Making Memories... or Reliving Them??

     The last few trips we’ve taken have definitely been the kind that you remember years down the road. We have plenty of those stories from when I was a kid and my family was on deputation, and now my family is adding to those stories.

     Ours started two weeks ago on our way to a Wednesday night meeting. We had left my parent’s house, and we were stopping for a meeting in Indianapolis, then we would head home the next day. We got about an hour and a half into a four hour trip and then it happened. Our ten month old started throwing up. Now, he’s a baby, he spits up all the time, but this was different. Chunks of animal cracker were coming back up, and he couldn’t stop. I was suddenly very glad that I had been hoarding grocery bags in the front pocket of the diaper bag. So we pulled over and cleaned him and the car seat up. As we started to get back on the road, he threw up again. The next three hours consisted of him occasionally puking and me cleaning it up. We had grocery bags piled around with puked on clothes tied in one or two and vomit clean up in the others. After three days of continually throwing up everything that went in, he finally seemed to be getting better, which was just in time for us to leave for our next meeting. Praise the Lord!

     So, we hit the road the next day for West Virginia. Three hours into the trip, our daughter was incredibly whiney. She’s two, so she tends to be whiney quite often, but this time she was more so than normal. I reached back to hold her hand and it was very hot. So I got out the thermometer and took her temperature. Sure enough, she had a fever. Here we go again. We made it to our destination in West Virginia without a vomit incident, which were praising the Lord for, but the next day we had another three and a half hours to go up to northern Ohio. Well, that morning she had some diarrhea diapers and then that afternoon, an hour into three and a half hour drive, she threw up. A lot. Maybe I shouldn’t have given her three cheese sticks and two glasses of milk that morning.  I’ve learned there is a very large and very smelly difference between a ten month old’s vomit and a two year old’s.  After stopping to clean her and the mess up, we rode the rest of the way with the windows down and the air on full blast to mask the smell. It didn’t really work, by the way. When we finally made it, hubby ended up having to go to the meetings alone because she little girl was still throwing up.

     These are definitely times we won’t forget, and they are reminding me of some similar memories we made when I was a kid. Like the time that Joel (the one who now exists) got carsick and then as we pulled over to clean him up, I believe I got sick and so did one of my other brothers. Then there’s also the time that we stopped at a hotel and I rocketed out of the van as fast as possible and promptly hurled all over the ground next to our van… and also next to a very nice sports car. Then after my older brother got out and saw what had happened, he proceeded to throw up right there as well. My dad may or may not have gone back later and moved our van away from the puke and very nice sports car.

     Ah, the memories! We are now all puke free and my littles are just as rambunctious as ever! And now that we’re home and well, it’s time for potty training to begin… again. Hey, third time’s the charm right? We shall see. This stage has ended up being one for the memory books as well, but that's a story for another time. So does anyone have any tips for me??