Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Barf-o-rama, Act III

More of the same here, I'm afraid. Monday was a relatively calm day, spent recuperating from the day before. We went to Target so David and Brian could blow the rest of their money (I really don't know where these kids get the stuff; I mean, I don't give it to them - could they be dealing drugs?) on a remote control airplane. Then I went to the dentist and (to make up for my trauma) a yarn shop, a type of establishment I had never been to before. I needed to go there to get a certain size knitting needle not carried in a generic crafts store like Michael's, and I have to admit I was curious about what I was missing in terms of the specialty yarn shop experience. But I ended up being disappointed. There were a lot of uber-price-y fistfuls of wool and everything (luckily) was a bit too refined (and expensive) to even tempt my appetite. I guess I'm just a cheap-eats sort of knitter. And I'm okay with that.

Okay, so we ate dinner, tucked the kids in bed, and had pretty much settled down for the evening when David came running down to tell me (not Larry; Larry had already gone to the sleep, the sneak) that Brian had thrown up. And in a valiant effort not to soil his bed linens, he had leaned over the bed rail - of the top bunk. It was a bad scene. The blast radius of this stuff was incredible. Maybe it had something to do with the ceiling fan, I'm not sure. But somehow it landed under the bed. And on the walls. And on the dresser. And the nightstand. And we still had to strip the beds (both of them). Under the bed was the biggest challenge - I don't think I've ever tried Swiffering vomit before, but it worked. I love my Swiffer.

The rest of the night is sort of a blur. There was more vomit and then I couldn't go to bed because I felt sick again (no wonder - our entire upstairs smelled disgusting by this point); I think I must have logged 3 hours total of sleep. Larry didn't do much better. But hey - who cares? Anna needed to go to Michael's today to get some beads for the bracelets she's making to sell at the holiday bazaar. Here there were sick people lying in various states of discomfort all over the living room (Theo had been felled by the stomach-virus fairy also); Susie for some reason decided to sympathy-vomit in the kitchen after I fed her some lunch; David was weak from hunger because he didn't want to eat because he figured he was going to get sick any minute (we're still waiting); but Anna could not comprehend why I was not grabbing my keys and running for the car. She also couldn't understand why a lot of the chores were falling on her. Not exactly a team-player, that girl. I was tired enough to ignore her histrionics, an approach which worked pretty well.

So there we are - for those of you keeping score, that's 5 down and 3 to go. And tomorrow's Larry's b'day.....so my money is on him.

10 comments:

  1. Oh, God, Oh poor, poor you. That's just so awful. I wish I was there--well, okay that's a big fat cyber lie but if I WAS there, I'd hand out bowls to everyone and cold water to sip and then I'd run like heck.

    Seriously, I'm so, so sorry that this has now felled the whole family. I wish you continued feelings of sickness without the actual vomit. Because everyone knows you're not allowed to get sick if you have sick kids.

    Man, what a WEEK you're having.

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  2. Not only do I love my Swiffer, but Febreeze is a close second. Works great on vomit (love the new spring scent) and it covers - oh, I mean removes - teen-aged boy smell pretty well too. Hope you get a respite from the flu sometime soon. I always wanted to get a pack of the stuff schools use to throw on vomit to help soak it up and then be able to pick it up. It's kind of like kitty litter. Now there's an idea!

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  3. Yikes. I hope everyone is feeling better soon.

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  4. Blast radius? Swiffering vomit? Genius! I'm laughing WITH you, not AT you, of course. But wow - what a week!

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  5. Oh, I hate when the family starts in with the stomach flu. Just the thought of it makes me gaggy! I hope our family is feeling much better and that you don't get it.
    Good to know about the swifter. Your brave to try it.

    On a different note, I read your comment on my blog, and I would LOVE to learn how to knit. I have always wanted to know how. Any ideas where to learn? I am reading the book Crazy Aunt Purl's just wrote. She had her blog, turned into a book, basically. Well, at least the begining, but she talks so lovingly about knitting and how it saved her,when going through a divorce. It is just something I have always wanted to learn.
    Hope your week is better (and healthier)!

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  6. I have a little twitch at my eye now.

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  7. OMG, I feel for you (even if I may be snickering slightly at "blast radius". Loved that!). I hope that's the end of it, but fear the worst. I'll keep checking in!
    - Heidi

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  8. Oh I'm laughing and cringing and gagging all at the same time. The baby spent yesterday throwing up all over me and the house. Of all the disgusting messes kids make, vomit is the only one that makes me gag.

    So far no one else has shown any signs of having caught it, but given the situation at your house, I'm now waiting for the inevitable.

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  9. Not the dreaded from-the-top-bunk barf!

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  10. Ok, the other day I hadn't read this before. I had just read the part where you discovered that a Swiffer isn't maybe the choice way to clean up vomit! I was just laughing at that post at how you cleaned it...it was the same method I would have used...gotta get those Lysol disinfecting wipes to eek out those treachorous germs that might be lingering under the bed! This is great because I get to read this in segments (of course I would chose to do it backwards, from most recent posts to the older posts) and then fill in the blands belatedly. Love this blog! I also can relate to this because my oldest daughter twice has bombed vomit down from the top bunk and it is simply amazing how far and wide that stuff can land, and mixed in with books, porcelain dolls, shoes, sister's hair and face, etc (the last one, her sister...and the vomiter...slept through the whole thing!). I got up at about 4 or 5am with one of the other kids only to be almost knocked over by the smell when passing by their bedroom!!!

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