Sick Day...and the train of events that followed
Tuesday, May 17...12:30 am: faint whimpering coming from across the hall. I got up, somehow feeling like I should have been a little more empathetic to what I thought were post-bedtime antics to delay actually staying in bed of complaints of an upset tummy. My feeling was confirmed when I walked into the little boys' room to find Joe sitting on the edge of his bed bewildered and covered in vomit. Don't worry, I didn't take pictures! I'm no rookie mom, but cleaning up vomit may be one of the least lovely tasks performed by...anyone, even veterans! Once Joe was clean and settled quietly into our room on a make-shift bed on the floor with a bucket nearby, I cleaned up the floor, the bed and the bedding.
3:30 am: Mathilda came into our room and stood beside the bed and said, "mom..." followed by vomit. Same song, new verse. She said she didn't get sick in her room, but while I was busy cleaning up and more things to the laundry room, I couldn't help but wonder because each time I passed her room, it just wreaked. I went in to survey and found Amelia sound asleep...in vomit. She continued to sleep all the way through cleaning her up and changing her pjs and placing her in a different bed.
Tim had been tossing and turning all night already and by now, I'm realizing that this isn't from eating too many cupcakes as we had wondered when Benjamin was sick on Saturday night, and he (Tim was probably going to get sick too). At this point I had deployed multiple buckets strategically through our room.
4:00 am: I'm wondering if it would be wise for me to still get up and go running in one hour.
4:30 am: Both Mathilda and Joe are in the bathroom sharing the same toilet.
4:45 am: Thinking that running isn't a great idea.
4:55 am: Reconsidering since I'm awake and everyone is now sleeping soundly.
5:00 am: Standing in the bathroom, brushing my teeth and suddenly sweating profusely, feeling like I'm going to pass out.
5:01 am: No running for me this morning.
6:00 am: Jonathan comes into our room reporting that he just threw up. I asked if I needed to go upstairs and clean it up? "No, I made it to the toilet" he said. Thank you Jesus!! He found a place on our bed to curl up...another bucket placed nearby.
By 7 am, four kids, Tim and myself were all sick. Needless to say, the beautiful...gorgeous, sun-shiny day was spent sleeping in shifts. I finally felt better by mid-afternoon, but Tim was sick into the next day...and so was Jakob.
This is all typical for a big family. When one gets sick, we just kind of wait for the dominos to start falling. It's never pleasant when I'm one of the dominos though. Our household productivity shuts down when I'm sick, and when that happens in addition to taking care of sick kids, even for a day, I feel several days behind and completely out of sorts. So...
That same Tuesday evening, the two older boys had baseball games out of town, so I took them since I was feeling better. What this amounts to is that I picked them up from school, leaving the house to do so at 2:45. We returned home with just enough time to change and grab a quick, unplanned bite to eat and departed, leaving Tim, feeling at least like he could stay awake, with Jon, who at this point was still throwing up, Ben who was totally fine, Mathilda and Amelia. Joe stowed away in the Suburban, so he went with us. (We figured this out at the end of the driveway, so it's not like it was a huge surprise.)
Typically if I am going to a ball game, I usually have my camera in tow, but with the craziness of the day, I forgot it. I wished several times that I would have turned around to retrieve it, because here was the situation:
Beautiful weather, clear sky, myself at a game--two games--without multiple littles climbing on me, running away, needing me, a faster, better camera this year, which of course all means my photos would have been stellar, right??? Perfect picture-taking opportunity!! No camera. Grrrrr! As it happened, Joshua made the game-winning play at home plate as catcher in a pile up, a cloud of dirt, and a victorious "OOOOUUUUTTTT!" shouted from the upmire! GRRRRRR!!!! There were so many great things I wanted to capture...the lights over the fields...so grand and majestic, and so...so BASEBALL. The sunflower seed shells that littered the pavement below the bleachers. So...BASEBALL. The boys playing their first game of the season, and given that last year, Jakob only played a few games before breaking his arm and ending his season, without my camera, I felt the need to take pictures was even more urgent.
Game 2: Yes, many more fabulous photo ops. I can't begin to describe the lights, the clouds of dust from a slide into a stolen base, the anticipation of catching a fly ball, a double-play, and of course Jakob stealing home successfully. GRRRR again! As the sun went down, the breeze came up and the lovely spring weather that brought everyone out in shorts turned chilly and the scene was more like a football game than a baseball game with fans wrapped in blankets, sipping hot cocoa (which they ran out of when I finally decided I needed to have some!) Another great would-have-been photo. And then...the final dagger: the most amazing, brilliant, orange harvest moon rose up above the trees over the ball field. REALLY??? Of course!! I've already grrrr'd enough at this point, so I pulled out my phone and shot a ridiculous excuse of a picture of the moon, just for the sake of taking a picture.
3:30 am: Mathilda came into our room and stood beside the bed and said, "mom..." followed by vomit. Same song, new verse. She said she didn't get sick in her room, but while I was busy cleaning up and more things to the laundry room, I couldn't help but wonder because each time I passed her room, it just wreaked. I went in to survey and found Amelia sound asleep...in vomit. She continued to sleep all the way through cleaning her up and changing her pjs and placing her in a different bed.
Tim had been tossing and turning all night already and by now, I'm realizing that this isn't from eating too many cupcakes as we had wondered when Benjamin was sick on Saturday night, and he (Tim was probably going to get sick too). At this point I had deployed multiple buckets strategically through our room.
4:00 am: I'm wondering if it would be wise for me to still get up and go running in one hour.
