Throw Up, and the Terror That Ensues

Funky day yesterday, which led into an even funkier night. Berit was overflowing with excitement Thursday morning, because we were going to her friend's house where they have one of those blow-up bouncers. "We'll take turns jumping," she told me, doing one of those excited moves where kids jerk their knees and elbows like they're almost going to jump but don't. So we get to our friends' house, and her little buddy there is spirited, as they say. Which is good for Berit, who is so serious. But Berit got immediately intimidated, and spent the majority of the morning clinging to my leg while the other children had a blast playing in the living room. When it was time to go outside to the bouncer, Berit was actually shaking with excitement. She told all the moms she was going to jump, and she was first when it was blowing up. So once it's inflated, the other girls take their shoes off and jump in. (I should mention that the other girls are just-turned-two and 22 months old. Berit is the oldest at 2 1/2. Doesn't make a huge difference but to me it makes this whole thing even more ridiculous, since she's "wiser." Arguably.) Berit right away backs up to me and puts on this mask of avoidance. "Let's go inside," she says. She clearly doesn't want to jump while the others are in there. Long story short, she finally gets in after much bribing with cookies, only to see an ant and flip out and require that we leave the playdate altogether. 

So yes, we had a busy day, because we had another playdate scheduled for that afternoon. We went to my friend Beth's house. She has twin boys, who are also 2 1/2, and Ellen came with Liam, 3, and Brennan, almost 8 months (three days Marta's junior). We had pizza and played and all was calm and fine and fun. She's used to it there and only freaks when the dog approaches, which was twice. 

For some reason, though, while I was taking my shower at 11 o'clock at night, she began throwing up. She threw up a couple more times during the night (Marta, not to be outdone, woke up at 3 a.m. and stayed up until 5:30 a.m.), and woke up with bells on this morning. 

I of course am now confined to the house for the whole of the day, waiting for her next bout of terrible throw-up, which will mean five more loads of laundry that might just need to be thrown away, several baths, another good cleaning of the tub, and finding something to do with Marta that keeps her out of the line of fire. 

Or, Berit will be just fine. Who knows?