Catching, Isn't It?

I hate waking up to splattering noises. Of all the awful things to wake up to, splattering noises has to be one of the all-time worst, and that was my good morning wake-up call this morning.

Toby's been walking around for a week now with green ooze leaking from his nose and ears (he has ear tubes and they're doing what they're supposed to do: draining fluid that backs up to his ears). Matt's had a cough that he can't shake for three weeks now. So I thought things were bad when Emma came down with pink-eye two days ago. That evening Hannah had a stomach ache and a low fever. Last night Toby was running a low fever and Naomi had an awful headache I thought that might have had something to do with the five sprays of my perfume she doused herself with, but her headache persists today and is now accompanied by the infamous joint pain that sometimes still plagues her.

But all of that pales in comparison to the splatters. I heard them at 7:00am and lept from bed, which of course woke Elijah. I found Emma trying desperately to make her way up the stairs to tell me that she was throwing up, only she had trouble getting the words out in between blurps.

"Emma! Just stay right there! Don't move!" I ordered. After waking Matt to take care of Elijah I attempted, unsucessfully, to pick my way down the stairs without getting my feet wet. The route to the kitchen for the papertowels and disinfectant was like a mine field. Finally getting my supplies, I stripped Emma, who was an eerie shade of green, and put her in a warm bath while I scrubbed floors. I heard Naomi clomping down the stairs and shouted out a warning, but it was too late: another pair of slippers joined Emma's pajamas and the bathroom rug in the laundry.

The house is relatively clean now, but I feel like germs are on everything I touch: colds, fevers, stomach flu, pink-eye, and sinus infections threaten me on every doorknob and lightswitch. I am now turning over my computer to the kids so they can watch cartoons today. We don't own a TV and I rarely let my kids watch cartoons, but some days you make exceptions, and today is an exceptional day. While the children are in a cartoon-induced coma I will be waging war on germs, not that it will stop their spread, but it will make me feel better. Come by and visit us...if you dare.