As the season turns towards our hot months in Costa Rica, bathing suits go on sale; sunsets glisten; the moon’s visible at night; and my daughter returns to vomiting in the car on car trips. It gets hot in my car and the old air-conditioning has a hard time keeping the interior cool, especially during the noon hour.

Coco started turning white/green about 3/4 of the way through the trip over the windy mountain road. She shifted in her booster chair. I searched for a plastic bag. I guess my stock was low. During the rainy season, she throws up while traveling a lot less. In the side holder/thing in the door of my car I finally found a little plastic lunch bag. It was still full of little pieces of cereal from a the last trip we took. I handed her the bag. She held it in her lap.

Do you want me to stop?

This is where I feel torn between wanting to help her and getting to the destination because I know in the long run, she’ll feel better once we’ve made it to familiar turf. I scanned the shoulder and the only places to pull over were skinny strips of dried grass that looked like we’d fall off the cliff if I parked. She laid down on the seat and said she felt o.k. We forged on.

Then, she sat up and started barfing in the little baggie. What a sad sight. But after depositing what looked like all of her lunch, color returned to her face and she looked alive again. She sat up and stuck her head out the window like a puppy.

She handed me the bag of the contents from her stomach. It looked like an old bowl of cereal that sat in the sink for day. If I didn’t get rid of it soon, I’d loose it.

About a mile from our stop, I pulled over on a dirt road and dumped the liquid out on the road and tucked the bag back into the door of my car. I’m always amazed at how resilient kids are. I’m also always amazed at how much those little stomachs can hold.