Burger King De-Throned

I said a while back, when talking about being a parent, to try and get sick at different times than your significant other (provided you have a significant other). This makes it easier to watch your child and it take a lot of stress of you, the sick one. It does add some stress to the non-sick one but their time is coming and you're going to pay it back.

Always be certain, you WILL pay it back. Hopefully you don't mind though.

Well, the other day was the first time that both Kim and I were sick at the same time and since it was food poisoning (provided by your friends at Burger King's breakfast menu) it was a little... sporadic. At first I didn't feel bad, Kim was the first to start hurting. But then I started to not feel well and from about 11:30 in the morning on both Kim and I were very much of the "I don't want to move" mentality. But poor Annie wanted to move and I volunteered to take her outside on the porch. She could play with her crayons and I could lie in the chair and do my best not to die.

I think the worst part about getting this kind of sick is the build up. Once you start expelling whatever you have inside of you OUTSIDE of you from whatever entryway or exit, it's more of a feeling that you feel better for a little while and then it's back to the bathroom. That's what it was for us, too. We both felt so bad until about 3:00pm when we started asking each other "You got her? I need to go!" as we're running to the bathroom. I'm sure Annie didn't know what was going on.

A couple times Annie was privy to seeing us puke though and that must have been awful. She doesn't have any experience with it so I'm sure it didn't make her want to get sick, no sympathy puking here, but she didn't like seeing her mommy and daddy yelling at, say, the sink.

Last night we were so beat up that we decided she had a dedicated bed time and hopefully she'll be able to go to sleep. Kim was in the bedroom laying down because I told her to and I was getting Annie in her PJs. I was about halfway up the snaps when I broke out in a sudden sweat, a sure sign of getting sick VERY soon. It's not like I could have asked over the monitor for Kim to come in and help out, it would have been too late. I didn't want to put Annie on the ground just to upset her more when I'm supposed to be calming her down for bed either. So I hurried up with the snaps, put her in her crib, turned on the glow worm, stuck a pacifier in her mouth, threw some blankets on her and ran out of the room, turning the lights off and closing the door HOPING to make it to my bathroom but I ended up making it to the kitchen sink instead (I'm not complaining since we have carpet).

Annie did indeed to go sleep.

Kim and I however were up for a long time, drifting in and out of consciousness and utilizing both the bathroom and our puke buckets.

It was a long day and a LONG night and this is why you want to be sick at different times.


I will say that, in the past, I’ve often thought about how sweet it would be to have family living nearby. Usually this coincides with me thinking about how nice it would be to be out of the military (a feeling that comes and goes). It’s just that I know that if I wasn’t in the military I would probably be living in beautiful Tucson, AZ and my in laws would be nearby.

And what a resource that would be. I would LOVE to be able to call someone close to the family, like more family or really close friends and say “Look, things aren’t looking so hot for Kim and me right now. Would you mind watching Annie for the night/weekend?” That would be pretty much the most awesome thing ever. It would also be great to have babysitters for when we just want to go out and have dinner, watch a movie, maybe take a short trip, just the two of us.

I’m sure there are some out there crying out “bad father, bad father!” but sometimes you really want to get away and if you can get away for just a little while you’ll come back feeling rejuvenated and ready to step back into that role. It is NOT like I’m talking about dumping her off with her grandparents for a month or anything. I love having my Annie around, it’s just that sometimes you want to do adult stuff without worrying about bedtimes, high chairs, diapers etc etc. By no means am I not appreciating my daughter.

But yes, never before have I wished so freaking HARD to be near family. It was bad enough worrying about Kim and me at the same time (there was lots of “How are you feeling, sweetie?” as you lay there feeling like crap, but worrying about Annie was kicking my ass all night, having her see her dad like that.

But oh well, I guess. She’ll get over it and we’ll go back to normal. I’m here, able to write today and yes, I don’t feel top notch, I don’t feel all that up for ANYTHING but at least I’m not as bad as I was yesterday. I kind of wish that if I were to ever get sick again that it would be like this with a fast bounce-back time. It’s a lot better than the slow build up and slow recovery to wellness (though there really is nothing like that first day when you wake up and feel GOOD again, is there?). Yup, quickly getting sick and quickly getting better. That’s where it’s at.