A Birthday Party - And LOTS of Vomit...

As you may be aware, Loyal Readers, this week (Monday in fact) was marked by the occasion of Alice's first birthday. We had a quiet family day on Monday, with just a couple of close friends who both have daughters from China. We had balloons, cake, presents and all the birthday trimmings. The Birthday Girl seemed to have a good time, and definitely enjoyed her birthday cake (see slide show for the photographic evidence of this). But prior to the official birthday on Monday we had a very special trip down the south of the island. On Saturday the 12th our family travelled to Margate, about 4 hours away, to join with five of our batch buddies to celebrate the girls' joint birthday. You see, in our batch of nine families, all the babies were born within two weeks of each other. My wonderful batch buddy Leah offered her magnificent house for the occasion, so we left home bright and early on Saturday morning to join in the lunchtime festivities. We were not disappointed. Leah had gone completely OTT, even as far as purchasing a ball pit for the girls to play in. Needless to say, this was a hit (see pic). The girls had a blast, and really seemed to enjoy catching up with one another again. The parents were also glad of the opportunity, and it was just lovely to see Di and Keith, Maree and Tim, Leah and Paul, Grant and Kym, Neil and Roselind again. It was almost like being back in China - without the constant stomach complaints and stinking hot polluted atmosphere of course. Anyway, we all had a ball, the kids stuffed themselves on party food and then it was time to leave. Seeing that it was a four hour drive home, we wanted to be on the road by 3pm to make sure we were home in time for dinner and bed. We left Margate, headed north for home, and Alice conked out at the end of Leah's driveway, she was SO tired. We got into Hobart and I had a quick look in the rear view mirror to make sure all was well. It was then that I saw that DS had THAT LOOK on this face. I asked if he was OK. He said he just needed a drink. Then the spewed. EVERYWHERE. Huge torrents of pink vomit filled the back seat, contaminating my beautiful leather upholstery with bits of regurgitated saveloy and birthday cake. I was, of course, travelling down the main street of Hobart in the middle lane and could not easily pull over. DS continued to flood the backseat with his mess. When I finally managed to pull over, her had stopped being ill, but the damage was done. To cut a very long story short, we spent half an hour on the side of Hobart's busiest street with DS in his underpants looking forlorn, trying to clean up bucket loads of vomit with nothing more than a small pack of baby wipes and a stuffed toy rabbit. Gross. We eventually got back on the road in my delightful vomit-smelling car, but of course by that time Alice had awoken and was very cross that her sleep had been interrupted by her brother's yak attack. So she decided to voice her displeasure at an ear-splitting level. She screamed bloody murder from Hobart to Kempton (about 20 minutes) until she finally fell into a coma. When we limped into the garage at 8pm, I was VERY glad to be home. Kids were bathed, fed and tucked into bed, and I had a calming glass of pinot. Don't get me wrong - it was a GREAT trip to Hobart and more than worth all the mess, but next time I have to travel a long way, I will be leaving DS at home...