Tossing Their Cookies

Hey everyone! Much like I anticipated, it was a bit of a madhouse here last week. It was a fun time, but there were FIVE KIDS in this house. Therefore, getting a chance to sit down and write was impossible. Well, that's not entirely true. I suppose I could have written at night after my 3rd glass of wine, but I like my stories to be coherent. I'm still trying to get things back in order, but felt I had to come and share with you a story of what happened last Monday at swim lessons, before all the craziness of my family visit began. I do have to warn everyone, if you have a sensitive stomach don't read this while eating. Or just after eating. Maybe even before. I'd say just avoid food altogether for about an hour.

I don't know if I've mentioned before about how much puke I've had to clean up since having the girls. There was a period of time when Sonya was a toddler when she was getting sick on a bi-monthly basis. Lana wasn't as bad. Maybe that's because she got all of her pukiness out of the way when she had reflux at six months old. She ruined every piece of clothing she had with breast milk spit up. Georgia seems to be following in Sonya's footsteps, getting sick quite often.

They also have seem to have a knack for getting sick in the worst of places. I told you about Georgia throwing up all over me this past Easter at the beginning of Mass. Thank goodness it was the beginning and there were still people walking in. At least I got out of there before the service began, although I had to miss most of the mass, which I was so very upset about. Okay, maybe I wasn't THAT upset.

Then there was the time when Sonya was almost two, and we were on our way back from Andy's brother's wedding. We had just gotten settled in our seat on the plane and Sonya got that look on her face that I knew so well. Before I could act, there was apple juice puke all over her and her blankie. Which was really the bigger problem. We were facing an 8 hour trip with NO blankie. The HORROR! There was also the fact that we had to get out of our seat and change her in the gateway, while the flight attendants got her a new seat cushion and cleaned up the mess. Sonya single handily delayed that flight by about twenty minutes. The people on the plane were super happy with us. Oh well. At least I've never seen any of them again.

Since I've had two out of the three throw up at that most inconvenient times, I don't know why I was so surprised when it happened once again last Monday. At swim lessons. In the water. This time with Lana.

Now, like I said, Lana doesn't get sick to her stomach all the time like the other two do. However, she has a very sensitive gag reflex. There has been more than one time when Andy and I are trying to get her to eat one last bite of food at dinnertime. That one last bite is too much for her, either because she really doesn't like it, or because she already has too much in her mouth. At that point it's only a heartbeat away from her gagging to losing all the meal we just begged her to eat.

Last Monday was the beginning of our second week of swim lessons. Lana was doing well and what was asked of her the entire class. I was so happy she seemed to be progressing, since I wasn't sure she would even get in the water after those first two days of class. Then the teacher came over and tried to see if she could reach the bottom. I didn't see the whole thing happen, but from the information I gathered from both the girls later, when Lana tried to touch the bottom, she got a mouth full of water. This mouth full of water, made her cough, choke, gag and promptly throw up.

In the pool.

The pool everyone was having their lessons in.

It was wasn't a lot, but it was apparently enough to make every class have to get out of the pool. Including the ones aaaallll the way over on the other side of the huge pool, not anywhere near the stomach spill. They even made an announcement ordering all of the teachers to teach their classes outside of the water. Not really the best way to teach swimming, but they had no choice. Little Lana made it so the rest of those classes and half of the next ones were not in the pool. Good times! We were eventually allowed back in halfway through Georgia's class.

Andy was concerned that this would make Lana not want to go back in the water again, because she would be embarrassed, or afraid because she had thrown up in the pool. As it turns out, she had NO idea why everyone got out of the water and could have cared less that she contaminated the pool with her throw up. The next day she got right back in the water like nothing happened. I was more embarrassed than she was. Luckily, I won't see most of those people ever again. Then again, Burbank tends to be one of those small cities within a big city where you run into the same people over and over again, so who knows. I could end up being, "that mom who's kid threw up in the pool" for a while. Yay.

On the plus side, since my girls seem to have a propensity for blowing chunks in the worst of situations, Andy and I were trying to think of ways to use this to our advantage. The girls could be a diversion to rob banks or maybe get free food at restaurants. Get us out of a speeding ticket or a kids birthday party we don't want to be at. OR perhaps we should use this power for good. They could become super heroes of some sort. I mean what criminal is going to run away when he's covered in regurgitated chunks of grilled cheese and goldfish? Maybe we could even get TV and movie deals. The possibilities could be endless for the Puke Patrol!