To Sit Back and Enjoy

On Tuesday, December 7, Charlotte and Elijah participated in their homeschool Christmas program.  But it was very nearly a miss.

We usually have co-op on Fridays, but, for our last one, there was a conflict with the church where we meet.  So, co-op was rescheduled for Monday.  However, on Sunday night, I started feeling a tad sick.  It was nothing major, but it was definitely enough to put me off my feed.  The baby had been having diarrhea since Friday, but I had attributed it to teething, as his appetite hadn’t been affected and he wasn’t acting sick.

Boy, was I wrong.

By 11:00 on Sunday night, Elijah was throwing up.  By 7:00 on Monday morning, Charlotte threw up.  I was starting to believe that Jeremy had contracted a stomach virus somewhere and happily shared it with the rest of us. 

Sometime in the middle of the night when Elijah was throwing up, Jeff decided that it might be best if he stayed home on Monday, as he wasn’t feeling great by then, and I had to go to co-op the next morning, at least for a little while, to pass back papers and get the Christmas party I had planned for my students started.  Plus, I had 20 treat boxes to pass out to the kids’ teachers.  Argh!

So, the kids all stayed home with Jeff while I went to co-op for a couple hours and took care of my business.  By the time I got home with a two-liter of Sierra Mist, Charlotte and Elijah were feeling a lot better and didn’t throw up again.  It seemed that they had gotten by with a 24-hour bug, thank God.

That evening and the next, though, Jeremy vomited, in addition to his other problems.  Still, his appetite wasn’t affected, but his little body was still not processing food correctly either.  So, we broke out the Pedialyte.

However, by Tuesday evening, Charlotte and Elijah were both better, so they were able to participate in the Christmas program.  Charlotte’s age group (the 5th and 6th graders) performed three short plays on which they had been working the entire semester.  Charlotte was a narrator for two of them and had a small speaking part in the other one.  As always, she did a great job!

Elijah’s age group performed a musical program called “Christmas around the World,” in which they sang carols that originate or are popular in different countries.  Elijah had a small narration part about Christmas in France and was pulled out in a small group to sing a part of “The Holly and the Ivy” during Christmas in England.  I could actually hear his voice singing out during the songs…fabulous!

What was really different about this particular Christmas program was my total lack of involvement in any aspect of it.  As a homeschooling mom, I am a very involved parent by the simple fact that I am the teacher.  But for this co-op, I am, for once, not teaching my own kids!  So this program was a complete surprise to me, and I was able to sit back and just enjoy my children participating in it.  My only contribution was two dozen cookies for the dessert reception afterwards.

Well, I sort of sat back and enjoyed it.  Jeff and I, of course, had to take turns holding a very antsy baby who was not quite well.  But, in spite of that, we very much enjoyed the show.

Unfortunately, by the end of the program, Jeff was stricken with the stomach virus, the final victim of that nastiness.  He spent the night on the couch, shivering and trying not to throw up.  Fortunately, his bout only lasted about 24 hours, too, which was particularly good since he was headed for Thailand on Friday.  Yikes.

Compared to the rest of the family, I wasn’t really sick at all.

I actually called the doctor on Wednesday about Jeremy.  He had never acted sick, but he had also cut severely back on his wet diapers, which is never a good sign in a baby.  The nurse told me to keep a close watch on that, give him Pedialyte whenever he had a dirty diaper, and make sure that he still had tears and saliva.  Happily, the next day, I could tell that he was past the worst of it, and, by Saturday, his diapers were completely back to normal.

And I was glad to see the end of that.

And I am also glad to say that I am caught up on happenings around the Wilkes house.  My next post will very likely be the Christmas letter…stay tuned!