From the ashes of germ carcasses

I feel like we are constantly shoveling dead germ bodies around the house, and since my last post, we have been hit back to back with those "it's going around" germs that become unavoidable with young offspring. Jake was coughing, I was coughing, Iain was coughing and Fiona was coughing for the past two weeks or so. Add in a sinus infection for me, some fevers for some of us, and pumping lots of fluids, sometimes drugs, and soup through our veins we were on the mend until Monday when Iain decided to shows signs of a GI bug.
Our Monday started out with a lovely, yet fast and furious, trip to Iowa City to see the grandparents and great-grandma for the day. Iain ate at least five prunes for breakfast, and my mom was convinced that was explanation enough for what would follow throughout the rest of the day. Iain ate heartily at his Grandma's house, showing off his little vocabulary by asking for "cheeeese, berries" and other one syllable food items. We scurried home as quick as we could to have a frozen sausage pizza for dinner with peaches and a handful of cashew nuts for the little fella and then off to bed!

The poor little man was very distraught at about 3:30 in the morning with another messy diaper, and by 4:00am I had brought him into bed with us. He was very sad, and I couldn't bear to see my little elf's body so distressed by crying and clutching at me. We were all delirious at the hour of day, but some brow stroking was hypnotic for both mother and baby and we were asleep again for only 45 minutes. I awoke to a screaming child sitting next to me in bed, and I couldn't think fast enough because the heaving warnings did not last long before we were all sitting in a puke puddle in our bed. Our snuggy, snowflake, flannel sheets and our beautiful Asian duvet that we bought after our wedding, our matching elf pajamas and the precious ducky blanket were all hit with the acidic fluids and undigested dinner.

Jake somehow got through unscathed, but Iain was now hysterical and trying to wipe his face with the puked on ducky blanket. I started barking orders as I stripped out of my own pajamas. It was quickly decided that Jake would bathe Iain, while I tied up everything in an over sized hobo bag and lugged everything down to the basement. I called my mother whom I knew was awake to ask her what to do with the linens. Should I rinse everything out? "Throw everything in the washing machine and just keep washing it until everything is gone. You might have to run a couple of loads through, but then just shake off the chunks before you throw everything in the dryer." I was confused because I heard my aunt's voice in my head saying, "Always rinse out the chunks, or else they get stuck in your washing machine! Take the time to rinse out the chunks!" I hiked back upstairs to get a rubber glove to help me with my task. As I picked through all of the linens I thought I should be more sleepy, but the stench was keeping me awake and alert as I discovered my toddler doesn't chew his food very well.

Jake and I piled into the guest bedroom, and we tucked Iain into his crib. Within the hour, I heard the screaming and the puking again. The poor little man was just devastated. There is a reason why we have back ups in the sheet department, but we don't have a back up mattress pad since it is on Fiona's crib. The little Fiona angel slept through the entire drama, sawing logs!

I was able to accomplish very little yesterday with a whimpering little boy attached to my hip. We had a non-stop Veggie marathon, and a community nap session all in the guest room. My mother-in-law gets a huge gold star since I canceled a coffee that I was hosting for her friends and instead she brought Pedialite and laundry soap over to help with the day. The biggest surprise was a beautiful Christmas cactus, heavy with cerise blooms. My Christmas cactus has had no flowers this year, so this flashy splash of color brightened everyone's day including the sick boy who kept pointing and whispering about the pretty flowers.