The shower turns tragic for local 3.5 year old...

A bath in our house is called 'bubbles' by both boys. All we need to do is whisper the words and they go charging down to the basement in excitement of the bubbly bath to come. They play, splash, wash each others hair and wreak havoc on my floors with the amounts of water that never seem to remain in the tub. On occasion though the tub is not an option as far as our time limits. I might be just needing to quickly hose them off after playing in the mud all morning before we sit down to eat lunch, it is in these moments that they learned the words 'shower' and the mad rush is to the stairs leading up rather than down. They clamour for the shower stall with diapers and all and then pretend it's raining when the water splashes down on them.

Last night, with guests arriving within half an hour the word shower rather than bubbles was issued and up the stairs they went happy and giggling. Josh got the first wash down since he enjoys playing in the shower longer I always do him first, it allows me to give him the extra time he likes while I wash Kaleb. I got the shampoo and was scrubbing Kaleb when Josh (who was turned away from me at the time) started choking and crying. I turned and to my horror he had my shampoo  bottle open, had put some water in it and was now trying to drink it. He looked at me, tears in his eyes, pale skin and bubbles popping out of his little mouth. Then the choking began to turn to vomit, his tears began to come faster and harder, Kaleb who was by now upset himself over both the idea that his brother was upset and probably that he himself was now standing in vomit, began to scream and try to wedge himself out the door with suds still in his hair. I had to ignore Josh for a moment to wash Kaleb down while I screamed down the stairs for Tim to come help me.

With Kaleb now safely out of the vomit filled shower stall and in his Daddy's capable hands I could now focus entirely on Josh who was still vomiting and crying hysterically, from what I imagine was a mix of fear and disgust of what was happening to him. I rinsed him off and got him out of the shower, holding him over the toilet for a moment in case he had more to come up. He shook and cried but seemed content to sit in my arms so I took him to his room where I intended to put him back in his clothes and get him a drink to help with his poor little taste buds that had been so ravaged by the shampoo. I put him on the bed, and not a minute later he again started to vomit all over the new sheets, blankets and pillows (fresh from the wash just that morning). The tears which had subsided were now back full force and he tried in vain to wipe the offending 'mess' from his little legs. We headed back to the shower while Daddy changed sheets and Kaleb played with cars on the rug seemingly unconcerned about the events taking place in his brothers life, although admittedly he could have just been so happy that Josh was too distracted and not caring that Kaleb was playing with McQueen and Mack,  he could care less that Josh seemed to be upset and in pain.  The shower caused more tears, his eyes stared up at me with pleas for help in them and he tried to crawl into my lap to avoid the spray of the water. When he was clean I again wrapped him in a towel and together we sat on the bathroom floor for a little while. His tears subsided once again and colour returned to his cheeks. I took him down stairs to the couch, plopped him on his Daddy's knee for a snuggle and got him some water... thus ending another adventure in the life of the Haughton House for another day.