Dominoes

On December 4th we had a holiday gathering with Kevin's dad's family. This year it was decided we would combine Thanksgiving and Christmas and meet on this date to celebrate. It was such a nice day. Kevin's aunt and uncle live in southern Indiana, so it wasn't too bad of a drive. They had a litter of Jack Russells, so you can imagine how excited the boys were! Meredith, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with the puppies! I was so surprised. She loves animals and absolutely adores dogs. Apparently, she doesn't like baby dogs. The ones she likes are gigantic, like Zissou, Bullet, Bubba and Moses. If you don't know who they are take my word for it, they are LARGE.

Anyway, my point in telling you this is because as the day went on Benny crawled up into my lap (clue #1, as he likes to run and play, not cuddle), and he felt warmer and warmer as he sat on my lap (clue #2). He was running a fever and developed a terrible cough.

From then until today we have been going back and forth with illnesses: coughing, fever, vomiting. They haven't missed school all this time. Some days they were completely fine, but I guess the bug never fully left. It went through one and all, and although Kevin and I haven't felt 100 per cent, we haven't been as bad as the kids.

One highlight that I have to share with you was after my Grandpa's funeral. The kids seemed under the weather but not too bad. Lou definitely didn't give any signs that he was sick. We had so many nice desserts and other food items that people gave for the reception after the burial. Lou decided he'd like to have a slice of red velvet cake.

The next morning (early morning) I woke to him screaming. He had thrown up all over his room. Red. It looked like...well, I'll let you imagine. And this was after I had been telling people that I was lucky because Lou was at the point where he made it to the toilet. Ha! I jinxed myself.

Yesterday we hit our breaking point. Or, I should say, it started the night before. Meredith was cranky all evening and we couldn't figure out why. I was sitting with Louie at the kitchen table, working on his homework, when she clued us in. Puke. Everywhere. On her, on me, on the rug, on the floor. It smelled like Kings Island, when you walk by the LaRosa's shop (I need to let it be known that I really like LaRosa's pizza, but for some reason at Kings Island it smells awful). The next morning (I guess this was Wednesday), Benny woke up not feeling well and eventually threw up. Charlie wasn't going to be left out of the mix.

Fortunately, we have been granted a snow day today. It is allowing us all to take it easy and get well before going to back tomorrow (hopefully!) to have our Christmas parties at school. I guess I should be thankful that this is happening this week rather than next!

Maybe I should have highlighted this post at the beginning as not being for weak stomachs--sorry about that!