If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, then Sara is from Planet Me! and Tucker is from Planet Whatever

Please do not read any further if you are weak stomached or don't want to read about poop or vomit.

Seriously. Don't do it.

Monday Sara had a stomach bug. As these things go, it was pretty mild.  While she threw up, it wasn't excessive and it was over after a few hours. I really thought it was an acid reflux issue since it seemed like it was mostly acid.  When the diahrrea hit, it wasn't as bad as I've seen it either. I was feeling pretty grateful that this was a mild go round of tummy troubles and had my fingers crossed that for the Dahl house, this would be the end of it.

On Tuesday, she seemed to be feeling just fine. Back to her normal self, as divalicious as ever, and raring to go to school because (and I quote) "You're MEAN Mommy and I don't like you right now!"

Oh freakin' well. You are not going to have Cheetos for breakfast. Or cookies. Or leftover Easter candy. Not happening. At least until you 1) buy your own and/or 2) live under a roof that is not mine.

Not even an hour after she got to school, the school calls and tells me there has been an 'incident' that was 'bm related'. Gotta love the discreetness with which that phone call was handled and no, that's not sarcasm. Sara was hysterical that she had an accident in class and was complaining that her tummy hurt. Can't say that I blame her and in her situation, I'd want to come home too.

I was watching the son of a friend of mine (shout out to the Chi!) so we got in the car and went got her. Ten minutes after we're home and she's fine. I'm glad she was fine, but still. If she felt sick enough that she wanted to come home, then she's going to have to understand it's not free reign of the house and pantry. After about an hour of wanting to jump on the trampoline (no way!), ride her bike, go outside, watch  cartoons and eat me out of house and home, I was over it.

I used a line I swore as a kid I wouldn't repeat.

"If you are too sick to go to school, you are too sick to (fill in the blank)!"

We had to be practically on our death bed to be able to stay home from school. Mom was a teacher and we were going to school. Even if we were on our deathbeds (which obviously, we never really were). I can remember her telling me to just 'go to school for a little while and get your mind off it'.

Of course, now that I'm a parent, I have an ENTIRELY different perspective on that.

Of course.

Sara and I somehow survived her stomach troubles and life pretty much returned to normal here.

And then Tucker woke up this morning sick, sick, sick.

But oh! The difference in Tucker being sick and Sara being sick is mind boggling. Tucker calmly walked to the bathroom this morning and said "Mom, I feel ill-ish..." and then puked for about five minutes. Sara screams and cries about how she doesn't want to throw up for about 10 minutes, and then pukes for 15 seconds.

Sara in a nutshell

The many faces of Tucker

It almost always works out that way. But man, poor Tucker. This round of stomach virus hit him hard and he ended up with some wicked diarrhea. And more than once he couldn't make it to the bathroom. In Germany, we had wood or tile floors so we ended up with a bunch of different area carpets when we moved here. We ended up putting the blue carpet from Tucker's room in Germany into his room here. And thank goodness, because that blue carpet got a lot of abuse today.

I should also mention that blue carpet is no longer in his room, or even in the house. Nor will it return. So now, I've got the floor in Tucker's room lined with towels in case he gets sick again tonight. His comment when I was putting him to bed?  Jeez, Mom. Got enough towels on the floor?

Well..yes, actually.

Or do I?