And The Rest Of It

As I wrote in my last post, we had a grand old time on vacation in New Hampshire, doing all kinds of new and exciting things and spending time with my family.But not everything was easy swinging, as is life with a toddler…

It goes without saying,

horseshoes were not the only things being thrown.  We might have tossed about a few tempers, too,

and did our fare-share of crying.  Even though we don’t have a nap routine set in stone, it’s generally happens about the same time, as do meals and bedtime.  It’s hard, I’ve discovered, to stick to those routines when away from home which can, sometimes, put a thorn in the moment.  On one particularly challenging afternoon, when even calling Dada didn’t help to sort things out, there might have been some stop-crying-bribery……in the form of blueberry pie.  Not exactly my finest parenting moment, but it worked and we moved on with our day.  And, hey, at least it was organic!

Sometimes you just have to preserve your own sanity.

Besides changing routines, the other challenge was that Nora decided suddenly to be very bothered by sunlight.

As long as she had her sunglasses on, we were safe; if not, the grumpkin was released.  And that meant trouble.

We also had to remember to work with Nora’s naturally reserved nature.  Despite everyone’s excitement to see her, she was less than enthused to see everyone else.  We had Skyped with my dad leading up to the trip and spent a long time talking about going on “Papa’s boat” so that helped her to adjust to him, but it took her longer to warm up to my brothers.  And she had some initial trouble with Mim, too, though that didn’t last long.

And she was soon comfy enough to fall asleep in the middle of the lake!

None of that was anything major though, and it wasn’t until the way home that trouble really started brewing.

Of course, the day before we left, I wrenched my neck tubing

(not with Nora, I promise, we were practically drifting across the lake!), which meant I had limited mobility and a lot of pain hindering sleep the night before and during the drive back.  And, on top of that, cute t-shirts

were not the only thing I brought back: I also brought back bilateral middle ear infections and swimmer’s ear.

The drive back was torturous.  I was exhausted and in complete and utter pain from the neck up.  I managed to get most of my shopping done, but after wasting an hour lost in Boston and searching for a parking place, I gave up on taking my clothes to Second Time Around (yes, I still have them).  We spent time stuck in traffic and finally made [what’s supposed to be a 3.5 hour drive] back to Hyannis in 7 hours.  There might have been more bribery.

(For the record, she chose the fairy over a Clifford cup.  She’s turning into a girly-girl right before our eyes!)

And just when I thought we had the hardest part behind us, we got on the ferry, which was hot, crowded, and sailing across choppy waters.  Nora got seasick.  Three times.

By the time we reached the Nantucket, I was done.  My ears and head hurt so badly that I couldn’t wait for the doctor’s appointment I had already scheduled for the next day; Chris met us at the ferry and dropped me off at the emergency room before taking Nora home.

I spent nearly two hours waiting to be seen (mostly in the waiting room), but I left there (stilling feeling like I might be dying) with a diagnosis, two prescriptions for antibiotics, and an initial does of prescription strength Tylenol.

The vacation was good, but I’ve now officially decided I will never go anywhere with kids but no Chris again!