"Why is sugar water
so good?!"
Those are the words I was greeted with when I came down the stairs this morning. Zoë, Alexander, and Phoebe were having a tea party for breakfast, with oatmeal and a little charcuterie board of animal crackers, craisins, and pistachios. They had peppermint tea with sugar. Or, in Phoebe's case, plain ol' sugar water.
"I just don't understand how it can be this good!" she said.
"Because it's just...sugar..." I told her. "People tend to like sugar."
We skipped swim practice this morning so we could all just sleep and sleep and sleep. Alexander is feeling better. Phoebe seems to be on the mend. They got up with Zoë early in the morning. Zoë and Rachel have what seem to be lingering head colds. And Benjamin crashed hard last night.
He was perfectly fine all day. He even said the closing prayer in sacrament meeting.
And then he just...crashed. He slept in until around 11:30 this morning, as did multiple other people in the house. We are a tired household these days.
We had just been lining up all the awake kids (Rachel, Zoë, Alex, and Phoebe) to take their temperatures (mostly normal today—just Phoebe with a fever still!) when Benjamin came skidding down the hallway, crashing through our little group, to fling himself over the toilet in the bathroom. We all grimaced at each other while he puked.
"How are you feeling, Benjamin?" I asked when his regurgitation noises had subsided.
In response he hurled some more.
"Not up for conversation, eh?" I asked.
More retching.
*****
Now, Phoebe has thrown up a few times with this sickness, but those instances have clearly been linked to uncontrollable coughing fits. Benjamin's stomach issues seem like a whole new set of symptoms.
While he was in the midst of vomiting, Miriam came running up the stairs screaming.
The basement stairs spit traffic into the hallway right at the bathroom door, but somehow she missed the fact that Benjamin was in there puking and rounded the corner to find our preassembled crew.
"Uh-oh. What's wrong?" we asked, like...what else could possibly be happening?
"I GOT A 5!!!!" she squealed, jumping up and down.