enduring chaos

Dear god I'm getting sick again, the cough-nose-sore throat-achy kind, right on the heels of the stomach flu plus Clark's illness which by the way he's still not over. He's thrown up as recently as Friday morning which makes it 5 whole days of no solid food and the poor guy is too weak to even walk. It's 5 am and I've been up with him twice and now I just can't sleep because of the stuffiness and general crappy crap and I think I'm going to hang myself.

My mom is here for a few days thank the heavens because I've got to get some sleep or at least lie on my bed and read a book or I'll lose my mind. At first carrying Clark around was sweet but now it's just exhausting. Poor Frances has had a rough week--having to be so patient and she getting so little attention as I strip and bathe and reclothe Clark and mop up vomit and mix sugar into water and hold the crying baby oh my god. She's really over it all and is letting us know. She's excited about seeing my mom, and now she'll get some undivided attention which will be great.

Yesterday afternoon my mom and I took Frances to the birthday party of one of the little girls in her preschool class while Mitch stayed home w/ Clark. It was at this place called Jump Club which has those big inflatible moon bounce things plus lots of screaming kids and germs and general chaos. This was the second party we'd been to like this and I was not particularly excited about it. When we got there my mom said, "oh, I see why you were moaning about this." These things are so weird to me--these parties. I just don't get them. After playing for awhile on the moon bounce we all pile into this tiny room, kids and baby siblings and parents with flashing cameras and the staff pouring sprite into paper cups, and the kids sit at these little tables set with princess plates and napkins and party hats while the adults line the edges of the room. There is pizza that Frances eats none of, and then at this particular party there were cupcakes plus pink princess cake plus heart shaped sunglasses plus party favor bags with candy PLUS a pinata. I started to tell her she couldn't have any candy because she'd just had a cupcake (well, the frosting and some of the cupcake) as well as gross strawberry princess cake, but then I thought what the hell. We got home at 5 pm, just in time to fix some dinner and ineffectively coerce her to sit at the table and eat some of it. (meaning: sit at the table with our dinner and holler at her to come eat something while she chased the dog.) She was a complete lunatic. She's never having sugar again.

I swear I'll never throw one of those parties. My kids will think I spoil all their fun but they can just share in others' birthday experiences at those places. We'll see if I go back on this...