Massachusetts has the strange tradition of not having a Spring or Easter vacation. Instead, we celebrate the inexplicable (at least to those who grew up elsewhere) traditions of February and April vacations. I have come to appreciate several things about this unique school calendar. First of all, there are two weeks of vacation instead of one. Second, it's a great opportunity to travel when the rest of the country is in school and at work. We spent our most recent April vacation visiting my parents in PA. We had a great week, but like any trip involving four young children, there were plenty of unexpected twists as well.
The kids spent lots of time outdoors, playing baseball and riding their bikes. I can never get enough of sending Jack and Elliot out the front door alone to play! They got to go see a Phillies game with Ted and my Dad. We made several trips to our favorite Wilson Park, with the obligatory stop at Rita's Water Ice on the way home.
I took all four boys for haircuts, giving myself a rare break from the job. It was Theo's first professional haircut. Jack chose a buzz cut with a triangle shaped section of hair left long on top.
We visited with my 92 year old grandfather, who remarked how quiet the four boys were. I suspect that his hearing aids were turned way, WAY down.
We celebrated Mattie's 3 1/2 birthday.
We went to the Philadelphia Zoo with my parents. We were there from 10am until 3:30pm, which seemed like a really long day for the kids, but they had a blast. Theo was enjoying himself so much that he stayed awake the entire day. They had a neat Lego exhibit at the zoo, with lifesize versions of several endangered animals made entirely of Legos. The polar bear was amazing, and contained 96,000 pieces!
Unfortunately, after that part of the trip, things took a turn for the worse. After our wonderful day at the zoo, the kids went to bed normally. But, Theo started vomiting just after midnight that night. I spent most of the night up with him. Thankfully, the vomiting stopped the next morning. I thought we were in the clear by that afternoon, but then he started having diarrhea. That continue off and on through the night. The next morning was Friday, the day I had been planning to drive home to Boston. Alone with kids. I debated trying to go ahead with my plans, knowing that Theo was likely to have diarrhea blow outs on the road. While I thought things over, I breastfeed him. He started throwing up again, making the decision fairly easy.
He couldn't keep any milk down. He got worse very quickly that day, and I ended up taking him to the hospital that afternoon for fluids. When I took him home from the hospital, he still couldn't keep any breastmilk down, so I had to give him Pedialyte by syringe. I squirted 2 tsp. of Pedialyte into his mouth every 10 minutes while he was awake. But, just when we thought things were improving again that evening, my mother got sick. The three older boys were almost too excited to sleep, knowing that they were going to stay an extra day at Grammy and Pop Pop's. I crawled into bed myself, dreading the wake up calls I was sure would come. By 1:00 am I was throwing up myself. The only thoughts running through my head that night were, "how am I ever going to get back to Boston?" and " how many more dominoes are going to fall?" The answer to at least one question came quickly. By 3:00 am I was throwing up along side Mattie in the boys' bathroom.
Luckily this particular stomach bug seemed to be of short duration. While my father also succumbed during the night, only Mattie was still throwing up by the next morning. The grown ups felt awful, but we could at least function enough to take care of the kids. I gave up on any hopes of driving back to Boston alone that day, and called in reinforcements. Ted took the train down that morning, and arrived in time to help take care of Jack, who fell during the next night. We decided to make a break for it the next morning. It was Sunday, and 4 of the 6 of us had already had the bug. Ted had been scheduled to fly to DC that morning for work, but had to delay his trip for a day to help get us all home. I don't think my parents had ever been more relieved to get rid of us, or our germs. We made it home, with only one very neat, ziplock bag vomit incident in the car.
When we pulled into our parking space, relief washed over me. I had never been more happy to be home. Elliot never did get sick. Ted made it to DC before getting sick, and missing most of his conference. It was certainly one vacation I'll never forget. We may not be invited back for quite a while...
Massachusetts has the strange tradition of not having a Spring or Easter vacation. Instead, we celebrate the inexplicable (at least to those who grew up elsewhere) traditions of February and April vacations. I have come to appreciate several things about this unique school calendar. First of all, there are two weeks of vacation instead of one. Second, it's a great opportunity to travel when the rest of the country is in school and at work. We spent our most recent April vacation visiting my parents in PA. We had a great week, but like any trip involving four young children, there were plenty of unexpected twists as well.
I took all four boys for haircuts, giving myself a rare break from the job. It was Theo's first professional haircut. Jack chose a buzz cut with a triangle shaped section of hair left long on top.
We went to the Philadelphia Zoo with my parents. We were there from 10am until 3:30pm, which seemed like a really long day for the kids, but they had a blast. Theo was enjoying himself so much that he stayed awake the entire day. They had a neat Lego exhibit at the zoo, with lifesize versions of several endangered animals made entirely of Legos. The polar bear was amazing, and contained 96,000 pieces!
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