What the Heck is Going on Around Here?

OK. I thought of one more story. Man it’s been a rough week. So I decide to go to ASDA again to get a few things. It was also an excuse to go to McDonalds for dinner that night, kind of a big deal around here. We live in rural England and to hit any decent restaurant or fast food we have to drive 20 – 25 minutes. Anyway as a little bit of a back story. William has had a few really bad allergic reactions, bad itchy rash, raspy breathing. The first time it happened we had no idea what had caused it. The second time I had a suspicion, but was still not even 10% sure of what it was. The third time, the day of the McDonalds trip, I got confirmation that it is definitely eggs. He can’t do eggs. So he’d eaten eggs and a couple hours later he’s not sleeping during his nap, he’s scratching himself silly so I load him up on benadryl, steroid cream and Tylenol just to cover my bases. By the time we leave for McDonalds he still looks like he’s got a disease with how splotchy and red he is but he finally seems comfortable. So we decide to go. We get there when I realize I totally forgot to breastfeed him at his normal 4pm feeding, but no big deal he doesn’t seem to care. We do a little shopping at the ASDA then go upstairs to where McDonalds is. I order food and get the kids happy and eating. This is all pretty hard work and kinda stressful. They’re all so little and I have to do everything for them and “right now!” So I finally sneak away to get my drink filled up which is a little nerve racking to leave 3 kids 4 and under alone at a table even if I can still see them. I gave William a French fry to keep him from crying as I go. I fill my drink and turn around to see all the strangers in the area starring at my table; a couple of people are even half standing to get a better look. I’m looking at this realizing that something’s not quite right and my brain is processing…processing…processing. Until I realize that everyone is looking at William and his vomit covered shirt, and vomit filled high chair tray and the huge splat of vomit on the floor and vomit on the table and vomit in the aisle way. Vomit everywhere an incredible amount of vomit. Vomit dripping off of everything At this point I thank God for the only thing I can at this point and that is that I had forgotten to fill him to the brim with breast milk before we left. I leave William crying, and go get a stack of napkins. I start to clean and clean. All the while V and B are happily stuffing their face. I soak up what I can. I start trying to clean the floor, this is when I realize that the splatters reach all the way of to the feet of the man trying to eat at the next table. I give him my best “I can’t believe this is happening right now” smile and surprisingly he smiles back and keeps eating. I don’t have a change of clothes for William on me (out in the car a long long way away) so I just left him soaked and ate my Happy Meal. I’m sure I disgusted everyone in sight, but at that point if I had lifted William out of his highchair the amount of vomit caked to his clothes would have been worse and it was too late to pack up the meal B and V were half way through. When I was done I covered him up with his jacket and high tailed it out of there. The only problem being was that I couldn’t leave fast enough, the cleaning lady who didn’t see the original mess was right on top of me as I lifted William out of his vomit covered highchair. I tried to get out of sight before she realized what she had to clean, but of course Ben wasn’t going to let me make a clean get away. He dawdled behind as I hissed “come on Ben, get over here, come on Ben” like he wanted to see me even more embarrassed. Poor lady, I did get a lot of it clean, but there’s only so much you can do with a stack of dry napkins. Isn’t going out to eat supposed to be Mom’s break, a meal off where I can just eat…no hassle…no mess. No, not so lucky for me. I had eaten my McDonalds cold just like I eat most meals at home. I think William’s whole body rejected the eggs he’d eaten that day. It’s just too bad that it had to happen publicly.