Puke Protection

After Sunday night's barf-fest, which left Ethan and I with about five loads of pukey laundry (including bedsheets, blankets, stuffed animals, and Madeleine's boot, which somehow had vomit pooled inside it), we decided to clear any debris out of the potential war path.  Julia's room was stripped of its toy bins so that the bleaching of dolls and laundry-piles of beanie babies would be furthermore removed from the clean-up equation.  In anticipation of the germs spreading to Madeleine, Ethan opted to cover her bedroom rug and all her toys and books with the canvas tarp we usually lay down when painting walls or ceilings:

View of Madeleine's room from her bed


Thankfully, Julia has not puked since Sunday, and so far (knock on wood), Madeleine has not come down with the bug.  However, just to err on the side of caution, we're leaving her bedroom floor and toys covered with the tarp just in case.  Madeleine is completely unfazed by the new room decor.  She seems to accept the fact that everything is now underneath a canvas tarp as if it were completely run-of-the-mill.  This morning, after I brought down some clothes for her to change into, I realized I had forgotten a fresh pair of underwear.  Julia, who had just come downstairs with her own pile of clothes, was sent back upstairs to quickly grab some underwear out of Madeleine's dresser.

ME: Julia, can you do me a huge favor?  Can you just run upstairs and grab some underwear out of Madeleine's bottom drawer?
JULIA: Okay!  (trotting off)
MADELEINE: (calling after her) Uh, Julia, there's just a BLANKET on the floor that's really a CANDACE.

I wonder if she's going to miss her candace tarp after it a) gets thrown into the washing machine, covered in puke, or b) removed from her room after the threat of stomach-bug-spreading is past.  (Let's all note that I am HEARTILY rooting for option b.)

And thankfully, Julia has been back to school for two days, so she seems to be on the mend.  Poor Madeleine is left home with just her boring old mommy.  I actually think she was happier to have a sick Julia here to yell at and to entertain than to be stuck with a tired grown-up (especially one who keeps getting reprimanded for not being enthusiastic enough about getting up to look at every little thing Madeleine wants me to remark upon.)

Maybe we'll have to resurrect Little People Music School again today to liven up her afternoon.