Happy Birthday Jonathon!

Rollercoaster at Santa Cruz, CA
Originally uploaded by bonniemomof5

Here is one of Jonathon's birthday presents. The week we went to Sutter Creek to visit my grandfather, we worked all week including the day of Jon's birthday. Finally, on Thursday when we left Sutter Creek, I gave him some options, I wanted to do something special for him because he CHEERFULLY worked so hard while we were up there, even on his BIRTHDAY. One of the options included going to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and going on the Giant Dipper, a big roller coaster. Jonathon chose that.
So here you see Jonathon in the rollercoaster as we ascend the biggest peak. He is such a thrill seeker. He loved the roller coaster. It was a nice treat for the both of us.
The only negative of the whole trip was the traffic officer lurking around the parking meters. I had my eye on my watch the whole time because we had to leave the dog in the car (the windows were left partially open, of course). I think I arrived back 3 minutes late and there was a lovely pink parking ticket on my dashboard. What a drag!
Nevertheless, it still was a nice side trip. I loved the drive out there. It is so verdant and beautiful out there. I love the ocean and sand. We didn't touch a toe on the sand, we were so focused on the task at hand.
But, there it is, you've got to take the good with the bad. It put me a few hours out of the way on the trip home, a worthwhile time expenditure for the memories we have of our little jaunt into Santa Cruz! Thanks Jon for sharing that special trip with me.

Dining disgust

Tonight we went out to eat together as a family to celebrate Jonathon's 8th birthday early. We went to Spaghetti Factory.

What originally was a pleasant dining experience, quickly went awry. We ordered drinks first. I sat next to Ethan because I was going to help him have an enjoyable meal. All of a sudden, he laid his head in my lap and acted sleepy, which was odd because he hadn't had his medication yet. I rubbed his head and eventually he sat up. Next, we ordered our dinner. And then right after our server brought out our salads, soup and bread and I had prepared a piece of bread for Ethan, he threw up all over the table. Ugh!

I can deal with poop, I can deal with lots of different bodily secretions. But, I don't deal with vomit very well. The smell is particularly repulsive to me.

I just felt bad. Here in this nice restaurant, Ethan threw up. There was another couple nearby that witnessed his generous outpouring and they quickly evacuated the scene. It is so lovely to know that single-handedly the Gale family has managed to ruin someone's dinner this evening.

At first, I thought we might be able to ride it out. Ethan was totally fine after that initial episode. All the toxins or whatever was bothering his little stomach were gone!

However, as soon as Peter got back from the restroom, he informed us that we we had to leave. Ethan reeked of vomit. And, all the kids were also completely disgusted by his unwanted eruption. Their soup sat untouched on the table.

Thankfully, Aeron sat quietly observing all the to-do. After Peter left for the restroom, I flagged down a server and alerted them to the situation. I knew a few napkins weren't going to clean up the table effectively. However, I was surprised when the server alerted me that there are Haz Mat regulations that have to be observed when dealing with vomit. Oh my gosh! When a family has a big mound of vomit covering 1/4 of their table, the vomit needs to be removed ASAP!

So, in the interest of quickly removing the offensive expulsion, I offered to clean it up myself. As his parent, I do not need rubber gloves or a mask or a suit or whatever! They brought over a big role of paper towels and located a plastic bag. I quickly cleared it mess off the table and cleaned up the floor.

Then as soon as Peter returned to the table with Ethan, the server brought out our meal which we then had to notify him that we needed our meal to go. 10 minutes later they brought out our bag of food.

My complaint is this... Why do we have to pay so much for a meal that we didn't get to enjoy? I had to clean up the mess. We didn't even get ice cream to go which is our favorite part of the meal. All we had is our pastas.

I guess the biggest thing I am disappointed about is that our nice meal was ruined. I realize that Ethan isn't at fault. He didn't plan on it. It just is hard because we rarely go out to nice meals anymore and then the one time in a long time that we do, Ethan vomits.

I think it totally stinks, on several levels, that I had to clean up Ethan's mess. The servers were more than happy to allow me to do that nasty job. Haz Mat regulations be darned, when a job needs to be done, it needs to be done. Get the gloves and man up! When you are not willing to man up, at least give the poor person a break when they had to do the nasty job. It's not right that we had to pay almost $60 for a meal we weren't able to enjoy. Jonathon was utterly disappointed that we had to leave and he didn't get Happy Birthday sung to him.

Oh well. Time to put those big girl panties on and just deal with it. Life isn't fair.

Thus ends another week in the life of the Gale family. Hats off to you if you are still reading and haven't tossed your computer aside in disgust! Good job!