The Rose family turned superhero this Halloween and it was incredible. We trick or treated with some neighbors at some very candy-generous houses. The girls ate their weight in candy before bedtime. I was just so happy to be home and present, and Maggie even came along in my/Tommy’s arms. I let her trick or treat one house, but unfortunately her mask does not serve its usual don’t-touch-my-baby purpose on Halloween, so she watched from the street for most of the night. But she also had an incredible moment after the candy binge when she took a couple of steps on her own. It wasn’t exactly steady, but it is nice to see her finally feeling well enough to want to learn to walk. Overall, a pretty incredible Halloween.

We’ve had a busy week at home – Maggie’s need for isolation means that someone has to stay home with her most of the time, and that translates into Tommy and I splitting up and playing zone with the kids. We essentially just switch off who is taking care which kids and then go to bed. For some reason 1 adult watching 1.5children is much harder than 2 adults watching 3 children. But this current existence is a whole lot better than being in the hospital!

This weekend, during one of my mommy-Maggie stints, I got really bored at home and took her to Lowes. She loved walking around and climbing on and off all the displays. I can’t really take her anywhere crowded or enclosed with people, but Lowes is spacious and airy and you can wander around for hours.

Maggie and I have felt a little homeless lately – Tommy and I arbitrarily instituted an isolation rule that if anyone at home is sick, then Maggie shouldn’t be around them for 1 week from onset of symptoms or until they feel better. So since everyone at home was sick, she and I went to Grandma Baba’s when she was discharged from the hospital last week. We are very grateful for Baba’s hospitality – Baba has been living alone for TWENTY years and it must be very disruptive to have a homesick tired mommy and baby come and take over her apartment. I think we surely wore her out. We moved back home Wednesday night although are still keeping Maggie isolated in our room when the other girls are home. Here is a picture of some fun at Baba’s house before we left!

I don’t know the whole story behind this photo, but I do know that involves Laney and her “store.” I am missing my other babies and their daddy a lot this weekend – there has been at least one person sick at home for the last two weeks (in this order: Tommy then Kaya then Mila/Laney simultaneously, and now Gammy starting on Thursday). So I haven’t felt comfortable with Maggie staying at home, and we have been staying with Baba since discharge from the hospital. Thankfully, I get text messages as they do ballet, carve pumpkins, and have all sorts of other adventures.

Today I am incredibly proud of Kaya for completing the school marathon. The students are asked to run 26.2 miles over the course of a month, or roughly a mile a day on the days you can remember. Running with Kaya is one of my favorite activities, but this year it was SO HARD to find the time. I pretty much ditched her for the second half of the marathon because we ended up back in the hospital, but she finished it out, and today at school Tommy and Kaya ran the last 1.2 miles together. Go Kaya!

(PS – we are out of the hospital as of Monday night and Maggie is doing okay!)

Lots of updates in the last couple of weeks – mainly that Maggie was readmitted with a central line infection. She is now doing well after her line was removed and I am secretly enjoying snuggling with a catheter-free baby. Not so much enjoying the peripheral blood draws (ie, needle sticks) though. I am hoping she will get out of the hospital in the next couple of days. Eventually she will get a port – maybe on Friday – although I am not in too much of a hurry at the moment. Here’s a picture of her with her hand IV after they took out her line (who puts a hand IV in a one year old? It lasted about 18 hours, which is more than I thought it would).