And Then There Was........Hurl

~

Not long after I typed my last '.' on the Vampire post..............

.........did Reilly the Red emerge from her peaceful slumber...............

puking and hurling and barfing ..............................

.................................all the way down the hall and into and out of my bedroom..................


Thankfully(?) I was on the couch.

Thankfully(!) Billy Two Swords is the type of husband and father who HELPS with sick children in the middle of the night, no matter how big the mess, no matter how stenchous the smell, no matter what time the sickness happens versus what time he has to be up in the morning.

So we tag-teamed between consoling and cleaning, cleaning and consoling.

My Reilly Baby Girl thinks the salad she ate from the Teacher's lunch line at school had some ham in it that tasted 'bad'.

Well, at least they are feeding the kids better than they are feeding the teachers?

I guess?

And since when do the munchkins get to eat from the Teacher's lunch line?

Sigh.

Why am I complaining about THIS?

I'm not.

I'm not complaining about anything.

Reilly the Red did not have a fever, so I truly think it was a case of bad food.

And when I asked her if she thought she would go to school in the morning, she said yes, because of course, they will be making their Valentine's Day mailboxes for Friday's party.

And since she is quite the crafty artist, and since she has a bit of a 'love crush' (her words!) on a little man in her class, I think she would rather chew off her left arm at the elbow than miss school in a few hours.

So she is in MY bed, which is the bed nearest to a toilet.

I am on the couch.

Listening to the 3 hour heavy duty stain master wash cycle on my high efficiency washing machine, which contains a load of about 18 puke-laden towels.

Fred did not do as good of a job of eating the kid hurl like I expected him to.

That really must have been some nasty ham, if the dog won't eat it!

Man it has been a BUSY 24 hours.

But.

I have learned a lesson.

Nope.

More like another confirmation.

Or as the Blues Brothers would say it:

"A mission from Gahd."

The confirmation is that I have been a SAHM for two years now.

I have finally accepted it. And actually EMBRACED it recently.

Days/nights like today/tonight remind me to embrace my stay-at-home-ness.

I don't have to go 'to' work in the morning.

I can go back to bed at 730 am, and sleep until 330 in the afternoon if I want or need to.

I can.

I don't have any reports or presentations that are due tomorrow.

I will not have an absence from 'work' tomorrow that might jeopardize my career or corporate climb.

When everyone awakes in the morning, I will not have to make a work/life balance choice.

I will not have to choose between staying home with a sick child, and going to work at my job.

My job IS staying home with a sick child.

Whether I 'work' outside of the home or not.

It's just impossible to explain that to one's employer sometimes.

And when you are drinking your company's kool-aid, your judgment could become temporarily clouded by the dangling carrots of ambition, cash, prestige......

I am so thankful that I no longer have to make that choice, and that I haven't had to make that choice in a very long time..

But right now, at this very minute, I am most thankful that I just checked on my baby girl and she remains fever-free, and is resting comfortably.

Right now, THAT is ALL.

ALL that matters.