Not for the faint of heart

Warning: this blog post contains talk of bodily functions – proceed at your own risk.

Parenthood is not for sissies; it can test your patience, your nerves, and sometimes, your gag reflex.

We have not been a well bunch. The last ten days have seen all three of us dealing with colds, and on Tuesday night I got the Headache from Hell that laid me flat until well into Wednesday. Then in the wee small hours of Friday morning, a figure appeared by my side of the bed. “Mommy, I’m going to throw up,” Aidan announced.

I managed to shake myself out of sleep and say, “Then go to the bathroom!” He got there in time before, sure enough, throwing up. After he finished and I helped him clean up a bit, he told me that he didn’t want to go back to his bed but wanted to sleep in the guest room. With me. I understood that he wasn’t feeling well and needed comforting, so I agreed. What a night. Aidan got up two more times during the night to vomit and even while in the bed, he was restless.

Going to school was certainly not an option. His stomach continued to be uneasy and by 9 am, his gastrointestinal tract joined the party (er, potty?). I am shocked that Homeland Security did not come a-knocking because the stench in the bathroom was most definitely a Weapon of Mass Destruction. The exhaust fan was completely overwhelmed so despite temperatures in the upper 30s, I had the bathroom window wide open.

Both ends calmed down around noon and the poor child was hungry. I allowed him to have a plain piece of bread, a banana and some water. All seemed to be well as he sat down to play on the computer around 2:30. I was around the corner in the kitchen when I heard an odd noise. When I asked Aidan about the noise, he said “I threw up again.” And boy, did he ever. I honestly think that is the first time I ever had to clean vomit off a wall and I hope it is the last time. I am very thankful, however, that he turned away from the computer because I do not know how I would have cleaned bits of partially digested banana out of a keyboard.

Dinner for Aidan was plain rice and saltines, which did manage to stay down. He got a good night of sleep in his own bed and today is back to normal. If only we could recover that quickly.

That'll do

There is a page on Ravelry, the incredible online fiber community, where all kinds of contests are listed. While many of the contests involve chance (post a comment and a random generator will pick a winner), some involve some kind of participation or skill. Two weeks ago a contest called "Name the Alpacas" was posted. That'll Do Farm in Grafton, Ohio ran out of names before they ran out of baby alpacas - crias - and needed two more names. The only requirement for the names is that they had to start with the letter "b".

My suggestion was Balderdash for the gorgeous black female and Bourbon for the handsome golden brown male. Much to my surprise, the name Bourbon was chosen! His full registered name is "That'll Do Black Forests Bourbon Buzz" but you can call him Bourbon for short - his friends all do. You can read the farm's droll account of the brias and their names and see photos of the gorgeous alpacas at their blog.

So what did I win? That'll Do Farm sent me a gorgeous skein of 90% alpaca and 10% Merino yarn in a rich dark brown/black shade. It looks just black at first glance, much like our cat Spenser, but look at the yarn in the sunlight and you can see the brown tones, too. I tried and tried to take a good photo, but this is the best I could do:


The photo does not show the subtle sheen of the yarn. It is gorgeous, decadent and soft. And get this: the 90% alpaca in the yarn came from Bourbon's mother, Charlie's Angel - that'll do, for sure.