The Ability To Realize Puke Is About To Happen

I love my kids dearly, love, love, love them. They are the best things I've done in my life.

But. But. BUT. They do not have the ability to realize they are about to puke! When they were babies, I thought, well really, a baby won't know what puke is, they just do it. As toddlers, I kind of thought the same thing, this must be a weird feeling they can't decide what it means. I figured they'd grow out of it.

So I've been through years of puke happening wherever we are, the library, the living room, the car, their bedroom floor covered with toys, and I keep thinking, now, now they must be old enough. They have to know this terrible tummy ache, the mouth suddenly flooding with saliva, the urge to let loose, all means make a dash for the bathroom!

Sadly, it does not. The first puke in a throwing up illness is always done on the floor, or the bed, and always in the middle of the night. After that, they have the puke bowl, and seem to do okay between the bowl and making it to the toilet.

All I can say is, thank you God, that my husband is home. He is the killer of spiders, unclogger of toilets, and cleaner upper of puke, which by the way, he does with a smile and jokes to make the sick kid feel like it is no big deal. Last night, I got to stay in bed knowing he was taking care of everything. And when I got up this morning, the house smelled of Murphy's oil soap and not puke.

Whew! Now if only the kids would just grow the gene that alerts them of impending puke!