Comedy or Tragedy?

It's been one of those weeks that I'd like to think that years from now I'll be able to look back on and laugh. It's been said that comedy is tragedy plus time. The following is not for those with a weak constitution. You have been warned.

At nine o'clock in the morning last Monday when we would normally be working on lessons Ethan said that he just wanted to go back to bed and sleep. He did...and slept until 2:30 with a brief interruption mid-morning to start throwing up.

Tuesday evening was touch and go. Ethan was up and feeling somewhat better, but again slept all day. And, yes...this was the day we decorated the Christmas tree.

By Wednesday he was feeling better. Just in time for Hunter to start throwing up. Hunter gets grossed out easily anyway. By Thursday evening Hunter was throwing up every 5 to 10 minutes. I think it was a combination of stomach upset and then being grossed out by throwing up. He couldn't keep anything down. I sat with him on the couch to hold his hand and held his head whenever he would throw up. I'd try to give him small bits of fluid hoping this time it would stay down. His tummy finally settled down at about 11:30 so I took him to bed with me just in case he needed anything during the night.

Friday evening he was feeling better, so while I was upstairs fretting over another crisis the children were downstairs making a swimming pool out of the wooden animal bin next to the Christmas tree. (They couldn't use the plastic bins that would have actually held the several gallons of water they brigaded into the living room....no...they used the wooden one that leaked)

Not only that, but the heirloom Christmas ornaments were under attack by Elle who thought that the Santa in the train-car ornament from 1980 was for vvrooming across the bookcase and then sat and picked off the tiny details.

As I went into the kitchen to fetch the towels I could hear a drip....drip....drip. Closer inspection revealed that the children had opened the tap to the drinking water and had drained it entirely. It was probably what they used to fill their swimming pool seeing as how the floor beneath the tap was surprisingly unpuddled. When I filled it back up the first thing Hunter did was to open the spikett over the floor to see if anything would come out...which it did.

I got the towels from the linen closet to soak up the carpet which despite such an extensive usage of every towel in the house the floor was still unsatisfactorily damp. Michael was less than enthused when he had to use a hand towel the next morning after his shower as the sacrificial towels had not yet made it out of the washer and dryer.

After the wet was moped up as much as possible I decided that given the several assaults on the ornaments following the initial decorating this was the last straw. I decided that taking them off would be the best choice. The children were beside themselves, of course, feeling like I had unceremoniously canceled Christmas. I'm such a Grinch.

I got the box back out and put my ornaments back away leaving the nutcracker men as the only decorations on the tree....as I don't care too much if (or rather, when) they get broken.

Ethan still had quite a cough so while in the bath that evening he gagged and threw up in the bath water. Hunter thought that was gross and so he threw up. Not to be outdone, Ethan threw up again and Hunter matched his move by barfing once again in the now draining bathwater...that didn't seem to drain quite fast enough. They were both screaming and crying with phlegm and barf dangling from their faces and Elle was sitting in the middle of it....which is probably why on Saturday Elle started throwing up too.

I was in the kitchen Saturday evening when I heard Elle crying. Thinking that her brothers must be tormenting her, I found them first and asked what they were doing to their sister. Instead they were playing hide and go seek in the covers on my bed and Elle was nowhere near. I headed upstairs to find Elle sitting at the top of the stairs covered in throw up.

I got her cleaned up, hoping that she had just gagged on the fibers of the tangerine Michael had given her. Having seen the wonderful example from her brothers of how to execute the barf, the next thing I knew Elle was walking over to the garbage can and throwing up again. This continued all evening, although as the night pressed on she was less enthusiastic to use the garbage can thinking perhaps it's usage somehow contributed to the continued upset tummy. I ended up sleeping with her on the couch on a puddle pad next to the garbage can and bottle of water. Fortunately her tummy settled just before 1 am and we got a little bit of sleep. We stayed home from church the next day so as not to pass her germs on to the other nursery children.

As a side note...My mother went out of town on Thursday and asked me to take in her garbage cans and mail. It was a simple enough task, and I really thought I could accomidate her. However, since people hadn't stopped barfing all over themselves the first time I left the house all week was the Saturday she was expected home. I went up to her house hoping to accomplish everything she had asked, but when I got to her house the car was in the driveway, the mail was taken in...my heart sank. She was already there and very angry that I had not kept my obligation. I felt horrible.

Just when you think all is well... So it's Monday again and Ethan started complaining of an upset stomach again. He's been throwing up since 5 o'clock. He missed his Tiger Scouts meeting. All I can wonder is if Hunter and Elle will have a similar week anniversary relapse. Let's hope not.