Pushing the limits of allowable carry-on luggage, we thought we were ready for anything. We had in one bag: 2 laptop computers loaded to the gills with various music and video presumed attractive to the one-year-old crowd, a camcorder, a digital camera, a cell phone, and an iPod, not to mention some reading materials—you know, just in case of an EMP. And in another bag: enough books, puzzles, and snacks to accommodate a single toddler for, well, hopefully a week. But, unfortunately, all of this seemed moot once it was clear we were unprepared for one particular thing.
Vomit.
Lots of it. As the flight was departing we were surprised how quiet and low key Sam was actually being. He cuddled and just munched slowly on fruit snacks. As we started to gain elevation, he fussed a bit, but we just kept cramming gummy fruits in his mouth and he seemed to work through it.
But then, on the descent, several days of meals showed up on my lap without any prior warning at all. Sam was sitting on my lap facing Boss and we were both covered in his, shall we say, voluminous spew. It was on our shirts, our pants, his jammies, the blanket, the seat, the floor, and probably the captain. Boss's motherly reflexes had a wet wipe under his chin in no time, but a west wipe was no match for the not-so-meaty chunks that awaited her.
Moments before, I had been thinking about how they always say “flight attendants, prepare the cabin for landing” what seems like 14 hours ahead of time. Well, the rest of the flight went by surprisingly quickly as we used our 2 Northwest airlines cocktail napkins, a box of wet wipes, and the complimentary airline blanket to wipe up the wreckage. Boss suggested I ask the woman next to me if we could use her little barf baggie, but I had noticed that since the “incident” she had completely turned away from the sights and smells, perhaps in an effort to keep her own cookies battened down. I thought she might need the baggie for herself.
Well, we survived. I’m proud of us for dealing with it so well. We had him changed into a new outfit and the now rank former clothes banished to an airtight bag before landing.
5 comments:
Aw! Poor Sam! It's so rough to have them sick when you are traveling. Glad that you guys got him cleaned up and all before deboarding the plane.
When Mark was in CT and I was still selling the house in Utah, I decided I couldn't stand the distance any longer and flew out to CT for a visit. I was about 5 months pregnant, had Noah (not quite a year) and Hunter (just three) in tow. Anyway, as we were descending, some kid behind us offered Hunter a bag of watermelon gushers, which he gladly accepted. He ate one and then proceeded to barf all over me and himself. I threw Noah to a flight attendant and managed to get Hunter stripped down to his skivvies. A guy in front of us offered Hunter a t-shirt to wear (since I neglected to pack a change of clothes) and Hunter refused. So. . . too overwhelmed to fight, I let Hunter proudly march off that plane in his underwear, stroll through the entire airport and then, greet his Daddy with a great big naked hug. Must be something about fruit snacks and landing aircraft that don't go well together. Hope your trip ends up being more fun than barfy.
Oh, my gosh! I am so sorry that happened to ya'll!! Is Sam sick, or was it just a motion thing? Poor guy! And poor ya'll, covered in puke! That was not something I even thought about giving advice about! Eliza went through a period at about age 3-4 where she'd get REALLY carsick! After 3 or 4 times of her throwing up, we finally wised up and would give her a towel to put over herself as soon as we got in the car to go anywhere! She grew out of it, but it was so sad! Once, we were returning a rental car when Eliza threw up! Yuk, yuk, yuk! And it was such a short trip that we had not brought any extra clothes, so had to go to Wal-Mart and get her something! She didn't walk through the store in her underwear, but waited patiently in the bathroom in her underwear while Scott bought the clothes. Oh, kids and throw-up! It is never-ending.
Yuk! Puking toddlers seesm to be a universal thing. My little guy did the exact same thing to me when he was 18 months--curdled milk chunks instead of fruit gummies, though. His dad tried to take him into the lavatory to clean him up, where the little guy panicked in the very close space, and not only barfed again, but peed all over his dad. Needless to say, we were all quite rank by the time we were on the ground again.
Anyway, glad you survived!
Oh my! I had no idea puking toddlers was such a regular occurance for major airlines. And I always thought it'd be so glamorous to be a flight attendant! Thanks for sharing your stories.
It's great to see you here, Christine. I stop by your blog and Meg's blog occasionally too. I can't believe how much she's grown up! (While they're at it, they do grow out of puking on planes, don't they?)
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