Road Trip, Day 2

Well, I had an awful night. The whole barking dog fiasco combined with a very sore back (a combination of having been to the chiropractor on Thursday and the passenger seat not being very comfortable since it’s tweaked to best fit Katie’s car seat) meant I tossed and turned all night…and was wide awake enough to see midnight, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5a on the clock. I gave up at 5 and caught up on email, Facebook, forums, Scrabble, the blog, etc. Tom woke up about 6, Owen was up about 6:15, then Katie woke up while Tom was showering. We were packed, breakfasted, and on the road by 7:30. Well, 7:40—as we were pulling out of the parking lot, Owen said “Where’s my B?!” EEK! He had had it in the room so I wasn’t paying attention…and he obviously set it down. Tom ran back in and got it. Phew!

The first sibling game of the day was sharing (that’s Owen’s B).

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Then we stopped in Troy. I had to return some shoes to REI and we wanted to grab some sushi from our favorite place and take Owen to his old park stomping grounds.

First, Katie had some fries.

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She usually offers to share.

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Daddy and Katie sharing a fry, Lady & the Tramp style.

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Owen was really excited about his fries on the way there, but once we got there he was way more excited about playing.

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So off he went!

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Katie after her first daddy-assisted trip down the slide.

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And this is how she wanted to attempt it on her own.

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Owen on his way up to the BIG curly slide!

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He went down it about 10 times! He almost attempted a belly first (which we were going to allow) but then he changed his mind.

Katie’s first time on a real swing (and not just on one of our laps). SHE LOVED IT.

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Owen would have stayed to play for another hour (and we hated to leave the memories as well), but we had to get on the road to Gramma Jean’s! Unfortunately, Katie had HAD it with the road trip and squawked for quite a bit. She did conk out for a few minutes, but about a half hour out she was JUST. DONE. Kicking and screeching and definitely not happy. I wanted to tell her I understood—I hate long road trips, too.

But then we were pulling in the driveway and Owen was so excited to be here and Katie was excited to be out of her car seat and the grandparents (including Grauntie Marge) were excited to see the kids…and then it was a flurry of activity as we unpacked, Tom’s mom and brother arrived, and we all ate dinner.

To officially start my vacation, I had a bottle of wine (yes, you read that right: bottle, not glass). And to make sure I slept that night (and didn’t get a headache from the wine!), I took two Excedrin PMs and a back pain pill.

WELCOME HOME!

Road Trip, Day 1

Amazingly we started off on schedule—and if you want to be technical about it, we were actually seven minutes early. And we didn’t think of anything we forgot…

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The barrette lasted a whole hour—which doesn’t seem like much but her previous record was about three seconds.

Things went pretty well until Katie got a little screechy. But Owen was SO awesome—he’d start talking to her, singing the ABCs, playing peek-a-boo (which usually resulted in giggles), and clapping (at which point she’d clap in return). But then it turned into hunger screeches meaning she wanted her bottle—which sounds easy…but isn’t. She can physically hold the bottle—but can’t understand she has to tip it (she wants it to work like a straw cup). We tried putting her formula in the straw cup…and then she doesn’t really want it. And even though it’s attached to a strap so it can’t end up on the floor…it ends up hanging or upside down…dripping milk. Sigh. At this age, Owen was definitely holding his own bottle—great for road trips.

So I tried giving her a no-spill snack cup…which lasted all of five minutes until she a) figured out how to hold one flap open and tip most of it out and then b) got the entire lid off! Joy.

No-spill snack cup: 0
Katie: 1

So we figured our good little eater would snarf down some mac and cheese for lunch. Nah. Not interested today. REALLY?! Also not really interested in any of our foods, including one of her favorite baby foods. GRRR.

The good thing about lunch is that the owner—after chatting with Tom—comped our meal as a thank you for his service. So a nice shout out to Prissy Polly’s BBQ in Kernersville, NC.

Neither kid napped well. Katie got maybe an hour each before and after lunch and Owen got maybe an hour total with his catnaps.

Then there was a sibling sharing game, played with the lid to the snack container. Owen would hand it to Katie, she’d hand it back, lather rinse repeat. Owen kept saying “We’re sharing! We’re talking turns!” 🙂 He’s such an awesome big brother.

When we finally got to the hotel, Owen helped daddy with the cart (it was too bright for a good picture!).

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And Maggie’s bag…which was about half his size.

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Katie was having a blast crawling/zooming across the bed. Of course as soon as I tried to record her, she stopped.

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Then she learned how to get off the bed. Just like that. (Just like she learned how to slide off the couch.) She’s a smart cookie.

Then it was off to dinner. We ate at the hotel just to make life easy. Katie ate seasoned curly fries, regular fries, and beef brisket (in addition to her cheese slices, green beans, and yogurt). Yes, BBQ beef brisket. Owen? The triple-decker PB&J and yogurt we packed from home.

Then it was FINALLY time for the pool—Owen had been asking most of the day but had really started asking when we got to the hotel. He was VERY excited!

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Catching a ride and kicking it with daddy…

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Watching daddy and Owen in the pool:

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Then I took Katie outside for a stroll since it was REALLY warm in the pool area.

