Round and Round She Goes!

and where she stops...

well, you know the rest.

You can't say I didn't try. I kept my kids separated, washed my hands to the point where I had the hand-version of that Home Alone moment when Kevin slaps the aftershave on his face. I slathered some hand-sanitizer on my hands today and about cried. So many little cracks in my skin right now. I tried really, really hard but darn those germs- so stubborn!

One kid was on the mend, the other two were fine and for a few glorious hours I was a genius when it came to germ warfare. Then the next kidlet mubled something about a tummy hurting. And there went any dreams I had of sleep last night.

This morning, we set out in the face of a predicted winter weather nightmare. I'll grant, it was windy. Scary windy. But no white-out's, no blizzard, even the roads were dry for the most part. But in the backseat, we had our own storm brewing.

Until then, I'd grab all offending infected items and haul them off for prompt washing, and I'd wash myself and the sickee up, and top it off with a generous dose of Lysol. The second I saw that look on her face-- I knew what I'd forgotten to pack. Baby wipes & hand sanitizer. Oh vey. I'd stashed a million bags for vomit, clothes holding, and whatever else we needed them for-- but something to mop it up with? something with some germ-cidal action?

I stood there with my tush toward the zooming toll road traffic while I hastily tidied with tissues. Cursing myself for the very important things I'd forgotten and wishing I hadn't been so cheap about the bags (save the gallon size for clothes, I thought- a sandwich bag will suffice-- not if your daughter reflexively squeezes the bag while she gets sick).

Tonight, I am waiting for the call... "Mommy!" They're across the house from us here. All in one room. My son will be the barf-crier. Poor kid.

I'm kind of glad we celebrated our family Christmas earlier. It makes this less of a let-down. Being so far from home, in someone else's home (though it's one I know well). The good news is, we'll likely ALL be better before heading home. You know, just in time to catch something new on the plane before they go back to school.

-your defeated reporter,
Lynn