My Real Life

Okay, I’m exaggerating.

Vacation wasn’t bad.

But, it didn’t quite turn out the way I had expected.

The skies eventually cleared and we were left with a beautiful few days at the beach.

Tiny proved to be a total beach bum and loved the sand and the water and the whole beach experience, but he’s also a little man who knows his limits.

“I all done beach, Mom” was all he had to say, and I packed him up and we headed back to the house.

Real Man stayed at the beach with Monkey Girl and Monkey in the Middle (because Baby Monkey wanted to be with me and if I was leaving, he was leaving) for many more hours, and Tiny, Baby and I would head back to the beach house.

I have a “no t.v. at the beach” rule (unless it’s a long, rainy day) so in getting back to the house, after showers, there were numerous games of “Guess Who,” making our own games, and because Baby Monkey travels nowhere without craft stuff, coloring and things to be created.

(flag courtesy of local library craft room…more about that later)

However, Tuesday, Monkey Girl forgot to reapply her sunblock, and her shoulders got quite a burn.

By Wednesday morning, they looked like this:

So, she stayed back at the beach house on Wednesday and she hung by herself until Tiny was “all done beach” for the day.

Thursday morning, Tiny woke me with calls around 7 am, which was new because he had been sleeping until 8:30 most days (which was fantastic!).

When I walked into his room, I was assaulted with the smell of old vomit, and I saw dried puke on his face and clothes.

Which terrified me, because, he clearly threw up in his sleep.

So, I got him out, stripped the crib, stripped him, cleaned him up and headed upstairs.

Monkey Girl came in and showed me that her shoulder was absolutely no better.

So, we waited until we were pretty sure that Tiny was done throwing up (my verdict is that last nights pizza was not agreeable with his system, because I’m typing this eight hours after he woke up and after throwing up mucous twice more before 9 am, he’s perfectly fine) we headed to the local Medical Center.

The verdict was that it was sun poisoning.  They gave her an antibiotic cream and told her to stay out of the sun for awhile, to take Ibuprofen for the low grade fever and swelling, and lay low.

So, my beach bunny who could spend all day (and night) on the beach, was banished to the beach house.

Not quite what she had planned, but she made the best of it.

Hung out with her cousins, read a book, did some writing, and was great about not complaining, even though she could have complained all she wanted and I wouldn’t have even blinked an eye, because she would have earned it.

So, I missed the beach for two days, as well, but I was happy to hang with my babies.

When they kids were doing their own thing, I was able to catch up on my own reading, do some writing for the blog, and do some laundry, which I actually like doing while on vacation because it’s less I have to do when I get home.

So, it definitely sounds like a vacation gone bad, but maybe I should have just said a vacation gone awry.

You gotta make the best of what you get, and things could always have been a lot worse.

Now if you’ll excuse me, Baby just told me it’s time for me to be fitted for my construction paper bathing suit.