I’m preparing. I’ve only eaten soft foods today, and I’m hydrating like I’m about to run a marathon in Death Valley. But let’s back up a week or so…

I took a week off of work last week. Our family (a 3 year old son, almost 2 year old daughter, and my wife) used this time to go on a few local adventures, I was able to fit in a few interviews for the podcast, and we painted hearts for Valentines Day. It was a tremendous recharge! I enjoy being home with the family more than anything. On the last day of vacation we got about eight inches of snow!!

I dug out the snow gear and Jodi found a couple sleds in the clearance aisle at Target. Our yard is perfect for sledding, and Keenan mastered the skill in no time! My little stud figured out which track had a slight jump on it and pounded that run all morning. We came in and made hot chocolate to warm up. He pretty much loved that aspect of the snow just as much!

Lunch and a quick nap later and we hit the slopes again. I had to shovel snow into the landing zone because the freezing temperatures turned the first afternoon run into a fence smasher! We turned it into a banked corner, even more awesome!

Monday morning came around, I got all ready for work. I’m not going to lie, I was a bit nervous about our road, there’s a hill to climb and a hill to descend and we got an additional 3 inches of snow overnight. My intuition was spot on, we watched a SUV fail for a half hour to climb the ascent part, his wheels spinning at 20 mph and the rig traveling between 2 and -5mph. That friction works like the broom on a curling sheet. (Did I mention the Olympics are on this week?) I send an update to my manager and he reminds me that it’s a holiday! Boom, slacks off – snow gear on, we are out to the yard in no time.

It’s a slightly slower pace this morning. Hattie was over it after a couple runs, and Keenan stayed out, but took long breaks at the banked corner. The kid has learned passive aggressive tactics. He asked for hot chocolate by asking to warm up with no blankets and no heaters. Ugh, gotta break this soon!

I make him the cocoa and Jodi prepares lunch. These kids have not been eating a lot lately so it was a relief to see him clean a plate. Full bellies make for an easy nap time.

It was about 4 or 5 in the afternoon when he appeared to be having trouble with a poop. Ya know when they try to hide to push? Jodi asked if he was okay, as he opened his mouth to answer… his stomach emptied on the carpet. Jodi and I scrambled, she picked up the mess while I took Keenan to the bathroom. After a few more convulsions into the toilet we washed up and brushed teeth. Got some water in him and sat wrapped in a blanket. Soon the water came up. I now have a Mini Mouse beach bucket on the ready. Jodi’s calling the doctor.

Every ounce of fluid that goes in lasts about 2 minutes max. At times he’s dry heaving due to nothing left to come up but the yellow stomach juice. He has no temperature so doc says slowly hydrate with sips or ice chips. So we do. This goes on for quite a while, I take Hattie to bed so at least someone gets rest.

When I wake up I find my wife and son sleeping with the bucket between them. I call in a sick day cause they look exhausted.

They slept until 9:30 or so, Hattie and I watched The Boss Baby for the 200th time in the last 10 days.

Keenan is a little sluggish, but you can see the withered body come back to life throughout the day. Whew!

Jodi is complaining of upset stomach though, uh-oh. It’s about bedtime when I hear two buckets filling up simultaneously in our master bath. I am not as good caretaking for her as I should, but I get a sports bottle full of ice water ready and grab the Mini Mouse bucket to rinse out. A bit later she asks for ice chips and Gatorade. I oblige, both kids are asleep now in our bed so I set up a floor mattress with a bucket feature for her. I’m almost asleep, or maybe fading in & out of sleep when Hattie starts. Her initial puke looks like an overgrown albino caterpillar. Obviously a lot of milk in her diet. I get her to the toilet to finish up and we get the tub going to clean up. Luckily only a pillow case fell victim to the evacuation. I get another puke laundry pile going.

She keeps this up all night, I’m texting work at 5:30 updating the situation. Not sleeping when you’re tired is not a good idea to get behind the wheel, so it’s another day not working. Neither Jodi nor Hattie are as quick to recover as Keenan was. But nevertheless it proved to be a 24ish hour bug.

I got my nap in and when I woke, watery mouth and diarrhea was waiting for me.

So I’m preparing. Eating soft foods and hydrating like I’m about to run a marathon in Death Valley. I hate dry heaving more than anything. I’ve cleaned up the Mini Mouse bucket and the Mickey Mouse one as well. I’ve stocked the fridge with fluids. Can we just get this over with??

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