It Shall Not Be Vanquished

Petal's stomach bug hit me Thursday afternoon, but I was much better on Friday and we thought we were safe to make the Northward journey. Christmas Eve in Connecticut and Christmas Day in Maine went off without a hitch. But last night Shakira was hit. Then Petal got sick again - she hadn't thrown up since last Wednesday morning so I was really surprised. I spent most of the night up with Petal and during the night I realized my brother was sick too. Jack flew back to Maryland yesterday evening, but I woke up to an email from him that he'd gotten sick in the night also. Now my mom is fighting off waves of nausea. Blech.

Another Milestone

Petal has her first stomach bug. I could get really descriptive here but I will spare you. But as I threw soiled bedding directly into the washing machine last night, I remembered reading about urban mothers schlepping bags of similarly befouled laundry to the laundromat and was so, so grateful to be here in our townhouse with the roomy basement and laundry facilities. And also incredibly grateful for Jack as we tag-teamed comforting the baby and cleaning up the mess. I just hope this bug will move swiftly and not put a damper on my baby girl's Christmas.

Fail

A woman from my Moms Club converts VHS tapes to DVDs as a home business. So I was psyched to give her the tape I'd found in my parents' house labeled "Norway '97" and have it converted to give as Christmas gifts. Until yesterday when I received an email that I had actually given her a tape of, among other things, Shakira and her friends listening to The Doors and using bad language. It sounds really funny so I'm still getting it converted, but it's hardly something I can give my grandmother for Christmas.