Two Hours of Crying on Two Lanes (HOL 46)

House of Laughter 46

We just came back from a quick trip to Florida for my birthday/ roller coaster trip/ University of Florida homecoming. Isaac had a 102 fever, and “Mustard Butt” for the whole trip, but was pretty pleasant for most of it. He can travel exactly seven hours before he goes ballistic and wants to get out of his car seat. Unfortunately the trip is nine hours long, so the last two hours there and back were on dark, two lane country roads with a baby crying almost non stop for 120 minutes.

We assumed it was teething that was the root cause of the fever, stink, and general crankiness, but his cousin, aunt, Nancy and I, also became a little ill. He stayed home from daycare for the last two days. Nancy took the first day, and he was feeling much better last night. Through the night, things became worse with the screaming and the Gulden’s spicy brown spread all over the…..never mind.

I stayed home from work with him today. I’m glad I did. He divided his time evenly between napping and whining. There was a comic strip in the paper last week that had a great quote. “With parenting, the years fly by, but the days are long.” The point is, I’m tired. It was a long day.

Back to the trip. We went to the U.F. homecoming parade with all my nieces and nephew. There were six children under the age of five and six adults in a hot crowded parade route. Isaac did not care for the loud motorcycles and fire engines that started the festivities, but he seemed to enjoy everything else. We stayed for two hours, and there was no apparent end to the parade, so we left. That afternoon, I went swimming with my four year old niece, Cassidy. She would climb on my shoulders, I would stand up, and then fall face first into the pool. As soon as I came up for air, Cassidy was ready to climb back on for another ride.

She called this game “Sweaty Dolphin”. I have no idea how she came up with this name, but can just imagine the reaction when she tells her teacher about playing “Sweaty Dolphin” with he uncle in the swimming pool.

Saturday morning, Nancy and I got up and cashed in out Christmas present from 2005: Two tickets to Universal Studios, and a day of baby sitting. Friday night, I had a twinge of guilt about leaving him to go ride roller coasters when he was feeling sick. I then realized Nancy and I had not spent a day alone together for over a year, and hadn’t been on a thrill ride together for at least two years. When we left Saturday morning, Isaac was crying. We made it about 30 minutes before I pulled out my cell phone to call and check on him and made myself stop. If things were bad, mom would call. It he was still crying, I would feel guilty for the day.

The irony is when we did call to check in around 11:00, Isaac was having a great time, and this almost made Nancy cry. She was missing him terribly, and how dare he not miss her? A ride on the “Revenge of the Mummy” coaster took her mind off it.

It was a great trip, but I am ready to get back to my normal schedule.


Strength and Honor

Big Matt