Wanna Come for Dinner?

We had friends over for dinner last night. Before they got here, L was complaining of a stomach ache, which doesn't happen everyday, but isn't out of the blue, either. I gave him a Tums and sent him on his way.

Our friends arrived, and we ate dinner (except for L, who said his stomach was still hurting). We were wrapping dinner up, involved in conversation, and I felt a light tapping on my shoulder. As a mom of 5 boys, I'm able to tune these types of distractions out, and was finishing up the conversation when L puked all over the floor behind me. Not just a little bit, either. This was a serious emptying of the stomach. I apologized to our guests and told them that he'd been fine all day, just a little stomach ache. We got L's clothes changed (and my shirt since he hit me in the back) and the mess cleaned up.

We were moving to the living room when L came up and tugged on my shirt with tears in his eyes and informed me that he was pretty sure Lucky III (his hamster) had died. I sent Cr downstairs, and sure enough Lucky III was dead.

As if these 2 things weren't enough entertainment for our guests, M was crying off and on (as he's prone to do). Then I realized he was saying that his mouth hurt. Luckily I recognized this as his cue that he's gonna barf. Cr ran him upstairs to our bathroom where at the last minute M turned his head and threw up all over Cr and the bathroom carpet. Got M and Cr cleaned up, Cr did a preliminary cleaning of the carpet, and we rejoined our guests.

L threw up a few more times before they left, as did M. J has had a barky-sounding cough for 2 years now, and by this time our guests were a bit jumpy and would flinch every time J coughed.

Toward the end of the evening, Z started complaining about a stomach ache. As our guests were getting up to leave, Z barfed on the living room carpet so that our guests had to step around the stain as they headed for the front door.

Thankfully our guests have a sense of humor, and will hopefully forgive us when they wake up with a stomach bug in a few days. After they left Cr and I told each other that we weren't feeling that great, and sure enough we both woke up in the middle of the night to throw up and with body aches. J woke up this morning with it. So far N is the only one who has escaped it. Each boy has kept count of how many trips they've made to the bathroom, but I'll spare you the information. L seems to be doing better, so hopefully it's just a 24 hour bug.

Oh, did I mention the boys had all been drinking red punch?