The Blah Bowl

This is not for the squeamish.


As I mentioned swim lessons started Monday.


This fact turned out to be incidental to our week.


Well unless you consider that it was AT swim lessons that we confirmed Jake was indeed not feeling well.


You see, Jake woke up Monday morning complaining of a tummy ache. This is progress as Jake is not very good at communicating his aches and pains. I however, assumed he was just hungry as neither of the kids had eaten a very good dinner and were still recovering from our week away from home. To be sure, I had him eat a piece of toast instead of his usual pop tart. Afterward, he said he felt better and so we suited up and covered ourselves in sunscreen for the first day of lessons. Jake's first day went really well - he went straight to his teacher, got in without incident and followed directions well. I then set him up to sit under the shade canopy on his towel with snack and Leapster in hand so he could relax while I took Jadyn in the water for her Mommy & Me class. During class I noticed Jake had set down the game and layed down on the towel. At one point, I even got out to check on him at which time he assured me he was just tired. After Jadyn's class we were all drying off and packing up when Jake's breakfast and snack made a return appearance as he puked all over the pool deck. I felt awful to say the least - first for pushing him to come when he obviously had not felt well and secondly for bringing a contagious sick child to infect all these other kids. Oops!


Once home, I layed blankets over the couch and layed him down to rest comfortably. I brought him a big yellow mixing bowl and explained that if he felt sick again, he could "blah" as he calls it into the bowl thus not making a mess all over me, himself, the carpet, the couch, etc. etc. This is the first time I felt Jake was capable of this and something I remember doing when I had the flu as a child. Well Jake took my words so literally, he would not move without making sure his "blah bowl" was right there with him. It became like a security blanket. Even when he somewhat started feeling better and got up to play, he carried it around with him. Here is about to fall asleep with it almost attached to his face:





He seemed to have just had an upset stomach. He ate some things that agreed with him and some things that didn't. And even with the bowl right there in his hands, he still managed to puke all over the kitchen floor while I was cheering him on, "The bowl Jake, use the bowl. That's what it is there for!" This continued until Wednesday morning, at which time we thought he would be feeling better, when instead it became worse. I won't get into details. Suffice to say he had a full blown bout of the stomach flu. But here he is late Wednesday evening, finally feeling better and eagerly anticpating his first full meal (noodle soup and popcicle) since getting sick:


So Jake is better. He missed 2 days of swim lessons, which is disappointing but what can you? Is there ever a good time to get sick? If it was last week we would have been on vacation. If it was the week before it was Jadyn's birthday and his promotion. It never would have been good timing. So we are all treading cautiously here at the Funny Nose House. So far, so good but the other shoe could drop at any moment.............................