I took E to Whole Foods this morning to get some specialty baking ingredients so I can bake him some milk-free, egg-free goodies. He had a cold over the weekend but seemed pretty much better today. But while he was sitting in the cart he started coughing really hard and then threw up his breakfast all over his clothes, his shoes, the floor, my shoes, and (by an impressive feat of agility) my hair. It was gross.
I was pretty stunned but then quickly started stripping E out of his wet clothes. The lady who worked in the section we were in (an older, grandmotherly type) was nice and brought a bunch of clean rags and stuff so I could clean E up. But then after I got E cleaned up the lady brought me more rags and plastic bags and a pair of plastic gloves. She was friendly about it but I distinctly caught the drift that she expected me to clean up the puke myself. I think the situation was that if I didn't do it then she would have to do it herself.
And because I'm not good with confrontation I wrangled a shirtless pathetic-looking E with one hand while sopping up the puke with the rags. I kept expecting her to tell me not to worry about it, that she would go get a mop or something but she just watched me clean it up. Customers kept almost walking into the puddle and I had to stop them myself. I was so embarrassed! I just wanted to get out of there and get E home. I know no one likes to clean up a mess and it was my child who had made the mess, but it would have been really helpful if she had went and got a mop so I could focus on taking care of E.
When we got to the car I put his spare jacket on him and he seemed to be feeling better. But then he threw up again all over himself and his carseat. I didn't have any more extra clothes so I just mopped it up the best I could and then kept driving. Once we got on the freeway he felt asleep, wet with puke and clutching a toy in his hand. Sad stuff.
He's doing better now and napping, but I'm still a little peeved over the whole thing. We have a health food store fairly close to my house but I had wanted to go to Whole Foods to browse because it's a lot bigger. But I don't see myself making that drive again anytime soon. Bleh.
***Update 9/16/09***
I emailed the store and got a nice response from the manager. Details here.
Labels: whine whine whine