!"

It doesn't seem to actually bother either of them, aside from making them rub their eyes every now and then, but we still would never expose other people to it, so we have to once again limit our activities until Jacob's eyes have cleared up. So a few more days of being house-bound. Sigh. And so close to when the baby is due, when I really wanted to squeeze as many fun activities in for the kids as possible, to make up for the boredom they'll have once the baby is here and we don't do much at all for the following month, you know?

Jacob also started having some diarrhea yesterday. Looks like he passed it to me, unfortunately. :(

And Jesse is home from work, again, because he somehow came down with a respiratory thing for the second time within a couple weeks. He just sounds awful, with the really low raspy voice and the hacking cough.

And I'm sitting here cringing through every single one of them getting sick, because I sure don't want to get sick. And I don't want this baby to come while everyone is sick, no way!!

So March has come in like a lion, making everyone sick and all that jazz. Here's to hoping that March goes out like a lamb...peacefully, with no illness in sight when the baby is born.