Challenges of Parenting

In the past year I have watched Josh grow into his roll of fatherhood both to 9 year old twins and to our quickly growing 12 month old, but now and then I get to see he react to things he has never had to face before as a father. I usually get a giggle and sometimes a belly laugh. This week we had a house full of sick kids. *****DO NOT READ ON IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH**** Clifton had the stomach flu on Monday and Tuesday. Thankfully at the age of 9 he can now throw up with out us being right there beside him and we can do clean up behind him. He also can usually make it to the bathroom to throw up where he is supposed to. So while yucky Clifton's sick days were not too bad.

Ryan on the other hand gave us a whole new perspective. He woke up at 11:45 Tuesday night fussing. When I got there, he had thrown up all over his bed. I put him in the tub and got him into clean pajamas and settled into the recliner to sleep with him in my arms. Less than 15 minutes later he threw up again. So, clean jammies for Mommy and striped him down to his diaper. I covered up with a towel hoping that my clothes would last for the rest of the night. The poor baby didn't know what to do and kept throwing his head back instead of leaning forward, so then he would choke. Not fun! Anyway he threw up for the last time at about 5:15 am. I went to bed at 7:30 and Josh took care of him while I slept.

Thursday morning, he seemed to be doing much better and he went to Vicki's for the day. At supper Thursday night he drank a whole bunch of water really fast and while the whole family was sitting at the table together he threw up all over his high chair tray. Into the tub again. I let Josh give him a bath while I cleaned up the high chair. It kind of made me laugh that everyone had disappeared from the table but the food was all still sitting there. A few minutes later I could hear Josh gagging and choking. I rolled my eyes and headed for the bathroom thinking he was having a delayed reaction to the vomit to find him trying to keep Ryan out of the poop he had just deposited in the tub. I had to laugh, because every kid poops in the tub at least once, and because it was one of those parenting moments that Josh had yet to experience. AAAHH! Clean it up start the bath over and put the baby to bed.

Unfortunately Josh and I did not manage to escape the flu ourselves and took turns in the bathroom all night on Thursday and Friday. We woke up this morning saying, WOW! I feel much better! So I went off to work for a bit to do a report and made it home with 15 minutes to spare before he went to get on a train. Happy Valentines Day!