A day of parenting that I will not forget

Friday I photographed a wedding for a friend while Dan worked, so Dan's mom picked the boys up from daycare and kept them overnight. Saturday morning I picked them up, feeling quite exhausted and a little bit sick myself. When I got there Elijah started grabbing his ear and saying, "What's that sound, Mama??" Elijah never complains about sounds (unless it's his brother), so I knew something was up. I loaded up the boys and went straight to urgent care. The story that follows is something that will be forever etched in my mind..

The line at urgent care was long. 'Tis the season for sickness! I kept Sam in my arms because I knew that setting him down would be like opening up a lion's cage. Twenty minutes later, I had to set him down. My arms were killing me. Sammy immediately ran down and around the hallway where I couldn't see him. Ugh! I told Elijah to stay in line and I ran and got Sam, who kicked and screamed about being in my arms.

We got sent back to a room pretty quickly when the lady at the front saw how much pain Elijah was in. But then we waited for the doctor for 25 minutes. By this time, Sam had explored every part of the room and had grown bored. Elijah was having a hard time staying upright and kept asking me, "Mommy, pwease take care of me!" He wanted me to be holding him and he kept pressing my hand over his ear, but I couldn't do that consistently when I was also making sure Sam wasn't trying to crawl into the trash cupboard again.

The doctor came in and took a look in Elijah's ear and said, "Sooo, he must have been up all night crying?" I said, "No, I don't think so!" Dan's mom had said that he had slept great the night before. The doctor said it was a bad ear infection and that he was surprised he hadn't complained about it until now. Poor guy. Elijah kept asking the doctor to make "that sound" go away. The pressure inside his ear was causing it to ring.

We went out to the pharmacy to pick up the prescription and before we got to the counter I looked down and saw Elijah's "puke face." I didn't act quickly enough and suddenly vomit was everywhere. All down Elijah's coat, and on the floor of the pharmacy. I tried to clean it up with Sam in my arms, but just couldn't do it so I set him down. I grabbed some Starbucks napkins from the counter and wiped the carpet and removed Elijah's coat. As I was wiping Elijah down, I saw Sam run by like the wind with a box in each hand. I scooped him up, took away the boxes (one of which had already been chewed on) and grabbed Elijah's hand. I went to the counter, Sam wailing, Elijah asking me to "pwease take care of him" and a pukey jacket tucked under my arm. I asked for paper towels, a plastic bag and to please fill our prescription quickly.

We went back to the waiting room to wait for the prescription to be filled. I sat Elijah on a chair, where he wobbled back and forth. I set squirmy Sam down and he ran around the room in circles until he got bored, 3 minutes later. At that point, he kept arching his back and falling onto the floor and writhing and crying. Nothing I did made him calm down. So I held Elijah and we, along with a handful of other people, watched the Sammy Circus.

I saw Elijah's puke face again, and this time I picked him up and ran to the bathroom. Luckily, at this point Sam happened to be writhing on the floor near the bathroom so I ushered him in, as well. Elijah made it to the toilet just in time. I washed his face and hands and we headed out to the waiting room for more of the same.

When our pager went off, we went to the pharmacy to pick up the medication. Again, I had to set Sam down because I couldn't juggle everything. In the time it took for me to pay, Sam had found two Carmex containers and was finding great joy in banging them together while cruising up and down the aisles. I removed the Carmex from his happy little hands, which quickly turned unhappy. I got the three of us to the car as quickly as possible.

The car ride home was quiet. Either Elijah was enduring his pain in quiet, or some sort of miracle had happened. I hadn't dared give him his medication since he had vomited twice. When we got home, I got him situated on the couch with a "frow-up bowl." I did some unpacking and cleaning and looked over to find that I had not explained the throw-up bowl very well. Items dirtied in Throw-Up Episode #3: all articles of clothing on Elijah, all articles of clothing on myself, three separate blankets, the couch, the carpet, the rug and the foot stool. The throw-up bowl remained sparkling clean.

After this, I figured he was done throwing up for a while, so I put him down for a nice long nap. When he woke up, he was ready to eat toast and drink water and take medicine. He has been feeling fine ever since!

See? A day I will never forget!