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It took a minute to get a smile.

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Then it was back to the pool, where daddy nommed some Katie toes.

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I love when I get an unexpected shot. 🙂

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Back at the room, we turned our backs for a minute…and this happened.

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Yes, she opened the drawer AND got in by herself. And she was SO proud! Of course, she got out by herself, too.

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Unfortunately, there were a few tiny snafus.

I thought I did really well by packing overnight bags so we didn’t have to haul everyone’s suitcases in…but I apparently forgot obvious stuff like jammies and Katie didn’t have her burp cloth.

I rolled the stroller through something in the hotel (they had some construction areas) and tracked it all over our carpet. It looked like putty, and thankfully it was still wet enough to easily wipe up.

Owen picked a scab and bled all over the white sheets. I had no band-aids…either on me or in our med bag. Tom had to get one from the front desk.

I haven’t had reflux in a month…so of course tonight was the night. And I forgot to take my nightly meds before putting Katie to bed, and I really didn’t want to get up because it took her 25 minutes of SCREAMING to fall asleep and hell if I was going to be the one to wake her up.

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Also, the room next door has a bird and a yapping dog. Luckily it didn’t wake Katie up…but it woke me up about 10:30, and them continued to bark randomly until the owners SLAMMED back into their room around midnight.

Oh, we also got the last non-smoking room and it’s…not great. The bathroom smells, the bathroom counter is chipping, the toilet runs, and the sliding bathroom door (handicap accessible) is off the track so it can’t close. But we got a military discount!

More poop fun.

So, Owen has had loose (but still somewhat formed) stools for a day or so, culminating in full-fledged diarrhea today. It’s hard for me to tell what should be normal since he is on a prescribed daily regiment of Miralax, Activia, and mineral oil.

You’d immediately think one of those three things (or the combo) was the cause…but he’s been taking the Miralax and Activia for almost three months now. And adding the mineral oil shouldn’t have that effect (I asked the doc what it would do because I was worried about diarrhea and he said just make it easier to get rid of…he specifically said it wouldn’t cause diarrhea)…but even if it was he’s been on that for a week and I’d think it would have happened before now?!

So I thought about discontinuing the mineral oil and just seeing what happens—he seemed to be doing fine without the oil the first 6 weeks but the doc really wanted him on it. But then I actually looked up mineral oil and of course…yes, it can cause diarrhea in some people. And of course that would be Owen. 😐

So I’m obviously stopping the mineral oil…and I hope things, um, firm up by the time we leave for our 900 mile two-day road trip.

This sucks.

The advertisers got him already.

Katie was playing with the iPad on my lap.

Owen: Mama, we need the go go pillow.
Me: The what?
Owen: The go go pillow.
Me: What’s the go go pillow?
Owen: You put the iPad in it.

AHA! The lightbulb goes off. It’s from a commercial during one of his cartoons.

The shows for younger kids save the cartoons for the end of the show…which is when we always stop the recording. But the cartoons for older kids have a break in the middle…which we don’t always catch. Which means he sees the commercials.


Then I remembered he’s also asked for some make-your-own ice cream thing. I couldn’t remember what it was called so I just asked him.

Me: Owen, what was the ice cream thing you saw on TV?
Owen: What thing?
Me: The one you shake.
Owen: Ice cream magic—ice cube, bowls, flavors.

That boy’s memory scares me.

Owenisms 20

I was buckling Owen into his car seat and knocked his book off his lap.
Owen: You knocked my book off!
Me: I’m sorry!
Owen: It’s okay. It happens.

Me: Owen, I think you need to take a nap today.
Owen: NO! I don’t wanna take a nap!
Three minutes later:

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Owen: Mama, you gotta see this!
Me, looking at his Lego structure: WOW! That’s cool!
Owen: YES!

Owen: I think I need to lay down on the couch with my B.
Me: Okay.
Owen: I didn’t have a good sleep so my belly hurts and I need to lay down.

Where the hell did that come from?

I thought I was brushing dirt off Owen’s neck this morning (he had just been outside for a few minutes)…but it didn’t brush off. Okay, maybe it was dried dirt…so I used my nail. And it still wasn’t coming off.

OH MY GAWD IT WAS A TICK!!! EEK!!! (I’d never actually seen one in person but I was pretty sure that’s what it was.)

I only semi-panicked. 😐

I scratched/pulled it off, took it to the kitchen where I put it on a bowl and took a picture of it (so I could make sure later), then squished it to death with a knife. Then Googling affirmed it was a tick. EWWWWW!!!

I checked out the rest of his body and didn’t find anything (and there was nothing on me or Maggie). But of course it had been on his neck right on a freckle so I was paranoid there was still tick pieces in his neck…so I got out the lighted magnifying glasses to try and see better—which didn’t really help but Owen loves them—and assured myself it was just a freckle.

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I then emailed a pic to Tom and he said the mouth was still attached so that was good.

So, where the hell did it come from? It’s not like he’s been tromping through backwoods North Carolina. He plays in the back yard! It wasn’t too attached so it couldn’t have been on him for too long…

/shudder