Seriously. Turn away. I am only posting this because I am hopeless at journal writing and I want to remember this story later on. No one wants to read about other people's children vomiting. Much less read about it twice in a row. So go away. You have been warned.
When one kid gets the stomach flu everyone knows the other kid (or kids) will get it too. It's like 95% guaranteed, right? I knew it was coming but I didn't know how violently it would arrive. Ken and I went to dinner last night with some friends and the kids ate dinner with the babysitter. I am not sure how many blueberries Dylan ate because I wasn't there but my guess is somewhere in the vicinity of 1/2 lb. Around Midnight the fun began. And I say fun because I really laughed quite a bit through the first stage. Dylan came in crying and Ken got out of bed, once again I was out cold and really disoriented when summoned from bed to behold the newest wonder of the world: wall to wall blueberry vomit. I was so impressed that I almost got my camera to take a picture! But no one wants to see a picture of that. Even when it's mind blowingly impressive and purple. You need to know that Dylan has a loft bed and so in the CSI recreation the source point will be about 7 feet off the floor. The inaugural vomit covered his bed and blankets admirably. Here's something else about Dylan- he sleeps with as much stuff crammed in to his bed as possible. We excavated 3 blankets, his pillow, sheet, mattress cover, 5-10 stuffed animals, 10 or more books, Lego catalogs which were shedding pages, an mp3 player with no battery, headphones, empty water bottles- all affected by the blast. His vomiting after shocks were aimed out of his bed and I am having a hard time figuring out the trajectory unless he stood up in his bed and his head spun around and around. Is there any other way to hit two opposing walls, the underside of the rungs on his bed ladder and underneath his desk (the desk is directly under the loft bed)? We were convinced that the carpet was lost. Our initial attempt to scrub it with the cleaning solution from my defunct Bissel carpet cleaner was a bust. All that we accomplished was smearing purple on the tiny patches of beige carpet that peeked through. But then I remembered I had a 3/4 full bottle of Spot Shot carpet cleaner and I started scrubbing with that. Holy Cow! It took about an hour and the entire bottle of Spot Shot but I think we got about 90% or more of the purple out! I am sure there are spots we won't even discover until later this year, but what we saw we vanquished! I am considering writing Spot Shot with my story!
So the rest of the night was predictable. He slept on the lounge chair next to the bathroom, barfed every hour or so and neither of us got much sleep. But here's the nice part- since he's 7, not 3, he can get himself to the bathroom and aim into the commode and then flush, wipe himself up and climb back in bed. I still got up with him because no kid wants to puke alone. But all I did was rub his back and tell him how sorry I felt for him.
Caitlin is chipper as can be today so I am sure Dylan will be back on his feet in no time, but for the next few days stay away from the Jennings!
When one kid gets the stomach flu everyone knows the other kid (or kids) will get it too. It's like 95% guaranteed, right? I knew it was coming but I didn't know how violently it would arrive. Ken and I went to dinner last night with some friends and the kids ate dinner with the babysitter. I am not sure how many blueberries Dylan ate because I wasn't there but my guess is somewhere in the vicinity of 1/2 lb. Around Midnight the fun began. And I say fun because I really laughed quite a bit through the first stage. Dylan came in crying and Ken got out of bed, once again I was out cold and really disoriented when summoned from bed to behold the newest wonder of the world: wall to wall blueberry vomit. I was so impressed that I almost got my camera to take a picture! But no one wants to see a picture of that. Even when it's mind blowingly impressive and purple. You need to know that Dylan has a loft bed and so in the CSI recreation the source point will be about 7 feet off the floor. The inaugural vomit covered his bed and blankets admirably. Here's something else about Dylan- he sleeps with as much stuff crammed in to his bed as possible. We excavated 3 blankets, his pillow, sheet, mattress cover, 5-10 stuffed animals, 10 or more books, Lego catalogs which were shedding pages, an mp3 player with no battery, headphones, empty water bottles- all affected by the blast. His vomiting after shocks were aimed out of his bed and I am having a hard time figuring out the trajectory unless he stood up in his bed and his head spun around and around. Is there any other way to hit two opposing walls, the underside of the rungs on his bed ladder and underneath his desk (the desk is directly under the loft bed)? We were convinced that the carpet was lost. Our initial attempt to scrub it with the cleaning solution from my defunct Bissel carpet cleaner was a bust. All that we accomplished was smearing purple on the tiny patches of beige carpet that peeked through. But then I remembered I had a 3/4 full bottle of Spot Shot carpet cleaner and I started scrubbing with that. Holy Cow! It took about an hour and the entire bottle of Spot Shot but I think we got about 90% or more of the purple out! I am sure there are spots we won't even discover until later this year, but what we saw we vanquished! I am considering writing Spot Shot with my story!
So the rest of the night was predictable. He slept on the lounge chair next to the bathroom, barfed every hour or so and neither of us got much sleep. But here's the nice part- since he's 7, not 3, he can get himself to the bathroom and aim into the commode and then flush, wipe himself up and climb back in bed. I still got up with him because no kid wants to puke alone. But all I did was rub his back and tell him how sorry I felt for him.
Caitlin is chipper as can be today so I am sure Dylan will be back on his feet in no time, but for the next few days stay away from the Jennings!
Comments
Blueberries. Classic.