It seems like my son and Halloween just don’t mix. Last year, Gabriel got really, really sick a few days before Halloween. So ill in fact, that we had to bring him to the ER one night due to his high fever and dehydration. Although it was never “officially” confirmed, the doctors were pretty sure that he had the N1H1 strain that was so serious (and perhaps a little over-hyped!) last Fall. Of course, he recovered but not in time to go trick-or-treating on Halloween. So, I took Chloe out for her first night of Halloween adventure and we had a great time. The weather was really warm for that time of year so it was quite nice.

This year, the little guy was healthy for Halloween so Robyn and I dressed them up and took them trick-or-treating in the cold. Except for the dogs that barked at many of the houses and one creepy and very realistic mannequin in one person’s house, Chloe and Gabriel had a great time and enjoyed being able to eat a bunch of candy after dinner – especially the chocolate and peanut butter candy that they had not been able to eat until last week. Unfortunately, when we were getting the kids ready for bed, we noticed that Chloe had a couple of welts on her back and she said that they were itchy. Maybe she IS allergic to peanuts after all? Ugh! After we gave her some Benadryl, she seemed better but we were careful to check on her during the night (she was fine) and Robyn called the allergist in the morning.

My mom came down to visit for the weekend, so I had to drive her back home on Monday (the day after Halloween). On my way home from Massachusetts, I called home to tell Robyn I would be there in about 30 minutes. When she answered the phone, I could her Gabriel crying hysterically in the background. Robyn told me that he had been doing that for about an hour because he took a nap (VERY unusual for him) in the afternoon and when he woke up, he said that his throat was hurting. When I got home, he was still upset but we managed to calm him down (after fighting with him to take some medicine) and he ate some dinner. Bedtime was difficult because his throat hurt and he wasn’t tired due to the nap that he had taken so he was up and down a lot.

Today, Chloe is fine (we have an appointment next week with the allergist) and Gabriel is feeling better. Wonder what’s in store for next Halloween?

It finally happened.

Yesterday morning, Gabriel woke at his usual 6:16am and said that he had to go to the bathroom. I got up and took him in to do his thing, changed into his daytime underpants, let him get his toys and then brought him back into his room. Surprisingly, he decided to lay back down in his bed and get some extra sleep even though the sun was “awake.” I went back to bed and slept for a while – in fact, I woke up at about 7:40 to the sounds of the kids playing in their room. I threw on some clothes and my glasses and peeked into their room to see what was going on. Gabriel was standing on his bed looking out the window into our backyard and Chloe was playing in her bed with some toys, so I went downstairs and logged into work to begin my day.

I usually turn the baby monitor on while I’m down there and Robyn’s asleep, but keep it pretty low since Robyn can hear better since she’s right next to their room so I just heard them laughing and playing. Around 8am I thought to myself that they were being really good and pretty quiet and this was a good morning. Then I heard Robyn get out of bed upstairs and go quickly into their room. Then I heard “What the…? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?” in an angry voice and I knew something was up.

A few seconds later, she called me to upstairs right away so I said I’d be up in a minute. When I got into the kids’ room I saw that there was poop on the floor and in Chloe’s bed and Gabriel was not wearing his underpants. Then I looked up to the wall next to Chloe’s bed and saw a dark smear on the wall and noticed that the beds had poop all along the sides. What a mess!

I have heard from people who have kids over the last couple of years that this has happened to them and will probably undoubtedly happen to us, so I wasn’t really surprised. Luckily, it wasn’t too much of a mess and once we cleaned the wall, bathed the kids, vacuumed the floor, changed the sheets and washed the toys (including “bathing” 2 sets of Little Einsteins action figures) that they had in their room, everything was back to normal.

My last post ended with the ominous rumblings of my innards that turned out to be the beginning of a day or so of battling the stomach virus that ravaged us all over the course of a week. The night of the post found me running to the bathroom, shivering in bed and throwing up a couple of times. This is not a big deal for some people, but in the eleven years that I’ve known Robyn, she has never seen me this sick. That’s a good thing – I’m not complaining! I was laid up for most of the next day, but was feeling much better by evening. Chloe was not feeling well, but she handled it well. On Thursday, it was Gabriel’s turn. He’s so pitiful when he doesn’t feel well. Seems his way of dealing was sleeping as much as he could and moping around the house asking to be hugged.

By Monday, over a week since Robyn first got sick, we were all feeling much better. This was our introduction to the “whole house” illnesses that come about when four people are living under one roof. I’m sure there will be many more instances over the next 18 years!

The last few days have been rather exciting around the old homestead. This past weekend was supposed to be the weekend that we potty trained Chloe. Now that Gabriel is pretty much trained (#2s are still sometimes a challenge) Chloe has been showing more interest and we’ve been talking it up to her for the last couple of weeks. She seemed excited to learn, but we’re not sure if she gets it or not because each trip to the bathroom in the second half of the day on Saturday resulted in major meltdowns. It was so heartbreaking that we kind of slacked on Saturday evening and let her wear pull-ups with plan to continue potty training on Sunday.

Robyn apparently caught the nasty stomach bug that just about everyone we know has already gotten so she was not at her best on most of Sunday and all of Monday. I stayed “home” from work to take care of the kids yesterday. This morning, she thought she was feeling better but as the day progressed she was not so sure and Chloe began complaining that her tummy hurt around noon. Things were quickly going downhill and turning into a household epidemic!

After the kids’ naps I took them outside to play thinking that the fresh air would do Chloe some good while Robyn was getting ready to go to work. Chloe was very happy to be outside – at least until I spotted her leaning over and losing her lunch in our yard. This was probably the first time one of the kids vomited from a stomach issue like this. We’ve somehow managed to avoid these things for more than two years. The amazing thing is that she was fine right after she threw up. Sure, she sat down for a few minutes to catch her breath, but she was back up and playin in no time. Kids are so resilient. Gabriel just loving screaming “Chloe threw up! Yucky!” as he ran around the yard.

I’m pretty sure that we’ll be awakened during the night to more vomiting and as I write this my own stomach is making some rather ominous noises….