Whenever January and February roll around, I tend to start daydreaming about warmer and sunnier places. This year was no different. Ella's spring break in April seemed like the perfect time to get away, but I figured I probably wouldn't be up for traveling at 34 weeks pregnant. You see, when you are in your second trimester, 34 weeks pregnant seems really close to delivery – only six weeks to go! So I tucked away my dreams of a beach vacation for another time.
What I forgot about in January and February however, was just how desperate I always get once the calendar turns to March. I feel like spring should be right around the corner and yet we are all still bundled up in winter coats, hats and mittens. And another thing, when you are 30 weeks pregnant, 34 weeks pregnant really doesn't seem that close to delivery after all – still six whole weeks to go?! It was at this point in time that I let the daydream start creeping out of its hiding place. I checked airfares and noticed they were surprisingly cheap for the week of spring break. Then I checked condo rental rates and saw there was a 15% off deal. That was all the coaxing I needed. Two phone calls later (one to Matt and one to my doctor just to make sure I had clearance to travel) and I had booked a vacation in record time.
On April 10th, off to Florida we went, returning to the same spot we vacationed at almost two years ago. We basically spent six full days following the same blissful schedule of doing a whole lot of nothing, which is exactly what I wanted (and needed).
It started every morning with a few hours at the beach. Claire was not a huge fan of the water but went crazy (in a good way) on the first day when Matt dug a giant hole in the sand. She threw all her beach toys inside, climbed in, and played quietly and happily by herself. Matt made sure to dig her a hole every day thereafter. I alternated between lounging in a beach chair, building sand castles with the girls, and walking on the beach with Ella collecting shells.
Ella & Claire were fascinated by a ladybug we found on the beach one morning. They gave it a home in their sand fort and tried to protect it from the incoming tide. The poor ladybug was probably more tortured by their attention than anything else, but the girls had so much fun with it.
It turns out mid-April was the perfect time to come to the beach. It seems that since our spring break was later than most, we missed all the crowds. The beach looked liked this pretty much every day…a lot of empty umbrellas.
After the beach it was time to head to the pool. We ate lunch either on the deck of our condo or out on the pool patio (Matt made quite a few Sonic runs…I definitely got my Cherry Limeade fix). Then we spent an hour or two in the pool. The best money we spent the whole trip was probably on two $3 star-shaped pool floats (pink for Claire, green for Ella). The girls had a ball splashing around endlessly and even befriended a spunky grandpa with a huge smile and a Southern drawl who was there vacationing with his wife. Every afternoon on the walk back from the beach Ella would get
excited to see her new friend. He was nice enough to play catch with the girls in the pool almost every afternoon and even gave them rides on his big orange float. I worried that we were bothering him but his wife assured me that he was having just as much fun as the girls and was happily reliving the days when his own children and grandchildren were that small.
After the pool we would all shower, get dressed and head out in search of good food and, if the girls were lucky, some ice cream too.
(If you look closely you can tell that Ella has sick eyes in this picture. Little did we know at the time that she had a raging case of strep throat when this photo was taken. That will be discussed further in the URGENT CARE portion of this post.)
Included in our condo rental were free tickets to a local family fun center, which Ella and Matt used daily to ride the go-karts. For those who know Ella's love for all things with a motor and wheels, you won't be surprised to learn that this was probably Ella's favorite part of the entire trip. You couldn't wipe the smile off of her face the entire time she was "driving" (she truly thought she was in charge of steering). Claire was too small to ride (and probably wouldn't have wanted to anyway) but was thrilled just to cheer Ella on from the sidelines.
After a few turns around the track it was back to the condo to put the kids to bed, hang out for a bit, put ourselves to bed, and then rinse and repeat the next day. The weather was basically the same every day of our trip as well: sunny and 75 degrees. Perfection.
The girls ate up all the extra uninterrupted time with Dad (and so did I).
If there was any downside to our vacation at all, it was the not one, but two trips to urgent care that we had to make. Some of you may be familiar with our 2 for 2 record visiting urgent care on our trips to Disneyworld? Well apparently we have now extended our streak to include the entire state of Florida. I can't help but find this comical because at home, my kids hardly ever see the doctor aside from their scheduled check-ups. In fact, just a few weeks ago when I took Claire in for her two year well check, the doctor commented on the fact that she hadn't been seen since her last appointment at 18 months old.
Matt took Ella to the first urgent care visit on Tuesday afternoon, although she was sick for a good 48 hours before we realized she needed to be seen. Even though she seemed fairly lethargic on Sunday night and complained of a sore throat (we thought she was just tired from playing hard at the beach and pool on our first full day of the trip), was running a fever by Monday morning (we gave her Motrin and thought that was sufficient), and developed a rash all over her back (we were sure it was just a reaction to sunscreen, similar to ones she has had in the past), the light bulb did not go off in my brain until after we came in from the pool on Tuesday and I read an e-mail from my friend Jenny informing me that her son had just tested positive for strep. I immediately remembered Ella's sore throat comment from Sunday and told Matt to get ready to take Ella to urgent care. Sure enough, when they got there she had a fever of 103.8 and an accelerated heart rate, her tonsils were nearly touching and required a steroid shot to reduce the swelling, and she tested positive for strep throat. Yes, we missed all the red flags and probably would never had taken her in if I hadn't received that e-mail. Can you say "parents of the year"? Thankfully after getting started on antibiotics, she started feeling better almost immediately. And miraculously, nobody else in our family got sick.
(Can I just quickly interject here and say that I think "acts like a monster child" should be added to the official symptom list for strep throat? Because Ella was terrible. At one point on Tuesday Matt turned to me and asked, "Are we raising a horrible person?" It was that bad. I was so relieved to find out that her beastly demeanor
was a result of being sick and not because it was part of her normal
personality.)
Our second visit to urgent care happened the following evening. As we were about to get off the elevator in our condo complex (the "building" as Ella called it) after dinner, Claire put her hand on the elevator door as it was opening and her hand became stuck. It was actually fairly scary because we could not get the elevator door to close and free her hand. Matt basically had to use his brute strength to pull the door enough so that we could get her hand out. Poor Ella was traumatized and bawling in the corner of the elevator repeating over and over again, "That was not a good idea! Claire should not have done that!" Claire's fingers swelled up like balloons at an alarming rate, turned black and blue immediately, and she would not stop crying. I probably wouldn't have felt the need to take her to urgent care, but since the facility was so close and we had such a good experience taking Ella there (we didn't have to wait at all, the staff was great), I figured it was better to go and just have her hand checked out. So off to urgent care we went again (the whole family this time!) where Claire had her little hand x-rayed). Thankfully everything looked okay, although they did put her hand in a big splint, which we referred to as her "band-aid." By the time we walked out of Emerald Coast Urgent Care on Wednesday afternoon, we were mini celebrities. I even promised to send a baby announcement.
Despite our two urgent care adventures, I really couldn't have asked for a better trip. It was the perfect way to spend a week together just the four of us, before the next baby girl arrives in May and changes everything…
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