AZ vacation

The rest of our vacation back in March. yeah, I am behind the times. Some of this was written early, some now. so if it's weird, just blame that. Also, my shift key is weird, and doesn't always work. Trust me when I say I hate that it doesn't work, and I know it looks dumb, but I don't always catch it.

Our AZ trip was fun, but it was also pretty stressful. I was kind of wishing we had stayed in CA longer, because on the rather short plane ride to Phoenix, Alex picked up a bug. I'm assuming that's where he got it, because he was totally fine in CA on Tuesday, we went to Phoenix on Wednesday, and Thursday, the plague started. I call it the plague because he gave it to everyone who changed his diaper. He threw up several times over the course of the day, and then started exploding on the other end. It was a rough, rough week. It continued for days. I felt nauseous all night Friday or Saturday (don't remember which), Amy got it, Alann got it really bad when he finally made it out to Phoenix. It was the worst. I ended up taking Alex to the ER about a week after it started, just to make sure he was okay. He was, just a virus of some sort. But it made for a stressful trip. Maybe if we had stayed in CA for another day or two, we would have missed whoever gave him the bug. But that's life with a baby, right? Now for the fun stuff.
 
Thursday, we had breakfast with Nana and Jim. It's so hard to deal with Claire in restaurants sometimes. She spent most of the meal climbing on me. It was frustrating. She didn't behave very well the night before either. I'm sure she was just overwhelmed. She isn't home. We have eaten out a lot lately. We have tried to instill good restaurant manners in her, even when we eat at home, but she is two. It's easier at home because we have the booster seat that buckles, so if she gets out of hand, just buckle her down. Maybe I should go get a booster for AZ. It's not like we won't use it. (We did the next day. It was a lifesaver. I don't know why I didn't do it last time.) We came home, Alex took a nap, and then the craziness began. He woke up screaming from his nap. I was in the middle of something, so let him cry for a minute. I went in to get him and he was covered in throw up- in his hair, all over his face, all over the bed. Into the bath he went. He was so mad. He just wanted me to hold him. He cried the whole bath. He woke up Claire, who started crying because she was upset that Alex was upset. I had to hurry and clean up so we could go get our hair cut. I was hoping it was just something he ate. On the way to the salon, he threw up again. As I was leaving, I contemplated grabbing the extra clothes bag from the flight. I didn't and should have. I also put my house keys in my purse, then walked out and locked the door without it. It was frustrating. Claire got her hair cut (mostly just a trim and her bangs). Then I sent Claire and the naked Alex to Target with my mom while I got my hair cut. We came home and made dinner and Alex threw up two more times. He also has had some extra diapers, if you get my drift. I was really stressed out. It's hard being a single mom. We were talking to Alann on the video chat and I was trying to call the Woods to get Alex a blessing. I put Alex to bed and then a bit later put Claire to bed. I was so distracted I didn't change her diaper first. big mistake. I did another load of laundry the next morning because of it. Rick finally called me back at about 10. Alex was sleeping and seemed okay, so we didn't have him come over. I also called and talked to Veda and she said it sounded like a virus. Thankfully, Friday he didn't throw up at all and only had one bad diaper. So I'm hoping it was quick. Claire doesn't show any signs of being sick either.(Update, Claire never did get sick but Alex had diarrhea for a week. We went to the ER on Thursday of the following week to get him checked out, but they said "probably a virus". He got better a few days later.)
Friday was pretty good. Though I did more laundry thanks to the unchanged diaper, Alex didn't throw up. Amy came over and we went out to Scottsdale to visit my Grandma. It was a fun hour or so. Grandma was so impressed with how big Alex was. She didn't believe me that Claire was only two. That made me laugh. During naps, Amy helped me go through the barbie/spider box. We threw out everything that was trashed and saved what we could. I'm going to need to ship a box home, that's for sure. We made dinner together and just spent some time together. It was a lot of fun. The kids went down pretty easy and I realized I had nothing to do- kitchen was clean, toys picked up, Alann was on a campout. So I blogged and just chilled on the couch.

The rest of the week, we mostly hung out with family as much as possible and stuck close to the house. I was glad we didn't have any big plans, since Alex was sick.
Saturday was the big day with my sister's wedding. It was also pretty stressful. At lunch, one of the dining chairs broke, as Alann was starting to sit in it. As he jumped up, he pulled a muscle in his leg. Then the nausea started, which we attributed to the muscle. But later it became the plague from Alex. Anyway, my sisters came over after getting my big sis's hair done, and I was supposed to go with them to finish getting ready for the wedding. Alann finally said "yeah, you can go" which I was grateful for. (As in- I'm well enough to care for the kids, not that he just wouldn't let me go.) I got to hang out with my sisters and get ready for the wedding. That made me quite happy. As we were at the place getting ready for pictures, I get a text from Alann- "the tv fell on claire." Um, what? I call, babies are crying in the background, he is frazzled. He wasn't thinking clearly when he sent the text. He told me later that his thinking was "she needs to know what's going on but I need to evaluate first so a text will make her leave me alone". Um, no. The tv (at least 15 years old- a big fat clunker tube) sits on a two-drawer dresser. While Alann was elsewhere, Claire had opened the drawers and climbed up into them (this is pure speculation of the events. But from what he saw and I saw her doing before and after, this is what we think happened). Then the dresser and TV toppled forward. I am thankful in several ways for this event. 1) Alex had followed Alann instead of being right behind Claire like he often is. 2) Somehow, Claire ended up with only the TV on her legs. Alann described it as "she was on her tummy, head closest to the couch, TV across her legs". There are at least 6 feet between where the couch sits and the TV. Again, we aren't really sure what happened- maybe she jumped and knocked it over in the process. But I think Alann summed it up best- "her guardian angel swooped down and pushed her out of the way". The kid didn't even have bruises. I couldn't help but think about the stake conference I had been to two weeks before with Jeffrey R Holland. He had left an apostolic blessing on the children in the audience that Christ would walk with them and protect them. I can honestly say I believe that is what happened in this instance. And I am so grateful for that blessing. It was such a comfort to hear it at the conference. I worry so much about Claire being a dare devil and not thinking before she leaps, literally sometimes. She has no fear about actions. Anyway, then Alann wasn't feeling well, but managed to make it to the wedding with the kids. We were able to stay through some of the reception too, which was good. I think we pushed it as far as we could- both from the kids and Alann's standpoint. But it was a lot of fun and despite the stress, I was grateful that he especially was good enough to put aside his personal feelings of illness enough to let me enjoy the day.
Sunday we hit church, spent some time with my sisters, and packed and got ready to go and Monday we made the final trip home. It was a long long long vacation, but it flew by. The kids and I were gone for 22 days. But it was fun. Maybe we will do it again sometime, but without the plague and TVs falling and such.