{ i'm not a doctor. i just play one in real life }

Turtle is sick. 


For the first time.


He's even on antibiotics (the yummy pink bubble gum kind).


It was bound to happen. After all, he's 23 months old. Prior to this, every runny nose, cough, diaper rash and horrifying case of the runs could be linked directly to teething. Yes, even the coughing.

So we count ourselves lucky that he's gone this far in excellent health.


The funny thing here is that I almost didn't catch it. After all, he's been acting fine. Maybe his appetite has been a little decreased and he's been taking some long naps, but that falls in line with growth spurts and teething for him, so it's nothing to really worry over.


He napped from 10:45 til 2:30 today. When I went up to retrieve him, he was laying down with Original Monkey, sucking his thumb.


Me: Hey, there.
Turtle: Go to sleep.
Me: Don't you want to get up?
Turtle: No.


So I let him be. If you get him up before he's ready, he's a beastly mess.  About 15 minutes later, he started calling me again.


At this point, if this blog was a movie, we would have a video montage set to something catchy by Green Day or the Black Eyed Peas, in which I abandon the baby, vault a flight of stairs, and singlehandedly rescue the lawn guy from Bentley, who is channeling a vicious rottweiler in a convincing attempt to keep said lawn guy from treating our yard.


(No lawn guys were harmed in the hypothetical filming of aforementioned montage.)


With the crisis averted, I returned to Turtle and we headed downstairs.


And I realized he felt kind of warm. And his cheeks were really flushed.


Normally, I don't worry about this. My temperature gauge is way off, and I'm always wrong about someone having a fever. But for some strange reason, I dug out the thermometer and stuck it under his arm.


100.7.

The pediatrician's office scheduled us to be there in 90 minutes. 

The nurse did his weight (34.2 lbs at about 37") and got his temperature. 99.7.


I was feeling a wee bit sheepish. I tried to laugh it off as I gave the backstory, and told her to jot down "neurotic mommy syndrome" in her notes.


She said "We call that mommy-itis. It's ok."


Dr. Mike was quick to meet with us. 


He checked Turtle's heart and ears (all clear) and then felt his glands. He asked me to lay Turtle down on the table and hold his arms so he could do a strep culture on his throat.


Cue the worst 30 seconds of my day.


Turtle only cried for a few minutes, and he was a good sport. The whole affair made me gaggy for him.

Dr. Mike left to check the culture and was back in a matter of minutes.

Dr. M: How did you know?
Me: Know what?
Dr. M: There's something brewing there. He's got the start of an infection. It's barely registering, but it's there.


Mommy-itis: 1. Strep Throat: 0.


Poor buddy had some grilled cheese, his meds, a nice bath, a story, and then went to bed.


Hopefully, we caught this bad boy early enough that it doesn't bother him. We're going to lay low tomorrow and watch all the Shreks (yes, even the third one) if necessary. Just til he gets back on his feet.


I also got a little pep talk for my Mom. She reminded me that if he's anything like me, he'll get something pretty much before every holiday. 


(Which brought to light a long repressed memory of Dr. Epstein, in his wood-paneled office, giving me a shot on my bum around Easter for a wicked sore throat. I remember wearing these wool, blue plaid pants, and I remember shrieking bloody murder and jumping to the point that I got stabbed in the wrong place and ended up with a bruise the size of a coaster on my butt cheek. And we all wonder why I never go to the doctor anymore.)


Sleep tight, little man. Sending lots of love and healing vibes your way.
 

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{ child's play: sock bunnies for easter }

The inspiration for these adorable bunnies comes from my friend K, who posted about it in her blog.

Her bunnies are even more awesome because she had awesome socks. Me? I hate socks with such a passion that I couldn't even find old ones to "re-purpose" (points for 2010 terminology, right?) and MacGyver gets all twitchy when his socks go missing.

The moral of the story: have incredible socks.

We started with a Turtle, a plastic scoop and a bowl of black-eyed peas. 

I held the sock open and Turtle poured the beans in, scoop by scoop.

When we had enough for the bunny body, I tied it off with a pipe cleaner chenille stem.

And then let him fill up the head of the bunny, which I also tied that off with a chenille stem.

And then I used scissors to cut the top of the sock into "ears."

