I definitely earned my stripes this week. The week started off pretty well. I greeted Monday at 4:46am (sans coffee even), gave the monkey a morning snack and stumbled to the gym. I made the car pool on time - a first in a long, long while - and had an exhausting, yet productive, day at work. Yay for saving the world from car thieves and burglars! I should have known it wouldn't last...
Tuesday I picked A-lex up from the sitter at McDonald's. It was McTeacher's night so everyone and their brother was trying to raise money for the local school. When I arrived the monkey was having a blast in the play area - I don't even want to think about all of the nasty germs just lying in wait for an unsuspecting immune system to happen by - ugh! Once we got home I let her help me make dinner (which is little more than Alex pulling ALL of the pots and pans out of the cupboard and me constantly repeating "No baby, that's hot! Hot!"). We sat down to eat and she refused. What? Refused to eat dinner? The same baby who turns into Satan when she's not fed on time? That should have been my first clue.
Bath-time, which is normally an A-lex favorite, was not good. I'll spare the icky details but will say that bleaching the bathtub and all of the bath-toys at 7:30pm is not my idea of fun. (Particulary when Daddy is tasked with keeping her attention while I sanitize the bathroom and I then come downstairs to see her crawling all over the dogs). Anyway, dog-hair-free pj's, a little boob and half of Cinderella later she's out.
Fast-forward 30 minutes. I hear strange cries coming from her room. Normally, she'll let out one or two wails in her sleep and that will be it. These were....different. So I go upstairs and pick her up. We sit in the chair and next thing I know, I'm covered in vomit. Great. For someone who gags at the sight of another person's snot, wearing vomit is not ok. To my own surprise I did not panic, dry heave or join in the action. (**I have determined motherhood carries its own set of superpowers. One of which is clearly the ability to withstand the foulest of bodily functions. ***)
So we take another bath. Together this time because now she won't let go of me. Period. I'm getting ready to put clean pj's on her and I see "the look" again. We reach the sink just as she lets another one roll. You don't realize just how much vomit a tiny little person can produce until you witness it first hand. Truly amazing. Luckily, she made it all into the sink. I decided to forego the pj's. Back to bed until 4:00am when I give her some Tylenol for her 101 temp.
At 6:30 on Wednesday morning she seems to be feeling a little better. The fever is down to 99.8 and the sitter has agreed to take her notwithstanding anymore vomiting episodes. 7:04 am: I'm just getting ready to get dressed and she pukes all over me again. And again. Super. (all the while Michael is trying to be helpful and clean up the spillage onto the floor but he can barely contain his own pukeage). So I send her off to the sitter with the understanding that I will leave work early and pick her up. I call the Dr. to see what they recommend and they tell me to bring her in. I spent the night checking her temperature every two hours. Even though she was 102 I didn't feel like I could give her ibuprofen because she hadn't eaten anything since refusing dinner the night before. Thank heavens for Kool-Paks which are quite possibly the greatest invention ever.
I ended up keeping her home on Thursday -at least I had the foresight to bring some files home with me -and I played nurse. It's a good thing too, because the puke-bug appeared to have traveled into her lower intestines. (apparently the other baby at daycare was sent home twice this week for a that same reason.) Even so, the A-lex would not be contained! I swear, if this child were a Transformer, she'd be a Destructi-con. Sickness is supposed to impart rest and low-key activities. Not my child. Not ever. She was all over the place all day long. Note: the below items do not belong in the middle of the living room floor and in fact have proper places not akin to the living room. 
Thankfully, she did eat dinner last night (per Alex it was "num! num!"), she woke up fever (and vomit) free this morning and I have officially earned another Mommy-stripe.
Oh, and by the way.... my salsa is fantastic! :o)
