Pamper Damper

***Reader discretion: This entry contains somewhat graphic content about bowel issues. Not intended for the weak boweled.

As I said a couple of entries back, there were not one, but two issues that put a damper on our Florida trip. Before I get into all the positives of the trip, whatever I could get out of it anyway, I'm going to go into the negatives.

So everything was going as planned, mucho beach time and eating and some r&r. I say some r&r because what parents can actually get that when "vacationing" with small kids? I read somewhere before where a father said as a parent traveling with kids, it means you're not really on vacation..you just happen to be a parent somewhere else. I make it sound terrible, but we enjoy them. Well, minus the tantrums and dirty diapers...and diseases.

Which gets to my point. One of them got sick the third day in. It was little Rich. The poor guy was getting a slight fever and acting out of character. If you know him, you know he's very laid-back. But for him, being difficult and whiny isn't even that bad I gotta admit, especially compared to his high-maintenance big brother P. Sometimes I think it was good we had the colicky, whiny, loud child first, because all children thereafter will be easy..haha.

Anyway, we started suspecting something familiar was coming around. We decided to check inside his mouth. Sure enough, there were a few canker sores coming up. We then looked at his little fingers and soles of his feet. There were notable white dots that look like mini pimples forming. This was a sure sign of hand-foot-mouth disease. We knew this one all too well unfortunately. P-man had the same exact thing back when he was just that age, around 18 months old. It is common among young children. Much like any other illness, it can be caught easily among children who have it themselves and spread through their saliva and things the sick children touch.

Needless to say, we were in for some sleepless nights. The canker sores were extremely painful for R. (Just imagine it's your first time getting one of these, and you have no idea what they are! Lucky you if you've never had one!) He was flailing his hands randomly when he thought about it too much, while he was playing or simply sitting there chilling. Everytime he drank or ate anything, he'd spit it out, shake his head, whine, then touch his mouth from the pain of consuming anything. This little guy loves to eat, so the frustration from inability to eat and drink was adding to his irritation of the sores and fever. We administered the tylenol/motrin switch-off every 3 hours, too, but the fever and pain seemed to overlook it all. Ugh.

Next comes P. Oh yes, we were in for a shocker this time. After moseying about the Destin Commons, yet another one of those nice, new outdoor malls that are sprouting everywhere, we got hungry and opted on one of the restaurants there. While eating, P goes to a hiding spot near the wall, which only signals one thing - private poo time. I'm thinking, OK, let's just go to the restroom now, so I can clean him up asap so there is no stink coming from our table. I drag him to the rr despite his protest (as he was probably not done), but I really did not want him to stink up the restaurant. In there, I take off his pants and diaper, and *SPLAT* it goes all over the floor...

My jaw dropped, in utter, complete shock and disgust. I have never in my life seen such a mess, not to mention such a liquidy BM! I stare at this puddle of dark green, which had managed to splatter some on me and the nearby walls. I stood completely still for what seemed like an hour. P started whining, thinking he was in trouble. I took a deep breath, snapping back to reality. Thank goodness for the in-stall sink, as I chose the handicap stall to change him since it had the changing table, which was of no use to me now. I chunk the little guy in the sink, wash him down with a bunch of water, soap, and paper towels. I then washed his pants, shoes, and socks as they all got stained. Then I used soapy paper towels to clean up surrounding splatter on me and the walls as best as I could. I looked at the puddle and I just didn't even bother as that would require major moppage. P stood patiently waiting for me. Poor P.

I looked at him, sighed, and finally said, "Are you ok, P?"

He nodded, puppy-eyed, shirt lifted by his little hand, waiting for me to put a new diaper on him.

I smiled at him. "It's OK, buddy. We're all cleaned up. We'll get you some new pants, OK?"

"New pants? OK!" He laughed and gave me the fattest smile. That's a winner in my book if I ever saw one. It was a sign that everything would be fine, and that perhaps whatever infection/virus he had, it was all gone in this one BM...hopefully.

Despite his big terrible-toddler moments, I love him so much, and in moments like these, feel so helpless and like a useless mother as I "got" my son sick by not being careful enough about what he touched or ate. I had already felt it when R got sick (and everytime they get sick), and here I was, feeling it again, not so long after.

Shaking off the feeling, reminding myself that I can't keep my children in a bubble, I put on his new diaper then took another deep breath to compose myself to tell management the situation and imagine how devastated Daddy will be to hear the news.

The gentleman manager was super understanding. As soon as I told him, he merely said, "Oh, no problem at all. We'll get it cleaned up. Just hope the little guy's ok."

Wow. Some people are just too nice for words. I would have shown some sort of discomfort, but this guy must've been a parent or uncle himself, as he wasn't offended at all. Or maybe because he wasn't doing the cleaning up..haha. I couldn't thank him enough.

Daddy did not like the news, of course. He assessed P, told me and him to make sure he got plenty of fluids, then off we went to the nearest kiddy clothes store to get him new shorts before we went home. Why is it the time we need the extra clothes for the boys, I don't carry any with me? Fact of life, I suppose.

The rest of the vacation went by, the parentals dealing with sick R and now, seemingly well P, minus that fiasco. We kept close watch on P, though, making sure he wouldn't eat anything that might irritate his bowels any further.

The last day at the hotel, we checked out, loaded up the truck, and headed on to the airport so B can drop the kids and I off to fly back to H-town. On the road, P started complaining about "ouchie in tummy, Mommy..."

Oh no. I offered him crackers and whatever else we knew that would calm an upset stomach. It didn't help. He gagged, then vomited all over himself. It consisted of all his breakfast, which he devoured with gusto that morning, so we had thought he was rid of the illness. No such luck, I guess!

We quickly pulled over at a fast food joint. While I cleaned the mess up, B ran inside to buy food. I had to bring P into the restroom to wash him up because the stench was unbearable. Ick.

When all was done, we took off to a drugstore to find something for his stomach issues. He was still not feeling good. Sigh, the poor guy! As we were reading the medications, the guy stood up in the cart, screaming to get down. I said, we're almost done, buddy, hold on. But he wouldn't stop.

I figured I could spoil him, being sick and all, and let him run around. Nothing new there..every shopping trip consisted of the kids running around towards the end..the cart was useless in pushing them around most of the time. But this time it wasn't because he wanted to run around. He vomited again, all over himself and the floor. This time, it was mostly liquid, no solids, as he had puked all the food up in the car.

Management was very understanding here too. The woman who cleaned up sympathized with us, told us to go on our way, and we shouldn't feel bad.

That's when I had enough. I broke down, eyes filled up, the stress of this trip and two sick kids was too much. And then the thought of flying back with them like this. It was already nonstop focus getting here with them healthy, what would it be like going about with them sick???? How the heck.......

B simply bear hugged me.

The woman mopping up P's messed up shook her head, concerned, saying, "I feel ya, sweetie. They seem like strong little guys. You'll be fine."

I smiled at her. Thanks, I managed to say.

I finally calmed down and thought clearly. "How about I go back with you to Miss?"

"Ya know what? I was just thinking that," B said.

"We'll just cancel this return trip, and I'll find a one-way ticket for us to go back when they're better. I simply can't do this anymore."

"You read my mind." He gave me another hug and hugged the boys who were groveling in discomfort in the shopping cart. "Actually, I'm kind of excited. You get to see where Daddy lives and works, guys!"

The boys couldn't contain their excitement either. "Daddy house daddy house!" they exclaimed, jumping up and down, clapping and smiling.

We checked out, got back to the truck, and took the 2.5 hour trek back to "Daddy's house."

Talk about one long, short vacation.

I'll end this entry with some happy faces from the trip though. =)