It's Official.

You all know that we love the zoo.  And I love winter and Christmas, and that makes this time of year at the zoo even better.  It's Festival of Lights time!  Our original plan was to go this past Saturday to see the lights and visit Santa.  But then we got some weird weather that was snow, then rain, then refreezing, so we opted out.  Looking ahead at our week, it really only left today to go.  Eric's work schedule prevented him from joining us, and that probably ended up being a good thing...

My brilliant plan was to go in the afternoon, walk around and see the animals that were still out, then see all the lights in the early evening and catch a ride on the train and visit Santa before it got so crowded, and head home earlier to avoid a fight at bedtime.  That plan went south after we had been there about an hour and Natalie started complaining (loudly) that she was hungry.  "No kidding," I told her, "you didn't eat lunch."  In her defense, she ate SOME of her lunch and then announced she was full.  This is not unusual for her so I thought nothing of it.  So, anyway, we saw a few more animals then started looking for a snack.  I didn't pack our usual supply because I figured we grab an early dinner there.

As we were looking at the menu trying to decide if we wanted to share a piece of pizza or just a few breadsticks, Natalie said "my throat hurts!"  This was about 12 seconds after she told me she was hungry and wanted juice.  When I looked down at her, she leaned forward and puked.  Everywhere.  She's puked before, many times, but never from being sick like this.  I felt so bad for her.  She, of course, handled it like a champ.  I was horrified because I had no idea she was sick, and then that she threw up right in front of a pizza order line.  Oops.  The staff was very nice, albeit a little annoyed.  I can't blame them.

feeling a little under the weather

but Ben's spirits could not be dampened!

While we were cleaning ourselves up, Natalie kept saying she felt better.  She desperately wanted to ride the train, so we decided to try it and see how she felt.  Natalie LOVES the train.  As soon as we got on, she put her head down on my lap and said she didn't feel good.  The decision was made, our day was over.  We made it about half a mile from the zoo before Nat got sick again in the car (worry not, we are prepared for throwing up in the car!).  She immediately fell asleep and 3.5 hours later woke up looking, and apparently feeling, much better.  

Some ice chips, a warm bath, jammies were all in order for the evening.  And now we are watching Doc McStuffins episodes and she is munching pretzels and Gatorade.  So far, so good.  

And with today's two episodes, I can now confidently say that Natalie has thrown up more times her in three years than I have in my 32.  She is a pukey kid.  I don't know where she gets it from.  I've known Eric over  7 years, and have only known him to throw up during an episode of food poisoning.  Oh well....at least she's on the mend.