Lesson #2

I woke up Thursday sick and throwing up. I, too, had the terrible bug that plagued my young sons the past few days. I decided I would talk myself out of it. My sister and her son were coming over to see us and I didn't want to be sick.

My nephew, Ethan, is a few months older then Braedon and loves his cousin. When we first arrived at my parents, Ethan was there. Braedon, upon seeing his Nanny, ran to her and gave her a kiss. When he saw Ethan, he smiled, waved, and said Hi. Ethan got all excited and looked at his Nanny and said, "He can talk!" Braedon never speaks around Ethan. They just play in silence, so this was a very big deal to Ethan. Later, when his mom arrived he ran up to her and said, "Mommy, Braedon can talk." He than grabbed Braedon and told him to say hi to his Mommy. It was really exciting to Ethan that Braedon could say Hi.

Anyhoo, Ethan and his mom were on their way down when we told them I was sick and to turn around. Ethan cried and cried because he had to go home.

I started to feel a little better by the afternoon and helped my mom around the house. The boys were still having diarreha diapers and not eating much. We put our best foot forward and decided that on Friday we would drive the 620 miles back to Utah.

Things seemed okay that evening and I thought we'd turned the corner. Around 2:16am I awoke to Braedon coughing and throwing up on my chest. Fun! I was so tired by this point that I just took my shirt off and threw it on the floor and fell asleep. About an hour later he threw up again on his sheet. This time I threw a towel over it and we both fell asleep. Please don't judge me, you weren't there! You don't understand! He threw up a third time and we ended up in a corner of the bed trying to sleep a few more hours.

Around 7:00am we got up and started to pack the truck for the trip. I was determined to go home. At 8:15am the drive began. The truck was loaded, no one had thrown up for hours, snacks were packed, and my mom and I were off.

Things were going smoothly until just outside Boise. We stopped to change diapers and get some walking done. After changing the boys they both decided a nice big diarreha diaper was in order. Back to the changing table I went. Let me say that this point that Reilly has a strange and very real fear of public bathrooms. He screams and cries in them. I don't know why. We finally got everyone clean and headed down the road.

Not 20 minutes later we heard the sound of Reilly throwing up on himself. A nice curdled milk smell and chunky throw up was all over the back. I stopped along the interstate and got out to change him while my mom tried to clean things in the truck. We were off again, with that now familiar smell of vomit. Only 6 more hours of driving.

The one bright spot was our stop at Baja Fresh in Boise. We found a lovely section of grass under a tree and my mom layed down with Reilly. After a few minutes it was time to head out, but not before Braedon had a nice big diarreha diaper to be changed.

What seemed like forever was only 12 hours of driving. At 8:30pm we pulled into my driveway in Salt Lake. I had never been so happy to be home. Braedon ran inside and looked at his things like he'd been gone forever.

We unpacked and went to sleep. Reilly did throw up all over his crib, but I didn't get up. Dean did. Lesson #2 Thank goodness for Daddy.