I’ve been feeling very bah humbug lately. It’s so unlike me. By now I’m usually driving my husband crazy. Family Christmas movie nights. Baking cookies. Gingerbread houses. Elf antics. Decorations. I’m just struggling to get there this year!

We’ve had so much going on the last few weeks. I feel like a need a vacation from life.

Over Thanksgiving break, my daughter was sick. Over a 2-week period we had battled 2 ear infections, strep throat, hand/foot/mouth, and thrush (from all the antibiotics). She was just recovering when we had her scheduled to have her tonsils and adenoids removed. While they were in there they put tubes in both ears. She came out feeling utterly miserable!

Melia (age 4) is our little drama queen. She keeps things interesting around here. When she gets sick, she battles taking medicine. It usually ends with us needing to hold her down and force her. Whining reaches new heights. I will give her credit, she’s done fairly well with the surgery recovery. Our biggest issue has been pain control at night. The entire first week we would have 1-2 episodes each night of up to an hour of just crying. Waiting for the medicine to kick in so she could go back to sleep. Exhausting for all of us.

The last week, Sienna (almost 6 months) has decided going to bed at night is not an option. This is the baby that rarely naps at all. Usually by bed time, she’s ready and it’s fairly easy to get her down. This week it has required around 45 minutes of holding her and bouncing her in my arms. Exhausting!! Once she’s out, she basically sleeps through the night. Waking just once for a bottle.

The night before last, we hit a peak (at least I hope it was). Cameron (age 7) complained of a stomach ache shortly before bed. We thought he was just looking to stay home from school. Well I was shocked when I returned from putting the baby down to find he was already asleep! The kid that finds any reason to stay awake in his bed.

It was just after 9 PM. You know how it goes, Mom sits down and all hell breaks loose.

I had just sat down after what I hoped was Sienna’s last wakeful moment for the night. I heard Cameron say “Mom”. As I walked toward his room, I swore I heard it start raining. Nope! He was a fountain of vomit. All over the carpet. All down the side of his bed. By the time I got the trash can, he was done. The first words out of his mouth? “Well, I guess I’m not going to school tomorrow”. Well played little man.

Don’t ask me how to get vomit smell out of carpet. I haven’t figured it out yet. Obviously my scrubbing and spraying with “Kids & Pets All Purpose Stain & Odor Remover” isn’t working! I’m one step away from just closing his room off forever and burning it down.

To top it off, Melia got a gusher of a post-surgery nose bleed. Why not?! I hadn’t fully cleaned myself up from scrubbing a vomit stained floor. Let’s just continue the fun.

I wish my attempt at holding it all together looked as beautiful and calm as the photo! Trust me, it didn’t! Thank God for my husband! David was right there digging out the shop vac, hauling blankets to the washer. We had all we could do to contain our laughter. I always say, in moments like this you have to laugh or else you will cry! Well, we did a lot of laughing.

I laughed until at our next medicine date with Melia at 4 AM! That’s when my stomach started. Karma? Maybe.

Either way, these last 2 days have been miserable! Just add it to the last 3 weeks, and I’m so ready for a vacation. All I kept thinking as I was up to my elbows in vomit? Why was no one coming to step in and take over as I was yelling for Mom?!

I’m exhausted. Mentally. Physically. I need to pull out of this funk. Bah Humbug!