We had house blessings last night, so we spent a good part of the day cleaning and getting ready. I was very proud of myself since having a priest come to my house is normally something that would stress me out and I'd spend three days cleaning for, but that just wasn't going to happen so I had a little talk with myself. I wanted Father Joseph to bless our house but I didn't want to get all stressed out about it, so I didn't. I realized that Father was coming to bless our house, not inspect it with a white glove to make sure I was dusting perfectly(I don't dust. But I did yesterday.). I surprised myself with how relaxed I managed to be; we got lots done, but not everything, and I was okay with that. I should mention here that Aaron was a huge asset, moving mountains of laundry and getting Jack to clean his room beautifully.
Dinner at Briana and Shane's went well and was incredibly tasty; Nani took pictures so hopefully she'll put some up soon. All this should have told me that something was coming, but I didn't really know what until Jack came into Nani's kitchen and told me that his neck hurt. He'd never complained of that before, so I wasn't sure what to think. He asked me to pick him up and he was kind of whimpering, and when he started coughing I had the presence of mind to walk over to the sink, where Jack proceeded to barf up all the Skittles he and Kateri had been eating. For a barfing incident it was a little too easy, directly into the sink with no mess.
But he made up for it when we got home and he barfed all down Aaron's shirt, at the top of the stairs, down the hallway into the bathroom, all over the bathtub and the shower curtain. Vomit isn't really one of those things you can save for later no matter how much of a procrastinator you are, so I put on some gloves and gathered up all the barfy clothes and threw them in the washing machine. Then I turned my attention to the carpet while Aaron showered with Jack. A few minutes later, Aaron called out from the shower.
"Is my phone out there next to my keys?"
"Um, no."
*thoughtful pause*
"It was in my pants."
Down to the washing machine to pull out soapy piles of barfed-on clothes, a grateful prayer for the discovery of latex gloves, and a very wet fishing-out of Aaron's cell phone.
Back to the carpet, which wasn't going very well. Armed with lots of Clorox spray, hot water and a very capable scrub brush, all I seemed to be doing was grinding the barf chunks into the carpet. I did my best, then covered the whole soggy mess with towels so we could walk down the hallway without tracking barf smell everywhere.
I made a bed of towels on the couch for Jack, got out the trusty stainless steel bowl and braced myself for a sleepless night.
It turned out not to be so bad. Jack didn't barf again, so I nursed Matteas to sleep and put him in bed with Aaron, then went back out to the couch to keep vigil while watching "The Gods Must Be Crazy." I love that movie. Jack moaned a bit in his sleep so several times I jumped up and grabbed the bowl, but the onslaught I was preparing for never came. I dozed on the couch and took comfort in our icons and our beautiful wall cross(from my sister Moira). Satisfied that Jack wasn't going to puke in his sleep, I finally went to bed at five a.m. Luckily, the boys slept until ten so I'm tired but not destroyed today. Now my only worry is who will come down with the bug next, and whether we should still go to Spokane to visit Ryan. Jack is eating and drinking just fine today so at least it's a mild virus, but the thought of five hours of road trip with nausea and vomiting does not appeal to me.
Aaron does this trick with our kids where he gets them to lock their knees and stand on his hand. Jack liked it, but not as much as Matteas who clearly knows he's being tricky. He's napping now, so I'm going to drink some Earl Grey in my super-clean house.
No comments:
Post a Comment