Back Into the Sunshine

The difference between yesterday and today has been like, er, night and day?  It is warm here - in the 60s - and the snow has mostly melted in the sunshine.  JediBoy woke me up around 4 am to proclaim “My stomach bug is gone!  I feel great!” and it only took me 15 minutes to convince him to take his great self back to sleep.  He really is feeling better today and is back to his usual lively, talkative self.

We headed out this morning for our local Rail Trail (at the bottom of our hill).  JediBoy had wanted to bike but his front tire had gone flat in the past couple of months.  We tried to pump it but couldn’t get it going, so he headed out on his Fisher-Price roller skates instead!  This was our first outing using our hand-me-down jogging stroller, and JediBoy hung onto it as he skated, then pushed the stroller for me once he was tired of his skates.

The weather was so glorious.  JediBoy and I were both in t-shirts, and we had a great ongoing nature chat - sumac and milkweed pods and birch trees, bird nests and squirrel nests and ice and snow and mud.  We walked about half a mile to the point where there’s a short “scenic overlook” trail that leads to a small wetland area with one observing tower.  The kids romped and played there for a while, and when we were done we strolled back to the trail’s playground, bumping into our friends Colleen and De.  JediBoy did have a low-blood-sugar mini-meltdown (aka LBSCBDO, thanks to Ree) at the end of our playground time, but it didn’t detract from the marvelous time we spent together.

JediBoy and BabyGirl on the trail

The melting wetlands.

This is BabyGirl’s crinkle happy face.

It looks like she’s in pain, but she’s really deliriously happy.

She’s laughing at JediBoy on the ground below.

They could barely sit still for one quick snap!

Lost Day

Yesterday was one of those days you move through in a fog.  JediBoy woke me up at 5 am by throwing up on me… and continued to throw up at least once every 20 minutes for the next 8 hours.  He spent the day curled up on the couch in the office, mindlessly watching whatever show came on PBS and trying to sleep.  He would beg me for a sip of water, but couldn’t keep it down.  I just moved on autopilot, trying to keep BabyGirl happy and away from her poor sick brother, calling the doctor’s office when it got too scary (generally when the vomitus is green or brown that’s a red flag, but our doctor assured us it’s normal with the particular virus that’s making the rounds), just trying to get through my day.

JediBoy doesn’t often catch stomach bugs.  The last time we can remember him throwing up when it wasn’t either phlegm from a bad cold or something caught in his throat (eew, cheddar and sour cream potato chips) was three years ago.  So, there was a learning curve for both of us about how best to handle the situation.  We had a lot of discussions too about what a stomach bug was and where he might have caught it.  He asked me over and over during the day to come and help him get rid of his stomach bug and make his stomach stop hurting, poor guy.  It must have been the stomach pain that had him sleeping in bizarre positions, mostly bent at the waist somehow.  And I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t take pictures!

Of course this happened on one of the warmest and most inviting days, when I also happened to have plans to go out to dinner with friends… but at least it didn’t happen on my birthday, which is coming up on Thursday.