Great Expectations

I was so looking forward to this weekend: Jenny's wedding, a visit to Sea World and spending time with the whole family. But when travelling with small children I am learning that it's best to keep your expectations low. Looking back, I can piece together all the dismissed signs of impeding disaster that even if we had paid attention we couldn't have changed, just perhaps been more prepared or less disappointed.

At least Sea World was a total blast. Zoe was incredibly clingy and cranky in the morning but she soon warmed up to the adventure and had a pretty good time. She didn't eat much and was really hot, but it was sunny out, so we didn't think twice about it.

On Saturday, we hit traffic going to the wedding and missed Jenny walking down the aisle (my favorite part). Even though we were rushed getting ready, we managed to look pretty good, Chris in a suit, me in my new dress and the girls in their girly, pretty wedding clothes. The wedding started right around Zoe's naptime and she slept in my arms for the entire ceremony. She was really hot and sweaty but I just thought it was warm in the church.

We got to the reception and Zoe continued to be unusually clingy. By the time dinner came around, she was just stuck to my chest and not moving, not sleeping but not moving. And then she started to vomit. All down my (backless) dress, in my hair, all over my lap, her dress. Chris came over to help, picked her up and then she started to throw up all over him, too. It was like a scene from a Monty Python movie. I ran out of the dining hall as quickly as I could and tried to scrape the worst off in the bathroom. And then got the heck out of there. No dancing for me!

Zoe and I went back to the hotel for a bath, snuggle and bed. Chris and Athena stayed at the wedding and had a blast and I watch Ghost on t.v. After a solid 12 hour sleep, Zoe woke up totally dehydrated. Of course, I gave her water and tucked her in bed with me, she downed a huge sippy cup and then got sick all over the hotel room. Bath, once again, change of clothes, etc. etc.

This is when it really comes in handy having an urgent care pediatric nurse practitioner in the family (love you Laura, mean it!). Even though she closed down the dance floor and went to the after party, we were her wake up call asking her to please call in a prescription to help settle Zoe's stomach so that we could get her home.

So, no next-day brunch for us, didn't get to see the newlyweds or chill with the family some more. Instead we comforted our miserable, sweaty wet rag of a child on a long car ride, trying to urge her to drink little sips Pedialyte at a time and suck on ice chips. Not the weekend we expected. Oh well.

Here's our sweet little sick baby. Keeping it together, for the moment.
Athena and her Daddy all dressed up.
The only picture of me before I got yakked on.
How she spent most of Sunday, sucking on ice chips on her Daddy's chest...

P.S. She's doing much better now. Still a little fussy and not 100%, but on the mend for sure.