Family Flued (Alice gets the flu)

We went to Olds on Mother’s Day (Sunday), and Tuesday at 2:30am Alice woke up, coughing and was vomitting in her crib. She was getting sick every 10-15 min. and by 4:30am or so we called the health link. They advised we take Alice to the hospital as she was so ill; we went to the Children’s hospital (don’t ask how fast Dadddy drove!).  Alice got sick a few times in the car, poor girl. We got to emergency and Alice saw a doctor by 6am. He checked her out and said it was either a viral infection or a urinary tract infection (which starts out as vomitting). We stayed for a bit then decided to go home around 7am, to beat rush hour. Alice came home and slept for a few hours, so did mommy and daddy. We called Auntie Chrissy, who said that cousins Jack, Connor, Ryan and Cassie were all sick as well. Later that day Chrissy and Cassie came for a sleep over, as we thought Cassie might be more comfortable in an air-conditioned house. Alice and Cassie were both still sick, though not vomitting anymore. On Wednesday, Auntie Chrissy got sick! She and Cassie went home, and Alice was still not doing so well – she would eat and drink a little, then go for hours without anything. On Thursday, Alice woke at 9am, and seemed to be doing better – ate a good breakfast, and we gave her milk, which she had been asking for ever since she got sick. At noon, she didn’t want any lunch, and seemed to be going downhill. She wouldn’t nap, and was cranky and wanted to be held all the time. She finally napped at 5pm, woke an hour later, and still wouldn’t eat or drink anything. She vomitted at 7:30pm – all over mommy and the living room carpet! She got sick again about 1/2 hr later but then settled and we just gave her water. She had a restless sleep last night, and mommy and daddy jumped at every peep, worried she’d get sick again. But today Alice is doing very well. Still not her usual self, but much better; eating and drinking water and juice, and in good spirits all day. So hopefully the roller coaster is over, and mommy can stop cleaning and disinfecting everything! At least mommy and daddy didn’t get sick. Auntie Tammy and Uncle Steve did in addition to Auntie Chrissy (Cousin Kelly got sick too, which makes a total of 9 ill out of 15 present at Mother’s Day). All infected are still recovering; even Grandpa Chant, who had it a week and a half ago, still isn’t back to normal. We hope everyone gets well soon. In more positive developments, Alice is learning more words – we can say apple, box, milk, cow, moon, meow, nana, papa, neat, bug, duck, neck and we know some colors – yellow, green, blue and purple (we can say all these words too). Oh and the word yes has turned into “yup”, it’s cute. We like to read our favorite book, Wheels on the Bus, by ourselves. We turn the pages and say “up, down”, waving our arms up and down, “beep, beep” and imitating beeping a horn, and “shh shh”, with our finger in front of our mouth. It’s adorable to watch! And we are fascinated by bugs, mostly ants and things that crawl on the ground outside; we crouch down and point at them, saying “neat”, “bug”. The cutest thing is that Alice knows all her body parts, but still confuses her wrist with her elbow. She points to her wrist, saying “elbow”; we always correct her, but she still says the wrong thing!