Pre-Vacation Jitters No. 5

I will preface this latest installment by saying only this: Pride comes before the fall!

Jonah threw up again, but I clearly was at the top of my game despite the ridiculously meager amount of sleep I’d received. I was strangely pumped from the way my smart planning had accounted for every possibility and a little proud of myself for how effortlessly I was handling everything. In the fictional “Mom Olympics” I often imagined would someday recognize the Herculean efforts of mothers everywhere, I had already won a pile of gold medals.

Isaac, started complaining about something and this time I didn’t ignore that 6th sense that told me trouble was brewing. “Isaac has a tell,” I informed my husband. “If he’s going to throw up, he always coughs first.” I knew I wasn’t planning for “if” Isaac threw up, but for “when” he threw up.

Moments later, the coughing started and since he was in the middle seat, I was able to rotate in my seat, bringing the bowl quickly to Isaac’s chin. Unfortunately it still bore the fruits of Jonah’s last episode, but I was just in time to catch Isaac’s vomit.

“We need to find another rest stop,” I said casually, although I knew we were probably 30-40 miles from the next one. By the time we approached the rest stop, both my husband and I were pre-occupied with a serious discussion on the pros and cons of what would most likely be a mandatory lunch stop at McDonalds and the lidless bowl of vomit on the floor was momentarily forgotten.

30 minutes turned into 60, and then 90. We were making really good time and the kids hadn’t complained of tummy pain once. I was fairly sure the throwing up was behind us when Jonah asked for grapes. He hadn’t felt like eating anything all morning, so I was happy to hear his appetite was back and saw it as a good sign of his returning health. I handed back a generous bunch of grapes and watched as Jonah quickly gobbled them up. Yes! Our family vacation was back on track.