There are times as a mom when you realize that you can do superhuman things. Like lifting a car off your child trapped underneath, or grabbing them before they get hit by a truck in the street, or changing a full set of sheets under a sleeping child. Yup. I did that last one. Just call me Supermom!
A few weeks ago we had that big game that some refer to as the Superbowl. Perhaps you've seen it? Well some years we've had parties, some years we've gone to parties. This year we didn't really care so much about who was playing, but it's still nice to have a couple people over and eat unhealthy, but yummy food, while having an excuse to start drinking at 2pm. Also why I love Thanksgiving. We weren't going to have anyone over, but decided last minute that eating unhealthy food and drinking alone (mostly me) would be sad. So we invited a couple of our friends who had been around for the Patriots playoff games with us the weeks before. Yes, we are Patriots fans and I love Tom Brady. Do not judge or start making cheating jokes because I'm very over it. Anyway-our friends brought over a ton of food and I made a few things, as I always do, because I come from an Italian family. There is never such a thing as too much food.
We had too much food. I mean it was ridiculous how much food we had. We could have had half the Patriots at our house and still have enough to inflate all the balls with food. (See- I can make fun of us too).
In regular every day life, we do a good job with balancing out what the girls eat. I make sure they have fruits and/or a veggie with every meal, lean protein, some good carbs. Yes, we have desserts sometimes, and maybe baked chips or pirates booty, but when I look around at what other people feed their kids on a regular basis, I am so proud of the job I do with them. I know we are teaching them the right way to stay healthy and, hopefully, not become overweight in their future. HOWEVER-I will let them eat whatever they want on special occasions, such as the Superbowl.
On days like that they will go all out, but for the most part they will only eat until they are full. They will still select some carrot sticks amongst their mounds of tortilla chips and mini hot dogs, so at least something good is getting in there. I ignore the fact that said carrots are covered in ranch. At least there is a veggie there somewhere. I will cut them off after two desserts. Although Sonya will try for that third cookie or cupcake. So, yes, it's not the best day of eating but it's one day. They will usually complain about stomach aches afterward too, so it's kinda a good lesson as well. Well maybe not, because after 42 years, I end up complaining of the same thing at the end of the night. I also love eating a lot of unhealthy food at once. I guess when you eat well all the time it's fun to be bad for a minute.
Sonya and Lana do know when to stop eating. Georgia, on the other hand, is a different story. That girl loves her some chips. If there is a bowl of chips somewhere, she will find it and eat the entire bowl if I let her. In fact-funny side story-Last weekend we went to Big Bear to go skiing. The place we rented had a big game room complete with pool table, bar, poker table, etc. I was behind the bar and said, "Oh they even have poker chips." Georgia's ears perked up upon hearing this and said, "Where at the chips?" I didn't even think about it, and pointed her in the direction when Andy knowing what she was looking for said, "Everything isn't always about eating Georgia." When I saw the look of disappointment on her face as she saw the poker chips, I realized that she thought I had been talking about some kind of potato chip. Oh Georgia!
Back to my original story! As I was cleaning up after everyone left, I saw Georgia at the counter shoveling more tortilla chips into her mouth. I told her that was enough and shooed her away to go get ready for bed. I knew she had had plenty to eat that night, and there was no way she could still be hungry, but she couldn't resist.
(WAIT! Before I go any further with this story, I'm giving fair warning to all you stomach squeamish people who might be eating. Either don't read this now, or don't eat right now. Trust me.)
The girls got ready and went to bed, and I was just about to go tuck them in when Sonya ran into the kitchen in a panic. "Georgia is throwing up!!"
Wait what? She was perfectly fine 10 minutes ago, downing what might have been her 10th helping of chips....Oooohhh. Yeah. Maybe too MANY chips. Huh.
