Amelia and I went to bed feeling a like we were able to take some important steps forward yesterday.  Amelia was able to get Elliot to sleep and lay him on the couch by 11:45 and I was able to get Micah to bed without too much trouble.  We counted the blessing of a “solid bowel movement” from little bear and the fact that Micah was being such a good boy.  We were all in bed before midnight with a huge sense of relief.  That relief lasted about two hours...and then “the cello music began to play”.

 

Elliot woke up at 1:30 crying and Amelia was able to pat him on the back to get him to sleep fairly quickly.  We chalked it up as a dodged bullet and drifted back to sleep.  We were able  to sleep for a couple hours and then Elliot woke up screaming hysterically...so much so that  he woke up Micah who began to cry hysterically.  As Amelia and I sat in the dimly lit room with our two frantic boys at three in the morning, I began to wish that we were traveling back home with the rest of Amelia’s family instead of staying here for another week and a half.  When we first learned of our need to stay in Guatemala for an extended period, I imagined it to be a romantic time for bonding in a foreign land.  I must have been dreaming, because in reality this is much closer to a horror movie.

 

I tried to give Amelia a break and held Elliot who was kicking and screaming for about 25 minutes - it seemed like two hours.  I half-way expected his head to spin around and his eyes to glow red.  Realizing that Elliot was not going to go to sleep with me, my sweet wife came in and held this angry little bear for an hour and a half before he finally went to sleep.  Micah laid in bed with me and “uggled”.  When Amelia returned to bed we put Micah back in his crib and passed out into the “heavenly bed” as it is called at the Westin.....for about 10 minutes.  Then Micah started to cry again.  I got up and tried to calm him down with several tactics, but none of them worked.  Finally I asked him if he wanted juice and he said “yes, juice please”.  So I stumbled through the darkness to find the mini-fridge and and a cup, all the while trying to remain as stealthy as a Navy Seal to avoid waking the angry Little Bear.  Micah accepted my offering of juice and we were all finally asleep again by 5:30AM. (fade to black)

 

I was awakened at 8:30 by a crying Micah and realized that Amelia was already up with Little Bear who seemed to be in good spirits.  Perhaps that three hours of sleep was all he needed to feel refreshed and ready to terrorize us for the next 24 hours.  Micah and I took a shower and everything seemed to be back to normal.  We dried off, dressed and headed down for breakfast with Micah in the stroller and Elliot in the baby carrier.  Amelia and I were so excited for a cup of coffee to jolt our mental state back into semi-consciousness.  We turned the corner into the restaurant and were just about to be seated when....our worst nightmare began.  Micah threw up all over himself and the stroller.  I looked into Amelia’s eyes with a sense of urgency and daddy auto-pilot kicked in.  I rushed Micah upstairs, undressed him, washed him off, re-dressed him and was back down in the restaurant in less than 10 minutes.  As I returned, Amelia was sitting at the table with Elliot on her lap, trying to eat some semblance of breakfast.  I quickly filled my plate with a bounty from the buffet and began to eat as fast as a NASCAR pit crew changes a tire.  But I was not quick enough - those “spinning plates” began to crash around us and we were helpless to do anything about it.

 

Micah started crying for mama, so Amelia gave Elliot to me - who then started screaming hysterically.  That scared Micah, who then started crying hysterically.  So here we were - two pathetically tired adults in the middle of this restaurant with two little boys screaming their poor little heads off.  It was so obnoxious that one of the wait staff came over and offered to take Elliot from me to try to calm him down.  Thankfully she was a female and Elliot quickly calmed down and I scarfed down about 50 percent of my meal.

 

Amelia and I tried to coax Micah into getting back into the high chair, but he clung to mama as if he were dangling from a 50 story building.  There was no way he was letting go.  The generous woman who calmed Elliot down had to return to her duties, so she handed Elliot back to me and he instantaneously went berserk.  The next few nano-seconds were a blur.  All I remember was Amelia saying “oh no”.  I looked up from my screaming Little Bear and noticed that Micah had thrown up all over Amelia.  It was precisely at this moment that I realized breakfast was over.  Amelia went to the bathroom to clean up and I sat in the middle of this restaurant with two screaming boys (one covered in his own vomit) thinking “I wonder if this is what hell is like”.

 

 

We gathered some food items to take back to our room and made it exactly to the door of our room when Micah spewed again; this time all over himself, the door and halfway into our room.  Elliot was screaming, Micah was crying, and Amelia and I just laughed.  Seriously....all we could do was laugh.  It was truly pathetic.

 

We stripped Micah down and put him in the tub to try to wash the remnants of his sickness of his little body.  Meanwhile, Elliot is still screaming his little head off.  I rinsed Micah off and asked him to lay back in the warm water to try to calm him down.  He smiled at me as he lay in the soothing water and I had to fight back the tears.  I felt so bad for my little Micah.  Right about then, he sat up and vomited again - this time in the tub, so I had to stand him up wash down the tub and wash down Micah.  I wrapped him in a large towel and laid him on the floor while I googled “toddler + vomit + remedy”.  The only item of concern is the possibility of a head injury.  I noticed a massive bruise on Micah’s forehead from last night’s fight with Orion.  Hopefully this is not a concussion, but merely a stomach bug.

 

Amelia took Elliot downstairs to get some medicines as I laid on the floor, holding Micah’s little hand and watched some Guatemalan cartoon.  I tried to keep him still and calm, as I feared that movement would only upset his stomach even more.  Amelia came back up with meds for Micah and coffee for us.  Come to think of it, we could use some strong meds right now...something that would make us sleep for a week and a half.

 

Amelia laid Elliot down for a nap (thank you Lord) and sat on the couch with Micah.  He blessed her with another episode of vomit, but this time she caught most of it in a towel.  We cleaned him off again and now she is taking Micah outside for some fresh air.

 

Wow.  What a wonderful start to a day.  All of this happened before noon.  Amelia’s family is probably making a final descent into Miami right now.  Oh, how I wish we were on that plane.  But then again, that probably would have been worse.  I cannot even imagine how traumatic it would have been if Micah spewed on the plane that many times.  I am almost certain it would have caused a domino effect and we would have had to make an emergency landing in Cuba to hose down the cabin.

 

Someday we will look back and smile.  Someday Amelia, Micah, Elliot and I will tell this story and laugh about how crazy it was.  Someday...but for now my smile is merely disguising the bewilderment of being a father of two.  As I sit here in my hotel room which still smells of Micah’s vomit, I cling to my savior and rejoice in Him.  I know that I know, that He is my God and that He will sustain me through all things.  In times like these, that is all I need.