The Fun Continues.....

Shortly after I posted last night's description of events, the drama continued, rather than subsiding. Micah was in bed, asleep, and Mark was dosing on the couch. Elijah had been playing with puzzles at the table while all the excitement worked itself out and was ready for bed himself.

As I took his hand and walked him to his bedroom, he said "My tummy hurts, Mommy." I honestly didn't know what to do. I had no way of knowing if he was legit or if he was just repeating what we had told him about Micah. It was one of those times as a mother that I was at a total loss. If he wasn't sick and I let him stay up, we would be waiting a very long time for something that wasn't going to happen. If I put him to bed and he was sick, then I was a horrible, unloving mother who wasn't listening to my son tell me he felt bad. So I sat with him for a few minutes and asked more questions, trying to deduce whether his tummy pain was actually in his tummy or in his head. I still couldn't tell, but I told him that although he was going to bed, if he needed me all he had to do is call me and I would come. I had him practice saying "Mommy, I need you" and he seemed to feel OK with that option.

Fast forward about an hour. I'm in the middle of watching a girl on American Idol claim she sounds JUST LIKE Mariah Carey (you and a thousand others, sweetheart), when I hear coughing and crying coming over the monitor. I ran in and saw my older son in a very similar situation as my younger son had been just hours earlier. Covered in sick. His sheets, his pillow, his comforter and his Pooh Bear. It was all very Deja Vu as Mark and I proceeded to clean up another child and his surroundings. Elijah was very distraught and didn't want anything to do with his bed for awhile, so I snuggled him on the couch and we watched the girl on American Idol prove that she sounds, in fact, NOTHING like Mariah Carey (surprise!) together.

Eventually he felt well enough to head to bed again, so we tucked him in, let him know we'd be available anytime he needed us, and kissed him good night.

That was the beginning of a night of sick. Over and over again, nearly every hour, on the hour, Elijah needed me. He soiled just about every blanket, towel, pillow and set of pajamas in the house. Poor guy was miserable . It finally stopped at about 5 in the morning, and since Mark stayed home from work, I slept from then until about 10:30 this morning. Elijah was up by 8. Go figure.

He went down for his nap this afternoon and has not woken up yet. We tried to rouse him, but he was having no part, so we let him sleep. Clearly he needs it. So does his Mommy. I'm not sure I'm going to be up much longer, either.

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All in a Day's Work (when you're a mommy)

Today has been the kind of day you see in a commercial, right before the mom cries "Calgon...take me away!" Well, I don't have any Calgon, but I think I am about to have a visit with Bath and Body Works Pink Grapefruit Bubble Bath. Less because I need to relax and more because I feel like I am covered in vomit from head to toe.

Every morning when the boys and I make our way to the living room, we call Mark, who's already been at work for a couple of hours by then. He leaves while we are all still very much asleep, so this is our first contact with him for the day. This morning he sounded terrible when he answered the phone. I asked what was wrong and he said he wasn't feeling well, his stomach was upset. I asked if he was going to come home and he said he didn't think so. I told him to let me know if I needed to come and get him (he takes light rail to work), otherwise I would see him later.

Around 2:30 he calls me from the train to tell me he's left a little early and he's on his way home. At this point the boys are in bed asleep and by the time I got them up, dressed, piled in the car and out to get him, Mark would be almost home. So he had to stay on mass transit with a very questionable digestive system. Apparently he had to hop off the train at one point on the way home so he could safely be sick on the side of the road instead of on a fellow passenger's lap.

So he makes it home while the boys are still asleep and proceeds to fall asleep on the couch. So far so good. Then the boys woke up....they were absolutely beside themselves with joy to see their Daddy home so early in the day. They paid no attention to the fact that he was in an unconscious lump on the couch....they wanted to PLAY! I did my best to keep the kids away from him, but I had become chopped liver. They had seen me all day and Daddy was home before dark, so climbing on him as though he was a jungle gym was all they thought sounded fun (don't feel too sorry for him. My suggestions for him to move to the bedroom were for some reason falling on deaf ears).

This continued while I made dinner. I will not lie. It was making me very grumpy that he was choosing to stay on the couch, meaning I was not only making dinner, I was having to referee the boys...trying my best to keep them away from their father and as "quiet" as possible (and by quiet I mean "not banging on anything" and "not playing the kazoo", which had become the only things the boys wanted to do). Finally dinner was ready, so I turned on Noggin, faced the boys towards the TV with their dinner, and collapsed at my desk, determined to turn off my brain for a few minutes while the boys ate.

Little did I know that whatever bug had infiltrated my husband's stomach had also landed in Micah's.

After a few minutes I heard him from around the corner "Ma-ee, Ma-ee". I rolled my eyes and sighed, but headed to the other room, certain I was going to need to pick up his milk from off the floor or something equally irritating.