We then gathered up ribbon, some buttons for eye, pink felt for noses, and a black marker for whiskers. 


I tied ribbon into bows around the bunny's necks and covered the chenille stems at the ears with some yarn to pretty it up.

I then dotted some glue and let Turtle stick the button eyes on.

We did the same for the little pink felt noses.

I then used the marker to draw on the whiskers and mouths.

And we now have a little family of uber-cute sock bunnies. Not to be confused with their cousins, the sock monkeys.

Happy Easter!

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{ the un-cation: day 3 }

And here we are, on the third and final day of our Un-cation.

There was some debate about what to do. Should we just try Disney Marketplace again? There was a carousel and a little train, and we could attempt a meal at Rainforest Cafe (which, in the wake of the successful dinner at T-Rex, might be doable).

Or should we go back to Sea World? After all, we probably won't be returning until Turtle can sleep outside of his crib (which could reasonably not be til his teens), and our tickets are good for the rest of the year. 

And. 

We didn't get to feed the dolphins on Friday.

So, you should all know that when it comes to animals and ice cream, I'm like a 5 year old. Seriously.

There was no way that we could have successfully made it through a feeding on Friday (and I was brutally crushed by this fact). Therefore, I made it my mission to use breakfast to convince MacGyver that Turtle would LOVE the experience.

He waffled. 


Then he gave in.


Squeeeeee!!!!


Turtle was totally into it. He took over navigation for the day.

We headed straight for the Dolphin Experience. The deal is that there is a huge lagoon with two sections: one for people to feed/pet the dolphins (at certain times, for a price of $7/person over 3) and one for people to just observe and touch the dolphins at any ol' time. We went straight there, paid and lined up for the feeding.

Each person got a paper tray of fish. The dolphins would swim right up to you, and you could place the fish in their mouths and rub them under their chins. They were totally playful and awesome.

Turtle was apprehensive so MacGyver held him while I did the dirty work (like I cared one little bit about touching nasty fish! I was feeding dolphins, people!). Turtle asked for the fish a couple of times, but then handed it back to me. He was fine just watching.

I assure you: the dolphin is NOT eating my hand in this photo.


All too soon, it was over, and so we washed up and headed to see the underwater viewing. So cool.

There was a small aquarium underneath one of the rides. It was kind of disappointing (and gross because a giant eel decided to make a very public snack out of something swimming in its tank), but the redeeming feature was that a portion of the floor and domed ceiling were actual fish tanks.

Then it was off to see the sea lions.

Who you can also feed!!! Be still, my heart.


Now, as you should all know, sea lions bite, so you couldn't really get close and pet them. MacGyver got a tray of fish and tossed them to a barking contingent of sea lions to Turtle's delight. (He paid special attention to an older-looking one, because it reminded him of Oscar. Awww.)

We were really moving and shaking at this point. We did one last spin through Shamu's Happy Harbor and then grabbed lunch before we hit the road.


Turtle got a rare hot dog, while I got a salad. Hilariously enough, he took a few bites of his own lunch, then climbed up on my lap and started eating my lettuce and olives. 

Weirdo. But I love him.


Of course, this was the perfect segue to an ice cream. You know. To tide me over for the long journey home.


During which Turtle slept. Finally.


There were some lows, but honestly, these were among the best three days of my life. I am so totally in love with our little family, and getting the chance to spend time like this with them is just amazing.


Thanks for joining me on this long blog-journey. :)


Fin.

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{ the un-cation: day 2 }

In which Turtle pays his first visit to Sea World.

(Missed Day 1? No worries. Read it here.)


My day started at 4am. (That was my warning: it was going to be "one of THOSE days.") Turtle and I hung out til about 5, when he started asking for Daddy (who was snoring away in the king-size bed in the loft of our hotel suite, while I had dozed on and off on 5 inches of bed, surrounded by an entourage of stuffed animals and a kicky toddler). We all heaped into the big bed and Turtle and I got an additional hour of Zs.


At least I could be somewhat human. 


Turtle made no such promises.


He had but one MO for the day: to push his own stroller. Which is sort of bad, because he can't really see over the handles, and winds up running into things.


So when we parked and tried to get him settled into his stroller, we were met with wailing. And that was about when I realized that I had left my camera battery back at the hotel.  MacGyver told me to just buy some disposable cameras (yeah, right). I left him to wrangle Turtle and zipped off to get the battery.

