A Good Weekend

Joe's Wedding

The first event of the weekend was my friend Joe's wedding. Geana and I headed up to Short Hills, NJ on Friday afternoon and made it in time for the 6pm wedding - having to stop on the way for shoes, socks, and jewelry - then check into the hotel, shower, and get ready to go. It was close but we made it - and we had a drink at the bar before the wedding. Perhaps the most beautiful part of the wedding were the miniature hamburger appetizers. Mmmmm.... they were gooood! I wish Joe and Clare nothing but the best... despite the fact that BOTH refuse to sign up for facebook. They are going to Italy for their honeymoon - I suggested that they check out this bar.


Melissa Arrives

Melissa and Justin, my sister and brother in law, headed in from da 'burgh for the weekend (and Abby - their dog). Among the highlights of their trip were celebrating my birthday and Melissa getting pooped on by a bird - TWICE! Two memorable events that will live forever in family lure. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the bird poop. I was slow on the draw and couldn't find my camera. I apologize to all of you that I missed this precious moment. A fun time was had by all. We grilled, we played, and we listened to baseball on the deck. The kids especially enjoyed having the three of them in our house for 2 whole days. I can't wait until we do it again!

Preventing Poop and Playing in the Yard

We did several things today. First - we went to Home Depot and got some of those fake owls to prevent ME from getting pooped on in the future. Second - we picked up Sammy's friend Kelly and came back to the house and continued to play in the kiddie pools and on the water slide that are still out from yesterday.

The kids can't get enough of the waterslide these days. They are actually getting a little adventurous and are starting to jump off of the top. Robby started this phenomenon. Now - I'm off to keep listening to Chris Carpenter attempt a perfect game. He's through 6 in Milwaukee... I hope he gets it.

Quarantined

Last night I came home from work late and my mother was there watching the kids. She gave me a brief synopsis of the situation:

1. Anna's got the runs
2. Robby does, too, and he's pooped 5 times in the past 2 hours.
3. Sammy has a fever of 102 and can get tylenol again at 7:30 if he still has a fever.
4. James has been cranky and may be coming down with what everyone else has so watch him closely.
5. Ella seems to be the only one who is doing okay...

Whew!

Mom leaves and Geana is still at her CCD/St. Andrew's parents get together at the school. Thankfully the kids have already eaten some toast and applesauce for dinner. All I have to do is get them ready for bed and put them up...

About 5 minutes after my Mother leaves, I pop my dinner into the microwave to heat it up. Just then - Robby says he has to poop. I rush him into the bathroom and set him on the pot. I take this opportunity to ask him if he's feeling okay and ask him to tell me what has happened today. Well - he bursts into the saddest tears I have ever seen and just says, "I've had a bad day!" Immediately I go to give him a hug, and as I do, he barfs all over himself and all over me.

The phone rings.

It's Geana's friend whose husband is going to come over right now to fix the bathroom faucet that's been leaking. I kindly tell her that I'm knee deep in puke and that tonight probably isn't the best night. We hang up.

I clean up Robby and myself, brush his teeth, and then James says, "I have to poop." He goes into the bathroom, vomit still on the floor, and poops. IT'S A HARD POOP! Ahhh...

We wipe.

Now I go upstairs to get the kids clothes for bed. When I come back down Sammy is complaining of a headache. I check his temperature. 100 degrees. I give him three chewable children's tylenol pills. He doesn't want to take them. I sit down with him and talk him into taking the pills by telling him that they will make him better. Reluctantly - he takes the pills, but only after I get him a glass of water.

I dress the quads for bed.

Anna has to poop. I put her down... she explodes into the toilet. We wipe.

I carry Anna up to bed. Hug. Kiss. "Get better. Good night." I come back down...

I carry Robby up to bed. Hug. Kiss. "Get better. Good night." I come back down...

I carry James up to bed. Hug. Kiss. "Don't suck your thumb. Good night." I come back down...

I carry Ella up to bed. Hug. Kiss. "Thank you for being normal. Good night." I come back down...

Sammy is now on the couch. I get him dressed for bed.

I carry him up to bed (much more difficult). Hug. Kiss. "Good Night". I come back down....

I clean up the crusty vomit on the carpeted bathroom floor. I put all of the dirty and germy clothes in the basement to be washed.

I finally push START on the microwave to heat my food.

I quickly clean the playroom for 2 minutes while the food heats up.

"BEEP"

Ahhh... I wash my hands, remove the food and sit down to enjoy my dinner.

Geana walks in the door, "How was your night?"

Back to Poop

Not to belabor the talk about poop, but we spent the day at Linvilla Orchards today with 6 kids (Justin was with us again) - 3 of them had diarea. I'm not sure what we were thinking...

Of course - nobody had to go when we asked before we left the house. Once we got into the van, though, the story changed. We stopped once at Aunt Lisa's house, on our way to the orchard, so that Anna could poop. She went up to the bathroom and couldn't go - so we continued on our way. A few minutes later, we were forced to pull into a Sunoco but someone else seemed to have the same problem as Anna and was occupying the only restroom for 10 minutes - before we finally gave up and left...

We got to Linvilla and took everyone to the crapper. Mind you - it was 85+ degrees out, humid, and it was the busiest weekend of the year. The makeshift bathrooms at the farm were... ripe, to say the least.

Anna pooped. James peed and convinced us that he didn't have to poop. Robby told me that he'll poop tomorrow. All other kids were in and out with no issues.

About 15 minutes later we were at the playground and Robby, on the very top of a slide, gave me a look that seemed to say - WHAT JUST HAPPENED - THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A FART!? I climbed up the slide, picked him up, and shuffled him to the bathroom. BTW - I'm sorry to all of the little children that I pushed away in an effort to get my kid.

Poop ran down his leg as we waited in line to use one of the 2 stalls at the bathroom.

Once we got in there, we decided that his underwear was unsalvageable and tossed that in the trash can. (The place smelled atrocious already so I didn't feel badly about contributing to the stench.) I cleaned his shorts as best I could and we put them back on and went on our way... commando.

As we were vacating the bathroom we ran into Mommy who was in line for the ladies outhouse. That line was much longer than the men's so I took James into the same stall that I just left with Robby. (Everyone in the bathroom who just saw me leave assumed I was coming back for more with the same kid and let me through to the front of the line - little did they know that this was James... NOT Robby... hehe.) James unloaded into the porcelain trough below and is the success story for the day. We left in under 60 seconds flat.

Back to the playground.

Robby - in the bowels of a large wooden pirate ship at this point (with lots of other little children who are wondering where that fowl odor is coming from) is having the time of his life. He's back to normal - playing and living the dream.

All of a sudden he looks over at me with a look of questioning in his eye. It isn't the same look as earlier. It was if he had learned that sometimes a fart isn't just a fart and he was trying to determine what to do. I asked him if he had to go and he said, "I think so." We rushed to the bathroom, in time for this one, and had another bout of the runs for the next 15 minutes.

After this - we left. I had enough and wanted to get to more familiar and friendly ground. Geana agreed. We went to Aunt Lisa's and didn't poop once in the 2 or 3 hours that we were there... go figure.

As far as the public restrooms count goes I'm up to about 30 of the public restrooms in Philly with only about 330,202 left to go.