Momma Said: Ode to Uncle Zack

Today was a very long, hard day. I drove for 10 hours with all three kids in what can only be described as Forks, Washington. (It’s a Twilight reference, people.) It was hazy, overcast and foggy from Charleston, SC to Birmingham, AL.

We made good time until we hit Covington, GA. At which point, Sadie began throwing up. Thankfully for me, and all the good people at the Covington Target, my brother-in-law Zack was with me and able to stay in the car with the kids while I ran in to get some Pedialyte. I got back to the car in enough time to get Sadie out of her car seat and hold her as she puked on the sidewalk. I stripped her clothes off as she threw up and tried to ignore the dirty looks people were giving me while holding my naked baby in the nasty weather.

Sadie fussed and cried for the rest of the trip, unless I was holding her hand…while I was driving. Zack tried holding her hand for me, but she knew it wasn’t mine. Zack tried driving but then Sadie couldn’t see my face. So I drove, and held her little hand while trying not to dislocate my shoulder.

Zack was reaching to hand Emma a snack and after dropping it three times said, “See this is why I don’t believe in evolution. If evolution was for real, mother’s arms would swivel!”

We were supposed to drive all the way to Jasper, but I couldn’t hack it. I had a splitting headache and my baby wanted out of the car. So I stopped at my mother’s in Birmingham to spend the night.

Today could have really sucked a lot more than it did. If Zack hadn’t been with me, I would have been standing in the check-out line at Target with all three kids while Sadie threw up, I would have had to stop and take all them to the bathroom countless times and I would have had to pump my own gas. (GASP!)

But as it turns out I didn’t have to do any of that because my brother-in-law rocks. He cleaned throw up out of Sadie’s car seat, played DJ on the DVD player for the girls, broke up a few fights and traded quotes from The Office with me.

Single ladies, you can’t have my husband, but if I were you I would form a line for Uncle Zack starting…now. He’s a Marine, a musician, a lover of Nicholas Sparks and all things family. He was on leave and he could have been doing anything or nothing at all today, but instead he was helping me. Because he is full of awesome.