Worst Days in the history of Bad Days

Back in January we caught the stomach flu - slowly, one at a time, stretching the flu out over practically the entire month of January. Sucky, but manageable. This week we ALL got the stomach flu. The good news is that we'll all get better at the same time and keep it short-lived. The BAD news is that we're ALL SICK AT THE SAME TIME.

Thursday morning I leaped out of bed to the sound of someone (Patrick) throwing up. No an auspicious beginning. The rest of my day involved LOTS of leaping, from swooping Eli into the bathroom when he burst out crying, meaning he had just had uncontrollable diarrhea in his pants; to calming down Caroline who would be suddenly and immediately be inconsolable that her tummy hurt; to cleaning up Patrick who has the worst sense of where is a good place to throw up; to saving Ethan from his regular woes of being stuck on his tummy/in his crib/wedged half under the couch/being hungry/etc.  Obviously all the puke and poop meant lots of laundry, too, so I did a load about every 2 hours - all stuff that wasn't dirty that morning but had since then been soiled. LOTS of laundry. Topping it off, my own stomach was less than reliable, and I felt under the weather the entire day. Unfortunately the constant chorus of wailing plus my own general malaise shortened by short temper and I ended up yelling at my poor sick kids to "JUST WAIT,  I AM CLEANING UP POOP OFF THE CARPET AND THEN I HAVE TO CHANGE PUKEY SHEETS BEFORE I CAN GET YOU ANY CRACKERS." Totally not their fault, so I felt bad for yelling. But seriously, for hours on end I would have to wash my hands at least every 5 minutes because I'd just come in contact with bodily fluids. Joe was at work in the morning but felt achy and came home around 11 a.m.; he slept until 5 p.m. when I woke him up so he could possibly sleep that night. I made healthy, delicious, homemade chicken noodle soup, which he and I ate but the kids still felt too yucky for, and that was the end of my less-than-reliable digestion. After dinner it became THOROUGHLY unreliable and I went to bed at 7:30 dying of stomach cramps.

Stomach cramps ruled the rest of my night and have been my severe task-master today. Fortunately the kids seem to be on the upswing, so there's no leaping necessary, but I inherited all their awful symptoms for myself. I have been DYING all day, and the poor kids have had to dress, feed, and entertain themselves. By "dress" I mean new pajamas, by "feed" I mean granola bars, and by "entertain" I mean and endless stream of movies. That almost sounds like their perfect day! There was a long string of toys in there, but 2 hours of toys hardly overcomes 6 hours of TV. Poor Ethan has born the brunt as I can't stomach much of anything, so I'm not making any milk for the guy, so he's taken very short naps - thereby returning the brunt to me. Patrick fed him baby food while I lay moaning on the couch, but it was a sorry substitute.