License to ill

My friend KM was one of the first people I knew to have kids.  She lives outside of the city and for a couple of years it seemed that every time she'd visit us in Toronto, before she could do anything else, she was cleaning chocolate milk vomit out of the back of the car because of an "incident" with her toddler/pre-school aged daughter.

I don't know exactly how many times she fed her daughter chocolate milk on the road before she banned it in the car alltogether - but it sticks out in my mind as a fairly regular occurrence that I found pretty funny at the time.

Eight years later the shoe is on the other foot and there is chocolate milk everywhere.

The first time Molly got car sick was last summer when we were on our way to an anniversary party at Chudleigh's Farm.  As we pulled off of the highway and onto the gravel road Molly turned green.  She threw up all over her party dress and we used baby wipes to clean her off and had to convince her why she had to change out of her pretty party dress.  We thought it was a one off.  We were wrong.

This past week we retired the Sexfire (it wasn't going to pass it's emissions test) and bought ourselves a new (to us) vehicle, a Kia Rondo station wagon, that Chris has named "Rondo Calrissian".

This summer Molly has gotten car sick several times and as much fun as it is to pull off the highway to clean up a mess, we are all hoping that we can prevent our new car from smelling like old milk and stinky feet (which roughly takes two weeks to fully get rid of every time Molly ralphs in the car).

So, I have compiled some research that I hope will help everyone, including our dear friend Rondo from a deal that's "Getting worse all the time!" 

Towlie, the towel - South Park

9 Car Sick Prevention Tricks for Your Road Trips

1. Know the triggers so you can act accordingly.You can almost set a watch to Molly's car sickness: 30-40 minutes into highway driving. Being from Toronto she favours throwing up in Mississauga-Milton, Barrie and Ajax.  Molly says her tummy hurts, burps and then you have about 30 seconds until splat....have a sick bag ready!
2. Feed healthy food during the trip.
   Sticky sweets (or chocolate milk) may seem like a treat for kids during a road trip, but anything greasy or low in nutrition can induce motion sickness.  Same can be said for an empty stomach.
3. The things that worked for morning sickness during pregnancy may help here.
   Saltine crackers, ginger candies and peppermints can do wonders.
4. Act like a sailor, try some sea bands.
   These pressure point bracelets may help.
5. Fresh air.
   As a travelling parent trust me, I know you want to get there quickly.  Stopping for a walk or even opening a window for some fresh air will help prevent some of the symptoms and sometimes an incident.
6. Don't forget to bring a towel!
   Towlie was right...bring spare clothes, air freshners (I know the commerical content I'm pitching to Fabreze) baby wipes and a towel for quick clean up.  
7. Avoid Over stimulation
   Books, video games and movies are a great distraction....but can cause over stimulation and nausea.  If your kid is feeling sick encourage them to look outside of the car, close their eyes or sing a song with you.
8. Try medication
   You can try medication, but some kids will get sick from the medication too - talk to your doctor.
9. They'll outgrow it, probably, eventually.
   Car sickness is most common in kids aged 2-12, so buckle in it's going to be around for a while, but they will eventually outgrow it.

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More Than Words

Many months ago I asked my mom what my first word was. She replied, simply, Mama. I shook my head, insisting that Mama  is a sound and not a word, especially at the six months marked in my baby book.  My father then piped in that his first word was, Breakfast.  I'll accept that one.  He still really likes breakfast almost seven decades later.

With all of the baby sounds and cooing that go on around here it would be easy to claim a sound as a first word. Which is why Chris and I set out some parameters as to what qualifies as the big first word.

1. It must be a word not a baby speak sound (i.e. Molly has been saying Hey, Hi, and Heya for months now to get attention - that doesn't count)

2. It can't be an immediate repeat of a sound or word that either one of us has been barking at the baby to get them to repeat, that's mirroring, not talking.

3. It must be in the correct context.

We've been waiting for the first words from these two since Jack started constantly saying Ageee.  I love to repeat Agee to him and my mom is convinced that he's going to think that's my name.*  They've been on the brink of first words for about a month or two now when Bababa, Nananana, Mama and Dada started being regular sounds.

They've also been really good at mirroring what we say.  Which can be problematic, particularly when Chris is driving.  Two weeks ago, Chris was driving and called someone a nasty word.  From the back driver side we heard an emphatic Dicdicdicdicdic.  Molly was thrilled with her new sound.   Since then I've been trying to get her to say Digdigdigdig instead with mixed results.**   It looks like it's time to install one of those limo dividers into the Sexfire.***

Then on June 3rd Molly was up to her usual early evening routine of chasing our cat and crawling around the floor like a maniac.  She caught up to the cat and exclaimed, Kitty Cat!  After several tests and repeats we are confident that this qualifies as her first word, even though most of the time it sounds more like Key Cat.  She's even said it while pointing to pictures in books of cats.  Way to go Molly.

Miss Molly and her Key Cat.  Notice that she's just about to grab his tail.

She's since started saying Daddy and Chris (sounds more like Kiss) regularly to a pink gingham wash cloth and pink soother.  The jury's still out on that one.  

*She has a valid point.  A friend of hers was called "Bus" by his first grandchild.  And guess what, it stuck, all of his grandchildren call him Bus.  

**This worked last year when my three year old niece heard someone on the Big Bang Theory call someone else a bastard, started yelling Bastard at the top of her lungs.  My mom cleverly insisted that they had said  Master.  She started yelling Master instead.

**Our name for our 2001 Sunfire as coined by my brother.