Curveball Collection

We were supposed to leave this morning to go to South Carolina for Boone's baptism tomorrow. I stayed up late last night, got my car cleaner than it's been in months and then packed it neatly with our gear. I never have a clean car these days, let alone one that is clean and packed ahead of time. It was too good to be true. Cue the curveball.

Everyone was up at the usual 6:00 a.m., and I was just about to get busy with the last few things that needed to be done to get us ready to go. Then Osten started gagging. Repeatedly. Tom scooped him up, and the three of us (with Marci on our heels) were in our bathroom in mere seconds. The gagging progressed into heaving, and there you have our latest family curveball. Oh, but that's not all . . .

We waited until a more decent hour to call Aunt Ang to give her the news. We were chatting and commiserating about stomach bugs and sick kids in general when Osten screamed "DiarrheeeeKa!" from the bathroom. WHAT??!! Oh, but that's not all . . .

The day's activities quickly slowed, and we decided that we would all benefit from some fresh air. With Osten in a pull-up and his thickest pair of shorts for safe measure, we loaded the kids on our bikes and went for a nice 5-mile ride. It was breezy, cool and relaxing in a way that made me think of summer vacation. The rest of the afternoon was just as peaceful, and the kids went down for their naps together and slept like babies. The quiet house made me start to doubt our decision to cancel our trip. Right about then, I heard Marci stirring and babbling in her room. No sooner did I open her bedroom door and step one foot in her room when the stomach-wrenching stench of the third curveball of the day nearly knocked me to my knees.

As I breathed through my mouth, I frantically searched Marci's crib for the culprit. She seemed happy enough standing in her crib, staring at me and babbling away. Her mouth showed no signs of reverse activity of late, and I immediately began to wonder if there was a dead animal in the house. I began to scan her body for clues. While her front side was pure innocence, her back side was anything but chaste. But I thought we had graduated from blowouts! Not today. And this was a blowout for the books. It threw me for such a loop, I drew a bath, stripped Marci of her clothes, completed a preliminary bath with half a package of wipes, and set her in the tub to soak before my camera even came to mind. And since there's no photographic evidence to share, you'll have to take me at my word that we have had quite the collection of curveballs in our house today. Here's hoping that we're back to nothing but fastballs tomorrow!