Exactly four minutes after picking up the boys from school on Thursday afternoon, Emil opened his mouth, vomited all over himself, and continued to do so for the remainder of our 20 minute drive home. After arriving home, as he stood outside crying while I disrobed him and decided that the car seat was too far gone to salvage, Oliver stepped inside the house and vomited all over himself and the floor. The two of them continued, violently ill, for the next 8 hours. Hence no blog post on Friday. I stayed up with them until 1am so Andrew could work the following day and realized that being sleep-deprived is quite definitely my Achilles heel, that if you want to destroy my attitude, my concentration, my patience, my creative thought (hell, any rational thought at all), just keep me up all night and then wake me up early in the morning. Destroyed.
10 towels, 6 pairs of pajama pants, 3 complete bed changes, 17 bucket changes, 2 baths, and countless loads of laundry later, both boys woke up slightly sleepy but otherwise completely fine. Friday was spent at home building a cardboard castle complete with working drawbridge, three separate “chambers,” a secret door, a megaphone, a tunnel, a mailbox, a transporting chute, a lookout tower, and a weapons arsenal.
Though certainly not pretty, it kept three housebound boys happy and occupied as I checked their health status. We wondered about food poisoning, as it seemed to hit the two who had spent the day together 20 minutes apart and Milo seemed fine, but we found out on Sunday night that our thoughts were wrong as poor Milo ran to the bathroom for his own round of sickness. We made the decision on Friday afternoon to keep our plans to go out with our friends Jamie and Brian on Friday night and were so glad we did (but really, really hope we didn’t get the sitter sick now). Milo put Emil to bed at 5pm (in Milo’s top bunk, with Emil dressed in a red coat) and I transferred him to his own bed (coatless) an hour later before the sitter came to take over.
We had such a great time with our friends, we left smiling and warmed by their friendship, always wondering why we don’t hang out more often (life gets busy, we have so many little kids between us), and vowing to make it happen.
For Valentine’s Day, I went out on a special date with my dearest Ingrid. We snuck into Small Batch without reservations and sweet-talked the hostess into letting us steal a table until the next lovebirds came along. We had the most amazing meal, starting (and finishing) with dessert. We had the most satisfying conversation about the past year, which for neither of us was our most favorite year to date. But sometimes reflecting on how ass-backwards or unlucky things have been (and being sure to laugh about most of it) is the only way to move forward and make good goals and promises about what’s to come. It’s already feeling like a luckier, more productive, happier year, this 2015. I mean, aside from the vomit fest over here. Hey, it could have been worse, right? Right??? My goal is to make it through March (which history has shown over and over and over again to be my unluckiest health month) unscathed. If that happens, I’m going to do a victory dance. Mark my words.
Oh my goodness. I can’t believe that castle came in the wake of that night sickness. Ingrid sounds like the best kind of best friend. And the bug coloring book is amazing (what is it?). Cheers to future good health.
We really had the best time with you guys! Brian and I left promising we would plan something again soon because you guys always leave us so happy after hanging out! Hope the boys are feeling better!
We had a vomit-filled weekend here too! Vomit canceled our Valentine plans. Just my two-year-old, but everytime I think she’s on the mend, she barfs again. So gross. And exhausting. Makes the baby with the ear infection seem easy by comparison. Oh, I enjoy Small Batch. Glad you were able to sneak in.
Ah tis the season of vomit-fests. It’s been a week of musical stomach bug in our house here and it’s been my turn for the past couple days, yuck. Hope things look up for you all!!
Oh you poor things! Ugh! I too am much enamoured of the bug book and would love to know what it is.
Oh, and I also meant to express extreme impressedness about that fort! I really want to find some big boxes, now.
I also would love to know what that bug book is – it looks fantastic!
The “bug book” is a coloring book my mom found for the boys for Christmas. It’s so amazing, I’m planning to feature it in the next Reading post. It’s called Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book (by Johanna Basford):
http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Garden-Inky-Treasure-Coloring/dp/1780671067/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424191626&sr=8-1&keywords=secret+garden+coloring+book
I highly recommend it (even if it’s just for you)!
Oh no, there is nothing worse than sick kids… well actually sick adults and kids is worse. Glad everyone seems to grom the mend and that you got a night out. That fort is fantastic!
Ahh, thanks for the book reference!