Well, it just sort of continued from where we were last night. Breanna was sick again twice in the night, and two more times today. On top of that, I feel horrible myself. I can’t warm up no matter what I do (I’m waiting on a kettle to boil right now in the hopes that tea will help), my stomach feels very volatile, and my legs are a giant ache.

The hard part really is that while feeling like doing the cat thing and crawling into a closet to die, I actually have to take care of someone else who is also sick. On the other hand, it’s not all that bad. Hayley (who feels gosh-darn-dandy thankyouverymuch) is in school for a large part of the day so she’s entertained at least, and Breanna isn’t a newborn who wants to be walked around all day – she spent most of the day sitting on my lap while I did my best to work as much as I phsyically could, and she also slept on me while I laid on the couch. And at least we’re keeping each other warm with body heat.

Plus George is really helpful even though he’s under the weather himself – he’s under orders to take it easy for the next few days but he’ll still get Hayley what she needs or hold Breanna if I need to pee.

So we’re surviving, but honestly I’m hoping this is a short-term gastro. Speaking to my friend about it this evening, I found out that there’s one going around our area and some daycare facilities were even shut down because the staff was sick and the toys and surfaces all needed disenfecting. Still, I’ve seen Breanna perk up a few times today so hope prevails. Tonight, about ten minutes after she had puked again, she was lying on a towel on the couch watching some cartoons. Hayley started making fart noises (what, that isn’t standard in your home too?) really loudly and even though I was down the hall putting fresh sheets on the bed, I heard Breanna burst into gales of laughter. When Hayley stopped, Breanna weakly called out, “again ‘Aylay, again!”

Only in our family can fart humor still be totally appreciated even while you’re sick.

I woke up at 6:30 this morning to a ton of snow (that’s not the surprise, we knew it was coming). George and I were debating whether or not to send Hayley to school seeing as how we couldn’t see much of the street and it appeared that we no longer had sidewalks. We put the radio on and discovered her school – and most of the other elementary and high schools – were closed anyway, so we quietly went back to bed and everyone slept past eight this morning. Yay, snow day!

I have to admit, my once-teenage-self was jealous because not once in my life did our schools ever close. Kids today, so pampered!

The second surprise was less pleasant. As Breanna watched “Go Diego, Go” before bed, I was cleaning up the toys and she decided to come see what I was doing. Completely out of the blue, she suddenly started gagging and then she promptly puked all over the (new!) rug, her toy, herself, and me. So that was fun.

She was okay until I carried her to the bathroom to wash her up, and then her OCD kicked in when she noticed some was on her. She can’t stand things on her hands, so she started crying and saying, “off! OFF!” I wiped her down and tossed her in a bath, and she perked back up right away. Still, it took a lot out of her because it took her no time to fall asleep. She’s been restless in her sleep and George and I had to pause our movie three times so I could go check on her but each time she conked out again within two minutes. Poor baby, it was her first time actually vomiting.

Let’s hope she’s better by tomorrow!

Over in my review blog, I reviewed a great game for young kids called Jump Start World, which I received courtesy of Parent Bloggers Network. Feel free to check out what I thought if you’re in the market for a fun game that helps your kids learn at the same time.

The great thing about a party is the obvious chance to hang out with friends and, in this case, see the kids having fun together. Today, though, I got to enjoy the three best things about the day AFTER the party:

1. Sleeping in. When we have a late night, it means we get to enjoy sleeping later than normal. Today it was about 9:45*. Ahh.
2. The clean home. Because if I go to the trouble of maniacally cleaning everything up the day of the actual party, I’ll be damned if I’m going to let it all slide the day after. The day that follows a party, I usually clean everything up to the point of looking just like it did five minutes before guests arrived. Then I get to sit and enjoy a clean, orderly home for the rest of the day.
3. The food. My biggest fear when I throw a party is that I will not have enough food to feed everyone. As a result we go overboard and get more than we need. I had made two big lasagnas, plus we had chicken nuggets, two kinds of battered cheese puffs, different pates, cheeses, crackers, bread sticks, chips, pretzels, vegetable platter, fruit platter, and two cakes. We had a ton left over. I love the day after a party because I have a load of food to munch on throughout the day. For lunch I ate about 25 pounds of cheese with crispy breadsticks and that was awesome.

Now I just have to get to bed so I can stop feeling so tired.

*Sleeping in ended up biting us in the ass though. Breanna was tired enough that she was asleep by 8:45 (not to mention the fact that she fell asleep in her little chair at 2:30 this afternoon). Hayley, however, was still awake at 10:30. I’m too afraid to go see if she’s asleep yet because I might cry if she is.

After Breanna’s birthday party today I realize I must be getting old. Once upon a time I could party it up until the wee hours with no trouble at all. For years now, we’ve always combined kids’ parties with adults getting together too, since we’re all one big group of friends with kids of similar ages.

Tonight, Breanna is in bed sleeping, Hayley is in bed trying to avoid sleep, most people are gone, and only a few of George’s friends remain. I could swear that it’s midnight at least and it’s not even 11 pm yet. Although part of me wants to crawl into bed, I think I’ll make a cup of tea, eat a slice of the Caillou cake I made, clean up a few last things, and then hit the pillow.

Plenty of pictures will be on the way at some point, but first I must sleep to recover from my little one’s party!

(I’m participating in Holidailies, an entry a day throughout December with occasional time off due to holidays if necessary, so if an entry a day in November wasn’t enough, now you get even more.)