Our Vacation - Quick Update
Nov 17
It is day one of Patti and my little vacation. We haven’t been away without the kids since Patti was 26 weeks pregnant with Emily, in January 2002. Earlier today we were talking about that time frame when Patti was pregnant with Emily – we flew to Atlanta to have Christmas with my parents, then flew from there to Fort Lauderdale for a few days on the beach, then a week later we went to a resort with our friends Billy and Mary, then a week after that, at the end of January, we flew to LA to visit Phil and Sandra. In the space of 6 weeks we did 4 significant trips. I forget what life was like when we had money.
Anyway, we are on our trip and it’s going great. It started off rough though. We were scheduled to leave on Thursday morning, Nov 17, after Emily went off to school. Patti’s parents were coming up the night before to watch the kids for 4 days. But the day before, Wednesday, Patti noticed Ethan was kind of warm and took his temperature and sure enough he had a fever. Keep in mind that Ethan, who is 15 months old, has never been sick. He has never had an ear infection, never had a cold, never had a fever above 99 degrees and has certainly never been 102 like he was on Wed. S**t, I thought to myself, that little brat is going to ruin it. The thing that is so tough though is Ethan is such a sweet baby that both Patti and I struggled with leaving him. But 102 is not bad so we decided to see how the night went.
Well, Wednesday night around 11:30 Patti went into Ethan’s room and he woke up. She took his temperature and it had risen to 103. Not danger zone but definitely orange zone. So we gave him some Tylenol and about 3 minutes later he projectile vomited it up on my shoulder and on the floor of his room. We kept him up for another 10 minutes and gave him some Motrin, which took him about 5 minutes before he projectile vomited that up. At this point it was around 12:15. The doctor that we use for the kids has a 24 hour phone line so we called and a nurse called back right away. She said not to worry but he did need something to break the fever. Well, if you think about it, when something won’t stay down by going through the mouth, there is only one other place to put it. Yep. A suppository. So at 1 in the morning Patti and I got in the car and drove to Gallivan Blvd and bought a box of fever medicine, to be administered through poor little Ethan’s butt.
We got home, gave him the medicine, and finally got to bed around 1:30. Patti, being the mother, didn’t really sleep. Around 5:30 Ethan woke up and while he was still definitely not himself, he was much better. His temperature was still kind of high, at 102, but he was more himself. The pediatrician called and said it could be a result of his MMR shots, or just a fever which kids get.
So we were kind of stuck. Do we leave a sick 15 month old, who is kind of a momma’s boy, with Patti’s folks, or do we stay. The thing that made us decide to leave was that 1) he ate a lot for breakfast and was able to keep down better fever medicine, and 2) Patti’s parents are wonderful with the kids. I forget that they, like my parents, raised 3 kids of their own. They are experienced. And Pat and Jim are great with the kids. So we left around 11.
We drove the 3 and a half hours through Mass, down the NY State Thruway, and to the resort. We talked to Patti’s mom and she said Ethan had two long naps and his temperature was down to around 99. At that point we could finally unwind and relax. Emily is a very independent kid and probably likes not having us around. But at least we didn’t have to worry about Ethan not only missing his mom but being really sick while missing her. This morning when Patti and her mom took Emily to school, Jim watched Ethan while I got stuff together and Ethan warmed up to him like he sees him every day.
So there it is. Day one, we had a nice afternoon, got to relax, and now I am going through TV withdrawal but am able to get online.
Day Two
It is now day two. We are getting ready for dinner. The resort requires jackets for dinner (for men) and skirts or dress slacks for women. It’s kind of nice. And this place is such a throw back to the days when NY City socialites would take the train up state and vacation at a resort that caters to them. The staff is wonderful and the hotel and surrounding grounds are beautiful. It really is like the Shining, but without the murders and blood.
We had another great day, got massages late this morning, I sat in the steam room and sauna, and then Patti took a yoga class late this afternoon. In between we drove to our favorite winery in one of the three major wine regions of NY and sat with a couple of glasses or wine and hung out. Not much opportunity to do that with two kids.
Talk to you in a few. I have to finish getting ready. Oh, BTW, Ethan doesn’t have a fever anymore. It passed, which gives us the ability now to totally relax. One other thing. I have had three massages in my life and am not totally comfortable with them. I’ll explain later. It’s just that me being in nothing but my underwear, alone in a small room, with soft music and dim lighting, with a woman who is not my wife or a doctor, makes me very uncomfortable. I’ll explain more later.