I was thinking about this on the way home from the aquarium last night: I don't think Nikolai has ever thrown up at home. I think there might have been a few times where he'd done most of his impressive hurling while in a public place and with no spare clothes and hurled about 20 times more until we were actually able to get back to the house. By the time we arrive home, generally, he's gotten rid of the contents of his stomach and has nothing else to come out. At least this is my impression. It's probably not true, but it sure feels like it.
Yesterday we got out of the house around 1:00 in an effort to get Melissa to her dad's house. On a whim we decided to go to the aquarium in Monterey. Nikolai's never been, and I thought it was a perfect opportunity to see the fishes. Hindsight, of course, tells me what an absolutely foolish little girl I am to think that Sunday of Labor Day weekend is a "perfect opportunity" to do anything that involves a tourist attraction and a freeway. In fact, most of you are sitting there in your comfy desk chairs thinking "Man, she really is a moron. The aquarium, on LABOR DAY WEEKEND! HAH!". Yes, yes I am. I can't deny it. But I digress.
We left the house at 1:00ish. Thanks to stop and go traffic for most of the way on highway 1 we arrived at the aquarium around 4:00. I hadn't allotted 3 hours of travel time's stress in my daily anti-anxiety dosage, or bladder emptying schedule so I was just about nutso by the time we got there. We stood in a line about as long as the colorado river just to buy our tickets. Once we got in there we rushed STRAIGHT to the mini-colorado-river line for the women's bathroom. I think by the time we got in there it was roughly 5:00. The aquarium closed at 6, so that left us about an hour to enjoy the swirling stinking masses of totally oblivious people gawking at fish.
As it turns out, Nikolai really didn't enjoy himself. He really didn't care much for the fishes, and wasn't at all impressed by the sharks. The otter was apparently not too thrilling either. After it becaume abundantly clear he wasn't really enjoying the sights we decided to bail. We got the incredibly and sickeningly sincere "We *REALLY* regret to inform you the aquarium will be closing in 30 minutes. We are simply heartbroken because we have *SO* enjoyed your visit with us." warning, and decided to hit the gift shops. There wasn't much exciting there in the shops, although I did get a cute all wooden octopus puzzle for Nikolai and some other gifts for special girls.
We left the aquarium at about 5:45ish and hopped right in the car for our trip home. Nikolai was pretty overwhelmed by all of the stimulation at the aquarium. I figured we would just get in the car and drive home and get some rest. Even though we'd sat for 3 hours and then stood for only an hour and 1/2 or so, it seemed like we'd been through hell. I was ready for a nap, that's for sure. Little did I know, Nikolai had other plans for us.
He was pretty tired and it took only a few minutes for him to pass out in the car watching Little Einsteins. A few minutes after he fell asleep he woke up suddenly and decided to spew all over himeslf, his car seat, the only blanket in the car, the buckle on his car seat, into his shirt, down his pants, etc. He still doesn't take too kindly to vomiting, and so his utter shock and horror at what's happening to his body is enough to completely traumatize the poor kid. Unfortunately for the traumatized little thing I wouldn't cuddle him until I could get his shirt and pants and shoes and most of the chunks off, but once I did he was very happy to curl up to my chest for a while under my jacket. After some hasty and difficult cleanup he was wrapped tightly like a little volatile Nikolai burrito in his car seat and drifting off to sleep again.
About fifteen minutes later we revisited this scene. On the side of the road, frantically wiping up chunks and trying to soothe a frantic and sick child enough to get him back into his car seat. These episodes happened about every 15 minutes. After a few hours we were totally out of wipe-able objects (man, and I thought in this day and age that would be impossible) and realized a visit to a store was imperative to our safe/sane arrival at home. First we hit longs in Soquel to look for something - anything - that would help wipe things up and keep this poor child warm. Longs was almost completely useless for this. Why is it that "grocery" and "drug" stores these days have EVERYTHING you don't need, and rarely what you do? They've all taken to stocking things you would never look for in a grocery or drug store. I DEFY you to find a baby blanket in Longs. No, I defy you to find a BLANKET in longs. Period. I was flabbergasted. Not only this, but we looked down every aisle and were totally unable to spot anything cloth to use for wiping up. We found paper towells, that was just about the best we could do. How very pathetic.
We also had the challenge of finding clothes for this poor shivering thing. He'd soaked everything we had for him (which incidentally and surprisingly was quite a bit, since we had several changes of clothes to start out with), so we needed to find something with warmth he could wear. The ONLY thing to be had was a big pile of UCSC Banana Slugs t-shirts and sweatshirts. A sweatshirt would have been PERFECT, but they only had those in large and extra large. We ended up with a $15 banana slug t-shirt that we didn't want in the first place. On the way out I spotted towels. It was a miracle I wasn't expecting, and I was very grateful for. They were all colors that I would normally refuse to spend money on, as a matter of principle, but when you're desperate you're desperate. Anyone want some puce towels? They've only been used once...
After longs there was a short visit to nob hill and then back in the car to continue our eventful trip home.
