Rather than set this story up I am just going to cut right to the chase. My daughter, Miranda, threw-up in the middle of big cat country on Saturday morning. More precisely she threw up smack dab in the middle of the Florence Mila Borchert building at the Milwaukee County Zoo.
If you are one of the two parents who gave me some baby wipes to try and wipe up the mess I want to thank you again.
When you have a daughter like Miranda life can present you with some interesting challenges. Miranda is funny, smart, athletic, outgoing, delightful and thoughtful. She is also strong-willed, independent and at the age of six, going through a bit of an egocentric stage. Quite normal, I'm sure.
The hard part is that when Miranda is tired or unhappy, she voices that by being loud and rather whiny lately. She can cop a little attitude and pout and stomp with the best of them. I've been working on curbing this behavior all summer. Luckily my son, Riley, is in a delightful stage this summer so that helps. And he is helping me try to help Miranda.
Anyway, a just normally upset Miranda is not much different than a sick Miranda. And sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.
So when she was voicing her opinion that WE SHOULD GO HOME RIGHT NOW. I didn't realize the severity of the situation. She had said that she had a tummy ache earlier in the morning, but she rated it really low on a scale of 1 - 5 and really wanted to go to the Zoo, so I didn't think too much of it.
After carrying her around a good chunk of the morning, I knew she definitely wasn't quite right. I figured we'd just look at the big cats real quick and then head home. It was about this time that my boyfriend said he would carry her for me, as my arms were killing me. He picked her up and it was about five minutes later that people saw more than they bargained for...about five or six times.
I must say I was really impressed with my guy as he went off to find a zoo employee with chunks of throw-up all over the back of his shirt. He even carried Miranda to the car for me. He scored major points.
Miranda felt loads better after that. I, of course, was racked with guilt. And grateful I hadn't gotten her that red slushie she had asked for.