"Mom, I just threw up."
She sleeps in an Ikea loft bed, one meant for smaller kids, so she's not really that high off the floor. And she did manage to hang her head over the side before everything, um, erupted, so that was good, but I think it helped to increase the radius of the impact zone, if you get my drift. I cleaned up everything as best I could, got her settled and went back to bed, hoping and praying that it was all over.
Nope.
By this time, Devon was not nearly as sick as she had been, but was still weak and tired, so she languished while Harper ran back and forth to the bathroom to heave.
Finally, they both passed out.
Saturday and Sunday were better, but Devon is now at that point in her recovery where she is not truly sick anymore, but is a huge pain in my ass. She spends her entire day moaning dramatically, announcing she's tired, throwing herself down somewhere and demanding a pillow and blanket, then rolling around restlessly for 30 seconds followed by stomping around the house and throwing things as though we have all been insulting her honor. Imagine how many times a small child can do that between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. Imagine her doing it while her sister is retching and crying in the toilet. Imagine her doing it while you have a wracking cough and pinkeye and a semi-useless husband (since the kids want nothing to do with him when they're sick) and you are a notorious introvert who hasn't had a day to herself since before Christmas.
I decided to keep them home one more day, just in case, but have already determined that they would both have been fine back where they are supposed to be, and I could have finally had a day to nurse my red, weepy eye and my chest-gunk (PHLEGM!), as well as my psychological well-being. But no, I had to be all "I don't know...what if they need me?"
And it's supposed to snow tomorrow. Which means my husband will work from home, so if the kids can't go to school/daycare, I will be stuck inside with them for yet another day while my husband locks himself in his office, occasionally popping out to ask if I need anything and then having to duck as I throw several heavy objects towards his head.
What I NEED is a day off. And a blunt.
In quilting news:
After quilting two tops that had been languishing in my closet, I decided to tackle a third. Some of you may vaguely recall this quilt, also from 2009:
I got some 108-inch white backing fabric and yardage for binding and on Saturday, I entrusted the care of my vomiting, cranky children to my husband for a couple hours so I could pin-baste it. This quilt, which is roughly 70x70, is about as big a quilt as I can baste in my house without having to haul furniture outside. Once it was basted, I had to figure out how to quilt it. Of the last two quilts I completed, one was stippled, and the other was, well...it was supposed to be wavy lines, like ocean waves, but it just looked like vandalism. I hoped for better for this quilt.
I decided to try a simple flower in each four-patch:
Nothing too fancy, hard to screw up. And fairly easy to accomplish even when you cannot see your thread on most of the blocks, so you have no idea if you are making a flower or a portrait of the virus that is currently infecting your family. I will have to figure out something else for the sashing, which will probably ruin the whole thing. Perhaps I should aim for something hideous, like gaping wounds or something, and then it might end up looking like vines and leaves instead.
But either way I'll still end up with a useable quilt, all sunshiney and flowery and not vomit-encrusted. Which is good enough for the likes of me.
18 comments:
I feel your pain. At least I was able to send the ailing spewing grandchild home. Generous and loving as he is he did give me his disease before he left. Hang in there, winter can't last forever.
It has been a long time since I had a child sick as these are. But you brought it all back as if it were yesterday. Thank you.
glen
"What I NEED is a day off. And a blunt." Still giggling over that one! I think we are kindred spirits. I love my family, but I have always enjoyed my own company. I get REALLY antsy when I can't get some alone time!
LOVE it!! I'm thinking you're mirroring my life right now!! Still laughing!
Oh, Meghan, if you need a shoulder to do "whatever" on, I'd send you mine if I could. My 10 yr old has the second round of strep throat in 2 months. And the doctor had the nerve to tell me he thought it was "just" a virus, until the throat swab was positive. That'll teach him to doubt a mom's intuition! Medicate, hydrate, and hibernate. And teach that hubby of yours that they're his kids too!
I visited the clinic today for my own ailment. I was one of the few sick adults there. I sat there listening to babies and toddlers moan/cry and had flash backs of my own two little ones moaning and crying when sick. I would like to say it made me feel nostalgic for the good old days when my children, now 18 and 16, were small and pathetic. Then my ear screamed and I was able to snap back to reality and remember they are still pathetic and it is their damn fault I have this illness running amok in my body!
Oh, Megan, I'm so sorry for you, even as I'm laughing my *** off at your post! And what, pray tell, is a blunt? Hope everything gets back to normal there soon!!
Pssssst. Meggers. It's me. Shhhh, we don't want the Perfect Parent Police to hear. Ever hear of a magical elixir called Benadryl? Knocks 'em out cold, AND is "medicine"! You could end up with a quiet 2 hours to yourself! Yippeee!
I like the quilt! Very bright and happy - just what we all need in these dreary January weeks.
A reader named Terry left a comment, but I read it on my phone and tried to publish it from there, but my big, virus-laden fingers hit "Delete comment" instead. And apparently there's no take-backs when you do that, so, Terry, here is your comment and I am so sorry for being a big, clumsy oaf:
I'm with Kwilt Noob - but am glad that my sons (Devon and Kelly) are older now and actually don't want to be around me at all!!!! Hang in there, it WILL get better! :-D
Oh, and Peggi - my kids HATE Benadryl and almost any kind of liquid medicine: Tylenol, Advil, what have you. In fact, as it turns out, if I try to give them some anyway while they are sick with the flu...THEY BARF IT BACK UP. Even after they have been vomit-free for days and are keeping everything else down.
Been there done that, one night my middle daughter called out to me. I walked into the room and started over to the ladder to help her off the top bunk when she projectile vomited in my face, hair and .... Well you get the idea. Just the beginning of a six week isolation for me. They just passed it back and forth.
Deborah says:
So sorry to hear about Harper, but I guess that's how it goes with little ones running around.
Let's just hope your hubbie doesn't get it...they are usually worse than children when they are sick. :)
The quilt is very fun and the quilting idea is a good one.
Re: "Some of you may vaguely recall this quilt, also from 2009". Umm....also? Is there another quilt hidden in the post?
I'm guessing that a blunt is a blunt object?
"Also from 2009" means that this quilt top, like the last two I just dug out of storage and finished quilting, was made over a year ago. The "also" meant I referred to them in other posts, not this one.
And a blunt is a joint!
I assumed (wrongly) that it was a blunt object you were referring to. something to smack your husband with, but a joint will do.
I can understand your moans and I feel for you. My kids are still little, so I am also on that rollercoaster!
HOpe the rest of the week improves mightily!
Sorry all the females in the house are feeling so lousy! Poor girls!!
Perhaps it's a blessing that your husband just stays out of the way. Ya know, one less thing.
Get better, all of you.
Hey there! Sorry about your poor sick kids. I'm a huge introvert too (only child syndrome, me?), so I feel your pain there, too! Anyways, just wanted to say hi, and that I just found your blog & subscribed to your feed. Thanks for writing a great blog!
Love your flower quilting - very impressive!
LOVE your blog! As a loner who is self taught in quilting, I can relate to everything you have written about from your need for a blunt to your craving for some solitude. And, gee.....I though I was the only one like this. Thanks for your blog which is a refreshing overdue breath of air.
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