The in-laws and the plague come for a visit

Not that I think the in-laws brought the plague with them. It seems if you come visit us you, and in turn, we, will be struck down by illness. When my parents came back in March my mother got hit with a horrid cold which, by the time she returned to the states, had morphed into bronchitis. Lovely. My poor in-laws were hit with an intestinal virus during their stay with us.

The virus started with Blaine while we were in Armenia - he woke up one morning and told David "I have to cough" which is his code word for vomit. He then proceeded to cough all over the hotel room floor as David ran with him in his arms to the bathroom. After "coughing" for a few minutes, he pronounced himself cured and we went to breakfast. After just a few bites of his cereal, Blaine looked at us and said "Um, I have to cough again". This time I hustled out of the breakfast room with Blaine and we made it as far as the elevator before the coughing began. Luckily there was an ashtray right next to the elevator. I hope to God no one tried to put out a cigarette in there after Blaine was done with it. Blaine then proceeded to have diarrhea. He and I stayed in the hotel that morning with Kyra (she needed a nap) while Dave took his parents around town. Blaine was feeling so blah (and we had run out of clean underwear for him) by the time David returned that we loaded up the kids and headed to the Embassy in Yerevan. We took Blaine to the Health Unit there and hit the laundry room to clean his clothes. The doc said Blaine probably had an intestinal virus or had eaten something that "disagreed" with him (an understatement if I have ever heard one). He was fine the next day.

The next day I woke up with the beginnings of a head cold. Thank God for the head cold, because it made me keep my distance from the kiddos so that they wouldn't catch it. This distance-keeping thing worked in reverse for me as well, because by the time we returned home the next day, Kyra had developed the stomach bug. 24 hours of vomiting and diarrhea from her. You know what's fun? An 8 month old hurling on you at 3 AM and then laughing hysterically. She wasn't bothered by the stomach bug at all, she would, to use Blaine's term, cough, and then would be fine and happy.

The day after Kyra's bout with the stomach flu, my mother-in-law came down with it. She thought she had gotten it from something she had eaten but it was too coincidental to be from food. The day after she got it, my father-in-law had it. And our housekeeper got it as well. The only people spared? Me and Dave. Me, because as I said before, I was staying away from the kids so they wouldn't catch my cold. And Dave because he has a constitution of iron, I suppose. Probably from traveling to so many different countries over the past year.

Other than the round-robin of plague, my in-laws had a grand time here. Of course, I think they would have a grand time anywhere as long as their two grandchildren were there. My father-in-law walked Blaine to and from school every day, sometimes my mother-in-law joined them. Kyra was immediately enamored of my father-in-law, which was surprising because she is in the clingy "mom/dad" baby stage. The first morning they were here, Kyra went right to him and she stuck to him like glue during the visit. She slowly warmed to my mother-in-law, but babies are mercurial by nature. Who knows, next time she sees them, she may be attached to my mother-in-law and be slow to warm to my father-in-law.

Friday I took my in-laws to the airport - David had left early that same morning for two weeks work in Turkey. They made it back home, safe, sound and a bit wrung out from all the travel and from the plague. So, if anyone is coming to visit, please make sure you have a clean bill of health and a full supply of immodium with you.