Dreamsitter

We got the stomach flu from daycare at the end of the week, Luke had it first (sad face for my poor little confused vomiting toddler).  I struggled a LOT with whether or not I should call off from work, but in the end, he seemed tired, but better, so we decided to ask our babysitter to come and watch him for the couple of hours between when I leave for work and my husband gets home.  My hope was, if all went as planned, Luke would be napping most of that time anyway.  Our sitter was great, right on time, and she offered to stay late so my husband could shovel the few inches of snow that fell that afternoon. Luke still had the gross poop part of the sickness, but was otherwise in good spirits.

I caught it from Luke and it hit me over the weekend, my husband Matt managed to escape it.

The following Wednesday, our next door neighbor called me early in the morning in a panic. Her van wouldn't start and she needed to get her 2 oldest girls to school.  I told her it was no problem, to come on over and take them in my car.  She has 2 little ones too, (oh yeah 4 total!), so she asked if I could watch them while she drove the other 2, of course I said yes.  Her 2 little ones are a boy who's 3, and a little girl who's 6 weeks younger than Luke.  Luke and the 3 year old boy are buds. He's the only boy in their family (besides the Dad), so we think he's just thrilled to have another rough playing boy to play with.  Luke, of course, thinks he's awesome, and just follows him everywhere.  All 3 played with our "fridge farm" and then with some toys in the living room. When my neighbor got back, she & I talked while the kids played for about 10 minutes, and then they went home.

Two days later, my neighbor called me to say she's sorry, but she can't pick up Luke from daycare that afternoon, which she does for us once a week to help us out.  Her 2 younger ones have the barfing flu.  Oh No!  I apoligized, and felt beyond awful.  Of course, I had no idea Luke was still contagious when they played together, he had been feeling back to normal for days by then.  She said it was fine, and that they get a stomach bug once or twice a year...I guess with 4, you just get used to it, but I felt TERRIBLE.  Moreso, because I knew it was just the beginning for them, and they had 6 family members who could likely be puking, and feeling awful for the next several days.

Now, that put us in a bad spot, because I can't take Luke to daycare without someone to pick him up.  After talking to my husband, who couldn't get out of work early, I called the sitter who helped us out the week before when Luke was recovering from being sick.  I find out that she, too, got the barf-flu the weekend after she watched Luke for us, and she has no problem coming over again today to help us out.  I almost couldn't believe it, and said, "Omigod, you are saving us 2 weeks in a row, with almost no notice...AND you caught the stomach flu from him, and was sick in between?! THANK YOU. We're paying you double!"   This babysitter has taken care of Luke for us, only 4 or 5 times now, but I'm beyond thrilled that we found her...for obvious reasons.  She's a dream babysitter.  This also happened to be the day we got 8 inches of snow in around 3 1/2 hours...so she had to drive to, and from our house in a blizzard.  Now...to figure out a way to keep her from finishing grad school, so she can be our babysitter FOREVER.

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