cirque du bebe

Our trip to the beach didn’t go quite as I had planned. But we had a good time anyway, especially Wednesday night when Monkey’s aunt and I went out dancing … Thursday morning? Not such the great morning for La Folle. I’m getting too old for that crap. Lesson learned, moving on.

We didn’t go to the beach as much as I would have liked or the Boardwalk for that matter. But we got some rest and Monkey had some real quality play time with his cousins. Overall, I’d say he did pretty well. Especially considering his cousins are a bit older than him but he proved that he could hang.

DH was ready to leave but I wasn’t quite ready. However, given the status of Monkey’s sun poisoning (it’s not red anymore but still very bumpy), we decided it was best to leave a day early. Plus, it would give us extra time to relax at home and get things back to normal (i.e. the mountains of laundry to do and the unpacking).

We talked about next year’s vacation and joked that maybe we’d tell everyone we were going away but really stay home. Then we discussed seriously what a good vacation would be for us now.

You see, the beach we went to is the one my parents took me to just about every summer when I was a kid. It’s changed a lot and my perspective on it has changed as well. It’s quite the party town now and while there are still a number of families and family-oriented places to go, the noise at night was almost unbearable. Plus, it didn’t help that our condo was overlooking the main street of the beach town. I think this may have been the last time we go to that beach town which for me is a little disheartening.

DH’s point was a good one though. Instead of focusing on a particular town or resort, we should focus on what we can do as a family, especially with Monkey. At his age, there wasn’t much he could do other than sit on the beach or in his stroller while we walked the Boardwalk. He was too little for most of the rides and taking him to miniature golf was a really stupid idea. Not just because he got burned but also because he only wanted to run around and snatch up the golf balls everyone was trying to play with including those not in our party. So that really left the beach, the boardwalk, shopping and restaurants. Two of which we can do right here at home.

So next year, if we’re still fortunate enough to be able to take a vacation, I’m really going to give this some thought. Perhaps until he’s much older it’s a better idea to just visit family and friends? Or perhaps the trips should involve more site seeing like zoos, aquariums and museums? At least I have some time to think it over.

We’ve gone to the beach twice and he was starting to get used to it but he was very angry about the sand and very scared of the water. Guess my dream was full of it.

I didn’t factor this fear and hate into the equation. Of course he would love the beach … not so much. Of course he would like playing in the sand … uh, yeah right. He loves bath water, of course, he’ll love the ocean. Try again.

And then there’s the blunder DH and I committed yesterday.

We were very careful to slather Monkey up for the beach trips. Put the borrowed rash guard on him and used the tent (this was more his idea because he hated the sand). Then we went to the mini golf. Forgot to put the sunscreen prior to leaving so we put it on AT the put-put.

Did you know it takes about 15 minutes for sunscreen to really take effect? Well, apparently Monkey was at the mini golf in the beating sun for 15 minutes too long … or is it too early? Either way, he got sun poisoning. Little red bumps all over his back, even where his onesie covered.

We called the doctor today who recommended some Benadryl prior to bedtime which would relieve his still bumpy and red skin. He passed out and was definitely a little loopy taking his last bottle.

I feel like the most horrible mother on the face of the earth. Poor thing. So miserable. And even worse is the little voice in my head that keeps saying, “Damn, I was hoping to get some more color before leaving.”

There’s always next year I guess.

It’s been a couple days since I’ve had a pissy post, so here we go. I’ve been read the proverbial Riot Act three times in the past two days. The one today though … for some reason it really got my blood boiling. Maybe it all just built up. I dunno.

This morning I made an appointment for lil’ Monkey to go see the doctor because he had a nasty fall this past weekend. Yesterday and this morning, he kept rubbing the side of his head so my paranoid brain is thinking, “Great, brain bleed.” The appointment to the see the doctor was for 4:15 this afternoon. This turned out to be a good thing since I had to finish upgrading my client’s system which I had been working on ALL weekend long.

Just before I was supposed to leave work, around 3:15, I launched ONE MORE THING (bad idea. bad, bad idea.) and of course, it broke several pages and I needed to fix it before leaving. So I ended up leaving at 3:40 and didn’t get to the sitter’s to pick Monkey up until 4:05. We were going to be late, there was no avoiding it.

Apology planned in my head, I went into the doctor’s office and before I could even finish writing Monkey’s name in the roster, the reception says, “Is this –monkey’s name–?” Before I could say, “Yes,” she interrupted, “Well, you’re late. 10 minutes late.”

“Yes, I realize this,” I said.

“Well, we can’t afford for patients to be late because it puts the doctors off schedule,” was her response. First of all, it’s 4:25, how many more patients are coming in at this point? It seemed to me her argument was flawed and was just arguing for the sake of arguing.

Normally, I would have backed down and agreed or uttered some other weak answer. But for whatever reason, today was not such a day.

“It’s not like I MEANT to be late!” I snapped.

She backed down. But I was still fuming inside. I wanted to say, “Yes. As a matter of fact, I f*%king did it on purpose! We’ve been sitting in the parking lot just lollygagging around just to piss you off!”

Even as Monkey and I sat in the examination room, I was still thinking about it in my head. It really shouldn’t have gotten to me so much but it did.

Monkey is fine although he gave the nurses and the doctor the riot act. He just was not a happy camper about the whole visit, even the weighing on the scale where he normally does well. So I guess we’re even.

P.S. I should have added that we were told via phone the night the fall happened that we should just keep an eye on him. He was acting fine other than the rubbing and DH thought I should make an appointment just to ease our minds, especially mine.