Well, after almost 2 full years, Nathan and I seem to be one step closer to completing the initiation phase of this whole parenthood thing.

I am not much one for vomiting, dealing with it from other people, or being anywhere close to it. I tend to be a sympathetic sickie -- I never got sick (at school) in Elementary school, but I came very close several times...usually when other kids got sick in the middle of the classroom or library or lunchroom or wherever. Honestly, this whole issue is one of the big things that ultimately kept me from going into education as a career. Crazy, right?

So I have been dreading the day that Iliya...uh...got sick like this for the first time, and have been (probably a bit unreasonably) afraid of being alone with Iliya the first time he...uh...got sick.

I've always heard that when it's your own child, you can just handle it. But I soooo did not want to be alone and find out the level of truth of that statement at the same time.

Well, last night, Iliya got up around midnight to go to the bathroom. He usually comes and gets in bed with us and I wake up to take him to the potty and then deposit him back into his own bed. Last night, I was sleeping so hard that I didn't realize that he had come into our room and climbed in the bed...as it turns out, this was a fortunate turn of events. I vaguely remember Nathan getting up and taking Iliya to the bathroom...as he was carrying the little boy back to his bed, I heard Nathan say, "Uh oh....Oh, man..." and Iliya start to cry.

Nathan took one for the team last night, for sure. In a literal sense, even... Iliya had gotten sick all over himself and his daddy, and all I had to do was get towels and help wash them both off. Well, that, and comfort a crying little boy.

Iliya wasn't running a fever, but we decided to let him stay in bed with us...and I got a container for him, in case he needed to be sick again. Since he had never thrown up before, and since it was the middle of the night, and we were so tired, we thought it was best not to worry about teaching him to make it to the toilet. So I explained to him that what had just happened was that he had thrown up, and if he felt like he needs to do it again, to use the container.

And he did just that. Three more times, in fact.

So between 12:15 and 4:30 a.m., we didn't get very good sleep. After 4:30, he fell asleep and we all slept fitfully until the alarm went off at 6:00. Needless to say, we are tired.

Aside from being tired, Iliya woke up feeling good this morning. As I said, he never ran a fever, so I figured it might've been something he ate last night. I think I might have pinpointed the source...though I could be wrong. Last night at dinner, Iliya decided to experiment with drinking milk and carbonated water together. And, because he thought it was hilarious, he drank a lotof it. Paired with macaroni & cheese and a biscuit, I just wonder if it didn't really sit well on his stomach.

Who knows, but we have completed this round of the initiation phase...and I hope it doesn't come around again anytime soon.