And the cheese stands alone

As of about 11:50 p.m. last night Lincoln is officially the only one in our family that hasn't gotten this stomach bug. We had just gone to sleep last night when the sound of vomit hitting the bucket come from down the hall. Luckily, in my paranoia of both kids getting sick while Lincoln was gone last weekend, I had put buckets next to both beds "just in case". Hannah's bucket was still there and she managed to throw up into the bucket. Afterwards, while I tucked her back into bed I had Lincoln clean the bucket. I figured that was only fair since I had spent an entire day with Jake cleaning up his puke and Lincoln had - so far - remained unscathed. But, of course, Lincoln is off to work today and I'm home with a puking kid again. Considering I'm not 100% myself yet after my bout with the bug yesterday, it is going to be one long miserable day until Daddy gets home.

Sharing

We never should have taught Jake how to share. He has so graciously shared with me the horrible stomach bug that has been going around that struck him this past Monday. I got up this morning to get ready for work, got dressed, put on make-up and then WHAM! It hit me like a ton of bricks. I've been in bed ever since and can barely move. Just posting this has pretty much worn me out so it's time for another nap. I've lost track of how many naps I've taken today.

God bless single mothers (and fathers)

Yesterday was a rough day with Jake being sick. He started throwing up around 5:30 a.m. and by noon I had lost track of how many times he had gotten sick. Lincoln flew back from Virginia that morning and went straight to work so he didn't get home until almost 7 p.m. and I was on my own all day with a sick, feverish, miserable 5-year old. Jake and I did great all day but by the time Lincoln walked in the door I was ready to hand him off and go upstairs for a rest.

I don't know how single parents do it. I also don't know how people do it without family close by. We're lucky enough that Lincoln's parents live right around the corner from us and they could come pick up Hannah for me so that she could catch the bus without me having to bundle up Jake and take him out in the cold. Hannah gets on and off the bus at their house so it's not like she would just be at the bottom of the driveway and I could watch out the window. They also brought her home for me at the end of the day. Simple things like that - getting the healthy kid to the bus without disturbing the sick kid - would be so much harder without them living nearby.

Luckily Jake is feeling much better today. He slept fine last night and woke up asking for something to eat and drink this morning so we took him to Grandma and Grandpa's today. I never received a phone call that he had relapsed so hopefully we're all set with him. Now if we can just keep Hannah from getting sick.....

A sick kid

It seems like everyone that we know has been suffering from a horrible stomach bug lately. At least three of Hannah's friends have had it and my friend Tracy, her husband, AND her nine year old son have all had it in the past week. Well, I guess it's our turn. Jake woke up throwing up this morning. At about 5 a.m. I heard him call out and so I went into his room. He said his tummy hurt and that he had swallowed bath water last night. He didn't have a fever but I wasn't taking any chances so I got him a bucket and put it next to his bed. After only a few minutes of being back in my bed I heard the unmistakable sound of a kid vomiting. Luckily he made it into the bucket so it made for easy clean-up.

There is never a good time for the kids to be sick but this week is definitely not a good time. Hannah was on winter break from school all last week so I hope she doesn't get it and have to be out for another week. Lincoln is flying back from Virginia this morning but has to go right to a job site so that means I'll be staying home with Jake. Unfortunately my boss was on vacation all last week as well and today is his first day back so it's not a good day for me to be out either. On top of that the main part of the re-construction is supposed to start this week and I should be meeting with the contractors today before I have to be out for a seminar/conference tomorrow.

But, as always, we'll muddle through and figure it out. That's what we do best.

An unscheduled stop (Rachel - don't read this post)

We just left Danbury, CT where we stopped for breakfast. Unfortunately Jake's came right back up. Luckily we learned our lesson the last time we drove across the country and this time we were prepared for every possible scenario. Two years ago Jake threw up unexpectedly on I-90 and we had a serious clean-up situation where we even had to take the padding off his car seat. Luckily I had plenty of Wet Ones and paper towels packed on that trip so it was messy but not too bad. At least we didn't have to wait until we got to a gas station in order to do clean up.

Years ago, during another road trip when Hannah had the flu, my Aunt Lin gave us a small hard trash bucket that used to be in Grandpa Benson's van. Lincoln usually has it in his truck but we remembered to pack it in my car for the trip. Luckily Jake grabbed the bucket when he got sick and with the exception of a little miss during one of his gags we didn't have too much of a mess. We were able to pull over on the side of the road, empty the bucket and get everything cleaned up. And this time I not only had paper towels and Wet Ones but I had Clorox wipes and air freshener for the car. I also had a ziploc bag for bagging up the stinky paper towels and the next time we stop at a gas station we'll dump it.

We're back on the road now. Jake is feeling much better and is slowly sipping on a bottle of water. Hopefully that will be our only incident with vomit over the next week and a half. My children have both been known to get car sick but neither of them are consistently car, air or boat sick so we never know when it's going to happen. Surprise! Too bad those aren't the kinds of surprises that I like.