Surviving the Gulleywasher at the grocery store

The rains of the weekend continued to plague my travels on Sunday. This was the day of my biweekly grocery store trek. I had slept in and was a bit behind schedule when starting out. The pain in my stomach told me my body needed nourishment in order to make it in and out of the store without extra packages of chips and ho-hos. Using my eyes and ears, I made my way to the local Taco Bell and ordered a high protein nacho from the 79 cent menu. It was small, but it would give me the much needed nutrients to continue on my quest. About the time I pulled out of the parking lot, the rain started to drizzle. I continued to the store, a few blocks down the road. Little did I know what was awaiting me.



As I found my parking slot, the rain increased. I had to eat my lunch before I could go in, so I started taking out all of the accoutrement's to eat my meal safely. Napkins, fork, the standard gear--when it happened. Whoosh! Seemingly out of nowhere--the heavens opened up and dumped water upon me.




That was a long 10 minutes--let me tell you. I did not dare open the window or crack the door. This was a drencher. Only a few seconds in rain like that and you will be soaked to the bone. This will leave you susceptible to all sorts of aches and pains if you go wet into the air conditioning of the grocery store. And if you go to the freezer section with wet hair--well, people have died doing that.



I stayed in my spot--eating my humble, but delicious meal in the makeshift shelter of my van. The music of Bruce Springstein lulled my fears and was good company during that lonely time.

Abandoned Cars

Eventually, there was a break in the downpour. A hole in the clouds right above us allowed the sun to shine through. I took full advantage of this lull--I grabbed my mini-umbrella, secured my keys to my purse (with the help of my handy caribeaner), wrapped the strap around my neck and hopped out.



The aftermath was horrendous. Standing, running water was sure to leave my feet wet. I lifted them as far as I could without looking like I was marching (that would draw too much attention and make me a sitting duck) to avoid water being picked up in the bottom of my sandals. They were a loss either way.



But I did make it into the store--clothes minimally wet and hair dry--and managed to complete my shopping without a glitch. Moral of this story--a high protein snack, adequate shelter and and umbrella will help you get into the store and buy the groceries your babies need to grow and thrive.



That's all for now,



Survivor Mom

Surviving vomit--in the car

It was coming up on 9:30 at night. It was dark and a storm was coming in. We were driving around town looking at houses, just enjoying the moment. When suddenly, seemingly out of no where, my daughter started to hurl. Great big chunks of quesadilla poured out. Emergency mode set in. We knew if we did not get pulled over, that it would be a worse mess than we already had. None of us wanted to drive home with that foul stench about us. We would be a sitting duck for more throw up. The problem was, we were in a residential neighborhood--no place to pull over. My husband sped up a bit, but not too much. The wind was whipping around us--we had just passed a flag pole swishing to and fro. We knew a good situation was turning bad--fast.

I turned into Survivor Mom mode. Instantly, I grabbed a blanket and had my daughter continue her hurls into it. The car seat was already a loss, but I could not bear to loose my floorboard too.

After a few moments of peril, we find a car lot. There is a light in the parking lot and using our parenting sense, we park under it--knowing we need all the light we can get on this dark night. We have to work fast. Not only are we trying to keep the smell form overpowering the van, we need to work ahead of the approaching storm. This was the time when parents become soldiers. This was the time to survive!

Wipeys? check Extra napkins? check The first step to surviving the vomit in the car scenario is to have lots of material to clean up the slime. That stuff will just ooze its way into the smallest crevasses of a car seat and show up again when you least expect it. First, use your napkins to clean up the large chunks. Gross, but essential. We have trash bags in the van--you can even use old grocery store bags. But you MUST have something to hold the waste. This is not optional--plastic bags in the family vehicle are a survivor basic. Next, carefully extract the child from their seat. Do this with ease so that leftover stragglers of food will not tumble onto your floorboard.

Now you have a decision to make and it is a hard one. Do you undress your child so that they will not play in the vomit? Or do you continue to clean the seat before the stench sets in? In our case, we had two parents, so we took both steps at once. However, in some cases, you may find yourself in solitude--unable to get help. Survivor Mom suggests that you take the offending clothes off of your child and put the child in a safe location while you turn your attention to the car seat. If throw up gets in the hair, back in the mouth, or all over the arms, the child will likely hurl again and cause a double clean up.

Make good use of your wet wipes here to clean up your child to the best of your ability. You will not be able to totally remove the vomit smell, but you can minimize it to a level that will make the remainder of your drive home tolerable. In our scenario, we had a change of clothes on hand. (One of my survival tips is to not clean our your car too often. We had a similar throw up situation happen about 2 months ago and I had taken a change of clothes with me. Since I only clean out my van once in a blue moon, I still had the extra set with me. However, I do not always carry those with me. Worse case--your child goes home naked.)

While I was cleaning up and redressing my daughter, my husband was busy cleaning the straps to the car seat with wet wipes. Remember, put every used wipe and napkin into the plastic bag. After you are done, this MUST be sealed off and if possible disposed of immediately. If you have no choice but to drive home with it, crack your windows.

At the end of this race, we still had the soiled clothes and blankets to deal with. A quick scan of the van revealed we did not have a bag large enough to hold the contents. We wrapped those up and compact as we could and placed them in the furthest point in the back of the van. We cracked open the back windows and crossed our fingers.

I am proud to say we beat the storm. Working in the rain would have been miserable at best. We hit the road back home--stinking but mostly clear of the vile bile. However, I had one last tip up my sleeve.

As the rain settled in, I stuck my hand carefully out the car window to collect the fresh water drops. Rubbing my hands together, I was able to use this to wipe off more of the offending smell. If you are lucky enough to have a fresh water source close to you, take advantage of it. You will be glad you did.

That's all for now,

Survivor Mom