Yesterday was the hubs’ birthday. I brought home take out for dinner (aka I cooked) and we celebrated with cake. It was a nice dinner. Then, for some reason the hubs wanted to play Yahtzee. So we played Yahtzee as a family. If this was Facebook I would have posted this picture and everyone would think we were picturesque.

But moments after this picture was taken, my older son kept asking why the toddler had to be around because all the toddler wanted to do was build a tower with the dice. The toddler cried. The 7-year-old complained. And so on.

I was very tired yesterday evening but I was trying to keep my energy up because it was the hubs’ birthday. After bedtime routines had started, I sat on the couch surfing Facebook, and waiting for the 7-year-old to come out of the bathroom. The last thing I remember is looking at a Facebook post. Then I heard my son say, “Are you asleep?” I woke up and said, “No.”

I was still drowsy. I blinked a few times and focused on my son. He was standing in front of me wearing only my slippers. “Why are you naked except for my slippers?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Your slippers were in the hall,” he replied. “I came to tell you that I’m going to get in the shower.”

I was so sleepy that I traded places with the hubs and went to lie down with the toddler, giving the hubs naked kid duty.

The next morning (this morning) I saw a text on my phone. My 7-year-old had texted my cousins and me a photo of the fort he built at 10:08 p.m., well past his bedtime. I was about to ask my son about this when he showed me his arms.

He had hives everywhere.

After a visit to the doctor and a day of observance it turns out that he has a virus that is causing hives. The doc said she is seeing several cases of unexplained hives.

So the next time you see me post a sweet, smiling photo on Facebook, know that the photo is one moment in our predictably unpredictable lives.