Mark and I had a magical long weekend (and drive!) to Anaheim with our amazing staff - Erin and Melissa and their hubbies. It was our first Creekside Endo retreat and we really wanted to surprise the girls on their one year anniversary to Disneyland (we figured that if they could put up with us for a year, they deserved to be happy!). Erin hadn't been since she was in middle school and Melissa had been talking for months about Disney withdrawl. Note: Yes, we are all adults over the age of 27 and No, none of us brought our kids. This trip was for the child at heart :)
We arrived the first day Disney put out their Fall/Halloween decorations, so we kicked off the season in a magical way this year. The Haunted Mansion was a deck the halls theme for the Nightmare Before Christmas.
Although it was quite impressive as no detail was spared, we all agreed that we are Disney traditionalists and prefer the old fashioned ride.
We had lots of fun, lots of sugar, and plenty of forced patience... walking around Disneyland is like mall shopping during the holidays with stroller traffic thrown in for kicks. But the funny thing about Disney is that it all doesn't matter. Now that's magical!
Dinner in Downtown Disney @ the Rainforest Cafe. Vol-can-oooooooo!
A little Splash on the Mountain...
Laser tag with some famous toys...
And some good ol' fashioned California Screamin'...
But perhaps the most magical part of the entire weekend was time spent with my hubby on the happiest place on earth without a screaming child of our own.
(although we couldn't help but miss him just a little...)
***** AND THEN WE CAME HOME *****
this is the REALITY part of the post...
Our little guy, Ethan, has threatened to crawl for days now and in all honesty, he's a pretty strong little man. You've heard of the Spiderman expression, "With great power comes great responsibility"... well, it is totally applicable to infants as well once they become mobile. But, the responsibility part is for parents... for the kid you might as well replace the word responsibility with pain.
Ethan has experienced more pain in the last 24 hours than ever in his 7.5 months of existence. Yesterday morning, I won the diaper battle and somehow was able to pin the boy down to change him. I turned my back for a few seconds to wash my hands and "SMACK!" Ethan is on the floor, on his back, crying. Crying was a good sign, but the poor boy was in pain. Luckily we had a doctor appt. at 2:45pm later that day so we ran the casualty by him. The doctor didn't flinch at the news and said that all was well because of his pliable little bones... Just as soon as the good news came, more pain awaited Ethan as he was quickly thrown back into a tearful state with 3 immunization shots to the thighs. Poor guy.
This morning the boy smacked his head on the concrete that is part of our fireplace. You can see the redness (soon to be black and blue) on his face above his left eyebrow.
Mickey the band aid
Resilient little thing!
Reality these days also means messier meals:
It's true when they say that life is messy... especially with a kid. But life and therefore reality is also full of joy these days. Each and every morning without fail I walk into this little boy's room and the minute I say, "Good morning, Ethan!" a tiny face with a big smile pops up from behind the crib railing... and all of a sudden the previous day's aches and pains disappear.
God is good... and clever! He keeps Mommys going with this joyful amnesia.
I would do anything for this little guy in a heartbeat.
LOVED this journal - what a treasure it will be to re-read in the years to come. I hope it is saved forever!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your magical time in Disneyland. But this child at heart will not go to Disneyland voluntary, but knowing T might still want to go after years of putting her off, the day I am force to go to the happiness place on earth is near, sigh...
ReplyDeleteOh poor Ethan... But to tell you the truth, it hurts hi less then it hurts you. He is a resilient little guy. Soon he will forget the pain and move on, it is you that will hurt longer. My heart is with you there. Don't know when it would end, either. More sigh...