Family and Puking

It's been a challenge to get into the swing of writing original blogs. By the time I polish a piece off, it has become irrelevant and not reflective of my state at the time of being published. Here's a new approach. Tweaking an email to my sister who lives in Japan. Names of course are changed to protect the innocent, loved and treasured.


Hey Sis,

I've had a torturous 24 hours preceded by a period of total joy.
Last night I popped into town to drop off something I picked for little brother at ikea. His new (yet exquisitely old) house is gorgeous. I then called in to baby sisters new house she is sharing with 3 of my step kids.

I enjoyed a bit of chatting and catching up with the household, but mainly with baby sis, then we watched the end of a film I had already seen but enjoyed enough to see again. On the way home I thought long and hard about you.
I am so looking forward to a time where you are also a local and I can just "pop in" and share life with you.

Before I tried to head off to bed, the preschooler woke and wanted a drink of water then called out for a tissue. I'm not sure if the poor bugger actually thought he was dealing with snot or if he was trying to hide that he had messed up his bed, but he had vomited everywhere. This is a kid who hasn't puked since a bump on his head at around 8 months old, so the whole concept was pretty foreign to him. I showered and I redressed him then left him on my bed with the husband while I stripped his bed and threw his bedding in the washing machine. I returned to find my little boy back in the shower, shaking like a junkie, after he had again thrown up, all over my bed.

Again I stripped a bed, gave the kid a bowl along with instructions as to how to effectively contain vomit, and checked on the muffin (who now has her own bedroom....another email). The husband and I deserve a medal for team parenting because we calmly bathed and dressed the kids, set up plastic based towel covered bedding on the lounge room floor and the commenced the parents nightmare i.e. watching your children in pain and distress and wishing it was you instead. While containing simultaneous vomiting in my funky brightly colored and rather useful mixing bowls, we got through two kids DVD movies before the husband became redundant and passed out on the couch and the two kiddywinks relaxed into sleep. I sat beside them both till 5.30 am, catching the occasional puke and desperately trying to get fluids into them.

I caught about 40 minutes sleep in the lounge room and then phoned for the cavalry at 8.00am. I had worked booked from 10.00am which I managed to attend to by 10.30 am after the husband's magical coffee and egg on toast breakfast. Mum and Nanna arrived and took over with the kids while I worked until the Macbook screen went fuzzy and I asked my colleague the same question four times in a row.

After chucking in the shake diet for a gorgeous chicken sandwich, another round of laundry and successfully administering a fair amount of hydrolite to the muffin, I toddled off to bed 15 hours after I had originally tried to do so. The husband woke me at 5.00pm and after the initial shock and emotional protest to waking so exhausted, I found my second wind and got back on the train. The preschooler was bouncing around the house like a loon but muffin was alseep in Nanna's arms, on the couch. The washing was in off the line, the husband and I were sufficiently recharged for the rest of the day's tasks and the kiddywinks were significantly better.

As I now reward myself with a glass of red, I think again of you and the niece or nephew you and my new brother in law will give me as one of the most wonderful gifts imaginable. I'm sure my husband and I would have survived today without Mum and Nanna BUT perhaps not as sanely. The husband commented that despite our kiddywinks being so awfully ill, it was a wonderful experience for them to be so cared for my their parents, grandmother and great grandmother. Surely a great individual grows from such love.

As much as the family will drive you mental, your move to Australia will only be rewarded with more than you could ever fathom. I miss you and love you.

Stay beautiful. xxoo