Midnight Madness

Just when I thought all of the kids were past the sicky stage, when it had been more than 24 hours since the last episode of hovering over the big bowl, that's when it happened.

I had already been stuck in the house with sick kids for 48 hours. Two of them had spent the night on the couch so I could keep a close eye on them through the wee hours and where cleanup didn't involve several trips up and down the creaky stairs. Poor kids. Emmy couldn't keep anything down for nearly 24 hours, not even a sip of water. Josh had it hit him hard and fast, but held down water after only 6 hours.

Yesterday we all took it easy and recuperated. So when Colby got home I was glad to finally get a break and be able to run up to the store for some toilet paper and return some free kids' movies before they became $1-late-fee kids' movies. Ah! The windows rolled down, the fresh air, the silence!

I came back home with a whole new attitude and could finally have a decent conversation with Colby instead of the previous ones made up of grunts and one-syllable words while I looked at him accusingly for going to the truck pulls the night before.

Last night I fully intended to get a full night's sleep, went to bed early, and was jolted awake by something... some strange noise... coming from?? The Kitchen?

Seemed like all the lights in the house were on as I stumbled out of bed and blinked my way into the kitchen where I found a very sorry looking little boy attempting to clean up his stomach's indescrection with a kitchen towel. It was as if he had been saving it up all day. I didn't know a 5 year old's stomach could hold quite that much volume of half-digested food. *sigh* First thing to do was just simply reassure him that he was NOT in trouble. A few ginger squeezes to his clean shoulders and a kiss on the very top of his head and then we moved on to the clean up.

I stood there staring at the mess. The puddle was directly blocking my path to the bathroom. I wanted to just make a quick stop... real quick... I'll just ... squeeze past... nope. Had to clean the mess up before I could make a pit stop. *sigh* Well, there was nothing to be done but get in there and get it done.

I used about half a roll of paper towels to mop it up, trying with all my might to remember what I learned on CSI from Jorja Fox: breathe through your mouth if you don't want to smell it!!!

Another very useful tidbit learned from CSI! That show is full of useful little tidbits like that, most of which I will never use because I'm not trying to get away with any sort of crime! Interesting stuff though... Colby and I thought of a new story line to pitch to them about the DNA of double cousins and how that could throw off their whole investigation... Right. Where was I?

So I always do that now - breathe through my mouth - when I have to clean up something particularly smelly, which happens quite a lot when you're a mom! And yet there are times when I think of all those yucky particles floating around in the air that makes the air smelly and those tiny little things going into my open mouth and next thing I know I'm standing over the garbage can, completely having forgotten why I was attempting to breathe through my mouth and taking a deep breath through my nose! Uck! The smell of vomit AND the trash bin! Whew!!! A few good heaves and I was attempting to stop the process of breathing altogether.

I did manage to eventually clean up and disinfect half the kitchen floor on my hands and knees at midnight, and cleaned up the little boy and sent him back to bed with a bucket and a promise to be right up to tuck him back in.

And I finally made it to the bathroom. My relief quickly turned to chagrin though, as I realized exactly what I'd forgotten to do while up in town earlier: buy toilet paper.

*sigh*