I returned in record time to really start our day.

MacGyver made reservations at Sharks Underwater Grill for 4pm that afternoon. The gimmick here is that the entire wall of the restaurant is a giant shark tank. A friend suggested it, sure that Turtle would love it.


And then we headed off to the sea lion show. It had not changed in then ten years or so since I've seen it last, aside from a couple modern updates to include things like Facebook. Ell. Oh. Ell.

Then it was off to the Penguin Encounter. This. Was. Cool. It reminded me a lot of that scene at the end of Happy Feet, but I didn't see Mambo. Or Robin Williams, for that matter. 

 We did some wandering after that. Turtle was in desperate need of a nap. So we walked, and walked, and looked at dolphins (MacG: Look at the fish! Me: They're not fish. They're mammals!). And walked. Until we got this photo.

He did a good hour, long enough for us to grab a bite, and then we were on the move again.


We saw the baby dolphins in the dolphin nursery (Daddy? There's something behind me, isn't there?)

And then we did this thing called Wild Arctic, which has a walking version and a helicopter simulator version (obviously we did the walking version), where you wander into a simulation of a South Pole base camp (the lighting was eerie, and it was COLD) to see beluga whales, polar bears and walruses.

Next up: Believe, the orca whale show. 

Where Mommy was clearly NOT the preferred parent.

Turtle was enthralled. He absolutely loved Shamu. Despite Mommy Damage Control of constantly hissing at MacGyver "Stop saying it's a fish. It's a mammal. Turtle, can you say "mammal?""

We did some of the rides in Shamu's Happy Harbor, which is totally geared for kids.

And then we tried for dinner. We all know how that ended (You don't? Catch up, here), so we packed it in, and headed back to the hotel.


Turtle finally fell asleep around 7:30 and I was right behind him.

To be continued in one final installment... Stay tuned.

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{ the un-cation: day 1 }

Warning: lots of pictures and details. And cuteness.

On Thursday morning, we headed out for our two and a half day Orlando/Sea World Un-cation. 


We dropped the protesting pugs at the kennel and hit the road.


We were hoping that Turtle would nap on the ride, but alas. He had other plans. Plans that mostly included not napping and drawing on his magna-doodle.

Our hotel room wasn't ready, so we went to get lunch (at Friendly's).

And then we thought we could try to play miniature golf to pass some time. 

Turtle did well for approximately 7 holes. Then he was "all done." 

We checked in, at long last, and thought maybe we could get him to take a nap in one of the full beds with me. I pushed the bed up against the wall, lined the edges with pillows, and hopped in with him.


At which point he proceeded to bounce and giggle and sit on me for about 45 minutes.


At which point I made the executive decision to just head to the Disney Marketplace where we could pop him in his stroller and hope that the fresh air would knock him out enough to get him a nap.


We also wanted to try out the T-Rex Restaurant. We had heard that it was a little intense, so we planned to take a little walk-through to see if Turtle could hang.

Pffft. Do you see this face?

This is the face of a child enthralled.

So we stayed for dinner and sat in the fish room, underneath a giant jellyfish.

I also treated myself to a cotton-tini. A magical creation. Basically, you get a martini glass full of cotton candy, and your cocktail (in this case, a cosmopolitan) is poured over it. The cotton candy melts into the drink and it is pretty much heaven in a glass. For $9.99, you get a whole shaker full, which you then get to take home. 

Call me a sucker. I don't care. PS. The food was really good, too. Perhaps the best bruschetta ever.


After dinner, we wandered about for a bit, still holding out hope that Turtle might get a bit of sleep.


He tolerated being wheeled around the Lego store. And he loved the Lego dogs.

Oh, look. There's me, in the closest thing to shorts I will ever wear.

He also took a spin on the carousel.

And when he was done, that little stinker asked "Ice cream, please?"


He is so clearly my child.


So he and I split a Ghiradelli hot fudge sundae with mint chocolate chip ice cream. (Benefits to sharing include: sharing, portion control for mommy and keeping costs down.) 

I even let him have the cherry. If that's not love, I don't know what is.

We were hoping he would get a good night's sleep, but he didn't go down til almost ten that night.


Day 2? Sea World! Who's ready???


To be continued...

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