This week I have done some reflecting on past Father’s Day weekends. Some of the things I have pondered are because of what my friend’s have posted on Facebook. Even though Facebook is a bit of a time sucker, it has led me this week to ponder some sweet, sad, and wonderful things.
- Father’s Day weekend 7 years ago. Bryan had just spent a Thursday evening out with guy friends to celebrate the marriage of his friend Trav Story before the big event. They went out for Pizza and played video games most of the night- totally boring as far as bachelor parties go, but fun with this crowd of friends. For some odd reason, each time Bryan goes and does something fun without the rest of the family, one of us gets sick. I think there is some bad curse going on there. I can go out on a girls night out and no one gets ill, but Bryan goes out and the family suffers. It is really strange!
The unlucky person who got ill this time was Micah. He was a toddler. He spent the evening throwing up. I can remember both of us sitting together on the bathroom floor, being stripped down to our underwear so there would be less laundry to clean, and him cradled in my lap and every now and then him throwing up on me, me changing AGAIN, cleaning him up, and waiting for the process to repeat again all night long. Bryan came home really late and found us looking pathetic in the bathroom. We finally made it to bed.
The next morning we were supposed to drive to Boise for the wedding of my friend Jandy. I was exhausted from dealing with a sick kid, so was Bryan from staying up late playing video games with the groom and friends, and we decided to ditch the trip. But then Micah woke up feeling as good as new. Weird. Bryan convinced me to try the drive, even though we were both tired. We made it halfway there, stopped at a rest stop at the top of Cabbage Hill just outside of Pendleton, OR to exercise a bit and use the bathroom. When Isaac said he did not want to get out and burn off some energy, I thought “how strange…” He just wanted to sit in the car. We decided to drive on… and then we learned why so many people insist on leather seats in their cars. Isaac threw up all over. We futilely clean for a while. It smelled horrible. We turned around and went back Down Cabbage Hill to Pendleton. We thought about going to Bryan’s parents who live 40 minutes from Pendleton, but did not want to get them ill too. So we found a hotel, cleaned everyone up, tried to clean the van some more, tried to rest, then Micah threw up all over the bed. We called the hotel front desk and asked for another blanket and were told they did not have any more. What?! isn’t this a hotel, aren’t we staying somewhere that specializes in changing bedding regularly?
To make a long story short, there was more vomit, even less bedding, and our van smelled so bad we could not drive all the way home without really cleaning it out- it was too toxic to ride in. We decided to just go to Bryan’s parent’s home, use their carpet cleaner to really clean the van, air it out for the weekend, and hope no else got sick, and then head home without ever reaching the wedding of my good friend Jandy. Amazingly, everyone was well again once we hit Kennewick, Bryan’s hometown. We cleaned out the van and had a pleasant time with Bryan’s parents, and it turned out to be Father’s Day weekend and we got to spend it with Bryan’s Father. It was actually really fun in Kennewick that weekend. And no one else threw up. (For the record, the next van we bought had leather interior. We will never go back to something non-wipe-able!)
- The next memorable Father’s Day weekend was 6 years ago when Reece was born. He came into the world as cute as can be. Bryan almost missed his birth because he was down in the gourmet hospital cafeteria eating some divine food because this was a really REALLY nice hospital. Nurses went down to search for Bryan because I was having trouble and progressing fast and ha, ha, but he had stepped into the restroom, or was out in the pretty garden… He was only gone for 30 minutes or less, but man a lot happened in that 30 minutes. He got back in the room just barely in time for my 1 1/2 pushes to get Reece out.
- Another Father’s Day weekend that I will never forget was 2 years ago when my dear friend Cinda had a premature still born baby girl who she named Marguerite. I myself was pregnant with Davis and 6 weeks from my due date. I was already nervous about my own pregnancy due to my placenta being previa and feeling the most miserable I had ever felt while pregnant. I was so sad about her loss. I had thought I would like to drive up to Canada with the kids to be there for the funeral and show some extra love to Cinda. The day before I was going to leave though my water broke. So I had to have a pre-term baby myself. Davis came 5 1/2 weeks early. I spent lots of time worrying over whether he would be ok being premature. He was however the biggest Preemie I have ever seen. He came out 6 lbs, 10 oz. Amazingly he did well. He came home 5 days later and thus began my worst summer ever. But that is another story.
- One year ago around Father’s Day we spent some time reflecting on how we had made it through a rough year with our hardest baby who ended up having much discomfort due to acid reflux. We were so amazed we had made it through that tough year. Medicine changed Davis from being the grumpiest, most colicky baby, to the happiest little guy. He was in so much pain from the reflux, he was so skinny because eating hurt, he was so sleep deprived because laying down was uncomfortable- but medicine changed all that.
- We have found that this year Davis is still a joyful little boy thanks to medicine. We have tried to ween him off the medicine, but it is very apparent that he still needs it. This last Father’s Day weekend, we found ourselves grateful that we made it through another year with 4 good kids.
Bryan is such a good dad, I am so glad to have him as my partner in crime as we try to wrangle these kiddos of ours and teach them how to be good little people. I could not ask for a better man to be my best friend and companion!
