How do you even start a blog post after ONE ENTIRE YEAR!? I mean, K is two, G is four, how in the world can I fit in the last year to one post? Hmm...
(brb, going to refresh myself on what I last wrote. Also, side note, after the "RePhresh" commericals, I have to correct myself spelling the word "refresh" every single time. It's pathetic)
Okay, so, we left off with the Christmas vacation from almost hell. But, you guys, if I had ONLY known. If I had ONLY known, just how much worse it could have gotten... So, fast forward 11 months, it's now Thanksgiving of 2015. We planned, much earlier on, for another trip to North Carolina. We were prepared, it was going to be great! The timing wasn't the best, as my brother-in-law was still finishing up a field exercise and we weren't quite sure when he would be able come home to join us but alas, it was still just as nice to visit with his wife and of course play with cousin Alma! We got in later in the afternoon the first day and had time for a really quick visit to say hi and then retired to our rooms at the hotel. We all went to sleep, relatively well considering we have two toddlers that aren't the best sleepers. I woke up to K starting to cry and then the sound of choke/coughing/gagging. She was throwing up, everywhere. I have NEVER until this point in my motherhood experience had a puking child. Call it fate, call it whatever, but never have I had to deal with vomit or even diarrhea that wasn't in a diaper.
It was milky and it was chunky but most disgutingly it was all over the sheets, pillows and floor in a stuffy motel room that our entire family was sharing. It was horrible. K threw up once, I got her changed and bathed and she was seemingly fine? Fell right back to sleep like nothing happened. (my nose knew otherwise)
I felt so bad for the housekeeping, I tried to ball up the soiled linens and set them by the door. I gave lots of warnings in the morning. She was the sweetest lady and just wanted to make sure our baby felt better.
So, reluctantly we went over to our family's house and just kept an eye on her. I hated the idea of spreading germs, but at this point, we had all been in close proximity to her, and I wasn't about to fly across the US to be stuck in a hotel room (unless it was absolutely necessary of course). She was fine the rest of the day. Didn't eat much, but she tends to do that anyways. I thought it was the milk she had, (I mean, it is the south...) so I threw it away and bought another. We were completely fine the next night.
But then, the night after next, shit hit the fan. No, vomit hit it. It hit us all, all of except Ryan. G was puking, K was puking, I was puking. Poor G hasn't ever thrown up before, and he is old enough to want to know what the hell is happening to his body. He was a mess. Ryan was gagging at the smell, I wanted to die. K was happy go lucky until she was releasing the sour milk smelling vomit our of her mouth. There was crying from Gavin, "GET ME TO A TOILET, WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME!!!!" There was running back and forth to the one and only CONNECTED bathroom that opens right up into the room was are all SLEEPING in. There was tears. There was gagging. There was the smell. I literally gagged remembering it just now.
We woke up the next morning like a train full of hobos hit our room. We smelled like a hobo. We looked like one. And at that point, I wish I was one. The kids, they were totally fine. It was like what had happened last night, that nightmare, was just that, a nightmare. Like it didn't even happen. But it did folks. It did.
I didn't even want to make eye contact at this point with anyone in the hotel, let alone the poor poor woman who was going to be cleaning our room that morning. I tried. I tried to contain the mess, but there is only so much you can do. I wanted to melt into a puke puddle myself and just flush myself down the toilet. But, we got the same housekeeper again, and either she is really good at faking it, or she genuinely felt sorry for us.
The kids were fine that day, playing like not a care in the world. We had Thanksgiving Dinner (some of us very reluctantly) and even though I had a mild upset tummy, thought were in the clear.
NEVER THINK YOU ARE IN THE CLEAR.
K threw up again that night, but only once. Such a weird bug that we caught, I remember thinking. G seemed to be fine. Well, we woke up the next morning, Black Friday. We got lunch at Sonic, and on our way back to the hotel, in the RENTAL van, G starts puking. All over his clothes, and all over his car seat. Poor thing was just crying, "GET ME TO A TOILET. GET ME TO A REAL TOILET." He didn't want to throw up in the medium sized milk shake cup I was shoving under his jaw. It was RANK in that car. I had to wash his car seat cover in our bathtub.
Okay, so, how do you explain the car seat cover hanging in the bathtub, that smells like faded hotel shampoo and sonic vomit to the hotel housekeeping? You don't. You just leave a $50 on the pillow and pray she isn't too upset. You pray and you apologize profusely.
And that folks, is Thanksgiving 2015.
Another side note: We did have some GREAT family time and had some amazing memories made with our family, so don't be completely fooled, it did have silver lining in the visit! My sister in law is a gracious host and of course the kids had fun bonding and playing with their cousin!We flew into Raleigh, so it was a MUCH shorter drive than last time! My father in law didn't have his luggage lost! And Ryan and Jay didn't get the plague.
