Diarrhea and the State Fair

The title doesn't mean to imply that one was the cause of the other only, that the two collided in the most inopportune way. We made plans last night to attend the fair today and besides the threat of rain (which wasn't really a bad thing given how desperately we've needed it) everything was set for a fun day. Then at 3:00 in the morning we heard the opening and closing of doors -someone was in the bathroom. No biggie -back to sleep. Then about 15 minutes later the doors again. Interesting. And then 5 minutes later the sound of Isaiah's heavy foot steps coming across the house and to our bedroom..."Mama, my stomach hurts." deep sigh.

After a few minutes of snuggling and a dose of acidophilus, I manage to get him back in the bed. He was up at least twice more before the night was over. But by 8:30 this morning he was feeling "just fine." (reminder to self: children are liars -especially when the fair is at stake) I kept thinking I should hit him with another dose of good bugs but with the chaos of getting everyone ready, I didn't. We headed out despite the rain and clouds and were a cheerful bunch on our way to the fair.

We paid the mob boss, uh, parking attendant the $10 (plus Tim's index finger) and unloaded the tribe. Bella's stroller served as a portable center of operations weighted down with the diaper bag, camera, snacks, ponchos, etc. We were ready for bear. (and may have actually seen some except for the additional fee of $5 per person into the rare and amazing bear exhibit). Instead, we marked our trail through all of the freebies and headed to the Poultry Tent. We'd driven forty minutes, walked 15, and it was all going to pay off in chickens. =) The best part of this exhibit is the open bins where you can terrorize, er, hold baby ducks and chicks. Here is Bella checking out a chocolate brown duckling. She doesn't look very impressed, huh?

The worst part of the poultry tent was the heat, humidity, and smell of steaming bird poop. It was a nuisance to most of us but it sent Isaiah over the edge. "My stomach doesn't feel good again." Holy heartburn, Batman! To the porta-potty, Robin. Tim and the three healthy tummies continued their tour o' fowl while Diz and I dashed for the closest facilities. I think being inside of a porta-let on a humid day offers us a glimpse of hell. The air was stifled from the heat and other obvious reasons. These things are NOT made for two people. Isaiah was sweating and clammy at the same time. I took his shirt off and began waving it to try and create some air flow. You know how when you have a virus and you want so badly to rest your head against something cool? Now you can picture me trying to balance Isaiah's semi-limp body and pleading with him not to lean on the walls of the poop tube.

Now, I'm sweating and standing on tippy-toes to get my face as close to the tiny vents at the top as possible. And just when I think it's almost over...I hear this strange noise coming from Izzy's stomach. For a minute I thought he's got the hiccups? No. It wasn't the hiccups. I should be so lucky. Mind you, the diarrhea hasn't stopped yet. I looked around in a panic expecting to be standing in vomit any second. I did the only thing I could. I grabbed his head and shoved it in the direction of the urinal. Now, that's what you call killing two birds with one porta-john. We finally made it out of there and believe it or not -Isaiah perked up. We continued our day with the understanding that if Isaiah called it, we would leave without question and with NO complaints (directed to his less-than-compassionate siblings).

Our next stop was the goat, pig, and miscellaneous animal exhibit. Here we have Nathan and a jackass. Oh, and Tim, of course. What did you think I meant? ;-) Seriously, we know there is a difference between a burro, a donkey, and a jackass but we were clueless as to which this fella was classified as. He seemed nice enough though, so maybe that narrows it down. For the record, we didn't see the "don't touch the animals" sign until after the fact. oops.

Here are a few more pictures:

Our traditional "we were there, too" self-portrait.

Bella could only take so much.

That timer feature comes in handy!

And last but not least, our final stop of the day -the amazing pig races! We sat for fifteen minutes staring into the empty track...waiting anxiously for the race which took a grand total of 3.2 seconds! And we would have seen another 3 second race (I know -that much excitement in one day should be unlawful) BUT that is when the bottom dropped out and the rains came down. So, we made a mad dash for the van and I can declare to you that it was the most disastrously successful trip to the fair ever!