A Week of Firsts*

* Reprinted from various email messages

First #1) Allison came down with diarrhea. Although there have been occasional instances that could qualify as diarrhea in the past, our first case of multiple, consistent diarrhea started Saturday morning.

First #2) On Saturday afternoon while Allison went down for her nap, I told Emma that she could avoid taking a nap herself if she played quietly in her room. She complied as was very quiet. Then, about 35 minutes later, she came out of her room to get a paper towel. When I asked her what she wanted a paper towel for, she didn't answer. I followed her back to her bedroom. She received a makeup set from the bride and groom as a gift a few weeks earlier. That set contained two bottles of nail polish. I did not realize that it had been placed on the top shelf of her hutch. The nail polish had been spilled all over her (once) beautiful toy chest, on the carpet and all over her. Actually, what was on her was probably self-applied. You hear stories about parents who "see red" when their children do extremely naughty things. I was seeing a deep, pulsing red. I do think that I passed this test. I never once yelled. I didn't kill her. I didn't maim her. I quietly tried to clean up the mess as best as I could with that pulsing red light in front of my eyes. Emma knew that she was in trouble, too. I asked her to get on her bed and she did quickly and without question. She later asked me if I was mad. I said very and she kept quiet after that. When I left the room, I told her that she was to stay in her bed until I came to get her. She didn't even cry when I closed the door. I can't remember how long it took my blood pressure to return to normal, but it eventually did. When Danny got home, he talked with her and we agreed that her punishment was to be grounded from her bike for a week. In true kid fashion, she did find a way to displace some of the blame when she said to Danny, "You shouldn't have left my makeup in my room."

First #3) Our local scrapbooking store held a yard sale for its customers. Anyone with items to sell signed up for a code number and brought their items in before the sale on Saturday. The money earned at the sale could be spent on anything at the store. It was like turning things I didn't want or couldn't use into free stuff! On Sunday, the store called me and I found out that I sold $56.55 worth of stuff! I was so excited that I went to the store that afternoon. Danny watched the kids for me so I could shop by myself. Once I was there, I wandered around not quite sure what to pick. I got several rub on letter sets that were buy one get one free to maximize my money. I got a new pair of scissors and some embellishments for the page I'm going to make for Emma about her first bike (felt somewhat ironic to select that given her punishment from the day before). I also needed to pick up what wasn't sold. The lady couldn't find my items and I said that the only thing I really wanted back if it didn't sell was my green Creative Memories album. I'm glad that I said that. During the day the tag had fallen off. Someone wanted it, but without the tag, they didn't know how much to sell it for and who to give the credit to. So, my $56.55 actually went up to $71.55! I used my extra windfall to get some cute new papers and matching embellishments. Boy, was I excited!

First #4) My manager is on vacation this week and Danny's dad was scheduled to have his kidney stone removed surgically on Tuesday. Given those things happening at the same time, you know that Allison's diarrhea would continue. I dropped her off at daycare on Monday because she was acting like herself and had only had one incident on Sunday. I got a call around 3 to please pick her up. Her lunch went right through her and she was acting miserable. I picked both kids up and took some sick time. I planned on doing the same thing on Tuesday because she caught the virus there and she was, for the most part, acting like herself. She didn't have a fever and she wasn't vomiting.

First #5) She wasn't vomiting, that is, until 12:30 Tuesday morning. She was in our bed and I could sense her hovering over my head. She does this often and I lay very still so that she goes back to sleep. This time, I heard a strange noise and sat up. Good thing - not five seconds later my pillow was covered in vomit. Until 12:30 Tuesday morning, I'd never had a child vomit due to illness. The poor thing had it coming out both ends and was so upset. She went through two sets of pajamas before I bundled her up in just her blanket and diaper. I've worried about how I would handle it when one of my kids got sick. Just as with First #3, I did just fine. You don't know what you're capable of until you are tested. Danny and I tag teamed well. He rocked her while I cleaned everything up and started the laundry. As soon as I was finished, she wanted her mommy. As tired as I was by 3am, I was so happy to be there for her - and just thankful to have escaped the face full of puke. Had that happened, Danny probably would have been cleaning up after the both of us.