Weekend of Firsts

This weekend was full of firsts for our family.

The first first was Hunter throwing up. . . on my bed and me. I didn't think much of it until he threw up again after I gave him some milk in his sippy cup. Then again after he ate some cereal, and again when the poor guy had nothing left in his tummy. This was the first time he was throw-up-sick in his whole life. Poor lil' bean didn't know what to think of it. Then to add sour sauce to an already extra sour situation Jim was out-of-town, which meant I was all alone in dealing with this. I knew I should probably go get some pedialyte, so I strapped both kids in the car, put a bib on Hunter, and wrapped a towel around the rest of him. Luckily I did, cause he threw-up on the way to the store. Frowny face! I packed an extra towel and bib, so I managed to clean up and re-group before heading in to Wally World. I also packed the baby sling, as I wanted Hunty to stay close to me and not touch anything. The kids and I made our way in and out without any incident.

With the pedialyte in-tow we drove back home and I tried to get Hunty to drink some. He did, and it came right back up. Make that two frowny faces! Of coarse all this happened on a Saturday, so our clinic was closed. I called anyways, and knew I would be directed to a nurse. The nurse asked me all the usual questions. Then I remembered that Hunter fell off our bed the day before while he and Tralee were wrestling around, and landed on his noggin. He didn't black out, he cried right away, and there was barely a mark on his head, but I mentioned it just to have all the bases covered. The nurse informed me that anytime a child barfs (not the medical term she used, she was much more professional than barfs) three or more times after having a "head injury" they advise a trip to the doctor. Oh Grrrr-REAT!!! This leads us to. . .

Our Second First

The second first of the day was our trip to the ER. Besides having my babies, this was the first time either child had visited the hospital. I wouldn't have gone, except that the Dr's office, and instacare places had all closed shop for the day. I also wasn't to thrilled that "head injury" was now on Hunter's hospital record, as he barley had a bump. I was also worried that they would suspect me of negligence when they saw all the other bruises on his head.

All of these occurred within the span of a week! Luckily for me, toddler boys seem to find their way into the ER more often than not. So Hunter's presence and "head injury" weren't much of a surprise. And, as things of this nature go, as soon as we got the hospital Hunter seemed his usual self again. He was chipper, he was eating some baby puffed cereal, and keeping it down. Of coarse! By the time the doctor saw us he said, "He doesn't look like he's sick!" But I'm getting ahead of myself, before we saw the doctor we experienced another first.

The Third First was. . .

Hunter had his temperature taken rectally by the nurse. YIKES!!! Poor baby looked REALLY confused when it happened. This was the first time a temperature had been taken that way in our family. Poor Hunter. Let's throw in a third frowny face for the rectal temp, shall we?

Hunter in ER room, trying to eat more puffed cereal off my lap.

The doctor saw my little man, and gave him a clean bill of health. He prescribed some tummy tablets to help with the nauseousness, but by this point Hunter seemed in fine spirits. I didn't want to jinx it though by NOT getting the tablets so, we stopped at Walgreens on our way home. I only gave Hunter one dose of medicine, cause he seemed to be doing much better, and he hasn't thrown-up since. Talk about a sigh of relief and a great big smiley face until. . .

Fourth First

The fourth first occurred when Tralee and I were cleaning up the backyard last night, as it looked like a rainstorm was heading in. She and I were laying on the bouncy house, trying to deflate it. We were laughing, having a great ol' time when her sweet little face turned to a look of shock. She popped up, and started frantically crying and grabbing at her leg. My poor baby girl got STUNG!! I'm not sure if it was by a bee or a wasp, but I had to pull the stinger out. NOT FUN!! FROWNY FACE NUMBER FOUR! I set her on the kitchen counter with a bag of frozen peas to put over the sting while I got some antihistamine spray and the bottle of children's benadryl out of our first aid area.

This was the first sting in our family. Luckily, besides swelling a little, Tralee had no side-effects. She DID, however, get LOADS of attention and kisses from me. The whole day, up to this point, seemed to be about Baby. So much so, that Tralee started telling all the doctors and nurses at the hospital, "I'm sick!" I think she saw all the attention Hunter was getting for being sick, that she thought it might not be a bad gig. As we left the hospital and were walking to our car Tralee told an EMT getting into an ambulance, "I'm sick." The nice guy asked her what was wrong, and if she would like to see the pretty lights to help her feel better. She did, of coarse, but the pretty lights didn't cure her. When we got into the car I asked Tralee, "What would help you feel better?" Her answer? "A chocolate shake." So we got a chocolate shake at a little mom and pop type venue right outside the Walgreens Hunter's prescription was being filled. And just to be clear, this was NOT Tralee's first chocolate shake. Not even close.

We made it through Saturday. I called a sub for my primary class, and the kids and I hung out at home all day Sunday. I didn't think going to church would be the best idea. Sunday was going smoothly until. . .

You guessed it! First number Five

Tralee locked herself in the bathroom and couldn't get out. I tried the bobby-pin trick, but after several minutes trying to poke at something to un-lock the door with no success, I moved onto another tactic. I tried teaching Tralee from the other side of the door how to unlock it herself. Yeah, that didn't work. So, I found a screwdriver and took apart the doorknob. Believe it or not, I've never done this. A first for me! I had NO idea what I was looking at, so I took apart another doorknob and fiddled with the lock so I knew what to do. Turns out these locks aren't the standard poke-and-unlock-ones. They require a flat-head-screwdriver-like object to unlock them from the other side. I used a butter knife. The butter knife rescued my fair maiden, and we were in the clear.

Things were going great after the door incident. Both kids seems in fine spirits until the wee hours of this morning when I heard said fair maiden coughing. The coughing turned to gagging. The gagging turned to (yep) barfing. And we've come full circle people. Although this isn't the first time Tralee has thrown-up, it is only the SECOND believe it or not. But, since this is a post about firsts, I won't go into any more detail except to say, it looks like she's on the mend. Let's just say I hope the SECOND time I go through a weekend like this, I have the second half of this marriage here for some re-enforcement. I really missed my Jim. However, I also realized that I CAN make it through a weekend of craziness on my own, it's just a heck-of-a-lot nicer with my hubby here to help.

Also, Universe, if you're listening, since you're throwing firsts at us, here's a list of other things we've never done, that we'd be MORE than happy to experience:

- Spent a week on a Caribbean beach vacation

- Traveled in a comfy RV cross-country

- Eaten at a fondue restaurant

- Traveled to Asia

- Stayed in a five-star hotel

- Had a full-body massage at a fancy spa

- Won a sweepstakes type thing

- Owned a serger or fancy-pants sewing machine

- Had anything published professionally

- Owned a DSLR camera

- Been able to turn down food that I love, but doesn't love me back (curse the day buttermilk syrup found me!!)

- Hit my goal weight after having a baby

Kay, did I give you enough ideas Universe? Only good firsts from now on. Thank you!