There is a good reason I haven’t posted recently. We’ve been sick. It started last Saturday morning, very early, with Evie coming down to our room at 0 dark thirty complaining that her stomach hurt. In the hubbub of her joining us in bed, I bailed to the couch to get some rest. There I stayed blissfully ignorant until I woke up in the morning with the waft of bodily fluids in the air.

Turns out she had first thrown up in our bed. Good selfish decision on my part to bail early. Then, after Kymberlee changed the sheets, Evie was banished to our other couch which she quickly inducted into the soiled hall of fame.

So, while my wife was sleeping and Evie was on the one clean couch left, I proceeded to disinfect the sheets, couch, clothing, and anything else that I could fit in the clothes washer that morning.

As fate would have it, the weather was to die for. Sunny, 60s, and no wind, it cruelly tempted the occupants as they huddled around the poor child, training her how to throw up into kitchen bowls and trying, vainly, to hold her hair while filling the aforementioned bowl.

In a flash of inspiration or desperation, we’ll never know which, we decided to put on a movie once Kymberlee got up from her deserved morning nap. We watched Willy Wonka (Gene, not Johnny) torture his guests before the appropriate happy ending. However, do you know how many times people almost “get sick” in that movie? Maybe not the best choice.

The rest of the day was recovery, unless you want to count the rumblings in my stomach that night as an omen. Sure enough, the whole night I was kept awake by the gift Evie had shared with me. It kept me from eating the entire next day and in bed for much of it, but in a strange way it was nice to know I could finally play the sick card around here. Truth: those of us who are not usually sick are sometimes resentful of those that we have to take care of. It was nice to be on the other side.

Monday morning, we all were healthy and off to school and work, with nothing but two days of chores to catch up to. We have always said that, in comparison, we have been blessed with a healthy child. We also can not complain given the stories that come out of multi-children households. So while this was seemingly important enough (and vaguely humorous enough) to blog about, it is but a small blip for those whose lives are surrounded by larger quantities of bodily fluids on a regular basis. I can’t imagine it, or more accurately, I don’t want to imagine it!