This is gonna be a long one so pull up a chair and make a pot of coffee...
We had to bring in Dave's truck for service (oil change & heat issues). This is always a huge hassle because I need to load all the kids in the van. Follow Dave to the dealership. Wait for what seems like hours in the parking lot. Then Dave gets in the van and we drive home. All in all, it's an hour long process. Then we have to do it all to pick up the truck once it's fixed. Happy times...
So, for tonight, we thought we'd add a stop for dinner to make the trip actually worth all the work.
I got out of work and went home. Courtney had the babies ready for me and we threw them in the car. The babies and I went to get Eli at school. When he gets released from gymnastics, we usually have to wait for 10-15 minutes regardless of what time we get there. We pulled into the parking lot and I hopped into the backseat to entertain the babies. We played peek-a-boo, etc. Everybody was happy. After a few minutes, Nate got fussy and started whimpering/whining, but I thought it was a combination of being hungry/in his carseat/hot from his coat and the heat.
The kids started getting released from gymnastics...one by one. I had to hop out of the van so that the teacher knew to send Eli out. After about 6 minutes, and me running back and forth to the van to check on the babies, Eli was FINALLY released.
We get him buckled up. I called the 99 for call ahead seating. I called Dave and we were ready to go. We started driving along and Nate was still whimpering. I turned off his heat hoping that would help. All of a sudden Eli says...
"Mama, Nate's puking."
OK. Yum. I've got a baby puking in the back row of the van and I can't pull over anywhere to help him. I finally came to a parking lot that I could pull into. I hop into the back to clean him up. I grabbed the baby wipes out of the diaper bag. I pulled a shopping bag out of somewhere and I started the clean up process. I had Eli call Dave to fill him in. Meanwhile the whole car smells like a frat house the morning after a big party.
After using about 46 wipes, I got Nate cleaned up and we continued on our journey to the 99. We get about 5 more minutes down the road and all of a sudden, Eli says...
"Mama, Nate's puking...again."
Oy! At this point, I call Dave. We decided that we're skipping dinner and I'll meet him at the dealership and getting take out. I called the restaurant and cancelled our reservation and placed a To Go order. The only problem was I didn't have a menu and just had to fake that I knew what I wanted to eat (on a Friday...during Lent!!!).
I pulled into the dealership and repeated the clean up process from the previous parking lot. Luckily I had put his coat back on him so his shirt was mostly dry. I took him out and held him while I waited for Dave to arrive as he was stuck on the highway. He finally arrived and was inside for what seemed like 7 hours. Nate started to dry heave and I whipped out the shopping bag to catch any projectile vom. Meanwhile the other boys were hungry (how could they be with the overwhelming smell of disgust-o?) so I fed them Goldfish while holding a puking Nate...so...much...fun...Then I had the brilliant idea to put a dinner (plastic pocket) bib on Nate for the ride home.
Then Dave emerged from the dealership and hopped in the pukemobile. We were off to pick up our dinner. I feel so bad for that girl who brought the food to our van. She must have run inside and told all her friends about the vom-van in the parking lot.
We continued our ride home. Nate had the not-so-dry-heaves the whole way home, while strapped in his carseat. I feel so terrible for him. At one point, he fell asleep and was snoring. Poor little monkey...
It was a crazy afternoon, but I wouldn't change it for the world. My boys mean the world to me and I love being their mommy...even with all the puke...
No comments:
Post a Comment