I realized again why I love my family

You know those times in your life where you find yourself complaining about absolutely everything? Constantly finding the negative?

And then during those times, something comes out of nowhere and hits you over your ungrateful little head and you feel guilty as anything?

Yeah that was me this whole past month.

I was a complete negative Nancy for weeks and I couldn't even really tell you where it came from. I was stressing over Iris teething, the house being clean, budgeting, spending time with Tommi etc. and whenever one of those didn't go exactly perfect I just fell apart.

Then one night in the middle of watching Downton Abbey with the family (which I’m very bitter about now that I've finished this season) Iris let out a little cough and SURPRISE threw up all of her food she had taken throughout the whole day allllll over me and the carpet. She’s completely over her spitting up phase and I was not expecting her to throw up from a little cough. I changed her and me, cleaned the carpet and any surrounding areas that got any splash from the explosion and got settled to finish the episode.

It finished and Tommi and I were getting ready to leave. Then with no warning at all Iris let loose again all over another space of the carpet. This was taking me by total surprise because she wasn't showing any symptoms of being sick at all. No fever, whining, not wanting food, anything. She was happy as could be and then just projectiles everywhere.

I sat in the back next to her on the car ride home. About every 7 minutes she’d go to throw up and nothing would come out. I guess she got rid of it all. We came home and laid her in her pack and play next to my side of the bed instead of in her room. I wanted to be there in case of her choking throughout the night.

Iris dry heaved every.thirty.minutes. I’d get out of bed, sit her up in case anything would come out, pat her back until she was done, put her binki back in and she’d pass immediately back out. Rinse and repeat. I was exhausted.

The next day was no dry heaving or throwing up but she was not eating or drinking anything at all. I’m not exaggerating I got a total of 4 ozs in her body total through the whole day. I was in super stress  mode. The next day was pretty much the same.

Then the next day I came down with the exact thing myself. Out of nowhere just throwing up. And now even though Iris wasn't anymore she was so tired and hungry but wouldn't eat or sleep so she was a miserable cranky mess. I was trying to take care of her in between my trips to the bathroom. And on top of it all Tommi started the midnight shift this week which meant he’d leave at 7pm and not be back until 7am. The thought of doing it on my own killed me.

Luckily, his Sergeant said he could take the day off. Tommi without even asking took Iris to my parents so I could get rest.  And I got to the same point as Iris where there was just nothing left in my stomach anymore and I started to dry heave.  I had never dry heaved before so I didn't realize the extent of how badly it hurts. When I was I started bawling because my baby did this every thirty minutes and instead of having sympathy on her, I was thinking of my own tired self. How stupid and selfish am I?!

Tommi came home with Iris and she was out cold for the night. He couldn't get the next day off but my parents said I should come over to their house so they could take care of Iris and I could rest. Tommi eventually got home and I came into the room to see this:

My poor daughter still getting over her sickness snuggled up to her exhausted daddy who had been playing both roles of mom and dad for about a week now. My heart was so heavy. And my pessimism stopped abruptly.

Even though our family is still recovering from exhaustion and loss of appetite, we’re doing better. Well somewhat. Iris now has a disgustingly running nose and bad cough and I'll be taking her to the doctor's in a couple of hours. But we'll be ok :)

I’m honestly glad we got sick. I needed that little reminder that my life is actually pretty awesome. I have parents who drop everything to help me, a husband who sacrifices everything for me, and an amazing daughter who rarely is unhappy.  And I love them all.

Which leads me into the Valentines list I did for Tommi this year.

I bought “The Avengers" Valentines and placed them in places that remind me of things I love Tommi does for me. With a little message that explains what each reason is.

Top 25 things I love that Tommi does for me:

1. I love that you send me a text to wake up to every morning (placed on his phone)

2. I love when you have a freshly shaved face (placed on his razor)

3. I love that you have a full time job to support us (placed in his uniform)

4. I love that you’re willing to wake up before the sun does (placed on the door)

5. I love that you’ve worked on not speeding anymore (placed on the driver’s seat of the car)

6. I love when you help me by making Iris a bottle (placed in the formula container)

7. I love when you change Iris’ diaper (placed with her diapers)

8. I love when you put Iris to bed (placed on her bedtime seahorse)

9. I love when you do the dishes (placed in the dishwasher)

10. I love when you take out the garbage (placed with our garbage bags)

11. I love that you iron your own uniform (placed on the iron)

12. I love that you’re willing to eat poor people food when we’re tight on money (placed in the pan he always makes ramen in)

13. I love that you workout (placed on his bench press rack; yes I count him working out as something for me. Sexy beast.)

14. I love that you took me through in the temple (placed on his temple bag)

15. I love when you play guitar for me (placed on his guitar)

16. I love when we work out together (placed on the treadmill)

17. I love that you make enough money for us to be able to comfortably pay the bills (placed in the mailbox)

18. I love when you buckle Iris in (placed in her car seat)

19. I love when you give Iris a bath (placed with her bath toys)

20. I love when you put on smell goods (placed with his body wash)

21. Something inappropriate that I won’t tell you what it is or where it’s placed

22. I love that you protect our family (placed with one of his guns)

23. I love when you take me to church (placed in his church shoes)

24. I love when you take me out (placed in his sneakers)

25. I love when we play games together (placed on the xbox)

Yes I’m mushy. Especially after the experience I just wrote about. I love Tommi and I’m glad I’ll always have a Valentine.