In which we are sick

Saturday afternoon we had the opportunity to go hear Kathryn Lasky read from some of her books at the American Library. To be somewhat more accurate, Sapphire and Ezio had the opportunity to hear her read. Cherry and I did what we always do when there is a big kid event at the library: grab a big stack of picture books, find an out of the way spot (not easy, as the library is pretty well packed, complete with half sized floors to allow them to squeeze more books in), and read, repeating as necessary. After the reading, the kids were allowed to ask questions, and then Mrs Lasky commented that they'd (she was here with her husband) had been having a terrible time finding taxis when they needed one, and had nearly been late to the reading as a result. Sapphire, of course, spoke up and told them that they should just take the train, that it was easy, and you never had to worry about finding them because they just came to the station. So, they asked at the checkout counter, where they were told that there was a bus that went almost directly from the library to their hotel, which, while not a train, was definitely cheaper and easier to find than a taxi.

At this point, you're probably wondering where the "ill" part comes in. Saturday night Cherry went to bed as usual, and Sapphire and Ezio tried to avoid going to bed, also as usual. (Can we watch the Olympics instead of reading in bed? Sure. [Then, after watching the Olympics and being told that it was bedtime.] But you never told us that if we watched the Olympics we wouldn't be able to read in bed. I can't go to sleep without reading in bed.) As a result, I was just trying to put them down when Cherry sat up and yelled, "I need to hoe (throw) up."

Eventually, I ended up sleeping on the couch with her, from which she rose, every 20 minutes, walked to the bathroom, threw up, dabbed at her lips with toilet paper, got a drink of water, and went back to sleep. Around 5:00 she fell asleep for good, and slept until 7:30, which is quite late for her. By noon she seemed to be mostly better, and spent an hour running around outside like a madwoman, and I was (foolishly) congratulating myself on having avoided a worse outcome. Not to mention kicking myself for having cancelled the dinner invitation that we had extended for that evening. Surely it was just something that Cherry, with her predilection for licking train windows and anything else that came her way, had come down with.

Monday morning, Sapphire came out to the living room and announced that her stomach hurt, followed by Ezio who announced the same thing. Soon thereafter I realized that I also was feeling less than stellar, and that I should probably go to the grocery store before I started feeling worse. After all, Cherry seemed to be well on the road to recovery, Blaise was feeling fine, and surely we would want to eat something over the course of the day. Hah. Blaise tried to avoid getting infected while the rest of us made regular visits to our one bathroom. (Which, by the end of the day, smelled so bad that Cherry announced that she was peeing in the shower until I had cleaned the bathroom.)

Blaise left for a series of meetings around 3:30, leaving all of us sickies to our own devices for the evening. I think Cherry ate yogurt and a slice of brioche for dinner, but I'm not exactly sure, as my memory of the evening is somewhat foggy. I know that Sapphire and Ezio were both in bed before 7 (though Sapphire woke up a few more times to throw up) and that Cherry followed of her own accord shortly thereafter. I went to bed as soon as Blaise got home. He evidently decided that he was getting sick and followed me soon after.

Tuesday the kids and I spent the day recovering (I even napped, which I never do, mostly out of a misplaced sense of guilt), and Blaise spent the day being ill. I think at this point (knocking on wood) that the kids and I are over it, and he is mostly over it. Hopefully by tomorrow he will be completely back to normal. In the meantime, I get to try to catch up on all of the things that didn't get done while people were sick.