Vomit-ville

Warning: This is long and somewhat graphic.

Do not come to my house. Do. Not. We are firmly in Vomit-ville, not to be confused with Margarita-ville, which is where I would love to be right now.

It all started Sunday night. Bobby and I had successfully finished tiling the front bathroom (post to come - with pictures!), had congratulated each other, gotten the kids to sleep in their beds and had settled into one of those wonderful bone-tired sleep sessions.

When.... around 5 am Emily throws up everywhere - and I mean everywhere. Oh yeah, she was in bed with us at the time. So, being as tired as I was, I used baby wipes to clean her and her hair off and changed both of our clothes while Bobby stripped the bed. (#1)

He joined Chris in his bed and I took Emily into her bed in her room. (Sidenote: In the past, even when he was small, Chris would throw up once and then be done. Just for the record.) So, I'm drifting off to sleep again, when, yep, baarrrff. All over Emily's bed. I take her out to the couch while Bobby strips the bed. (#2)

I stay out on the couch with her all night, sitting/reclining/dozing while she continues to be sick every 20-30 min. Bobby and Chris wake up in the morning, Emily wakes and acts the rest of the day like she's feeling great.

Monday night at around 1:30 am Emily cries, I bring her into our bed (lined with a towel "guard" just in case) and she promptly throws up, completely missing the towel and soaking our sheets. Bobby strips the bed (#3), goes in with Chris, and Emily and I go into her room. I spend the rest of the night with towels strategically draped everywhere, jumping at every sigh and groan, ready to catch the inevitable puke. There is none for the rest of the night.

Tuesday is great. We go to the grocery store and the park and eat chocolate chip cookies. The weather is nice and cool - it's a perfect day. Bobby gets home from work and suggests that I go to the library to pick up a couple of things that we had reserved while he grills burgers and lets the kids play outside. I take my time, browsing around. Walking in the door, I can immediately tell that something is very wrong. Chris' clothes are draped over the washing machine covered in....what? I think "Oh no, Emily threw up on Chris!" Nope. Chris threw up on Chris.

Apparently, minutes after I walked out the door, Chris started feeling yucky in his tummy. By the time I got home, he'd been sick a handful of times and Bobby had cleaned up the floor a couple of times. The poor boy continues to be "sick" all through the evening and into the late, late night. He throws up at least 20 times. He even gets to where he has nothing left - he's just dry.

In the meantime, I fix some dinner for the rest of us and try to carry on, in-between rubbing his back and wiping his little mouth. Strangely, Bobby declines dinner, saying that he doesn't really "feel like it". Okay, whatever. I'm in the bathroom giving Emily a bath when I hear a weird loud thunk and some sort of splashing sound. You guessed it -- Bobby. Heaving his guts out. Several times.

So, at around midnight, the two sickies go to bed together again, armed with buckets and towels. I stay up waiting for my sheets to finish drying. Chris has a couple of "episodes" during the night and of course I dash into the bedroom to make sure everyone (Bobby) is okay. At one point Chris turns to sleep with his head at the "foot" end of the bed. During one of his "episodes", Bobby can't reach down with the bucket fast enough. So, I stripped the bed. (#4)

Emily makes it through the night without incident. Chris wakes up feeling much better and happily breakfasts on popcicles. Bobby stays home from work and hangs out in his sweatpants all day, recuperating. I do laundry, put diapers on my shopping list (Emily's condition has moved further south now), do laundry, rent movies for the day, do laundry, BLOG, fix chicken soup and grilled cheese for dinner and do laundry.

How has your week been??

Ta Da! - Thanks Sara.

I was originally going to post a ton of pictures, but decided to keep it simple and not press my luck. Here's a sampling from our trip to PA.

Chris, waiting for one of the rides to start and Emily, on probably her 4th time around on the carousel.

Slip and Slide!

Flying in Pop's plane.

Amish fella on rollerblades - cool!

Vacation Notes

I am sooo frustrated that Blogger won't let me download our vacation pictures. Aargh. I've been trying and trying for a couple of days and I guess this will just have to do.

We had a wonderful time on our 10 day vacation this year. We flew to PA to visit my parents and see my Aunt and Uncle and Grandma, too.

The day after we arrived we went to an amusement park called Idlewild. It had rained earlier in the morning so it was fairly cool - it just ended up being the perfect day for such an outing. The park has a separate section of rides for the smaller kiddos, which Chris really enjoyed. But he really amazed us all by being fearless on many of the bigger rides. Basically, any ride that he was tall enough for, he wanted to ride - and he had a blast. So we rode the Spider, the Scrambler, the Log Jam, Ferris Wheel, and his very first, real live Rollercoaster!

The following day Chris and Pop went for Chris' first ride on the back of a motorcycle. I didn't see them in person, but Bobby videoed it, and when I saw my little baby boy hanging on the back of that thing it just scared me to pieces. Chris is getting to the age where I'm having to let go a lot and it's hard for me! Later on we went to a gorgeous park that has a walking trail around a lake. Mom and I walked Emily while Chris and the guys "fished" and then played on the playground.

Sunday, after church, we gathered at my Aunts house for a cookout with one of her nephew from her husbands (my uncle) side of the family. They have 2 children that are almost exactly Chris and Emily's ages, so it was fun to watch the kids play together. They pulled out a Slip n' Slide too!

Monday morning we drove to Lancaster County - the Amish Country. I've had a fascination with the Amish lifestyle for years and after reading tons of books, fiction and non-fiction, it was really neat to be able to see the land, houses, buggies, gardens, and people with my own eyes. The funny thing is that, in my mind, I pictured them so set apart that I almost thought of them as fiction or in another country or something. But being there right in the heart of the Amish, everything just seemed so normal. Yes, the were dressed differently and drove buggies instead of cars, but their houses were right alongside non-Amish (English) houses, and they smiled and waved back at us, and were just regular old folk. It was just another city in the USA with Target, and TGI Fridays, etc, and some gorgeous farmland.

While we were in Lancaster, my parents treated Bobby and me to a show at Sight&Sound, Ruth. It was wonderful! The stage is huge and wraps around the seating area. All the shows are Bible-based stories. They use live animals and it rivals (I think it's better than) a Braodway show. Bobby and I want to see all of them now!

My parents kept the kids while we were at the show and went swimming in the hotel's salt-water pool and ate ice cream cones and grilled cheese sandwiches and finger painted.

After Lancaster, we travelled to Hershey, PA. We went to Chocolate World, which has an interactive ride of their chocolate factory. I wish I could show you the look on Chris' face when we told him we were going to a real live chocolate factory. The boy LOVES Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the original version! And then, they give you candy when you finish the ride. What can be better?

Then we went on to Hershey Park, the second amusement park in one week, for us. Chris rode an even bigger rollercoaster, and I was nearly in tears waiting for him. Of course, he absolutely loved it. In fact, he was upset when Bobby, Pop and I rode the really scary rollercoasters. He wanted to go too! These rides were so crazy that I got a huge bruise on the back of my arm from one of them. I was praying that my children would not become orphans in the 2.5 minutes that I was screaming my head off. I survived.... barely. :)

After our drive back to my parents house the next day, we were able to get in some relaxation. We went flying in Pop's airplane and visited some more with the family. And then, sadly, our trip was over. The night we got home, Emily slept 14 hours. I think that sums up our trip quite nicely -- we had fun until we collapsed, literally!

MIA

I'm so sorry that it's been so long since I updated the blog. It always seems like there's such a letdown after a vacation. I always get in a mini "funk" and it takes me a couple of days to get back into the groove of life.

Pictures to come soon - I promise!

p.s. Our trip was AWESOME!!!