AndyO Blog

Well, the entire family got sick with a norovirus over the past week. This was definitely not one of those weeks that I'll treasure as a parent (then again, maybe it's true that comedy is the Woody Allen formula: Tragedy + Time = Comedy. We'll see.)

Here's what happened:

• Saturday morning: Cameron throws up. He can't go fishing with Uncle Erik. Within about 2-3 hours, he's outside playing. We all thought, "Wow, he must have had food poisoning or something."
• Sunday: Brenda doesn't feel great, but she doesn't get sick. By late evening, Drew wakes up screaming. I find him throwing up in his crib (I actually didn't know right away, since I didn't turn on the lights).
• Monday: Brenda stays home with Drew. Cam goes back to school. Later: Cameron throws up again. He's acting fine in about 20 minutes, but we decide to have him stay home from school. Drew is still not better.
• Tuesday: Brenda stays home with both boys. Brenda gets the virus on around 5:00.
• Wednesday (early morning): I get the virus. Brenda stays home with Drew and me. Cameron goes to school.
• Thursday: We're all eating again. We go to Snappy Dragon for dinner to celebrate.
• Friday: Everyone is back at school and work.

I hear a lot of people talking about germs these days. They use hand cleaner, anti-bacterial soap, try to run away when they hear you cough. But as a parent, you have no choice but to face all those germs head-on. As a parent, it's a 100% probability that you will be thrown up on. I guess you can only take solace in the fact that your parents went through the same thing with you. It's twisted karma.

I'm hoping we don't see Mr. Norovirus around this house for a long, long time.