Gag Reflex

This commercial for the "Four Christmases" movie cracks me up. It makes me laugh every time I see it because the scene where the baby pukes on Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn chokes, gags and says he is going to vomit reminds me of Rich.

Rich has a really weak stomach. In elementary school a kid threw up on the bus, Rich took one look at it and immediately vomited as well. Not terribly unusual for a 9 year old, but he is 30 now and he still has this issue. Several years ago I had a horrible migraine, threw up in the bathroom at work after lunch (I was convinced for months after this incident that there was a rumor going around that I was bulimic) and needed to go home. I could barely keep my eyes open from the pain and was horribly nauseous, so I had Rich walk over and get me (we were both working downtown) and drive me home. The whole ride home instead of "Are you ok?", I heard "If you are going to puke again, you need to tell me so I can stop the car because if you puke, so will I." Well, I made it home without throwing up but ran into our bathroom as soon as we hit the driveway. I finished vomiting again, cleaned myself up and went to look for Rich. He was in our driveway dry heaving. Apparently, just the sounds of me vomiting were enough to send him over the edge.

Its more of a mental thing with him because once he gets use to something, it stops making him sick. When I was first pregnant with Joseph and vomiting several times every night in the middle of the night, he really had no choice. It was either listen to me or get out of bed at 3 am and go into another room for 10 minutes. Sleep won. It has been the same way with Joseph's dirty diapers. The whole pregnancy Rich kept telling me he wouldn't be able to change diapers. I very bluntly told him that was not an option and he would just have to figure something out. The first few poopy diapers, he definitely gagged and coughed his way through them but now, with the exception of the really big and runny poopy diapers, he changes them without a problem.

But he still struggles with Joseph's spit ups. Even a minor little dribble and Rich is gagging. The few times Joseph has full out projectile vomited on him, I have usually had to take Joseph and clean him up while Rich gags his way through cleaning himself up and starts yelling about how he might vomit too. That is why the "Four Christmases" clips makes me laugh so hard...I think the writers of that movie must have witnessed Rich's reaction and told Vince Vaughn to imitate my husband.

Now I just wait for the day that Rich picks Joseph up from a birthday party and he is loaded up on junk food, candy and soda and says "Daddy, I don't feel very well" and then proceeds to vomit all over our car. I'll be cleaning up puke from two boys.