March 9

Wednesday. Our busy day. 

I've pretty much given up any hopes of doing actual "school" on Wednesdays, since it's full of other stuff for Caleb. It looks like this: After breakfast, the kids play while I pack snacks and lunches and get ready. At 9:30, they get their swimsuits on, and we are loading into the van by 9:45. The kids eat a snack on the way to the YMCA. Swimming is 10:15-11, and then I get everyone dressed and usher Caleb off to the gym for sports and games. Then I take the younger three up to childcare, check them in, and work out for 30 minutes. I pick up Caleb in the gym, then head up to get the little ones. Eli is usually crying and completely unhappy. We get in the van, and I hand each child a lunch bag. They eat lunches in the van while we drive to Caleb's speech therapy. I stop the van in front of the school, hop out with Caleb, and bring him in. Then I get back in the van, find a parking spot, and sit in the back with the kids while they eat their lunch. 30 minutes later, Caleb is finished. We pick him up, drive home, and unload. The kids play while I put Eli down for a nap, and Caleb reads a book while I put Daisy and Lily down for naps. I'm just about finished when Gayle arrives to pick up Caleb for some special time together. If I'm lucky, Eli will nap for another 45 minutes or an hour, and I can tidy up and start dinner  space out on Facebook. If I'm unlucky, he wakes up early. Then the girls wake up and Caleb comes home and it's time to make dinner and the day is over.

That's how it usually goes. It's stressful, but it works.

But Daisy has been complaining about childcare at the gym lately. She is the oldest kid there, and she hates it. Eli also hates it. So today, I told Daisy that I would sacrifice my workout so she didn't have to go to childcare. There is a little corner in the YMCA lobby that is set up with a low table for kids, along with a bookshelf with books, coloring books and crayons, Duplos, and some foam blocks. I told the girls that they could play there instead of going into childcare. Lily looked up at me and said, "I go to childcare. I happy girl."

I love that she already notices Daisy's whining and bad attitude, and it's sweet that she wants to be a "happy girl" for me. So I checked her into childcare, and Daisy, Eli and I played in the kids' corner.

Eli was thrilled. He began whimpering the moment we stepped into childcare to check Lily in, so he was thrilled not to be there!

I let him sit in a big kid chair, and he wasn't sure what to think.

I think he settled on being delighted and proud. 

He got bored soon, though, so I gave him a cup of water to drink.  

He spilled it everywhere, so I gave him an empty cup and gave Daisy a cup of water to drink.

Daisy first just laid her head on the table and rested. It was weird. Then she got out a coloring book and colored Winnie the Pooh. Doesn't she look pale?

Well.

It was a few moments after this that she said, "Mommy, I think I need to throw up."

Do you remember how this child had a stomach bug on Sunday? It's now Wednesday. We are over that. So I told her she was being dramatic. 

When she started licking her lips and swallowing hard, I started to worry. Frantically, I scanned the room. The bathrooms were way too far away - no way we could make it there with all of our stuff and Eli. 

All of the trashcans had hooded lids with flaps on them. No way she could puke in them.

So I handed her Eli's empty cup. You know, like this:

At first, I thought it might work. She did throw up, and she did it right in the cup. Filled it to the top, but it worked. She stopped, and I thought we were safe. But we weren't there was more. All over the floor, the table, the window overlooking the swimming pool...

I had no idea what to do. 

My daughter stood there in a pool of her own vomit, with puke on her dress, her pants, her socks, her shoes...

While she waited patiently, I fluttered around. Got a towel from the front desk and wiped her off. Realized Eli was trying to crawl through the puke, so picked him up. Discovered the puke had splattered on him, so I undressed him, then put him in the ring sling on my back. Finally I turned to Daisy, and had her step out of her shoes, socks, and pants, then away from her puke. What a mess. The workers insisted that I just worry about Daisy, and not her pile of vomit, so I took them at their word. Then it was time to get Caleb.  So we picked him up, got Lily, and headed to the van.

Luckily, I keep bags of spare clothes for each child in the van, so I had something clean for Daisy to wear. I got her and Eli dressed, buckled everyone in, and handed lunches to everyone except Daisy. Off to speech.

But Daisy started up the whining. "Mommy, I'm thirsty!!!"

over and over and over and over.

I'm no fool, though. I wasn't going to fall for it. No water for you, child. You will just puke. By the time we got home, it had been over an hour since the vomit, so I let her have some applesauce (spiked with vitamin D and probiotics) before her nap. She stayed in her room for 2.5 hours with no incident. When I went in to check on her, she said her tummy hurt so badly that she couldn't sleep. I let her climb into my bed to watch some TV, with one very strict rule: no puking in my bed.

Of course, once she was awake, the whining about water started again. Finally, I gave in and let her have three sips of water.

Then Caleb and Gayle returned, so I ran out to talk to them. While I was out there, guess what happened.

Yep. The girl puked in my bed.

That was the point that I just quit. I texted Chris that I was done for the day, and he offered to pick up some dinner for us. What a good man I have.

Thank God this day is over.