Adventures In Babysitting

So last week I get an email from Hank asking if I'd watch Sophie Saturday night so that he and Tricia could go to a friends BDay party. I said SURE! Tim and I decided that we'd take the boys out too, take all three kids to dinner and then let them play for a bit. Tim would take the boys home when it was bedtime and I'd stay with Sophie until Hank & Tricia got home. Sounds reasonable and realistic....doesn't it??? I thought so.

We went to O'Charleys (so we could feed the kids for free). we got there after 6pm which meant a wait but we found four seats at the bar and entertained the kids until it was our turn to sit down. Jack was tired and said his tummy hurt but he tends to do that sometimes so we just brushed it off (BAD IDEA!). We ordered dinner for the kids and they brought it really fast. Just mac & chz -nothing out of the ordinary, I knew that Sophie would eat it. Sophie dug in like Mac & Chz was going out of style, but neither of the boys would touch their dinner and Jack kept saying his tummy hurt.

Tim and I ordered dinner and we waited and waited and waited. The kids started getting restless and then Mason said his tummy hurt too (Uh oh). I took Jack to the bathroom and told Tim to ask for our dinner to go b/c it was apparent that we weren't going to be able to eat dinner at all with the boys acting the way they were. Sophie this whole time, by the way, was chowing on Mac & Chz and being a complete angel (thank god!).

I got back to the table with Jack and we sat down. He said he wanted some water and then started crying that his tummy really hurt (he didn't do anything in the bathroom) and then proceeded to throw up ALL OVER ME at our table! I was horrified! In a restaurant.... with other people trying to eat their dinner.... my child just threw up! OMG! I looked at Tim and told him to go get the car and that he'd have to take the boys home and I'd be home as soon as I could but had no clue what time that would be. I think Tim started to have an anxiety attack b/c I could see panic in his eyes but what was I supposed to do? So with both of the boys crying for ME - Tim drove off and left me standing in the parking lot in front of my car with Sophie.

Oh - BTW the restaurant comped our ENTIRE Dinner b/c they felt bad for us and the sweet Manager helped me get our food together and met me at the door as we left (I think she really just wanted us to leave so she didn't lose any other customers)

I got back to Hank & Tricia's house and called Tim - they were almost home and Jack had thrown up again in the car on the way home. But....smart Mommy had given him a bag to us if he needed it. Amazingly enough he did a good job and just missed it a bit.

With Sophie playing wonderfully and quietly I called Hank and told him that Jack was sick and asked if they could be home by 10pm so that I could get home to help Tim and Hank said that was fine. I know that I probably scared the you know what out of them when I called their cell phone. I know that sinking feeling that you get when "the babysitter" calls you! Sorry guys!

Not 10 minutes later, Tim called me back and said that Mason had thrown up too! This one on the sofa! So I called back and told Hank that they needed to come home b/c I needed to be at home helping Tim.

I felt terrible for making them come home but what do you do when you have TWO children throwing up simultaneously? We've never dealt with it before. I was so excited to have some "pink" time with Sophie and see what trouble we could get into (just kidding)! I did manage to teach her to say Mason, which comes out "Ma" and Jack, which comes out "Ja".

Thankfully - I think it's over. Jack threw up 3 times and Mason only once. I cleaned up Jack's car seat yesterday morning (oh that was a joy! Thanks to VICKS under my nose for getting me through it) and they seem to be doing okay today too.

Now Tim and I are just hoping that WE don't get it. I told Hank & Tricia that I owed them a "rain check".