Luke rhymes with ...

We had a giftcard to Olive Garden, so we took the kids out to dinner last night. The kids were happy coloring, Mary munching on breadsticks and Luke downing his chocolate milk. Like any good waitress, ours refilled our drinks a few times and brought us our food. Unfortunately, I hadn't been paying attention to how many times she refilled Luke's chocolate milk. . . because as soon as we started eating, Luke started puking chocolate milk, everywhere. About four times. Pausing in-between each time for a breath.

I asked for a bunch of extra napkins and to-go boxes for all of our food. Paul undressed Luke and took him out to the car while I took care of the bill and cleaned up the mess as best I could. I apologized to the waitress again and again and sat there laughing while I cleaned up puke for the 800th time in the past 19 months.

{riding home in only a diaper}

When we named Luke we thought of all the potential nicknames other kids might give him. Luke the Puke was all we could come up with. If he never threw up in public/at school, he probably wouldn't ever be called that, right? Unfortunately, we cursed him.

Luke has no stop button on his stomach. Whatever signal people are born with that tells them "you're full, you can stop eating now" is not built into this boy. He's done it since he was an infant, which lead to some strategic nursing plans (short feedings with lots of burp cloths - actually, full size bath towels on hand). He never outgrew it like the doctor said he would; it continued into solid foods and now his toddler years.

It has now progressed from only an eating issue to an all the time issue, if he falls, or gets hurt, or gets upset in anyway, he loses his lunch. We have changed the rug in his room twice. Now he has one that is more like a play mat that can be sprayed off with a hose. He's thrown up in every room of our house, on family, at friends houses, and now at a restaurant, I had to cancel my gym membership after he threw up in the nursery three times in one week.

Mary got her first stomach bug at 3 1/2 years old, right before Luke was born. She had never thrown up before and still hasn't thrown up since then. I remember hearing about other kids who threw up a lot and thinking how lucky we were that Mary had only been sick once in her life. I am now eating my words on a daily basis, and it's disgusting.