Cameron and the Cuttlefish

This is the last installment of our adventures in Colorado back in October.

In previous posts, I mentioned the appearance of the stomach flu during our trip. I hate to mention it again, but it did add another layer of excitement to our plans.

Prior to our Casa Bonita trip, we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to see an IMAX show about the ocean. About 1/3 of the way through the show, right when the cuttlefish were mating, I heard a little gurgle and felt warm stickiness flooding my arm and leg. Cam had thrown up on me (I guess he wasn’t ready to see marine life procreating). Luckily it wasn’t projectile, so the people in front of us didn’t mind too much. I rifled through my purse and swabbed myself with wet wipes and tried to enjoy the rest of the IMAX.

After the show I headed to the bathroom to finish cleaning up. 25 seconds after entering the bathroom, my sister came in holding Cameron at arm’s length. To say he was covered in goo would be an understatement. He WAS goo. He had just thrown up, Vesuvius style, all over Marty and the floor of the museum.

Luckily I had another outfit for Cam in the car, but he needed serious detox before we could even think about changing him. SO, with the help of my mom and sister, we stripped down a dripping, gooey, upset Cameron. He was a little happier once he was completely naked (the boy does love to be in the buff), but started to SCREAM and SOB once I had to stand him in the sink to de-goo-ify. Sadly, the faucet in the museum bathroom was one of the automatic kind, so you had to stick your hand just in the right spot to get any water to come out. Once the water did trickle out, it was cold. Very cold.

Poor Cameron had to put up with me cupping my hand under the cold water to get some to sponge him off (did I mention the water was cold?). The process took quite some time, as Cam was incredibly smelly (did I mention gooey?). I also had to transfer his sink location every minute because the automatic faucet quit dispensing cold water after about 3 cupped hand full of water. My baby vehemently expressed his displeasure at this development.

At this point, some museum patrons came in to use the facilities. I imagine they were startled to see a naked screaming baby getting a sponge bath in the sink, but having just seen cuttlefish mating, they didn’t seem to think it too odd.

I did have a clean diaper in my mini purse/diaper bag, but we still had to parade a somewhat naked Cameron all the way through the museum and parking lot. He was pleased with this part of the experience.

Once we reached our vehicle, we got Cam dressed, and then both of us had to change clothes (since we were traveling, we had a change of clothes with us in our overnight bag). It is interesting for two grown adults to try to modestly change clothes in a car in a museum parking lot. We watched the news the next day, but no one reported seeing any streakers in the vicinity, so I guess we were safe.

Moral of the story? Nothing good comes from watching cuttlefish mate.