Vacation Day

Who knew there would come a time in my life when caring for three kids with the stomach flu would constitute a day off?  But that is what it's come to.  Yesterday was a busy day full of voice lessons, ballet classes, homework, an audition and swim team, interspersed with sprints to the bathroom on my part and vomiting down my shirt every time I changed my clothes on Ptolemy's part.  It was Extreme Motherhood.  I felt like a warrior, but two days of battle would have been one too many.

So today, with Ari and Golda falling victim to the flu, I cleared and cancelled and rescheduled until all I had to do was hand each kid a bowl and say "good luck!"  Thanks to Xanthe's field trip and Emily inviting her over after, I enjoyed a full day of sunny stillness and naps with a soft, sleepy baby.  The delicious quiet was broken only by occasional gagging sounds from the girls, learning the life lesson of holding your own hair back when you throw up.  "Tough love," I thought as I rolled over and pulled up my blanket.

Now I am rested and ready to go into battle again.  I still have two kids and a husband who haven't caught the flu yet, and you can bet it will strike on a night when there's play practice and a band concert.  Bring it on.