christmas: a recap

So, you know how hard you work towards Christmas? The shopping, planning, working extra hard so you can take some time off, the wrapping, the cooking (not me), the baking, etc etc? It's AMAZING how all the anticipation that is worked up from all of those preparations can fizzle into misery when you are approximately .2 seconds from your mother's house, so you can pick her up and head off to church on Christmas Eve, and your toddler projectile vomits all over your car, her carseat, and, most importantly, the very specific and clean and specially-bought Christmas outfit you wrestled her into just 20 minutes before.

We thought we rallied and saved the day when we just had my mother go to church herself and did a load of pukey laundry and re-dressed Jane, but then my mother ended up getting into a fender-bender in the parking lot at church, and because she was then outside talking to the cops my brother was inside the church waiting for her alone, then Greg gets a call that his 97-year-old grandmother is in the hospital....and while we did manage to get through dinner and present-opening and one really vicious political argument between my brother and myself, Jane then woke up from her pack and play at around 10:30 (she DID go to sleep in it after all!) and puked again. SO, it looked like we couldn't blame the first puking on her just drinking milk too fast and coughing it all back up ..... it seemed she had a full-fledged bug, only confirmed when she puked AGAIN on the way home.

I really have to pat myself on the back a little bit here. While I did indulge in a pity party (YOU'VE GOT TO BE EFFING KIDDING ME ALL OF OUR CHRISTMAS PLANS ARE CANCELED WE HAVE A SICK KID ON CHRISTMAS OMG I HATE PUKE OMG I AM GOING TO CATCH IT AND BE SICK ON MY VACATION THAT I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO SOO MUCH) I didn't actually cry or anything. I'll save that for when I'm puking during my time off.

Jane was fairly OK yesterday morning and loved opening all of her presents, and so we decided to brave it and head off to my in-laws, after my mother-in-law said it was OK (I didn't want to bring a potentially-contageous child over without letting them know). And she did really great. Although she had only had Pedialyte in the morning, she ate crackers and chips and onion dip and a roll and chocolate cake (I know, I know, WTF am I doing as a parent, but it was either let her do it or listen to her cry) and she kept playing this game with me where I flip her over my shoulder on the couch (again, I know, I know, but AGAIN, it was either I do it or listen to her cry) - so filling my kid up with junk and then treating her like a giant martini shaker isn't the BEST way to deal with a child recovering from a stomach bug, but hey, she was laughing, and it was good.

But now. It's after 7 a.m. and she's still asleep. While some parents would love this fact, it is SCARING me because she only sleeps late when she's sick. And I REALLY want her to be better. I hate it when she's sick and it makes me nervous and I just want to have another puke-free day. Is that too much for a girl to ask for?

I hope you had a Merry Christmas, if that's your thing.