And Now, We Wait...

Minnie Mouse
Hee hee hee hee hee hee.....!

I was pretty proud of myself. I've been making some plans this week in an attempt to keep us all alive during this last week of summer break. Ryan has a playdate with a school friend on Friday and today I was going to drop the kids off at my sister's house while I visited a Cori and her son Mason at Children's Hospital. The boys love to play with their cousins and I really wanted to visit Cori and Mason, so this was a win-win. Mason and his sister Lauren are good friends and my boys really love playing with them. Mason is 4 1/2 and has Downs Syndrome. And like many kids with Downs, he has several medical complications that have put him into the hospital many times over his short little life. Mason is very susceptible to lung infections and even the slightest cold can instantly turn into pneumonia. Mason became very sick on Friday and has been in the hospital ever since. And that means Cori has been in the hospital. It's not actually pneumonia this time, but he is having a very difficult time breathing and does not seem to be making any noticeable improvements, which is a little scary. So, I was going to spend the morning with Cori at the hospital.

And then Ryan greeted me this morning by telling me he had to throw up. Which he did about two hours later. After much crying, screaming, and gnashing of teeth. Ryan has a mortal fear of throwing up, like his mother. Ryan would pay good money to never throw up again. Like his mother. When Ryan was about 5 he asked Mike and I about the glasses of wine we were having with our dinner. We explained it was a grown-up drink and too much can make you sick. Can it make you throw up?! Why yes it can. The look on his face was priceless. This may be the only talk we will ever need to have with Ryan about drinking. When the time comes I plan to tell him that smoking, drugs, hitting his brother, tattoos, wearing pants that are so baggy the waistband is around your knees, and premarital sex also lead to throwing up.

Now that the actual vomiting is over and done with, the fun can begin. I will sit in fear for the next 36-48 hours, waiting to see if I get sick. It's one thing if my kids are sick. But now this is all about me. I can make myself feel queasy just thinking about the possibility of getting sick. Everytime this happens, or if my kids have been exposed to someone who has thrown up, or even if someone I know has been throwing up, I need to call Cori, who is a pediatric nurse, and have her remind me of vomiting germ incubation periods. She is rarely reassuring.

And I don't know what to do with Eric. As the person with the vomit, the tv belongs to Ryan today. Eric is not too pleased with this arrangement. He would like to be sick to and even snuggled up on the couch with his blanket and pillow and asked me to bring him things. Problem is, he is fine and is going to end up driving me crazy since we can't go anywhere and I've completely run out of ways to entertain perfectly healthy kids in my home. If both of them were sick, I could spend the day sitting on the couch, pretending to be at their beck and call, while secretly delighting the the fact that I could knit all day. I'm still trying to get away with that, but Eric seems to see right through that ploy.

I did finish those Minnie Mouse booties. Don't they just make you squeal?!

I have to go now and spray lysol on my kids.