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I forgot something…

I felt so strange this weekend, and it wasn’t because I caught the bug that’s made our house into a Vomitpalooza. I spent a lot of time without the kids this weekend.

I felt naked.

I had to take the Munchkin and Tad with me to my mother’s stamp camp on Friday night. The kids were pretty well behaved, but by the time the Webmaster came to fetch them, they were on the verge of becoming crazy monkeys. We bribed them with Star Wars at home to convince them to leave without me. Plus, the Munchkin had started to display the symptoms of the tummy bug (diarrhea alert!), and I wanted to get her out of there, asap.

My foresight proved all too true the next morning. Right before I left, we were trying to coax the Munchkin into eating some yogurt after she’d wolfed down a banana and her cup of milk. As I tried to get her to eat the yogurt, while asking how she felt, she suddenly began to cough ominously. Using my Jedi instincts (ha ha ha), I grabbed a cup and held it under her mouth as she began to bring breakfast back up. She spent the rest of the day napping, going to the bathroom, and drinking Pedialyte (which she now won’t drink unless there’s real juice mixed with it).

But I left the kids in the capable hands of their father, and headed off to my meeting and then to the baby shower for Carter’s Mom. I enjoyed myself at both places, but I constantly felt like calling to check in and seeing how the kids were. To assuage my guilt at abandoning them while sick (although Tad has fully recovered and his poop is normal again – hallelujah!), I went to our local Christian bookstore after the baby shower and bought the brand-new, just out in stores VeggieTales DVD “Gideon: Tuba Warrior“, which was hilarious and proved to be an instant hit with the kids as a “special treat.”

Then I went to church yesterday without the kids. The Webmaster had to stay home with them again, and I would have stayed home myself for the sleep (the Munchkin being up with messy Pull-ups three times during the night), but we had nursery duty and I didn’t want to burden our nursery coordinator with finding two substitues. I had to lie to the Munchkin to get out of the house – she insisted that she needed to go to church, and I lied and told her that I was going out to run errands. If I’d told her that I was going without her, she would have thrown a fit. I think God will forgive me for that one. I left Tad at home too, even though he’s recovered, because I didn’t want to risk exposing other kids via licked toys, just in case. So far, I haven’t come down with anything, and I was very careful not to breathe on the kids, or lick any of the toys.

But as I was leaving church, a friend stopped me. “Where’s your tribe? You look… lighter.”

My dad overheard this and laughed. “She’s a bachelorette today,” he joked.

It was so strange being alone at church. I don’t take my kids to meetings, or to baby showers (usually), so the only reason that I missed them so much was because I knew they were sick/recovering from sickness. But at church, where many people simply know me as the Munchkin and/or Tad’s mom, I felt out of place without them. Especially in the nursery, when Tad wasn’t there with the other kids. I bet the Munchkin’s Sunday School class was quieter, though.

So, we spent a quiet Sunday evening at home, punctuated by the Munchkin vomiting up dinner and then insisting that she wasn’t sick, her brother is, presumably because he threw up first. We’re going to be stuck at home for a while, I think. I’m not going to take the Munchkin away from the toliet she knows best. In the meantime, I am going to keep washing my hands, working on my cards, and giving “Gideon” a lot of time in the DVD player.

2 Responses to “I forgot something…”

  1. Little Cousin's Mommy
    November 6th, 2006 06:59
    1

    Oh poor kiddos! Give them hugs from me.

    Hey, I finally found a green Christmas dress that I like for Little Cousin!

  2. DozeyMagz
    November 6th, 2006 11:06
    2

    Oh dear. Hope you are all feeling better soon. Give Munchkin a special little ‘Get Better Soon’ hug from Mophead & Dustbunny.