Stomach Bug

4-15-09

I have a few minutes since I have mostly finished my reports. I have a couple more, but they can wait. Plus, I may not do them since the numbers are old due to how long it took for this stupid report to run.

Rough night, which is a shame since the afternoon was fine. When I got home, I managed to get the dishes done, and the rest of Dax’s room, including fixing his book shelf. I went and got the kids, and they played outside. I used the smaller, and less nice, of the two giant toy bins from their rooms to be the new outside bin. I also took all of their medium to large plastic cars out there, which pleased them greatly. They both took fire trucks up to the slide and had them fly down the slide. At first I was going to stop them, concerned that they would break. I then realized this didn’t really matter much since, let’s face it, toys break, and it isn’t like these were pricey.

We went inside only because they kept stomping all over Ken’s shed materials as Ken was trying to build the new shed. He got a bigger one that is going to be far more useful. It is going in the back corner of the yard. It does cut into the yard a bit, but I think this is reasonable. I suppose we should have just moved the play equipment over and then put the shed behind the garage, but at this point, this is fine.

We had pizza, which was cool since it meant I didn’t need to make a mess in the kitchen, and I am always jazzed when the kids will eat something else. Both of them ate a piece, and were quite happy.

While Ken worked on the shed, I got the boys bathed and ready for bed. We had a blast! They were both chipper and happy. When we finished, Ken was just coming in, so the four of us sat down on the couch and watched a Simpsons episode and a Backyardigans. Then it was bed time.

This all sounds pretty normal, if not better than. This is where it turned.

I was sitting in the living room, getting ready to watch American Idol, dinking around on Facebook. Ken was in reading to Bobby, and Dax looked like he was asleep. All of the sudden, Dax screamed out. It sounded different from his yells for some bread or milk, or just company. I ran in there, not really sure what happened. I crawled on to his bed and that’s when I saw the puddles of curdled milk all over him and his bed. I looked at him just as more came bubbling up out of his mouth. He was scared, but I knew I needed help. I ran out to the hall and yelled, “Babe!” and ran back to get Dax. Luckily I portrayed enough urgency without freaking out Bobby. I got Dax into the bathroom and told him that if he had to throw up, he should go ahead and do this in the tub. He promptly spit some of the nasty in his mouth out in there.

Vomit clean up is best done in the tub. It is just so much easier. We figured this out when Bobby had the flu a couple years ago. After Dax was cleaned up, he seemed happy. He was cold, despite being in a rather warm bath, but he was cheery. After about 30 minutes, Ken figured the vomit was caused from his cough. I didn’t think so as much since I never heard him cough before, but maybe I missed it. Either way, Ken gave him some cough medicine, hoping this would perhaps suppress and more. It was nasty medicine, so I offered him some fruit snacks as a chaser. Let’s just say I used poor judgment on this, and should have only given him maybe 2, not 6. I also learned that Dax doesn’t seem to chew these up well enough. He spit up very colorful goo, but it was very little. See, the tub rocks! No real mess! We spent another 30 minutes in a new bath, with my watching the clock since if it was the flu, those often seem to have a time interval, so I figured if in 30 minutes he had not puked again, we were probably in the clear.

When I got him in bed, he kept saying he was cold. He also polished off a glass of milk, which I was terrified that was going to end up in my hair while I read to him. We had the heater on high, and added another blanket. He settled in and stayed under the covers pretty well. When I turned in a little after 10, he was still under the covers, so this was good.

Our game plan for sick kids is shifts. Since we have the tv monitors, Ken stays out in the living room for a couple hours, and if needed, he has me do the next shift. Despite the time given to sleep, my sleep was restless. I couldn’t get comfortable, and I kept being sure that I was going to have to jump out of bed for another vomit attack. Plus, when Ken came in, I wanted to know how Dax was. I know Dax woke up at one point, but it was minor. I didn’t take a shift, but that was because it wasn’t deemed necessary.

When I looked at the monitor this morning, Dax was still under the covers and seemed content. It is 7:30 when I am writing this and Ken hasn’t called me, so I am guessing he is doing better this morning. So this is a good thing. I got my important reports done when I got in at 5:30 (even off the clock!) just in case I needed to come home. I suppose Ken is at home today, but he has a lot of work to do, I have furlough to use up, and I seem to still have the mommy block where the puke doesn’t make me gag. Although, clearly it has been a little while since the last puke fest. I wasn’t as immune as I have been in the past. Then again, the puking process doesn’t bother me, it is the after stuff. Ken isn’t 100% sure if he can handle the actual vomit process.