Or clean up the most projectile vomit I have ever seen come out of a human being, let alone a tiny little human being. It was everywhere and it just kept coming. His clothes were soaked, it was all over the carpet and in every single nook and cranny of his high chair (and there are a lot....I didn't realize how many until I had to clean puke out of each and every one). And the stench! Vomit never smells good, but this was a particularly rancid batch! Even as I'm typing this, I can still smell it in my nostrils.

Mark jumped up to help me, and even though he was sick, too, I let him. This was too big a job for one person. I went and ran a bath and Mark held Micah while I stripped him of his clothes (Micah, not Mark), and then took over bathtime duties. I then had the task of trying to keep my own stomach calm while I mopped up puddles (yes, puddles) of sick from all kinds of places (the boy was thorough), all while answering Elijah's questions:

"Did he spill, Mommy?"
"Did he make a mess, Mommy?"
"Did he drop his food, Mommy?"
"Where did he go, Mommy?"
"Why was he crying, Mommy?"
(and repeat that about 200 times)

After having wiped, scrubbed, rinsed and sprayed every surface in the general area of the incident, I still didn't feel like anything was clean, even though I knew it was. Micah was clean, in pajamas and sipping slowly on diluted juice while laughing and running around like a nut. I was glad he was feeling better, but all I wanted to do was go to bed.

So here I am, feeling very disheveled and smelling of puke. My stomach is still empty and growling at me, yet the dinner I made doesn't sound so good now that I've seen it regurgitated (this is not the weight loss plan I had in mind). The bathtub is calling my name and then I will put my feet up in front of the American Idol auditions, putting this day behind me. Hopefully Elijah and I won't succumb to the same ugliness that Mark and Micah did today. Lord willing.

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The Various and Sundry

So I have mentioned before that I owe some companies some shout-outs on this blog because they have so kindly sent me free product. I'm going to take care of that today, not only because I have an obligation to, but because these are really good products that I just need to share with you all.

The first product is the Swiffer Sweep and Vac. I have to say that I am IN LOVE with this product. Basically what it is is the original swiffer sweeper (which wasn't really all that great) with a vacuum attached to the front of it. It's cordless, you just have to plug it in and charge it (I charged it the recommended 24 hours when I first got it right after New Years and have used it daily without charging it since). Then instead of sweeping your kitchen floor (or bathroom or entryway or your whole house full of hardwoods), you just pull out this little baby and vacuum it all. No more bending over, trying to get the pile of stuff you've swept up into a dustpan (a pile of stuff which, if you're like me, your 16 month old has been trying to play in as you swept it up). It's so easy, and it means I "sweep" my floor after I prepare every meal instead of "once a day" (and by once a day I really mean once a week, but that would be shameful to admit). This doesn't take the place of taking the broom and really getting under the appliances, but that doesn't need to be done everyday anyway (unless you're Gina), so just save the broom and dustpan for once a week and use your Swiffer sweep and vac for those crumbs you just brushed onto the floor after cutting the crusts off your kids sandwiches. (Just as a total aside, I have to tell you that when I was searching for Swiffer pictures on Photobucket, I was disturbed by the number of pictures on there of people posing with their Swiffers....we're talking hundreds, people. Hundreds. And they were not all rated G.)

The next product I received was not a new product to me. I've actually been using is since it first came out and I was sold from the first time I used it. It's the Dawn Direct Foam. Some of you have probably already used it, so I won't go into too much detail. I'll just say that it does everything it says it does. It cuts through grease like no body's business and a little does go a very long way. It's one of those products that I find is worth the extra money (although there are always coupons for it in the Sunday paper). After using it for awhile, I tried to go back to something cheaper and I was sorry. It just didn't work as well. This is now on my list of "Products I Won't Live Without".

Honestly, I am not giving these glowing reviews because I feel obligated. The reason these companies send these products out is because they feel so confident in them that they give us the freedom to post about them however we want. We are under no obligation to give them glowing reviews. I just honestly liked these products.

Hope you all found this helpful. Let me know if you have used these and how you feel about them. Have a great Monday!

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Holiday Mish-Mash

I am sitting with Blogger open, fingers on the keys, waiting for inspiration to strike. It's not that I don't have anything to blog about....I have too much to blog about. It has been so long and it has been such a busy month. Christmas and New Years, the birthdays of both of my parents and my Aunt, and the engagement of my little brother to his girlfriend, Kayla. So instead of trying to remember all that's happened, and making this the longest post in the history of blogging, I'm going to try and nutshell everything.

