I think enough time has passed and I’m recovered enough to
write about it. We went on
vacation to Idaho at the end of October and it was quite a venture getting
home. I don’t even want to call it an adventure because that seems to denote
something fun or enjoyable, and it
wasn’t.
I have never been more grateful to be traveling with a
partner. I’ve done my share of
solo traveling with kids and while it’s no walk in the park, I’ve kind of
gotten a feel for it. However, traveling with anyone sick is a game changer. We
were gone for about a week and right off the bat, Myles was sick with major
stomach issues, I got it on at the end of that week, just hours before Molli woke up in the middle of
that night with it. My concern, at the time, was Gavin. Please, please don’t let him get it! But if he does, let it
happen soon so we’re not traveling with it!
The good news is, he didn’t get it!
The bad news is, Molli had it for days it and Gavin got
something different.
The day before we were scheduled to leave, it was obvious
Gavin was coming down with a cold.
Sure enough, he fussed and whined all night and Tuesday morning, travel day, he was
dripping green gunk from his nose AND his eyes. I’ve never seen anything like it, but apparently that can
happen. I guess it all comes from
the sinuses anyway. Very gross!
The poor guy just looked sick. The
droopy face, blotchy cheeks, swollen, droopy eyes. Plus of course all the drainage. He was a total wreck.
Tuesday morning, the day we were scheduled to leave Boise,
Molli was also a disaster. She
threw up again in bed again and I was up with her bright and early at 5am running her
back and forth to the bathroom.
Kids are not good at being sick, especially tummy sick. She had no idea what was going on, poor
thing. We called the airlines, knowing
that traveling this way was not good for anyone, but had to dismiss changing
the dates because it would be an extra $400+ PER TICKET to change to the next
day. At least $1,600 for a few
hours grace… not in the budget.
So we sucked it up, bought some kids pepto and pull-ups,
packed changes of clothes, plastic bags, tissues, extra wipes and ventured
out.
I think I’ve blocked some of the specific details from my
memory but the first flight was more or less fine. It’s never “fun” with kids, but it went fine. No major meltdowns and no major bodily
fluids is considered a win. Of
course there was ants in the pants on behalf of both kids, but Gavin is the
more difficult one at this point.
Who wants to try to explain to a 16 month old that no, he cannot run and
play, in fact, he can ONLY stay here, on laps and deal suck it up with the rest
of us. Obviously that logic is
ineffective.
Flight number two was long and squirmy beyond belief. There
were seating issues and as I was waiting for things to be sorted, this man
looked at me, rolled his eyes and told some guy next to him something along the
lines of, “Ugh, there are so many kids getting on this flight.” I might have
given him the evil eye as I thought to myself, I hope you’re in front of us.
My brother (he will remain nameless) said I
should have responded to him with, “Ugh, there are so many douche-bags getting
on this flight,” Hindsight…
Anyway, that flight started with a very wiggly boy who
wanted to touch everything he wasn’t supposed to, topped off with the flight
attendant handing him the bag with the seatbelt, oxygen mask and other goodies
for her safety presentation. Look,
I’m all for sharing with kids, but mine are already sick and the last thing I
need is for them to intentionally be handed germy things that they aren’t
supposed to be playing with anyways. Once we were in the air Molli informed us
that she pooped her pants (remember the tummy bug, yeah, it was still wrecking
her). Myles dragged her and a fresh pull-up to the bathroom. Which if you think
about it, that airplane bathroom must have been beyond max capacity. There’s hardly room to pull pants up in
there, much less a big man changing a 3 year old’s pants! That happened twice on the plane.
We finally landed and thought we were golden. After
gathering all our bags (thank you AK 49 club for getting to check everything
for free!) I realized I left Gavin’s coat on the plane, told the lady at the
desk, waited forever then found the coat in my back pack and
Molli had one more accident. Eventually Myles set off to get the car. We waited
another forever, loaded up and headed home. At that point, what’s three more hours traveling with two
sick kids? About ten minutes down the road we had the distinct pleasure of
seeing everything Molli had consumed that day come shooting out her mouth.
Vomit everywhere.
I almost lost it. We had to pull over at a gas station and
clean her up. Myles took care of the nasty car and I walked her, covered in
puke, into the gas station bathroom with a pair of jammies. I ended up giving her a sponge bath of
sorts with hand soap and paper towels. The poor girl was miserable. She didn’t feel well (obviously), was
naked, smelled like puke and was being washed up in a cold gas station. UGH!
We survived the trip home and I called the doctor the next
day. She’s out of town. Greaaat. By then Molli had been unwell for a few days
and Gavin was getting worse by the hour. I love the kids’ doctor but was fine
to call someone else.
Unfortunately the one recommended was full but we got Gavin in with
someone else. Good thing because he had two ear infections (one very bad), a
sinus infection and pink eye in both eyes. A couple days later we took Myles and Molli in. Myles had bronchitis and pink eye. Molli had pink eye in both eyes, a cold
and strep throat. It was like some
kind of cruel joke throwing such a variety of sicknesses our way right before
Myles leaves us for three weeks for work.
Yeah, that’s right.
Three weeks without daddy.
He’s gone now and we are literally counting the days until his return (17).
Everyone is finally healthy and I think I need a vacation. A post-vacation vacation.