We arrived at home at about 9:00, and Nikolai stopped throwing up around midnight. 6 hours in the car, 45 minutes in the aquarium, about an hour on the side of the road dealign with vomit. What a wonderful day.
Yesterday we got out of the house around 1:00 in an effort to get Melissa to her dad's house. On a whim we decided to go to the aquarium in Monterey. Nikolai's never been, and I thought it was a perfect opportunity to see the fishes. Hindsight, of course, tells me what an absolutely foolish little girl I am to think that Sunday of Labor Day weekend is a "perfect opportunity" to do anything that involves a tourist attraction and a freeway. In fact, most of you are sitting there in your comfy desk chairs thinking "Man, she really is a moron. The aquarium, on LABOR DAY WEEKEND! HAH!". Yes, yes I am. I can't deny it. But I digress.
We left the house at 1:00ish. Thanks to stop and go traffic for most of the way on highway 1 we arrived at the aquarium around 4:00. I hadn't allotted 3 hours of travel time's stress in my daily anti-anxiety dosage, or bladder emptying schedule so I was just about nutso by the time we got there. We stood in a line about as long as the colorado river just to buy our tickets. Once we got in there we rushed STRAIGHT to the mini-colorado-river line for the women's bathroom. I think by the time we got in there it was roughly 5:00. The aquarium closed at 6, so that left us about an hour to enjoy the swirling stinking masses of totally oblivious people gawking at fish.
As it turns out, Nikolai really didn't enjoy himself. He really didn't care much for the fishes, and wasn't at all impressed by the sharks. The otter was apparently not too thrilling either. After it becaume abundantly clear he wasn't really enjoying the sights we decided to bail. We got the incredibly and sickeningly sincere "We *REALLY* regret to inform you the aquarium will be closing in 30 minutes. We are simply heartbroken because we have *SO* enjoyed your visit with us." warning, and decided to hit the gift shops. There wasn't much exciting there in the shops, although I did get a cute all wooden octopus puzzle for Nikolai and some other gifts for special girls.
We left the aquarium at about 5:45ish and hopped right in the car for our trip home. Nikolai was pretty overwhelmed by all of the stimulation at the aquarium. I figured we would just get in the car and drive home and get some rest. Even though we'd sat for 3 hours and then stood for only an hour and 1/2 or so, it seemed like we'd been through hell. I was ready for a nap, that's for sure. Little did I know, Nikolai had other plans for us.
He was pretty tired and it took only a few minutes for him to pass out in the car watching Little Einsteins. A few minutes after he fell asleep he woke up suddenly and decided to spew all over himeslf, his car seat, the only blanket in the car, the buckle on his car seat, into his shirt, down his pants, etc. He still doesn't take too kindly to vomiting, and so his utter shock and horror at what's happening to his body is enough to completely traumatize the poor kid. Unfortunately for the traumatized little thing I wouldn't cuddle him until I could get his shirt and pants and shoes and most of the chunks off, but once I did he was very happy to curl up to my chest for a while under my jacket. After some hasty and difficult cleanup he was wrapped tightly like a little volatile Nikolai burrito in his car seat and drifting off to sleep again.
About fifteen minutes later we revisited this scene. On the side of the road, frantically wiping up chunks and trying to soothe a frantic and sick child enough to get him back into his car seat. These episodes happened about every 15 minutes. After a few hours we were totally out of wipe-able objects (man, and I thought in this day and age that would be impossible) and realized a visit to a store was imperative to our safe/sane arrival at home. First we hit longs in Soquel to look for something - anything - that would help wipe things up and keep this poor child warm. Longs was almost completely useless for this. Why is it that "grocery" and "drug" stores these days have EVERYTHING you don't need, and rarely what you do? They've all taken to stocking things you would never look for in a grocery or drug store. I DEFY you to find a baby blanket in Longs. No, I defy you to find a BLANKET in longs. Period. I was flabbergasted. Not only this, but we looked down every aisle and were totally unable to spot anything cloth to use for wiping up. We found paper towells, that was just about the best we could do. How very pathetic.
We also had the challenge of finding clothes for this poor shivering thing. He'd soaked everything we had for him (which incidentally and surprisingly was quite a bit, since we had several changes of clothes to start out with), so we needed to find something with warmth he could wear. The ONLY thing to be had was a big pile of UCSC Banana Slugs t-shirts and sweatshirts. A sweatshirt would have been PERFECT, but they only had those in large and extra large. We ended up with a $15 banana slug t-shirt that we didn't want in the first place. On the way out I spotted towels. It was a miracle I wasn't expecting, and I was very grateful for. They were all colors that I would normally refuse to spend money on, as a matter of principle, but when you're desperate you're desperate. Anyone want some puce towels? They've only been used once...
After longs there was a short visit to nob hill and then back in the car to continue our eventful trip home.
We arrived at home at about 9:00, and Nikolai stopped throwing up around midnight. 6 hours in the car, 45 minutes in the aquarium, about an hour on the side of the road dealign with vomit. What a wonderful day.
posted by rebecca at 6:47 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home