We sure know how to have a good time...

We are really hoping that we are on the tail end of our own Puke Fest 2008, which has been Live! and in Full Effect! here since Wednesday night.

Sweet little Tori was the first victim. Bill and I spent the better part of Wednesday night and wee hours of Thursday morning trying to make her comfortable-- never without a puke pail at arm's length. Watching your 16-month-old throw up has got to be the worst thing ever. She just stared at us with her big .... blue? green? hazel? (we're not sure yet) eyes pleading for us to "Make it stop!" I felt so helpless.

Thursday seemed relatively calm-- I thought maybe we had all dodged a bullet. Tori seemed much better, and of the rest of us appeared healthy. Then Thursday afternoon, Tori began puking again. If there was any humor at all in the situation, it was watching her BEG for food all day long. This is my ferocious eater, after all. And the few saltines I had given her were just not cutting it. Who knows, maybe I should have just let her eat to her heart's content. May have prevented the numerous dry heaves later in the day.

Friday rolled around and shouted "LET THE FESTIVITIES BEGIN!"
At about 11am, I realized that my stomach didn't feel quite right.... I laid down to take a nap at 3:00, and by 4:00 I was puking. Lexy woke up from her nap about that time and went outside with Bill to check on their vegetable garden, and then I heard all this scurrying around by Bill. Lexy was throwing up. Good times, people. Good times.

Thank God Bill was still healthy at this point. I really don't know what I would have done if I would have had to take care of both girls-- one of whom was PUKING-- while I felt so horrible.
I just kept saying, "I'm so sorry!" to him as he rinsed out puke pails and dealt with Lexy.

He had his hands full, to say the least. And poor Tori, who is now seemingly healthy, wasn't making life any easier. She wanted to be right at his side during all the action. And she also wanted to EAT! since it'd had been a while. Again, thank God Bill was healthy, because there was no way I could have made her dinner. He ended up putting her to bed at 6:45pm just so he wouldn't have to keep her hands out of the toilet and such anymore. (She's still asleep at 8:37am as I type. I guess she needed it.)

Of course, you guessed it, Bill started feeling sick around 10pm, and then all bets were off. Misery all around.

I pretty much bed-hopped between the couch, my bed, Lexy's bed, and the blow-up air mattress Bill had set up in the family room all night. And I use the word "night" very liberally considering that I started napping at 3pm, and never really got out of bed from that point on (except to visit the restroom myself, or hold a bucket for Lexy). Longest night of my life, hands down.

My dreams all night, which were frequent, seemed to revolve around liquids. Dehydrated, perhaps? I swear I had visions all night that looked like this:

I had my first sip of water at 4am this morning, and so far, so good.
With the exception of Bill, who is still down for the count, we all seem to be feeling better today. Although I have NO DESIRE to eat anything yet. That's always a good barometer for me.
Now, if I could just get a Haz-Mat team over here to clean up the mess. And a maid to do LOTS of laundry.

Silver linings abound:
Thank God it's the weekend!
Thank God Bill and I rotated shifts of sickness!
Thank God it was JUST the flu!
Thank God we have indoor plumbing!
Thank God we'll all be healthy by Thanksgiving! (our extended family will be especially glad about this one since we gave the gift of flu to everyone two Thanksgivings ago)
And so many more....

Here's hoping that you and your family stay healthy this season!