Christmas was great. I am still, at the age of 32, unable to sleep on Christmas Eve. I turn back into a 9-year-old and toss and turn, waiting for the clock to turn to an acceptable time to rise and wake everyone else. The difference between now and when I actually was a nine year old, is that I am now more excited about what I am giving, as opposed to what I am getting. This year we bought my parents a fireplace, something my mom has wanted forever. After they went to sleep, Mark and I stayed up and put it together (I'm sure something we should probably get used to, having two kids), and I made sure to have it lit for them before they walked into the living room on Christmas morning. The look on my mom's face was priceless. My kids had loads of gifts to open and once Kevin and Kayla got there, we sat around the tree, fire blazing, and opened gifts one-by-one.

Christmas Eve was all about starting new traditions for my own little family. In an effort to make sure that the focus of our holiday was Christ, I made (and will make in future years) a birthday cake for Jesus. For those who are unfamiliar with this tradition, it includes a red layer, representing Christ's blood, a green layer, representing the everlasting (ever "green") life He purchased for us with that blood and white icing, representing the purity of the life He lived, making Him the perfect sacrifice for our sins. After the kids went to bed, we watched the movie "The Nativity Story" and were really impressed by it. Even though the kids were to young to watch it this year, this movie will become a Christmas Eve tradition in our family for future years, as well. I was amazed to realize that I learned a lot from watching this movie. While all the events depicted in the film were familiar, they took on a freshness for me as I watched them being executed with such detail (and surprising accuracy). For example, the wise men's gifts had always been just that to me, gifts. I had only ever seen them as these men's acts of worship as they came to see the newborn King. Watching the movie, though, I was struck by this event as being God's provision for this young couple who were to raise His Son here on this earth. They were poor, and ostracized for her condition. They not only had to travel to Bethlehem for the census, but then had to flee to Egypt to survive Herod's cowardly slaughter of infants. God knew all of these things and provided them with gold, frankincense and myrrh, precious items that would sustain this couple and their new child for quite some time. It was no accident that these men brought these gifts. God provided these gifts.

New Year's Eve was the same as it has been for the last several years. A group of about 10 of us got together and played games, ate yummy food and laughed our heads off. It was awesome. (The kids were at my parents house)

So the BIG news of the holiday season in our family was that my brother (finally) proposed to his girlfriend, Kayla. Friends know that I accidentally refer to her as my sister-in-law all the time because I already feel like she is. Kevin genuinely surprised her with the ring after asking her father for her hand. It looks like September 12th or 19th will be the day (as I type this post, they are waiting to hear back from their venue of choice which day is available), with the two cutest ring bearers ever in the history of weddings (guess who I'm talking about). They have asked me to read some scripture at their wedding (they heard somewhere that I like the Bible), so that leads to the next update on my life.....

I'm on Weight Watchers again. I've done it before and been very successful. As I type this, I am exactly one week in, and so far, so good. I haven't cheated once. I figure having to stand in front of a huge group of people is motivation enough to keep me on track, but having your prayers, when you think about it, would always be appreciated.

So you're about caught up with me. Everything else is about the same. Monday night small group, finishing up "The Jesus I Never Knew" by Philip Yancey (I can't recommend this book enough), Thursday morning women's Bible study, starting "Jesus, the One and Only" by Beth Moore. I'm sure I'll be telling you guys all about it as I am changed, once again, by a Beth Moore study. I'm sorry if this post seems disjointed, I just wanted to get you all caught up so I could move on from here and hopefully become a faithful blogger again. I will leave you all with a picture of Kevin and Kayla, the new fiances, with my Mom and Micah. Aren't they the cutest couple?

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To Blog or Not To Blog....

So in case you hadn't noticed, I haven't posted in awhile. It was not an intentional decision (or at least it didn't start that way). After a couple of weeks had gone by, I realized that it would be ridiculous to just sit down and type some post about my children's diapers with no explanation of where I had been. Which made me not want to post at all. So I didn't. A few things have happened, though, that have made me change my mind, at least temporarily. The first is that I have been asked by people who read my blog where I've been. This has been a really sweet reminder for me that even though only a handful of people read my blog, they enjoy it. The second thing that happened was that I received some free products to try and review on my blog and it would be unethical of me to accept free products from companies and not hold up my end of the bargain. So look for those reviews very soon (I don't have time to do it now).

So here I am, not sure what the future of this blog holds, but knowing that I couldn't just euthanize it without at least tying up loose ends. When I first started this blog, I couldn't wait to sit down and type a post. I was constantly thinking of how some event in my life could translate into blog fodder. Well, the novelty has worn off and I have found myself unable to come up with anything to blog about....even though life has been fuller than ever. I have really enjoyed having a blog, though, and would love to be excited about it again. I am hoping that with the holidays passing and life being back to normal (ish), I will find more time to post. Either way, I'll be following up with you about a couple of products I've received and hopefully one of my kids will do something cute that I can tell you about or something equally profound. Thanks for hanging in there!

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