Happy Holidays...I think...

Our ragtag family of 4 traveled from the Bay Area to SLC for Christmas with dh extended family. We were full of anticipation for the holidays. Our kids were now old enough to "get" the whole Santa/presents/Jesus's birthday a little bit (almost 3 and 15 months) so we were eager to view the season through their eyes. Presents were wrapped, Santa was visited, tales were told of sleighs and reindeer - Christmas 2005 held great promise.

Until everyone got sick.

Like, gross, yucky, neverending sick.

On Christmas Eve dh Sam finally gave up and went to a doctor after 3 days of a "cold" - he ended up with bronchitis and lots of drugs. About 36 hours later we noticed both of our kids were running a little "slow" (for those of you who know my kids they are NOT mellow people, so its odd to see them sitting quietly - running slow). Then Simon (almost 3) began throwing up. Not once or 6 times or 10 times. 17 times in 6 hours. He would scream in pain, contort, cry, vomit, scream some more and then collapse in our arms. It began at midnight and died down around 6 AM. His lips were white and he couldn't keep down anything we gave him, including ice chips (that's pretty pitiful, if you ask me). He referred to his sickness as a water fountain, as in "NO, I no want to do water fountain again!". His fever would spike and sweat off, then repeat. It was like being in a strange nightmare. We ended up doing 20 loads of laundry (comforters, towels, sheets - good grief, vomit was flung everywhere), went through 2 containers of disinfectant wipes and a large bottle of antibacterial hand lotion.

Then we received phone calls from other family members that our extended family was sick as well - there was a flu outbreak in Utah and we happened to catch it. Lovely.

While Sam was recovering from bronchitis he too was felled by this stomach flu and was thowing up, dealing with fevers. I got a touch of regular flu but I just kept eating Vitamin C and praying -I couldn't get sick now. We gave our 15 month old to Grandma and asked her to please keep her away from the 3 of us.

Over the next 10 days Sam recovered from the flu and bronchitis only to catch a bad cold - right back in bed again. I recovered from the flu and got a bad cold. Simon recovered from the flu and got a slight cold. And Sophie sailed through it all only to fall ill to the croup - poor hacking baby. Into the steam, out in the cold, medicate, bottle, sleep - repeat.

The day after all 4 of us were decently healthy, we cut our trip short and returned to CA.

Our disastrous vacation taught me a few things. I realized how strong my little boy is. He was such a trooper and genuinely grateful to me and my husband for taking care of him. I was laying in bed holding him (before he threw up on me, I might add) and whispered "I love you Simon". He opened his eyes and said "I love you too, mommy. Thank you so much for help water fountain". Kids have remarkable fortitude and such a capacity for love and gratitude, even in the face of illness.

I realized in the middle of the vomit and crying and croup coughing that there was nowhere else on earth I'd rather be than caring for my sick child. Nothing could have dragged me away. I was surprised by that...and grateful to discover my heart in the correct place.

I realized how heartwrenching it must be to have a child who is truly sick. Not just the flu, which goes away, but hospital sick. What strong women these mothers are. I don't know how they do it and hope I never learn.

Finally, I decided in 2006 we will ALL receive flu shots. And maybe we won't go to Utah for awhile. Just kidding...I think...