Beach Day

I woke up extremely grumpy - could it perhaps be because I was nursemaid to a rehydrating Rowan all night long? My attitude was not helping the house atmosphere, and it only got worse when I went to check Ellis's room as there was a big pile of barf on his bed. Sigh. Barfed on pillows, barfed on books, barfed on jammies.

"I didn't vomit." says Ellis.

"uh - yah you did."

"no it was daddy."

"it wasn't daddy -it was mostly corn and gingerbread man and daddy did not eat a gingerbread man.... maybe it was panther."

"Panther is not real - he's a stuffed animal. (already so logical) maybe it was Rowan."

"Rowan can't get into your bed."

"Well, it wasn't me - I'm not sick anymore."

How he can sleep in a big pile of vomit without noticing is beyond me. Why he was so adamant it wasn't him is also perplexing. He got very upset though when I kept saying it was - he just kept saying: "I'm not sick anymore!"

It was a nice sunny morning - I decided we should drive to the beach. Granita was told she needs to see the Gold Coast and although she said she doesn't care if she sees anything, she just likes to hang out with the kids, I can't help but get tourist anxiety on her behalf. She's come all the way to Australia - she's gotta see something! I can't believe there's only one week left of her trip. I just figured out this upcoming weekend is the last one. Cyp tries to alleviate my anxiety by pointing out that the trip has been good as it has allowed her to reconnect with Ellis. I know he's right - Ellis is very happy she is here and I've also gotten a chance to spend more time with Ellis. It has helped.

Anyway, I justified our trip to the beach as I thought the kids could rest in the car as they refuse to sit still at home. By the time we waited for the laundry to finish it was about noon. Perfect - Rowan nap time. GPS said it would take an hour. Good again.

By the time we got to the beach it was started to cloud over. Oh well - we lugged the stuff to the beach and I started hauling things out of the bucket bag. Oh look - a cockroach.

"I don't wanna see." said Granita. I threw him out onto the sand and he started to make a beeline for our blanket. Argh! I said as I stomped on him. Granita covered him with sand for good measure. About a minute later I uncovered him (still alive) and pointed him out to the lurking seagulls. This turned out to be a bad idea as we were now on the seagulls radar. I ran back to the car to get the beach umbrella and put my bathing suit on.

When I got back I watched Ellis as he jumped the waves - the water was pretty warm actually. Something caught my eye/attention and I looked up to see our beach umbrella flying along the beach and Granita jumping up and down yelling. I managed to catch it and I took it back to Granita. I decided we were hungry so got out some naan bread - piece to Ellis, piece to Granita, piece to Rowan, turn my back - turn back again - argh! Rowan is about to be eaten by a flock of seagulls. In fact so is Granita who is warding them off. Wow - they were aggressive. Soon, it started to look like we were about to get hit by a thunderstorm so we started to pack up. We stopped at the playground and then when it really did start to pour we headed back to the car. We almost made it - well, we didn't get too wet. I felt a little bad about dragging the recovering kids to the beach in the storm and might have said something to that effect. Ellis said:

"I'm not sick - don't you three make me sick again."

The drive home wasn't as pleasant. Rowan hadn't gotten enough running around time and did not want to be back in the car. He made his displeasure shown by shoving his finger down his throat and barfing all over himself. Disturbing behaviour. We decided to get Cyp at work and then Nandos. When we were almost there Ellis asked "am I wearing a diaper?" "NO! - don't pee!"

When we were finally at UQ I got out to mop up Rowan - wow - so much barf. The car smells like barf again - and I'd just finished washing Ellis's seat. Rowan is going to be one of those kids that holds his breath till he turns blue.