2:45 a.m.

It's a quarter till three in the morning. I awake to Heath kicking me. Oops, I left my earplugs in, and it's my night to take care of the kids. Quickly remove earplugs and hear Ethan scream-crying something unintelligible. As I move toward his room, realize he's saying, "I want jammas!" Huh? Ethan, you want pajamas on? "Yeah, I want jammas." I move closer to his bed, and Jacob yells, "Watch out for my puke! It's behind the ladder!" WHAT? Now Ethan sobs, "It's on my pillow!"

Jacob has thrown up over the side of the bunk bed, and it is dripping down every rung of the ladder and has landed half on Ethan's bed and pillow and half on the floor - and splattered onto a haphazard pile of bedtime books.

I step back into our bedroom and tell Heath what's happened. I stand back and appraise what might be the best way to clean this up. Try to clear cobwebs from my brain.

I step back into our bedroom again. "Did you understand what I said, honey?" Heath comes and joins me, and promptly declares this is going to make him throw up. He returns to bed.

Hmmm.

Okay, first step. Have Ethan crawl to foot of his bunkbed, crawl out of bed and go get in with Daddy. Demand that Daddy get up and find new sheets and comforter for bed. Stop Mason (our dog) from his mission to clean up the mess and put him in bed with Ethan. Get out the carpet cleaner.

"Let me go get you something to throw up into next time, Jacob." He says, "I usually just throw up behind or in front of the ladder." Put a huge plastic bowl next to him in bed. Desperately hope he uses it next time.

Spend the next 15 minutes or so using carpet cleaner on the area all around Ethan's bed and wiping, over and over, the ladder, the side rails of Ethan's bed, and 17 books which are now quarantined. Go dump the contaminated carpet cleaner water and begin to clean and disinfect the bathroom sink into which it was dumped. Heath walks by and says, "You dumped it into the sink and not the bathtub?" I say in alarm, "You usually dump it in the bathtub?" We look at each other in puzzled repulsion. "We take baths in there!" I say. Heath shrugs, "I don't."

Heath puts new sheets and comforter on the bed and tucks Ethan in again, after digging out some "jamma" pants for him. I notice that Jacob is back asleep.

Finally, make myself some of the calming herbal tea Melanie gave me to try to get the smell out of my nose and quell the nausea, and sit down to blog about the adventure.