4:30 am: Both Mathilda and Joe are in the bathroom sharing the same toilet.
4:45 am: Thinking that running isn't a great idea.
4:55 am: Reconsidering since I'm awake and everyone is now sleeping soundly.
5:00 am: Standing in the bathroom, brushing my teeth and suddenly sweating profusely, feeling like I'm going to pass out.
5:01 am: No running for me this morning.
6:00 am: Jonathan comes into our room reporting that he just threw up. I asked if I needed to go upstairs and clean it up? "No, I made it to the toilet" he said. Thank you Jesus!! He found a place on our bed to curl up...another bucket placed nearby.
By 7 am, four kids, Tim and myself were all sick. Needless to say, the beautiful...gorgeous, sun-shiny day was spent sleeping in shifts. I finally felt better by mid-afternoon, but Tim was sick into the next day...and so was Jakob.
This is all typical for a big family. When one gets sick, we just kind of wait for the dominos to start falling. It's never pleasant when I'm one of the dominos though. Our household productivity shuts down when I'm sick, and when that happens in addition to taking care of sick kids, even for a day, I feel several days behind and completely out of sorts. So...
That same Tuesday evening, the two older boys had baseball games out of town, so I took them since I was feeling better. What this amounts to is that I picked them up from school, leaving the house to do so at 2:45. We returned home with just enough time to change and grab a quick, unplanned bite to eat and departed, leaving Tim, feeling at least like he could stay awake, with Jon, who at this point was still throwing up, Ben who was totally fine, Mathilda and Amelia. Joe stowed away in the Suburban, so he went with us. (We figured this out at the end of the driveway, so it's not like it was a huge surprise.)
Typically if I am going to a ball game, I usually have my camera in tow, but with the craziness of the day, I forgot it. I wished several times that I would have turned around to retrieve it, because here was the situation:
Beautiful weather, clear sky, myself at a game--two games--without multiple littles climbing on me, running away, needing me, a faster, better camera this year, which of course all means my photos would have been stellar, right??? Perfect picture-taking opportunity!! No camera. Grrrrr! As it happened, Joshua made the game-winning play at home plate as catcher in a pile up, a cloud of dirt, and a victorious "OOOOUUUUTTTT!" shouted from the upmire! GRRRRRR!!!! There were so many great things I wanted to capture...the lights over the fields...so grand and majestic, and so...so BASEBALL. The sunflower seed shells that littered the pavement below the bleachers. So...BASEBALL. The boys playing their first game of the season, and given that last year, Jakob only played a few games before breaking his arm and ending his season, without my camera, I felt the need to take pictures was even more urgent.
Game 2: Yes, many more fabulous photo ops. I can't begin to describe the lights, the clouds of dust from a slide into a stolen base, the anticipation of catching a fly ball, a double-play, and of course Jakob stealing home successfully. GRRRR again! As the sun went down, the breeze came up and the lovely spring weather that brought everyone out in shorts turned chilly and the scene was more like a football game than a baseball game with fans wrapped in blankets, sipping hot cocoa (which they ran out of when I finally decided I needed to have some!) Another great would-have-been photo. And then...the final dagger: the most amazing, brilliant, orange harvest moon rose up above the trees over the ball field. REALLY??? Of course!! I've already grrrr'd enough at this point, so I pulled out my phone and shot a ridiculous excuse of a picture of the moon, just for the sake of taking a picture.
The moon is on the right...those are lights on the left! :) And since we had the 'camera' out, we grabbed a picture of bundled up Joe on my lap. We were fa-reeeezing!!!
Well, the games still happened, even without the camera shooting, and they were just as great as they would've been with the camera. I love being at the kids' ball games with them. It is a busy-ness that none of us mind. This year will be a little different, as games are stacked which means that the nights are extra late, so at least for the remainder of the school year, we'll split up. Mathilda's practices and games also overlap some of the boys' games. It will be a good introduction into not being able to manage going to all events all the time.
The night was late, and the next day was Tim's birthday. Some birthday! He still wasnt' feeling 100% and his phone kept ringing with 'urgent' client needs. Between the two, his planned day off that was to include golf, hosting his office families at our home, and whatever else the day would hold, was diverted to a half-day at the office and picking up the kids from school. He did still get breakfast in bed.
Before that unwelcome stomach bug visitor stopped by our house, my intention was to make a really fun golf course cupcake cake for Tim's birthday. HA! No time for that, what now?? I really love making cheesecakes. I used to make them ALL the time, for every occasion, and, pardon my lack of humbleness here, but people that ate them really loved them too!
This variety of cheesecakes looks tasty right? Shamefully, I did NOT make them. I bought them!! That is three in a row now. I hope I don't make a habit of buying last minute grocery-store birthday cakes. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it is just not my style. I'm not being pride-full here, just stating that MAKING them really makes me happy, and provides me with a fitting opportunity to show my love.
That's a lot of candles to blow out...and we were still short quite a few! :) The consensus was that none of the cheesecake was as good as mine. Awww...my family is so sweet. I think I'll keep them. It wasn't the party we had planned, but the evening was calm and quiet in a nine-people-in-our-family kind of way and we enjoyed celebrating the main event of the day. The kids kept showering him with home-made gifts...basically recycled, regifted things wrapped in pillow cases and dish towels. The funniest of them was something that would allow him to just sit and not have to get up. It was one of Millie's diapers. Whose children are these anyway??
So, despite the sick day throwing us all for a loop, the end result was all good...just as it usually is!
