Our Hero Vomits

Fans, looking at this picture, in which he is sporting a pair of Clara's pants over a pair of his own pants, the legs of which have been bunched up high, you would never guess that Our Hero slept probably all of four hours because he was up vomiting the rest of the night. It was awful. Julie went in to the bambini's room shortly before heading up to bed as usual, and discovered that Joe had vomited all over himself, the bed, and roughly three-quarters of the menagerie (those that escaped this smelly fate were Babar and the birdies, and maybe two others who were eventually evacuated for their own safety). He has apparently caught this stomach virus that seems to be sweeping all of the Twin Cities. This is our first exposure to either Joe or Clara vomiting and it must be said: it's awful. [Amendment: When Julie called her dad this morning to say hello and report these events, she remembered Joe had a tummy bug when we went to spend Thanksgiving with them last year. he threw up on the way there, just past Milwaukee.] I* find I forget how awful it is, and then it happens, and you remember. Your toddler vomiting can remind you how awful it is, too.

As our loyal readers know, our big thing is we just don't go in their room after goodnight until the next morning, unless the world seems to be coming to an end on the other side. This seemed to qualify, so Julie spent the night tucked up in Joe's bed. We went through a lot of pajamas, and a lot of blankets, and a lot of towels. Sometimes, we took a break from the Big Boy Bed to sit on the couch. We sang At the Zoo to our book of the same name that Kate sent months ago. His spirit remained undaunted; he still filled in all the words at the end of the lines as he usually does. Clara slept through all of this, and the super gusty winds we had yesterday and last night** that were themselves quite loud and that caused Raleigh to be in and out of their room until Julie decided enough was enough and woke Ted up to dope Raleigh up with some Benadryl and take him upstairs.

This morning, Sara called to see if we were without power, and I realized it could have been worse: we could have been doing all of this is the dark, and without the dryer. I was creating a tremendous pile of wet and smelly laundry at the foot the stairs, which Ted kept taking down to the basement to put in new loads of laundry. Ted also gave Joe a bath this morning while Julie was nursing Clara. (Joe smelled a lot better after Ted washed all the dried vomit out of his hair.) So go Team! We made it through.

Our Hero is asleep now, having exhausted himself, pitching a fit with low reserves to begin with, because he was not allowed goldfish crackers. I don't know. Maybe they would be o-kay, but we're sticking strictly to the "BRAT" diet*** after last night.

*Julie

**We awoke to find the trellises on the side of the house completely uprooted!

***Bananas, applesauce, rice, toast, and our pediatrician also allows plain crackers and yogurt.