We have been sick over here at LJ house, sick like dogs.  It started with Gigi who suddenly threw up last Monday night and Bradley spent the evening cleaning up messes, sheets, towels and giving showers until about 4:30 AM when I took over.  Then, two days later while Gigi was still recovering with fevers, it was Jude’s turn.  His episode began early in the morning on Wednesday.  He got up and Bradley put him back to bed.  The next thing we heard was him hollering, “Oh no!  Daddy!”  Followed by the slap slap of his feet as he made his way into our bedroom to present his vomit covered self to us.  Again, we were in wash, rinse repeat mode, this time with the boy version.  Bradley and I are both pretty careful with washing hands and cleaning/disinfecting our house ever since our run-in with MRSA, so we were fairly confident that we were not going to get sick ourselves.  I was wrong.

Yesterday morning I woke up feeling fine.  I went to work, where because it was staff/teacher appreciation week we had breakfast served to us and a luncheon planned for our non-student day.  I love going to work when I don’t have to plan any meals, so imagine my dismay as I was sitting in our staff meeting after breakfast and my stomach started rolling.  At first, I convinced myself I was fine, but the longer I sat there, the more immediate became my need to head home.  I will leave out all of the gory details except one.

Bradley left with Gigi to run some errands while Jude napped.  I was at home making my rounds from bed to toilet and back again.  Jude woke up from his nap in time to witness one of these trips to the toilet and caught me in the act of leaning over and retching.  Having been through the same thing ever so recently he decided to stand by me and see me through.  He was so sweet, every time my stomach vacated itself into the bowl, he would pat my arm and flush for me, all the while telling me, ” ‘s ok Mama.  Ooooh, Mama.”  I have never seen such tenderness or sweetness from my boy, and at that moment, I loved him more than ever and I was so incredibly grateful for my two year old’s companionship.

I wish it had been this pretty.


Comments are closed.