First For Everything!

Um....Ya! I think I was officially welcomed to Motherhood today at Restoration Hardware at the outlet mall in Marysville! I don't know what I did to deserve this pleasant experience....I hope it is the absolute LAST time this happens though!!!!! I don't know if I felt worse for myself or poor Jackson.

Jackson, Ellee and I had been planning for a few days to go up to Grandma McGowan's and go to the outlet mall with her. We picked Grandma up around 11:00 and headed up. We each had a stroller with a kid. Grandma had Ellee and I had Jackson. (I chose poorly this day-Just Kidding!) We did a little shopping...it was really overwhelming there are so many great stores there, I had a hard time choosing which ones to go in. After going into the Coach store I was so in awe of all the wonderful stores that we do not have anywhere down south that I got too flustered and went into my typical Gymboree, Children's Place etc. Go figure!

The kids were fantastic shoppers! Soon we decided to break for lunch. We all ate really yummy food from Starbucks. Notice nothing seems out of the ordinary right? After lunch we decided to venture back out and I spot Restoration Hardware. I love this store. So Jill and I go our seperate ways with our strollers looking at things. Well a certain, somewhat familiar sound that I have tried to block from my memory comes out of the passenger in my stroller. Ya, it was a little vomit. So I'm thinking well I will just get my baby wipes it's just barely anything. Then there was that sound again....this time it just kept going on and on and on!!! Great! Now I'm thinking I really didn't bring enough wipes for this. It then dawns on me that I am in the middle of Restoration Hardware Jackson is covered in puke from literally head to toe and I need a plan and fast. I glance around for Jill and can't find her. I say her name, still no sign of her. I start to push Jackson toward the door and know I have to find her. I turned and I saw her across the store. I motioned to her and said we are going outside. It took her a few minutes to come out. After talking with her about this later she said I thought it was odd you were leaving, you hadn't even made it through the whole store yet! (She knows that's not like me)

I was standing outside the store with Jackson (it's an outdoor mall) people are passing us by. I'm so in shock I don't even notice what they did when they passed us and I am just staring at him thinking what in the world am I going to do now. Well, I know what I need to do I just don't know where. (This may get a little graphic, but I want all you readers to get a full visual) Let me just say I could not take him out of the stroller at this point. There were chunks and lots of them. If I unbuckled him I would have first and foremost touched the puke. Second, the chunks would have landed all over the ground. Catching my drift. I kept glancing up and down the side walk for a bathroom sign. I must have looked at least 10 times, but nothing appeared. By now Jill had joined my initiation to the "Real Mom Club." I don't even remember what she said when she saw Jackson, I was still in shock. I told her I think I need to get him to a bathroom. She breaks it to me that the nearest one is through the food court-which is not close. Go figure! I was so mortified but I had to do this, I pushed Jackson in his stroller with puke all over him towards the bathrooms. Jackson, by the way, was a champ he didn't even cry or complain too much that he was covered in his own vomit for about 7 minutes. I tried to hide the puke by holding his hat in front of it....What would you have thought if you saw some mom pushing her child in a stroller with vomit all over him or her? Jill said she would have said, "excuse me, but do you know that your child threw-up all over himself?"

About half-way to the "public" bathrooms, Jill suggests we go back and use Starbucks bathroom. It's a one person bathroom and no one else has to witness whatever I'm about to do to solve this issue. We just ate there too, so it's not like we just went and used their bathroom and didn't order anything.

So we head into Starbucks, I ask Jill to block Jackson so the workers can't see that I'm about to take a kid full of puke into their bathroom. We made it, Jackson and I are in the bathroom...now what? I have to touch the puke, oh gosh, I have to touch the puke! I of course did what any mom would do and got some paper towels and tried to remove some of the chunks. I guess I was trying to make it easier on myself. Didn't work! I finally just bite the bullet unbuckle him. Disgusting, it's all over my hands. Now I have to unzip his sweatshirt. I didn't realize so much puke could be on a zipper. I proceed to take all his clothes off and luckily I had just bought him a T-shirt a gymboree, but then I realized he has no pants. So I peeked my head out the door and asked Jill if she could go buy him a pair of pants. While she was gone I finished cleaning him up. I'm not kidding it was about 20 minutes and not one person knocked on the door! Jill came back with a pair of pants just as I was done cleaning him up and he was good to go. Being the nice person that I am, I then cleaned the bathroom. It was the least I could do!

Now not only did Jackson's clothes have puke all over them, but his stroller too, so he couldn't go back in it, he had to walk. Let me tell you, he was so full of energy running around totally fine. WHAT! Not the flu. We didn't experience another throw-up, fever, etc. Jill said it was his way to not have to ride in the stroller. He had been asking all day to get out of the stroller, so she may be on to something!

My advice to all you moms out there: If your child wants out of their stroller, maybe you should listen. The puke may land somewhere other than on themselves!

Well, I'm officially a "Real Mom" now!
Thank You Jackson!