Eeeewwww, gross!!!

Yesterday was an "interesting" day. I got up fairly early, got myself ready, fed the baby, woke up Christopher, and we went to "Grandma Lauren's". Aka Lauren Smith, who is basically my surrogate mother when my own is far away. My siblings and I grew up with her kids, and she was with me when Christopher was born. She doesn't have any grandkids yet, so she gets claim on mine.

Anyway, we have a nice visit there. Christopher was disappointed that Johnny had built this really awesome Knex ferris wheel and there were no more good parts left. But he survived. And Alexander pulled a really mean stunt on the Smiths. I lay him down after he went to sleep, and when two of the girls came in to see him, they said with concern, "Lindy, he's got blood on his nose." Now, Alexander is getting to be a pro at thumbsucking. Basically, when he's genuinely tired, in goes the thumb and out go the lights. He hasn't got it down pat yet, but he knows there's this thing that he has control of, and he likes to suck on it when he's sleepy.

So I'm up the stairs, and I say, "It's ok, sometimes he cuts himself when he sucks his thumb, he's ok." And they look worried and say, "No, it's a lot of blood, I think you should come see it." I'm not worried, but I come down. Sure enough, he cut himself. If I didn't know better, I'd swear he did this on purpose at the Smiths just to freak them out because they hate for precious little things to get hurt. What he'd done was not just cut himself, but cut his nose, bled profusely, rubbed it all over his face and the then-being-sucked-on hand, and had it pooling on the tip of his nose. What a stinker, even if he didn't plan it! I got a rag and cleaned him up. It was really just a tiny cut, and it probably only bled like that because when he sucked his thumb his fingers were rubbing on his nose.

After a few hours I'm getting drowsy, so I decide to go home. I get home, and claiming that it's my birthday for real today, therefore I get a nap, I go to bed. I wake up 2 hours later. All is well enough..... Christopher is wearing only underwear. When I went to bed he'd been fully clothed. Alexander was asleep in his crib dressed in a new outfit with the buttons mis-buttoned. Eh, such things are the color of life.

However, later I need to get in the bathroom for something. Somehow, it had previously escaped my notice that the bathroom door was closed. That usually only happens when Christopher's been there, and done something he doesn't want me to see. So I open the door and.... sure enough. To put it politely, it's obvious that Christopher is "not feeling well" and had some associated bathroom troubles. But rather than call for help, it appeared that he did what he thought was the best thing to do, and literally "left it" at that.

I called him in and chastised him for the mess and for not asking for help when he obviously needed it. Be it right or wrong, I told him that if he can't use a toilet properly (and cleanly!) he'd have to wear a diaper until he could. He said he understood and was sorry about the mess. I cleaned up the floor and the toilet. But then I realized, why was Christopher clean??? AH! So I look around, and it dawns on me. I reach over to the bathroom towel, turn it around, and sure enough. GROSS!!!

Ironically enough, the dog mysteriously had an "accident" in Christopher's room the night before. I had cleaned it up as soon as I found it, and the pile of the laundry that he'd wet was by the back door waiting to go in the washer. So I toss the newly soiled towel and boy clothes into the pile and prepare to wash them.

About this time is when Alexander decides he absolutely MUST eat right now. So I wash up and sit down to feed him. No sooner did he finish than he throws up all over me! I foist him off on Bryan and make a dash for the shower. Boy, was that a welcome relief!

After I got out, I collected everything that in the past few hours had been ~ by various household members between 10-35 pounds ~ bled on, puked on, peed on, and pooped on, and tossed it all in the wash for a good two cycles!

Eeeeewwwww, gross!!!!!

Now, thankfully that's the end of the gross stuff, but not the end of my evening! Oh no! It's almost 10:00 now, and way past when we need to get to bed in order to wake up early to get to Phoenix for Tristan's baptism. But Christopher makes a mad dash to the bathroom, and calls for mom to help him. At least this time he made it TO the toilet and IN the toilet. I was satisfied with that. But it was becoming more apparent that he may be a bit sick. And he was starting to complain that his tummy hurt. He asked me if he could please have some chicken noodle soup. He'd eaten a good dinner, but I figure, why not? I give him soup. He ate the entire can, which is actually two cans worth when prepared. He also asked if he could add salt to it, which he's never done, and he eats this soup pretty frequently. And the whole time he's got a frown on and occasionally holding his stomach. Not good signs to the watchful mommy eye!

He finishes the soup and comes up to where I'm sitting. "Mommy, I'm cold." "Of course you're cold sweetheart, you took your clothes off. Let's get your pajamas." Bryan comments, "It sounds like someone might be running a fever." Oh, yeah. So I reach out to check, and boy do I get a shock. He IS cold! He's clammy! Well, there goes that theory. It's now official, he's been pronounced sick. Diarrhea, stomach pains, chicken noodle soup with salt cravings, and cold chills. And it's now after 11. And I thought I was going to get some sleep, HA!

I bundle him up, do his bedtime routine, and off he goes to sleep. Pity that the baby and the daddy are still awake to keep me up. Some days I think I will never get to sleep again.

So to sum up a long story, I had to do a lot of laundry yesterday. And Bryan pointed out that taking a sick child with Christopher's issues in a car, for at least four hours on the round-trip to Phoenix, was begging for bad things to happen. So we won't be able to go to Phoenix for the baptism like we all really wanted to. And since Christopher didn't sleep well last night, I forsee myself - on very little sleep - attending to a cranky, sickly child today. Sounds like fun. Actually, the extra snuggles will be nice, I just wish they came under better circumstances!

***Update*** Yes, Christopher was sick, and by the end of Saturday, so was I. In keeping with the rest of this posting: Yuck.