Sick Children

Before I say anything else, I have to say thanks to Tracy. I really had no idea that nuts were as healthy as I just read. I was looking at the fat content on the containers and thinking that I was really overeating. The recommended serving size on my bag of sunflower seeds says ¾ cup of seeds in the shell. I only eat a ½ cup at a time so I figured I was doing okay but sometimes eating two to three servings a day was making me think I was overdoing it. Then I read your comments on my last post and looked up the health benefits of nuts and sunflower seeds. I actually danced a little jig to the kitchen to get my measuring cup and my ashtray. I keep the bag of seeds by my desk for easy access; I pour them into the measuring cup so I know I’m only getting a ½ cup; and I use my ashtray, the one I carried around the house with me when I was smoking, to hold the empty sunflower shells after I’ve eaten the seed and sucked off all the salt. Thanks to Tracy’s info, I can now snack guilt free. I’m going to ask the WIC chick tomorrow if nuts are as healthy for kids as they are for adults. That is, if I make it to WIC.

Yesterday morning, at around 6:00, I woke up because I heard Zach burping in his sleep. He was sleeping in my bed so it wasn’t hard to detect. I pushed on his shoulder and told him to go to the bathroom. He claimed he didn’t need to but I forced the issue. “If you throw up in my bed, I’m going to be very upset. GO!! NOW!!” He did and he threw up just as he reached the toilet. Whew!! That was the only time during the day or night that he got sick. He did spend most of the day on the sofa, sleeping off and on, and barely eating. He even tried the, “I don’t want to go to school tomorrow” trick on me, but I told him that, since he threw up at 6 a.m., if he didn’t throw up again by 6 a.m. today, he was going to school. That’s the school district’s 24-hour rule. Zach went to school today.

This evening, I made the kids pizza for dinner and, as usual, Dolly was in a rush to get back outside to play. She ate a couple of bites of pizza and then asked to be excused from the table. I made it really clear that she would not be eating any bedtime snack and that any hunger pangs would have to wait until breakfast if she chose not to eat her dinner. She agreed and went out to find her friends. A while later she came in saying her stomach hurt, and I told her it was probably because she didn’t eat her dinner. She had a little juice and went on her way. They all came in, got ready for bed, and I went about the business of bouncing and decided to call Ellen while I did so.

While I was bouncing, Dolly came downstairs to interrupt, as is par for the course when I’m on the phone. She said she’d thrown up in the upstairs bathroom toilet but had flushed it. Since Zach was in that bathroom, I figured she hadn’t thrown up and sent her back to bed. I also told her to get the throw-up pan just in case she felt like she was going to get sick. That was basically to make her feel better and to give her a little attention. She got the pan and went back to bed. I finished bouncing and was just finishing up a small snack when I heard Dolly chucking in my bed. (That’s a word I use to describe the sound that is worse than gagging but not yet vomiting. We all know what it is.) I was on my way up the stairs when Zach yelled out that Dolly was going to throw up in my bed. I grabbed her under her arms and sat her on the floor in front of the pan, where she commenced getting sick. Ellen decided to let me go into Mommy mode and we hung up the phone. It takes something like that to get us to hang up; we’d already said, three times, I think, that we were going to hang up for the night and then continued talking.

In any case, Dolly finished and I put her back in bed with the pan on the floor next to her. She immediately fell asleep but I gave Zach instructions to get her off the bed if she started hiccupping or chucking and I didn’t make it there in time to help before she got sick. He agreed; he’s such a good big brother. Since Zach only got sick the one time, I’m hoping it’ll be the same with Dolly. She can’t go to school because of the 24-hour rule, but I’ve got a lot to do tomorrow so she’ll have to be with me. I really need to make it to the WIC appointment; and our Caring Communities meeting is at the boys’ school at 5:30. I also need to run to Dollar General and I have to get some laundry done. The laundry I do here, of course, but it’ll be tough with her needing my assistance. I’ll get it all done, I’m not worried. I just hope she feels better soon. They’ve only got until June 2 until school is finished for the year and I really don’t want them missing days now. I’m sure she’ll only be out tomorrow and will probably be asking to go outside to play later in the afternoon. Those are kids for you.

You know what’s really funny? This isn’t what I was going to write about tonight. Quite honestly, I have no idea what I was going to write about tonight; I started by thanking Tracy and just kept on going. Imagine that. I have an odd thought process, dontcha know. Maybe that can be the topic for my next entry. I’ll write that down on my to-do list so I won’t forget. Until tomorrow…peace to all.