A day of reprieve.

 Jake, all dressed up for his very first time out side in almost a full week. We headed out to brunch and to watch France vs. Italy in some Six Nations Rugby at The Whip on Sunday morning.

 Our three little Ruggers. 

 We were supposed to go to a Superbowl party, but given Jakes continuing struggle to eat, drink, and take medicine, there was NO WAY we were going. We decided to make a family party of it. We made wings, nachos, dips, drinks, and the usual sorts of festive superbowl fare, and tried to forget about the difficulty of the past week. Although Jake was home, Saturday had been really hard. Nate and I both despretely felt as though we needed a break, and of course one was not forthcoming. Jake was grumpy and still really struggling to eat, very unwilling to take his medicine, we were very worried about him, the house was way messier than usual after my week away, and I think that both Nate and I were feeling very behind and out of our usual states of organization. Add the fact that we were exhausted to that and having to still get up every four hours all night every night to medicate Jake and listen to him scream, and, well, it wasn't exactly blissful around the house. Anyway, we were determined to make Sunday fun. We made up some football printables for the kids and they had fun coloring them after our awesome morning watching the entire (awesome, go Italy!) Rugby game at the cozy and wonderful Whip. 

 To say they were excited would be a ridiculous understatement. Have I mentioned how much these kids love one another? 

 The girls. 

 We did a pool. We all threw in $5 and picked our guesses. Even Jake! It came down to a tie between Luke and I, and I won the tiebreaker. I promised to take everyone out for an ice cream date with my big winnings :) We let the bigs stay up to watch the entire game ~ and it was so much fun (except for the TERRIBLE make out commercial ~ EWWWWWW!). We were all rooting for Baltimore and were thrilled not just with the outcome, but with being treated to such a wonderful game! It was so much fun watching the game with our big kids! I love sharing these sorts of big kid experiences with our buddies!

Jake goes to town on the Nachos. 

I'm really glad that we had such a wonderful family night on Sunday, because Monday night brought our biggest family tragedy to date. Everyone is going to be okay, but we had a terrifying experience with Jake. I'm not ready to talk about it yet, though I'm pretty much stuck in a place of constantly reliving it and have this constant feeling of foreboding and anxiety. We almost lost Jake. He is back in the hospital, and we believe that he is going to be okay, but I lived through the scariest experience of my life. If you are the praying sort, or the sending good energy sort, or even the shoot off a text message or give a phone call sort, I could use your support right now. I'm shaken to the core.