Milk and oatmeal and green peas--oh my!

Joshua and I had quite the "adventure" last night. David has been working really late recently, so it has just been me and the little man for our nightly routine. The evening started like any other. Joshua had baby oatmeal and green peas for dinner, and did great. He played while his mommy ate dinner, and then we got ready for bath time. Lots of splashing and laughing ensued. After getting into his pajamas, Joshua and I went upstairs for his last bottle. He was very calm and sleepy as usual. When I sat him up to burp him after he was finished--just like I do every other night--all heck broke loose. Everything--and I mean EVERYTHING--he had consumed in the last 2 hours came back up...all over him and all over me.

He looked at me in shock and I'm sure I had the same look on my face. He's spit up a few times before, but this was a whole new level. I'm still in shock, looking back on it, by the enormous volume of it all. So, I had to figure out what to do in what order. I put Joshua down on the ground in his room to take his sleeper off, and realized that his diaper had been soaked by the milk coming through the sleeper. I was out of diapers in his room, so I knew this would mean a trip downstairs. I quickly went to my room to change clothes--my shirt and pants and everything I was wearing were completely soaked. I ran downstairs to grab a new sleeper and diaper, and go back to Joshua to change him. I then realize that as he has rolled around on the floor, he's gotten little bits of peas ALL over the carpet in his room.

So I get the vacuum to quickly clean the floor, and I put Joshua in the hallway. Information necessary to understand the next part of the story: Joshua has developed quite a fear of the vacuum in the past couple of months. He used to think it was fun to watch it move around the room--now he is absolutely terrified. I plug in the vacuum and as soon as I turn it on, the crying begins. Instead of moving away from the vacuum like I thought he would, he starts crawling towards me and the vacuum, crying hysterically. The closer he gets, the harder he cries and the more red his face gets. He gets his hands on the cord and is practically inconsolable by the time I turn off the vacuum (elapsed time: less than 90 seconds).

I try to calm him down and change his diaper and sleeper. It then occurs to me that he can't go to bed on an (obviously) empty stomach, so I go back downstairs to get another bottle ready. There's not time to let the breast milk warm up, so I just put together a cold bottle from the fridge. We go back upstairs and try the last feeding all over again. Joshua is exhausted by this point (tired from vomiting, tired from crying at the vacuum, and tired because it is past his bedtime!) and is falling asleep at the bottle. All of my little stay-awake tricks are not working, so I give up and take him downstairs where I turn on all the lights and turn on the television to American Idol. This creates just enough interest to keep Joshua awake until he finishes his bottle. We go upstairs and as soon as I sit in the rocking chair to sing him a song before bed, he passes out on my shoulder. Poor Joshie...he was completely worn out. And you know what? So was his mommy!