Needless to say, I am a little zoned. Dax’s adventures in digestion really can mess with a person’s sleep schedule. He was still frustrated from his milk with bubbles, which I just don’t get.

Recently if you give him a cup of milk, and if there are bubbles on the surface, he screams out, “No bubbles!!!” What the hell? And it isn’t like there is a way to really get rid of them every time? Not likely. There are times when you can so tell he is a 2 year old. He has always been stubborn (kid crawled back into the womb when I was trying to birth his ass), but now that he knows a ton of words and ideas, he thinks he knows it all.

His most recent phrase is this low, “What?” that comes after things I say that don’t really require that response. At first I thought he didn’t hear me. Then I determined this was him being funny. The only way to get him out of this mode is to say “What” back the same way he says it.

Both of the boys have become super affectionate. Bobby has pretty much ended each day at daycare with hugs for everyone, shouts of “I love you” to each kid, and one to Maria, which also includes the sign language signing for it. Dax seems to be copying Bobby (without of course all the hugs, although he did actually hug one of the twins yesterday), but both seem genuine especially when they do this with Ken and myself.

I almost wore a skirt today, but am glad I didn’t based on how cold I am! It is freezing! I have my heater on, but it just isn’t doing enough.

I got the update from Ken. Dax was bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning. Thank goodness. Bobby was a bit cranky, but isn’t that always the case? All the folks around the sicky are the ones who are cranky and Mr. Sicky Pants is fab. Oh well. At least there should be no vomit in the near future. Maria is under strict orders to call Ken if anyone spews, and if someone does, I will leave work at that point.

It is amusing to me how much I still enjoy Alanis Morrisette’s “You Oughta Know”, but it has changed, also. I don’t feel nearly as passionate about the lyrics. I remember all the words, but the inflections that I used to have down to a science are not there. I suppose when it came out, which is scary that it was that long ago, I was in a place that the whole album was my own way to shout at the world. Now, it is just a fun song to rock out to.

Bobby and I danced to “No Sleep till Brooklyn” last night. He has decided he really likes the Beastie Boys. I have been slacking in my music hour with them. There are so many cool things I want to do, but just don’t have the time.

Daycare is changing. I don’t like it. Seriously, it is time to get them in preschool. Maria told me she is taking some state kids (she needs more kids. At this point, Bobby and Kenny are 4 and probably leaving pretty soon. The rest of the kids are all nearing 3) and in order to be able to do that, you have to have your facility state approved. They require “stations” for things like reading and science, which are all way cool. However, they want them accessible at all times. The kids should not have a schedule for activities. They should just be running free and be able to go to each spot. What the hell? She said she isn’t sure she likes it, and doesn’t know that the core kids will either, but she will try it out. I don’t need the boys in some state run Montessori nightmare. Let’s hope this shop being closed helps the income enough to move them to something with more structure. Look, I am all for kids being kids, but they need to learn routine now since school has that, and before I know it, I will have two school aged children. So scary.

It would be so nice to just have a lump of money that we could buy one of these foreclosures in Torrance or even Redondo. That way we would be in the right district, and we wouldn’t need to worry about any of the school crap like that.

When one of the boys are sick, specifically Dax at this point since he doesn’t seem like a real kid like Bobby does, I really miss the whole breast feeding thing. It was always so much easier when I could just toss em on a boob, and the two of us could sleep all night when he was sick. Oh well. Those are days long gone. It would be nice if my boobs could figure this out, though. They just don’t want to quit producing some kind of stuff.

Ken just called. Maria has not reported any incidents, so we are probably in the clear, especially since they eat breakfast around 9, so it is 10:30 at this point and he would have thrown up by now. We think it is his cough, so we may need to get the humidifier out tonight.

Ken may be coming to get me for lunch, so that will be cool!

Why do I enjoy the song “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” so much?

I also like Ballroom Blitz, although I am pretty sure that isn’t the name of it or even the right words but that is how it sounds to me. I just know I love the beat.

Had a nice lunch with Ken at Jack in the Box. I don’t know why, but I so love their chicken bowls. Not the best chicken bowls in the world, but damn tasty. Ken is now off to the task of the shed construction. I am back to the task of keeping busy until 2:30. Wish me luck!