What's been coming up

We have gone through the stomach flu this week. Why do children always start after midnight? My two oldest both started within 5 minutes of midnight, but 5 days apart. No lie. I guess it's better than 2am... although they were up then, too.

My daughter is hilarious. She had to run into our room to tell us that she just threw up in her bed and had to throw up agai... too late.

We assured her that next time, we really CAN hear her from the bathroom, and she should just run there first. Of course, she has a hard time throwing up INTO anything. Like she will wake up, sit up in her bed, and throw up next to the bucket, which is in her bed. It is amazing. A couple years ago when we were in a little apartment, I ended up dragging her mattress into the living room, so I could lay next to on the couch and hand her a bucket throughout the night.

This time, after changing sheets several times in less than an hour, Rob patiently explained again and again how to use the toilet and the bucket effectively. He was awesome. If there is any trial of patience, it is speaking kindly at 3 am while you are explaining for the 3rd time how important it is to throw up IN the bucket. My job, being the light sleeper, was to holler every time I heard my daughter move during the night, "THE BUCKET! USE THE BUCKET!". Cough... "THE BUCKET." She rolls over, "THE BUCKET!"

For two days, my baby ate poorly and Rob and I just waited for it... extra sheets and blankets ready next to his bed every night. Turns out he was teething.

I have a belief that a carseat is new until it is thrown up in. Stephen got a carseat for Christmas... a new snazzy, expensive one. You can see where this is going.

Well, as it happens, when it comes to carseats snazzy is NOT good. You have to have a PhD in Engineering to get the cover off. Seriously, I know this because only my husband WITH the PhD could get it off, and only after 40 minutes with the manual. If it were warmer, I probably would have just gone to a self-service car wash and sprayed it with the high-power sprayer.

So far Rob and I have escaped the worst. Rob felt sick one day. I thought it was kind of funny. You see, the last couple months I have been throwing up non-stop (I'll let you guess why), even needing IVs. So every time he complained about feeling queezy, it made me chuckle. Literally. I obviously need to work on my compassion.

Gotta go, Saturday night, kids are bathed and we are all going to watch part of Empire Strikes Back... I can hear the baby laughing downstairs ready.