Update #2 - This, too, shall pass... right?!

Um... don't even know where to begin.

- Preston is still sick... still has a nasty cough, his fever finally broke on Sunday and his tummy is still bothering him... everything he drinks and eats (not wanting to eat much still) goes right through him (TMI!). He hadn't thrown-up since Friday around 3:30pm... until tonight at 7:30pm... what?! We were, in vain, trying to get him to eat some dinner. He whined, "I can't... I'm too sick." I said (in all my mommy ignorance, thinking he just didn't want to sit at the table), "You're still sick, Bubba, but you're not that sick."
To which he responded by throwing up all over our kitchen floor... twice! Poor little dude.

- When I got Gracie out of the car from school on Friday, I noticed she had blood in her left ear... what?! Never have had that experience - - after easily over a hundred ear infections - - so I was startled. I cleaned her up, fully inspected her ear with a flashlight and it seemed to have stopped. I thought maybe she scratched herself or got scratched. It was back again Saturday morning, so I called the doctor and he said that it's clearly infected. I told him she's never had blood drain out her ear from an infection and he said, "It's common, ma'am." Oh... so that should make me feel better about it? I was appalled that he didn't want to see her right away.
I took her in today to have it looked at. He suctioned it... forever. She hated every minute of it. He said, as though I couldn't tell by the amount of suctioning he did, that it was a terrible, terrible infection. He put in an antibiotic-soaked sponge, prescribed ear drops and yet another oral antibiotic. (On the latter, I informed him that she's been on "everything under the sun" over the last 28 days... her bottom could really use a break... was it really necessary to start her on another antibiotic when she just ended a course of a different one this morning? He said it was. Mommy is so sorry, Gracie Girl... for you and your very, very sad bottom.) He also pulled the "almost out" tube from her right ear and did a tympanogram... full of fluid. Ugh. We go back in ten days.

The good news on all this... with the exception of sleeping more than usual over the weekend, you'd have never known anything was bothering her.

- Like a good little boy, Preston shared with his mommy and I had to call John at work on Saturday around 2:30pm to tell him that I was pretty sure I was getting the stomach portion of his "ick." By 3pm, I had it... full-on. By 4:15pm John got home and I spent the next several hours getting well-acquainted with the fine details of the tile and grout on our bathroom floor. I was incredibly weak all through Sunday, but rallied to take care of the kids for a couple of hours while John went to the grocery store and Blockbuster.

Let me just say this... as bad as I felt (worst stomach flu I can remember as an adult... every muscle in my body still hurts) it hurt my heart far more to realize that my little man had also felt that bad, not to mention that Gracie feels that bad all too often. Not that I needed the reminder, Preston... please don't feel compelled to share again, little man. (And, please, please, don't be going for round two as I type this. Let that incident earlier tonight just be a fluke.)

- Like a good wife, I shared with John. He woke-up today feeling green. He was "lucky," though, and didn't actually get the full-blown ick. Just a very wimpy version of it. He spent five hours in bed, rallied for a while and then turned in early tonight.

- So, Big Swann is sleeping it off. Little Boy Swann is asleep, hopefully sleeping away round number two. Little Girl Swann is supposed to be asleep. Instead she's giggling in her room and watching, "Signing Time." Thank goodness for small favors!