Throwing up a couple more pictures

Sarah spits up a lot. In fact, nearly everything she does is punctuated with a bout of spitting up.


I pause here in my tale for a note on the term "spitting up". I have come to the conclusion that it's only considered "spitting up" if one dines solely on breast milk or formula. People say "the poor little dear had the flu and spit up for days". They do not say "Last night I drank a liter of Jack Daniels and spent the hours between 3 and 7AM spitting up" or "Botulism can cause fever, chills, violent shaking and spitting up (so if you're bold enough to eat the contents of the mysterious can, bring a burp cloth!). No, in those cases it's "puking" or "vomiting" or "talking to Ralph on the Big White Phone". I've got news for you, friends. When Sarah does it, it's puking too. Call it what you will, that kid spews. And I'll tell you something else while I'm on about it; calling it spit up does not make it not stink.


When I took Sarah to the doctor for her 2-month check-up I mentioned this less-than-charming habit of hers. "I'm flummoxed" I told the doctor "because she isn't fussy, she's not losing weight, she's not running a fever...she just spits up all the time". The doctor smiled benignly, nodding and then cheerily said "She's what we call a Happy Spitter!" How nice, I thought. Then her doctor went on to say "She probably won't quit that before she's 6 months old." Oh joy.

I left the doctor's office wondering what brilliant medical mind came up with the term "Happy Spitter". It sounds to me more like the work of the marketing department of the doll division at Fisher-Price than something you'll see in the Physicians Desktop Reference. Come to think of it...I did have a doll that peed all the time...maybe I'm on to something here.