Laugh With Those That Laugh

It finally hit us. Like a bomb. A really messy icky bomb.

It's the stomach flu. First real sickness of the winter. And it's a doozy.

It always starts in the middle of the night. "Moooooaaahghhhmmm," was yelled frantically from the bedroom the other night. I sighed a deep breath and thought why don't they call, "Daaaaaaagghhhhddd." Dan looked up at me from what he was doing and said, "Someone needs you." I'm on way," I said reluctantly. Gratefully Zack had his wits about him enough to hit the bucket. "That was a bad one, Mom," he said. "They always are," I replied.

I yelled, "Daaaaagghhhhn" just to make sure he knew I really did need him. "You take the bucket, and I'll clean up the kid," I said. He's a good dad, and took the bucket down the hall to get ready for round 2. There was a stirring in the other bunk bed;  Kade started rolling around and moaning. "Zack, why did you make me sick?!" he asked emphatically. He half sat up; I got worried. "Are you going to be sick too?" I asked. Kade replied, "Zack made me sick!" Then he puked in the newly cleaned out bucket. "Daaaggghhhhnn," I called again, just so he would know I was serious. "You clean out the bucket, I'll take care of kid #2" "You're kidding me." he said.

Now with Kade, you never know if he's really sick or not. He abides by the words, "laugh with those that laugh, weep with those that weep, and puke with those that puke." His stomach is about as weak as they come. And it's not just puke, it's anything that might be considered gross. Once he had the pleasure of stepping in kitty poopy in the garage. As it squished between his toes, he began dry heaving so much he couldn't even call me. I went out there to find him like a statue - that was dry heaving. He couldn't move, he couldn't call, and he was about to puke. "Why isn't Dan home for these kinds of events," I thought to myself as I scooped him up and hauled his stinky feet to the bathroom. I cleaned up between his toes very carefully, sent him on his way, and went to clean the garage. I thought we were through, but, oh no,  I found him intermittently sniffing his feet for the next half hour in search of "leftover odors." And WHY would one do that???

I ended up spending that whole night changing buckets and comforting both boys. (Turns out it wasn't Zack that made Kade sick, he was just plain sick.) The next day I washed everything that could be put in the washer and sprayed Lysol on everything that couldn't. I was determined that TWO would be the end of it.

Last night I made mushroom cheeseburgers and Rotel. It was yummy. As I enjoyed my dinner, I briefly hoped that I would not see it again.

Then it started - Rylie, then Elijah, and "Ummm, I'm not feeling so good," I said. Dan looked at me with a look that said you better not be getting sick.  "Don't worry," I said as I crashed on the couch, "the vomiting only lasts about four hours. You'll be okay."

We won't be having mushroom cheeseburgers again for a really, really long time......