In Between Illness

We got hit with some type of gastroenteritis illness (some people call it the stomach flu, although it is not the flu). It went through each of us one at a time, dragging out over eleven days from the start of Abby getting it until it ended with me recovering today. For the most part the worst symptoms (vomiting, diarrhea, fever ) only lasted 12-24 hours depending on the person, then a day of just feeling crummy, and then a day when everyone felt good, followed by the next person getting sick that night. It was weird. I don't remember us getting any other sickness that had such a long incubation period. It really threw me for a loop each time the next person would get sick because I really thought everyone was better and we were good to go. And thus, in between each person getting sick we often went somewhere (afterall, I figured we weren't infectious since 24 hours had past since the fever and everyone felt fine...I hope we didn't spread it around...).

One such time, we entered some of our flowers and vegetables at the fair. We planted a vegetable garden for the first time this year, with Abby and Ben having roles such as planting seeds, weeding and watering (I never did get around to blogging about it, sorry!). So,it was neat to see them be able to show off the fruit (er, vegetables) of their labor at the fair. A few days later (after Jake got sick), we attended the fair on Dollar Day and headed straight for the horticulture building to see how the kids did. I posted a picture of Abby with her winnings on Facebook (three blues, one red and a special youth award), but what I didn't say at that time was that Abby and Ben were the ONLY competition in their age group. ;o) Ben entered his carrots and peas that he helped plant and got one red and one blue.Yep, the picture below shows the entire Junior Open Class section at the fair. Pretty lame. But the kids were quite excited anyway and it was a neat experience for them.

The animals were next and it was so much fun to watch Jake's reaction - he is at such a fun age for the fair! Jake has been currently taking a stuffed bunny to bed with him, and was excited - no, ecstatic - when he saw the real live bunnies. It was quite adorable.

The rabbits were a hit with the big kids as well, especially one we found named Benny Bunny. =)

After that we got our dollar lunches (hotdog, pop and chips for a buck!), and headed over to the ride section after I read in the fair brochure that all rides were only one dollar that day. We usually stay clear of rides because of their ridiculously high prices, but we couldn't pass up one dollar and it made me wonder if the rides had always been that price on dollar day and we'd been missing out all these years!?!? Anyways, other than Abby being on a carousel one time, the kids have not done rides before. They LOVED it, especially Ben whose favorite ride was the airplane ride, of course. :)

My brother and his kids also came to the fair and we ran into them right after lunchtime and had fun together on the rides. I talked my brother into going on the Orbiter with me. As we chatted before the ride began, we decided that the last time we'd been on a ride together was when we were kids at Enchanted Village when we went on ride after ride all day long! And then after the Orbiter ride was over, we decided that the older you get rides get a big harder to take and that was plenty enough for us! ;o)

The next person to get sick was Benjamin the following night. The sickness hit him the hardest. My normally full-of-energy and rambunctious boy became lethargic and sickly. So hard for a mommy to watch her child go through, but so very sweet at the same time too.

After a day and night of diarrhea, the vomiting kicked in. I was quite worried about this, as every time he'd thrown up in the past he'd refused to throw up in a bowl and thus it would get everywhere just like it does with a baby. Every time he would look like he might throw up, I'd attempt to push the bowl in front of him but he would shove it away and say angrily, "I'm not going to throw up!" It was as if he thought I was trying to MAKE him throw up, not just be ready to "catch" the throw if/when it happened. So, anyway, I was quite surprised when this time around Benny and I were lying on the couch together (him sick, me exhausted from a night of taking him to the bathroom a billion times), and he complained his tummy hurt and asked me to pat his tummy. I chalked it up to another bout of diarrhea coming on and pretty much disregarded the comment as he'd been saying it over and over and I was completely exhausted. I told him to watch the movie and let me know when he needed me to help him to the bathroom. Well, about 30 seconds later he leaped off the couch and vomited right into the "throw-up bowl" sitting on the coffee table that we'd left there from the evening before. I was soooo proud of  him! And sooo thankful! And then, in typical Ben fashion, he went to the other extreme and would NOT part with the throw-up for one second, except when I would wash it out. He wouldn't even take a substitute bowl. And it couldn't just sit next to him, no, he had to be HOLDING it. Always. And right under his chin. Even when he tried to take a snooze. Shortly after I took the picture below, he fell asleep with his head fallen into the bowl. I tried to ease the bowl away from him, but that woke him up and he grabbed it back! Haha! Silly boy. :) The dreaded throw-up bowl became his greatest comfort.

A few days later, it was so great to have our healthy Ben back and the kids beat the heat wave by using the Slip N Side that Grandma Marks gave Ben for his birthday. They are a bit young to get the whole "slipping and sliding" part down well, but they sure had lots of fun trying!

 This slip-n-slide had lots of water spraying from multiple directions, which the kids did not like when they tried to slide down the traditional way. So they asked me to turn the water off and then they were able to slide on their tummies.....

...until shortly after when it got too dry! Below Ben is trying to push Abby down because she got stuck! :)

The next day my tired body finally gave into the sickness (again, after a day when everyone felt great and we went to church thinking we were all well! Ugh, I hope I didn't get my Sunday school students sick or anyone else! Such a strange illness this was.). But I'm feeling quite a bit better this evening, and hopefully we can put that sickness behind us for good!