In the land of sick kids...

(Warning: if you get disgusted easily, you probably shouldn't read this post.)

Eli has had a very off week. It all started on Friday with a severe seasonal allergy attack. The weather had been warm on Thursday and I had let both kids play outside and roll around in the grass, etc. Boy, did I regret that when they both woke up Friday with the worst case of seasonal allergies we have experienced since we moved to Colorado almost 18 months ago - they had sneezing, itchy faces, runny noses, watery eyes, dry hacky coughs and scratchy throats galore.

They both got Zyrtec'd up (with an extra dose of cough suppressant during the night). The most severe part of this round of allergies lasted about 48 hours with things starting to get a little better by Sunday evening. Jacob was completely better in about 4 days and Eli still has a runny nose from it.

On top of all this, Eli has had something else going on. I have no idea what because he exhibits no signs of anything actually being wrong (unless he's getting a molar, which I have been able to feel for several months, so I have no idea if it's actually about to rupture or not....). He just hasn't been himself. He will be completely happy and then will just burst out crying for seemingly no reason and will cry off and on for ages. He has also had random diarrhea throughout the week and his eczema is seeming pretty bad right now. The poor kid, just doesn't feel well and I don't know how to make him feel better.

Last night we met some friends that are visiting from Oklahoma at Zio's for dinner and he pretty much just sat there and cried the entire time. He wasn't really disruptive, just whining and crying (not that loud, obnoxious, take-your-kid-out kind of cry...), he just wasn't settled. He also didn't eat much. We all came over to our house after dinner and put Eli to bed pretty close to 9 (normal bedtime is 7:30) and he was exhausted and went straight to sleep. He woke up once during the night kind of whining and all I had to do was go in and settle him and he went back to sleep until about 7 this morning. 7:00 is good for me, because as I've mentioned before, Friday's are my off days and I like to be left alone until as late as the kids will sleep!

However, I definitely didn't expect what happened this morning.... I laid in bed for a few minutes after they came in with their "good mornings!" and they went in their room to drag some toys out of the closet. About 7:10 I was making my bed and Jacob comes in and says "mommy, I just stepped in something that was yucky." So, being the uber smart mom that I am, I asked him what it was and he didn't know! Honestly, I thought it was snot because I had just heard Eli have a sneezing fit and since he's had a yucky nose, I figured he'd sprayed snot on the carpet while sneezing - I ONLY WISH IT WERE THAT SIMPLE.

I went in there and he showed me in the hallway a very yucky, slimy BROWN spot. EWWW, no, no, no, no, nooooooo, it can't be! Oh contrare my friend, it WAS. Eli had just had some of the most disgusting diarrhea I have ever seen (thankfully it had just happened and he hadn't climbed back in his bed or sat on the carpet or anything). Let me just say it was GROSS. It was running down his legs, the leg holes of his shorts were covered in it, there was some on his shirt and a few drips here and there on the carpet. Thankfully he hadn't tried to play with it or wipe it or anything. I had Jacob rush to get me a towel from the bathroom to lay Eli on, got the entire bag of unopened wipes out and began to get as much off of him as possible. Then, Jacob was sent downstairs to the container in the laundry room where we keep our extra "walmart" bags and was instructed to bring me two, which he did wonderfully! I cleaned Eli as much as possible and then plopped him in the tub for a good scrubbing! And a scrubbing he got! While he was soaking for a minute in the bath (yes, I kept a close eye on him and didn't let him drown) I cleaned the remaining spots from the carpet - did you know Huggies baby wipes work amazingly well on carpet.... gathered up all the poop-infested cloth items into one bag and all the cleanup materials into the other.

Eli got out of the bath a happy and clean camper, got dressed and went on his merry way like nothing ever happened! I was left with rinsing poopy shorts in the toilet (yes, the rubber gloves came in handy once again!) then a load of laundry using VERY HOT water (too much soap and a TBSP of vinegar were also added) and then spraying half a can of air freshener throughout the house, because you do know that diarrhea doesn't smell like just regular poop, right?! Then he got a mega does of a probiotic (good bacteria to help level out the intestinal bacterial imbalance he is experiencing).

Oh yeah, and all of this was accomplished before 8:00 this morning, what a way to begin the day!