Repeating Ourselves

Last year, only a couple of weeks after we moved into our new house, I was woken up in the middle of the night by a small, sobbing person, who had thrown up. I got her cleaned up, changed her bedding, put her back in bed - and then the other small person in the room woke up and starting vomiting also.

By the time I got Gabrielle taken care of, Arielle had thrown up again. Then Gabrielle again, then Arielle again and somewhere in all of this Michael woke up and made a made dash for the bathroom, and the husband woke up and monopolized the master bathroom, and I started running out of clean bedding and feeling very grateful that 1) I wasn't showing any signs of getting sick, and 2) our new washing machine had been delivered just a day or two before.

I never did get sick from whatever everyone else had. They were all pretty miserable for a few days and then life went back to normal. My new washing machine got one heck of a work out though!

I've been thinking about this today, because we are coming up on the end of our first year in this house. (My first year ever as a for-real homeowner!) And, at 6 a.m. this morning I was awoken by a sobbing, and very sick, Arielle. The husband, who was gone last night to a weekend group of meetings for the volunteer group he belongs to, called me not long after that to say good morning and share the information that he had spent a great deal of the previous night worshipping the porcelain god. He now faces a two hour drive to get back home, not a good idea when you are sick, shaky and vomiting frequently. I suggested that he might want to just check into a local hotel and wait until he's feeling better.

Once again, I am not sick, and I sincerely hopes it stays that way. It's so much easier to take care of a sick family when you're not throwing up too!