I calmly asked Sonya to go get me the throw up bucket from the garage and went to the little girls room where Georgia was throwing up into a puddle on her bed. Yeah, I know. It gets more gross, so just wait. Sonya came running in with the bucket just in time for Georgia to spit the very last of her puke in it. So that did no good. Then I noticed it. Did I mention Georgia was on the top bunk? Sure there was a nice neat puddle of puke on her sheets in front of her, but before she decided to throw up there she decided to first go over the side of the bunk bed. Which hit Lana's bottom bunk below her, and the trundle bed under Lana's below that, and the floor. It was spectacular. I also noticed Lana was completely passed out. It was 9:30, but she had only been in bed about three minutes which I thought was odd. However, it makes sense looking back now, because the next afternoon she came down with Influenza A. It must have been brewing. Never a dull moment.
The point is there was a lot of puke in many different places to clean up, and I needed to figure out where to start. So I called in reinforcements.
"Andy! Get in here!"
He came running into the room and knew what the situation was from the smell that hit him in the face. I told you there was more gross coming. Oh the smell. It's not bad enough that vomit has to look gross, but the smell is just not something you can get away from right way.
"I need you to help me clean this up, " I told him. Needless to say, he was thrilled. Normally, I would have just taken care of a situation like this, but this time I needed help. So I put him in charge of taking the soiled sheets off Georgia's bed, while I went to work on the side of the bed puke. Andy wasn't sure how to take the sheets off because there was so much of it in one pile. So he came up with the brilliant idea of shoveling it all into a garbage bag first. I'm impressed he got through it without adding to the pile himself. So. Very. Gross. After he took care of that, I had him take care of getting Georgia cleaned up, who as it turned out wasn't so bad. She had managed not to get any on her person, so score one for her in that category. Still, l she needed a face wash and a toothbrush.
There wasn't a lot of throw up over the side of the bed, but enough to make it so I had to change Lana's sheets. Oh and there was the fact that the bunk beds just have a mattress laying on top of wooden slates. So whatever didn't make it on the mattress, fell in between those slates. On both the top AND bottom bunk. Have I ever mentioned how much a pain in the ass bunk beds are for SO many reasons? Sure they save space, but that's the end of their good side. Making them sucks. Changing the sheets takes days and will break every nail you have, but unfortunately they are very necessary in our small house. So after I cleaned under Georgia's mattress and the wooden slates, I had to figure out what to do about a sleeping Lana and her dirty sheets. Do I wake her, move her, or try and just change the sheets around her? I decided to do that last one, since it sounded the most challenging. Because I mean changing sheets on a bunk bed is difficult enough. But doing it with a sleeping child on top-near impossible. Challenge accepted!
The taking off the sheets wasn't too difficult. That was just a lot of pulling from underneath her. No biggie. It was getting the new ones on that proved to be more of a challenge. Let's keep in mind that I had to replace the mattress cover as well, So not one but TWO bottoms sheets. Oh, and I had to lift up the side of her mattress first to clean down those wooden slates, where the puke was stuck. After I did that I got the two bottom sheets out and I started at the top on one corner, then managed to roll her on top of the sheet and do the other corner. Once I got the top part of the bed done it was easier to pull the sheet down to do the bottom. Especially because Lana is a peanut and only takes up half the bed. The top sheet was a piece of cake since it was just covering her up and tucking under the mattress. When I was done, Lana was still completely asleep and in a new set of sheets. The next morning I asked her about it, and she had no recollection of the entire incident. She wasn't even aware that Georgia had gotten sick.
As for Georgia, she was not ill in any way. I thought perhaps she was at first, since the stomach bug had been circulating at school and gave her the benefit of the doubt, but she was immediately better after she threw up and fine the next day. Andy had said so, but I didn't believe it until the next day, she had simply eaten to much. Or maybe just too many chips. Which you think would stop her, but not at all. That story about the poker chips was just last week.
So I will continue to do what I can to help reinforce the good eating habits with a fun eating day here and there for them, however, perhaps the next time I do need to monitor how much they are eating a bit more. But hey! At least I discovered what a badass I am at changing sheets with a sleeping kid in them. Okay fine that hardly makes me a badass, but I'm a stay at home mom. Let me have this one.
