Hopeless

As I said, the stomach virus made it's way through our family this past week, and as of writing this, my parents are the only ones to escape it and I'm not quite sure how they have managed so far. My niece woke up feeling bad on Friday and was sent home from school after getting sick. Then my brother was. Meanwhile, we were at my parent's house and before we knew it, my little boy that was playing so nicely in the play kitchen vomited all over the real kitchen.

My mom calmy informed us as we were sitting a meer 10 feet away and hadn't noticed. Jesse jumped to his feet to assist her. Poor Fletcher didn't know what to do. He was crying and unsure of whether to swallow or let it out and was scared of what his little body was doing that he had no control over. I got up to help and immediately caught a glimpse of the second part of a three episode situation, if you catch my drift. As quick as I was up, I turned and stared in the opposite direction, trying not to listen as Jesse inspected the tossed cookies trying to identify what might have caused the upset stomach other than the virus the others had.

I let the two of them handle him. They moved him straight to the bathroom to strip and bathe him. My mom came back in the kitchen to handle the mess, at which point I decided to go help Jesse and conveniently skip dealing with the smelly mess that didn't seem to phase either one of them. On my way to the bathroom, I did however slip and fall on some of it that must have dripped along the way. I wasn't hurt, just caught off guard and thankful I landed in a different spot than where Fletcher was moments before. By the time he was clean and dressed again, my mom had cleaned up the scene in the other room.

Jesse left to get groceries and I held and rocked my baby boy. Then I nurtured him by offering saltine crackers. He fumbled with them and I told him he was making a crumbly mess. As I tried to control his flustered and unexplained temperment, he upchucked all over my shirt. I quickly grabbed the plastic bags lined with paper towels that my mom had prepared just in case and placed them in front of Fletcher's face, as if he'd know what to do. The smell that ran down the front of me onto my lap also rose just as quickly to my nose. As my mom leapt to hold the bag and guide Fletcher through the heaving process, I looked away, over my shoulder and started dry heaving because of the sound and smell. I could not keep it together. She was saying "Breathe," and I don't know if she was talking to him or me, but I listened to her once and then decided that was a bad idea...I had breathed through my nose.

Again, he was off to get changed and cleaned. I don't know how she cleaned him and the mess in two different locations simultaneously, but I had enough to worry about simply removing my own shirt without coming into further contact with his...errr...tossed cookies. I couldn't help but laugh at how hopeless I was in this situation. I had always expected it, but this was hopeless beyond hopeless. Thank God Mom and Jesse were around during these episodes to help out, or there may have been even more of a mess to clean.

Thankfully, he didn't get sick again, but it took a couple days for everything to clear up for him. The next person to get it was my sister-in-law in the other house. Then I got sick Saturday morning (as discussed in the previous post), Jesse, who typically has an iron clad stomach got sick Sunday night after returning home. Hopefully last, but certainly not least...my nephew got sick Monday night. He had a pretty rough time like is aunt and uncle. Good thing his parents aren't as hopeless as I am!