My very own "What Would You Do" episode

Today, the boys and I headed out for a morning of errands in preparation for William's birthday party this weekend. With these errands kind of hanging over my head, I tried my best to be as positive as I could in hopes it would all go smoothly. Anyone who knows what its like to run multiple errands with two little ones knows you are nearly guaranteed a moment of "ugh" at some point, whether in involves the kids, a battle trying to squeeze a double stroller through tight aisles, trying to one-handily get the cart-protector in place or a battle with big brother begging to be out of the shopping cart to wander at this own liking...or any other trauma....its all just "ughs."

After 3 errands down at Norther Lights, everything was going amazingly well. William was peppy and jingled bells all through the Christmas Tree Shoppe and we made it out of the Party Source with just buying a 7-cent green Dum Dum sucker that Nicholas paid for all by himself (it was so cute and I was just beaming with pride for him).

Our last stop - Target for our bi-weekly pick-up of two prescriptions for William. Nicholas did his expected asking for popcorn and a slushie, so I told him we would stop at the snack bar after shopping. We had a little unexpected hurdle at the pharmacy when I found out one of William's prescriptions was not registered with the auto-refill system and requires at least two hours to be prepared. The pharmacist kindly said, "just swing by after 2pm and I'll have it all ready." Yeah, not so easy, buddy! (Apparently, they don't want this prescription on auto-refill because it is very costly and looses potency after 14 days of being filled, so I have to remember to call them on the day I plan to pick it up. Add that to the list...again, easier said than done!)

So, we were off to the snack bar, finally! As I was filling our slushie cup, I noticed little William smacking his lips from the cart - eyes glued to the slushie! I was shocked and ever-so excited! I offered him the straw and he went right for it, but was unable to suck. Grabbed a spoon and gave him the tinniest of tiny tastes, of which he opened wide for. He was rather surprised by the cold taste, I'm sure, but seemed interested in more!

I decided to following William's lead, beg for a small cup for a little slushie for William and park us over at the Starbucks area to pursue feeding William this fully-sugarized treat. At this point, we celebrate anything William will take by mouth, every spoonful.

A few little tastes later, William was beaming, Nicholas was in his glory watching the cars in the parking lot and all was nice. I even felt a little "normal" sitting there and considered topping off the productive morning with a coffee for myself. Well, things turned instantly. A huge gag from William, a giant ball of gooey mucous/bile gunk on the floor and William turning all shades of red & purple as his entire body went into a full-blown spasm trying to purge everything from his system. I'm trying to comfort William, while catch this crap hanging from his mouth all while carrying on a conversation with chatterbox Nicholas. I started looking around for napkins when I quickly realized all eyes were on us. Of course, we were in the middle of the Starbucks at lunchtime....there were tables of construction guys eating snack bar foods, some ladies enjoying coffee together and a couple tables of moms eating with their kids.

Needless to say, not one person stopped gawking to lend an offer to help in any sort of way. Now I completely understand that this sight may seem intimidating to someone outside of the world of dealing with a vomiting child (since really, only like 98% of parents have dealt with a child vomiting at one point)...but seriously, not even a "here's some napkins, lady." This whole incident sparks so many thoughts in my mind, from one perspective of feeling like I'm just a mommy-zombie forever stuck in this world of pediatric cancer ...I must look so foreign that people would be afraid to approach me when my child is struggling, to really, this is what our world has come to.

I realize when we are out and about, none of us has a clue as to what the person next to us in line or those we pass in a store are dealing with. At the same time, really?...