It Runs In The Family - part I

It Runs In The Family

I've been trying to do two posts a week but found it tough this week. A stomach bug is making its way through the household and myself and Hannah have been up to our elbows in dirty nappies while dealing with our own digestion issues. Hence the title - see what I did there!! Here goes a brief running diary of the week – I did it again!!

It started well, Saturday was great. We went out to visit my mother and then took her and the kids up to the local park where we met my brother, his wife, his kid and his nephew. My sister also came over to say hello. It was a glorious sunny afternoon and the boys loved running around in the wide open spaces. I’m sure that it’s a good thing that my boys aren’t clingy but it would be nice if they looked around from time to time just so I could pretend that they cared where I was.

A little aside about my nephew. The child loves food. Really loves it. My mother made us all chips for lunch. At one stage my brother was trying to cool a chip so he could give it to Fat Chops. FC took the chip but quickly handed it back because it was too hot. I had to laugh because not only did my nephew have an un-cooled chip in his mouth but he had one in each hand too. From here on in, he will be referred to as Dusty, short for Dusty Bin but he came very, very close to being stuck with Fatter Chops.

At the park I witnessed the first recorded incident of the boys bullying another kid. My brother’s nephew had brought a little ball with him that my boys quickly adopted. It didn’t seem to bother him at the time but at one stage he decided he would like to play with his own ball and had the temerity to kick it away from Monkey Boy. Well, MB let him no in no uncertain terms and at the top of his voice that this would not be tolerated. Then, in an unusual outbreak of teamwork, Fat Chops followed up by chasing Dusty's cousin off. There was no more attempts to play with the ball. As much as I was unhappy with the bullying, it was nice to see them working together for a change.

On Monday the bug got a foothold in the house and started to make itself at home. We got up in the morning and Fat Chops started to gag as I was getting him dressed. He followed it up with a NASTY nappy afterwards. And we were off and running – last one, I promise. We commenced a program of withholding food on the assumption that it would pass within 24 hours.

On Tuesday morning at about 3am I heard the porcelain telephone ringing with an urgent call for me. I ended up having a long conversation and the following morning realized that I wouldn’t be able to go to work as I couldn’t risk a forty minute car journey without toilet facilities. Being generally a positive person I tried to make the best of it. I went back to bed and caught up with some sleep in between dashes to the en suite and then settled down to watch the World Cup match in the afternoon. Unfortunately, Paraguay versus Japan was not a great contest and did little to lift my spirits until the penalty shootout. I soon realized that I was in a better place than the poor Japanese player who missed the crucial kick.

The hardest part of the whole episode came on Tuesday evening. Obviously the boys couldn't be sick at the same time so we had the joys of trying to starve Monkey Boy while surreptitiously feeding Fat Chops. I put on two slices of toast for the increasingly badly named Fat Chops without thinking and cut it into small pieces for Hannah to feed him while I tried to entertain Monkey Boy. They don’t miss many tricks anymore though. I had only turned my back for a minute and he had opened the bin and was straining on his tippy toes trying to reach the crusts that I had just thrown in there. It's bizarre dragging your son away from the bin knowing on one hand how funny an image that is while your heart is breaking that you can't give him a biscuit or a bottle to ease his hunger pangs.

There was one other silver lining from the week. The boys are at an age where they only ever remain still if the Wiggles are on TV. Since they were feeling lethargic after the bug they were more than happy to cuddle up with me on the couch and watch Spongebob Squarepants [I could probably write a whole other post about how sneakily inappropriate parts of that show are. I love it!]. It’s a rare treat as it is and soon they will be disgusted by the mere thought of sharing a couch with their parents so we made the most of it.