Vomit Stories and Other Ramblings

Why is it that kids wait until the middle of the night to really start vomiting? Do they save it up?
Saturday night I heard Child Five groaning. As he hadn't yet caught the bug, I figured it would be good to watch him closely, so I told him to get his blanket and pillow and head for the living room. I grabbed the throw-up bowl and got him comfortable on the living room floor and put on a movie. After about 45 minutes he curled up in a ball and said, "My tummy really hurts." The bowl was under his face in .00007 seconds, just in time for the eruption. It's sad that I could feel so satisfied about that while my poor child had liquified chocolate cookie coming out of his nose.

After he finished and I wiped him up, I took the bowl into the kitchen to replace the plastic bag liner. As I walked into the dining room, Oldest Child came bolting up the stairs with her hand over her mouth. I shoved the bowl under her face and she let things go. "Watermelon?" I inquired as she stood gasping. She just nodded.

In the end, I had four of the six children in the living room in various states of discomfort. One movie ended and we started another and I lay on the floor wishing I could just leave them to it and go to bed, as I hadn't had much sleep the night before, either. Finally, Oldest Child, who had her own well-used throw-up bowl, said, "Mom, I can watch over Five. You go to bed." Bless her. It was after 2 am by that point. Five dragged his blanket and pillow down the hall about 20 minutes later and I put him back into bed. He suffered no more ill effects.
Of course nobody went to church on Sunday except me. I had to teach Relief Society at 1, so I left Six home with the girls and Husband right before my class started. I seem to have flown through this without more than a little queasiness, for which I am really grateful.

Some of you have asked me why my blog name is Eva Aurora. I can't remember if I answered this already on my blog, so I may be repeating myself: Eva Aurora is the name of one of my Swedish ancestors. I have always liked the name. I think it has a good meaning, kind of like "new dawning." I use it for privacy. Obviously I don't put any family names on here, either. I don't know it it's necessary or not to take that many precautions, but if you know me and my family I guess you can supply the names in your head. If you don't, well, these names are as good as any.

Child Four finally got to go swimming for the first time since her accident (for a description of the accident, see the post entitled "Terror in the Grass" in June's postings). She was so happy. We went and bought her some tight knit pants to cover her scars while she swims, as they can't be in the sunlight for a year, and she also slathered them with sunblock. Right now they look pretty ugly -- all red and new-looking. We'll give them some time. I had my appendix out when I was twelve and I can barely find the scar now.

I am writing my book again. I had quite a bit written before, but I decided to scrap a lot of it and start over. One of my mistakes was putting a flash-back almost within the first paragraph. Duh. There were a few other things I needed to change, plus more research to do, as the book is historical fiction. I have always loved the Old Testament with it's fantastic stories and amazing people. I remind myself over and over while reading any scriptures that the people in them were real people: complex, dynamic, flawed, human. People haven't changed that much in basic emotions and reactions to events in their lives, I think. Cultures may be different, technologies may be different, but the most basic things that make us human are the same. That's what I like exploring. Plus, there is plenty of room in the Old Testament to try and come up with reasons why the characters did what they did. You'll come across gaps of decades or centuries. Plenty of room to wiggle.

I have to go make dinner. I hope the kids' stomachs are back to normal because I'm cooking Indian tonight.