The most pleasant sick person ever

The night before last, Michael was up several times getting sick.  I knew something was the matter, because I heard him go to the bathroom...but he didn't come in to wake me up first.  That boy HATES to be alone.  Especially in the creepy night.  Good thing he hasn't figured out he's all alone in his room...tee hee hee.

Anyway, I walk in on him at 1:30am, and he is hurling like crazy in the toilet.  I rub his back and when he stops he wipes his mouth and says, "I held my hand over my mouth and made it to the toilet."  At 3:30, when it was coming out both ends, he paused and said, "Thanks for sitting here with me mom."  And at 5:30, when he was just sitting on the pot, he had a long conversation with Jeff about not making a mess in his bed and how he wasn't going to go to school the next day.

Michael is the best thrower-upper ever.  He has almost always made it to the toilet in his brief history of getting sick.  This round was spotless.  He has long, non-whiny conversations all while shivering and shuddering and hacking.  Granted, he likes to talk about "barfing", as he calls it, a little too much.  If sitting with a person who is getting sick doesn't make you feel queasy, then sitting with them AND hearing them describe the content will.

All day yesterday, he sat around kind of pitiful...occasionally whimpering.  Pathetic.  But he never cried and never protested my remedies...bath, shopping for 7-up and popsicles, nap.  He cuddled, watched tv, read books, and even had to go drop off/pick up his siblings at school (damn cast).  He did wake up from his 3 hour nap and say, "Why does the bad stuff always happen to me?"  (???)

He didn't get sick all day yesterday...although his total food consumption was about 9 crackers.  He slept all night and bounced out of bed today announcing that he was all better.

Seriously.  He is the most pleasant sick person ever.

Snippets of Michael

Life with this boy...he keeps us laughing, at least!
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A couple of nights ago, he begins hollering from the bathroom.  That's right, 5 1/2 years old and STILL needs help with wiping.  He'd better have a really understanding college roommate, that's all I've got to say.  Anyway, he starts yelling and Jeff and I are not moving real fast.  We are calling back things like, "You can do it, buddy!" and "Daddy's been gone all day and missed the opportunity to bond with you in this way!"

Michael tries one last ditch effort, calling out, "Mom!  Dad!  Come quick and you can be the first to see it!"

Jeff and I bust up laughing...what are we, back in Jeff's college dorm again?  Jeff can't fight the temptation (just like in college, I suppose), and laughs his way into the bathroom.  Turns out Michael had brought a new Lego creation into the bathroom with him and was trying to entice us in by us being the first to see it.  NOT what we were thinking, but it still got us in there, didn't it?

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Last night, the kids were REALLY hyper at dinner time.  We had tilapia and green beans and pasta for dinner, so dinner was taking quite a long time.  The non-kid food delay was also exasperated by this hyper-activity.  Really annoying stuff.

I had promised them that if they finished all their homework and all their dinner, they could play the 2DS and Wii for a bit.  But with them literally bouncing off the walls at dinner, I proclaimed that there would be no computer games after all.  (they tend to get hyper after playing computer games as it is...there was no way they would ever go to bed at this rate).  They all accepted this quite well (they clearly could tell how out of control they were).

Michael goes and gets a pad of paper and is doodling while Jeff and I talk and wait for Lily to finish eating.  Everyone has kind of calmed down.  Thank heavens.

Michael says, "Do you want to see what I wrote?" (insert mischievous grin here) "I wrote 'I love love love love love love love love love love love love Mom and Dad."

Jeff says, "Oh, how sweet, Michael.  Thank you."

I say, "That's nice.  What do you want?"

Michael says, "Well, see, all that writing got all my hyper out.  So I think I can play 2DS now."

Stinker.  Buttering us up with love.

Happy New Year

Well, we had a lovely time visiting family in Ohio.  We were there for just 5 days, and then rushed back for the start of school on January 2nd.  Only to have a snow day on January 3rd.  Ah, well.

The first few days in Ohio, we spent with Jeff's family.  Everybody was home, and we had a great time hanging out with family.  There were extended family gatherings each night, and by the time we left we were mentally and emotionally exhausted.  Shadow was literally curled up under the Christmas tree where no one could reach her, and she snapped at Jeff when he got near her.  She was DONE.  :)  Luckily, we were able to rest up well each night, since Jeff's parents gave us their bedroom.  That's right...Linda took the couch.  Ridiculous.  She made sure to not tell me until it was almost too late to protest.  Crazy woman.  We did sleep well, though.

We also enjoyed a baby shower for Jeff's sister.  Lily was the cutest, gimpiest helper ever!  I had a few heart to heart conversations with my niece, and she even kicked me a couple of times.  She even revealed that she liked the name Ava the best (of her clueless aunt and uncle's guesses).  Lily told me later, "I'm going to have to have a talk with Sara's belly later.  I'm not convinced her name is Ava."   A huge thanks to Sara for being patient as we got all handsy with her abdomen.

As we first walked in the door, I forget who, but someone announced that Chad and Monica were vying for favorite aunt and uncle this year...and least favorite brother and sister-in-law.  Lily opened her gift from Chad and Monica (a box larger than her), and revealed her 5ft tall dolphin plush toy.  Um hmm.  That's right.  She was, of course, thrilled.  Jeff started breaking out in a sweat trying to figure out where exactly that was going to fit in the car on the ride home.  Then Michael opened his gift, a set of Skylander boxing gloves.  Um hmm.  That's right.  He was, of course, thrilled.  Although as he was putting them on, he got a silly grin on his face and said, "You probably shouldn't have gotten me these."

Then we were off to Westerville to hang with my side of the family.  Jeff, Andrew, and my Dad went down to see a Dayton basketball game the first night, so it was just Dave, Andrea and the rest of our crew.  We had Skyline, played lots of games, and generally listened to the kids playing upstairs in the rec room.  Lovely.  The next day, we drove over to my older sister's neck of the woods, where she took us all pottery painting.  Everyone had a great time...it was Michael's first time and he really enjoyed it!  Oh!  And we went to the Wendy's flagship store, where they had these space age pop machines.  While we were all in awe, apparently the Ohio peeps were all, "Whatever!  Old news!"  Who knew that Ohio was on the cutting edge of soda pop technology!

After pottery painting, we headed back to my parents and had a lovely dinner, watched a movie, opened a few more gifts, and generally just enjoyed each others' company.  We kicked everyone out early, because we had to leave so early the next morning.

And then we go back here.  In time for cold temps and 8 inches of snow.  Whew!  Bring on the rest of winter!