The Easter Bug

For Easter this year, we were celebrating with my mom and Grandma on Saturday and at our house with friends on Sunday.  It was supposed to be a great weekend.  Easter is my favorite holiday, and I was ready!

But then Friday night, about 15 minutes after we put Gracie down, we heard her calling to us.  And as soon as I scooped her up in my arms, she threw up all over me.  And then all over her bed.  And then all over her floor.  It was horrible!  I felt so bad for her!  Chris and I got everything cleaned up, and put her back to bed in fresh jammies and fresh sheets.  She never woke up again, so we figured it was just something she ate.

But promptly at 6:00am on Saturday morning, she started throwing up again.  And didn’t stop this time until about 10:30.  Oh, it was awful!  Is there anything worse than when your kids have a stomach bug?  Poor bunnies!  By 11:00, Gracie had stopped throwing up for a while, and Chris and I decided that maybe it was finished and we would be okay to drive to my mom’s for Easter lunch.  But Gracie got sick two times on the way in the car.  By the time we got to my mom’s, she seemed to have reached a stopping point.

We ended up having a really great Easter lunch anyway.  My mom went all Pinterest-y, and it totally paid off!  Look at her centerpiece for the table!  Isn’t that perfect for Easter?

And look at these deviled eggs. Bean was a little nervous about eating colored eggs…

We hung out with my mom and Grandma for a while, taking it easy for Gracie Girl. It was so nice to sit around and enjoy the beautiful day together. Mom has a great sun porch out back, and we sat out there almost all day.

Finally, when Gracie was getting a little more spunk in her, we headed outside to hunt some Easter eggs. Chris and I hid them, and we color coded them for the kids. We knew Bean would get to them faster than Gracie, and we had to hide some out in the open for her but we didn’t want Bean Man taking those first. So, we told Bean that he had to find the green and blue eggs, and Gracie hunted the pink and purple. Orange eggs were free for anyone.

Bean Man found the Golden Egg, which had $2 in it. You would have thought that he’d won the lottery!

All that hunting wore Gracie out, so we spent the rest of the afternoon in this position.

And that’s when the fever started. She spiked a high fever while napping, which prompted me to cancel our Easter lunch on Sunday. We had planned to have four families over, all with kids under 4 years old. With a stomach bug running through our house, I could just picture everyone calling me the next week saying their little one was down with the bug. Rather than get everyone sick, we canceled our lunch. I was really bummed because I’d planned this huge meal, and had spent all afternoon on Friday making party favors for the kids. But sickness comes, and you gotta do what you gotta do. I think we’re going to reschedule and have a cook out in a couple weeks instead. Rain checks are better than canceling!

This morning when we woke up, Gracie was still running a fever, but hadn’t thrown up since Saturday afternoon. So, we took our chances and put her in an Easter dress and headed to church. We kept the kids with us instead of putting them in the nursery so that we didn’t share our germs with our church friends.

When we got home, Chris showed me that he had hidden his Gator spirit under his church clothes all morning. Turns out it didn’t help. Which means my bracket is shot because I had the Gators winning it all. Stupid Gators. I should have known better…

When we got home, we opened Easter baskets from Grandmomma. These were the third Easter baskets of the weekend, but the only baskets we took pictures of!

Bean got these giant blow up “punchers,” as he calls them. But Grandmomma only gave him one set, which means we have nothing to defend ourselves with. So, basically, Bean’s been pummeling us all day. But – HEY! – it’s Easter!

Over the course of the day, Gracie’s stomach bug has moved into the other end of the digestive system, and we’ve been having blow out diapers all day. Because she is so sick on her stomach, she isn’t eating anything. She wasn’t drinking anything for a while, either, and I was so worried we’d end up at the ER for dehydration. But, thankfully, she started drinking Gatorade and Pedialyte late this afternoon. She’s eating a few saltines, but not many. And she’s still running that fever. Chris is going to stay home with her tomorrow, and I see a visit to the pediatrician in our near future.

Overall, it wasn’t the Easter that I was expecting to have, but it was still full of the things that matter. Lots of family, lots of food, lots of jellybeans, and lots of thankful prayers.

HAPPY EASTER FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!