A Tale of Two Parents

Two parents, one family, two very different weekends...

**Warning: the word puke is used a lot below.  You were warned*

This past weekend, we were all set to go to an out of town wedding with my parents and sister.  Then Ellie was a little sick Thursday morning, kind of sick Friday morning and really sick Saturday morning. 

Since it was my side's event, Ryan stayed home with Ellie and my sister and I drove Madeline 3.5 hours to the wedding {my parents went Friday night, we were meeting them there}.



My weekend:
The alarms sounded starting at 5:45 am.  Auntie showers, I shower, we throw on our clothes, grab Maddie and are ready to head out.  As we are about to leave, Ellie is laying in Auntie's lap and looks up at her and says, "Auntie, I'm so sorry I puked on your skirt." 

Auntie changes clothes, the skirt goes in the wash, and we head out the door. 
We make our happy little drive, Starbucks in the drink holders, through the city and back out to the country.  We pass old farm houses and rolling green hills. Madeline was perfect.  She played with a few small toys and took a pretty decent nap.

In our spacious hotel room, we thought an additional adult and child would be joining us, Madeline is dressed in her ivory party dress with beading and pearls while Auntie and I curl and straighten our hair respectively. By 12:30 we are headed out the door and to the park where the ceremony will take place.


Cannon in D filled the pavilion as Amber, the bride, slowly walked down the aisle wearing a lace sheath dress, curls pinned up {no veil} to meet her Ryan. Madeline rotated between playing with the flowers hanging from the column next to us and the fans that were distributed when we arrived.


The ceremony was so sweet.  Amber and Ryan recited their own vows and left the park in a horse drawn carriage. I couldn't stop thinking that Ellie would have loved every single second of it.

Nonna, Poppa, Auntie, Madeline and I arrived the historic restaurant for the lunch reception. The tables were decorated with books and blue flowers in bud vases. Scotty, who will always be Scotty our little neighbor even though he is now 25, gave a best man's toast that brought tears to our eyes.

Our three course lunch was delicious and concluded with an amazing local wild blueberry cupcake. After we were all stuffed, we headed back to the hotel for Madeline to get a rest before the after party.

After a quick rest {by all of us} we changed into casual clothes and are headed to the marina for boat rides and a picnic dinner followed up with karaoke. Auntie and I declined the boat ride and instead watched Madeline make friends with the 18 month old flower girl and almost 4 year old ring bearer. Seeing a person her own size running around was almost all the motivation Madeline needed to take off on her own. Almost.


The sangria was flowing and the karaoke was in full swing by 8:30. If you haven't seen a 10 year old boy sing "Dead or Alive" you should go check YouTube. I'm pretty sure six different people were taking video and it was the most hysterical part of the weekend. Madeline lasted until after 9 and we arrived back at the hotel around 9:30.

Travel Tip:  Place the pack and play in the bathroom so your baby can have a quiet, dark place to sleep and the other people in the room drink local wine and snack on carmel corn and Oreo's.

The next morning we woke up, got ready and ate breakfast at our hotel.  After breakfast, we checked out and drove back to the historic town to do a little shopping.  I found a great toy store and picked up a Hopscotch Mat for Ellie, something she has wanted for months.

A stop in a local coffee shop to get caffieiated and then we were on our way home.  Madeline was, again, perfect and slept the first two hours of the trip.  We met Nonna and Poppa for a late lunch and arrived back home around 3:30 pm.

It was a great little overnight getaway and everyone had a blast.




Ryan's weekend:
Ellie puked on Auntie just as they were about to leave.  We thought she was feeling better because she was wild and crazy when Auntie came to our house last night.  We were wrong.

By 9 am, Ellie had puked two more times.  There were bribes being arranged over sucking Pediatlyte Popsicles and eating dry Cherrios.  Ryan's visions of flying a kite in the front yard were swapped with the reality of sitting with the red Crate and Barrel mixing bowl which we affectionately refer to as the 'barf bowl' in his lap and watching Nick Jr. on repeat.

A few hours later, Ryan and Ellie both passed out on the couch with the Backyardigans in the background.  Oxford had started to get his own stomach flu.  Can germs be passed on from humans to dogs or is it a complete coincidence that he gets sick every time one of us is sick?

The nap was short lived and Ellie was puking again.  This time all over Ryan's shirt.  After she was done, she told him he smelled and he should take off his shirt so he could hold her.  As soon as the shirt was off, she puked all over his back which prompted her to order him to take a shower.  "You stink, Daddy.  I'll wait right here while you go shower." 

Ryan agreed, and when he came out, Ellie was asleep on the couch.  I think he was relieved.

Ryan had a fab dinner of soup from a can while Ellie dined on her third Pedialyte Popsicle of the day.  Because I was worried about her being dehydrated, Ryan also pushed the clear fluids at the end of the day.

Ellie went to bed without any argument and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.  Unfortunately for the humans of the house, Oxford poked Ellie's door open with his little nose and woke her up.  After a little more negotiating Ellie went in to sleep with Ryan.  But, unfortunately again, since Ellie drank so much before bed that she had to use the potty at midnight, 3am and 5 am.

Up early on Sunday morning, probably from all of the napping the day before, Ellie was feeling better and asking for pancakes.  Since she kept breakfast down, Ryan asked Ellie what she wanted to do for lunch.  He brought her to a local restaurant where the a train delivers your food.  She ate part of her lunch and then took a long nap.

Right before the travelers were about to arrive home, Ellie and Ryan took Oxford outside and Ellie skinned her ankle.  Tears were flowing and the sobbing could probably be heard by our entire neighborhood.  Good thing we came home a few minutes later with the Hopscotch Mat.  All was forgotten and Ellie's sole focus was trying to get the marker to land in one of the pink, green and yellow squares.

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So there you have it.  If I would have known Ellie was that sick, I would have stayed home but we really thought she was getting better.  And she did get better.  This morning she is exploring with her talking Dora Backpack and already asking to do hopscotch again. 

Thanks for taking care of our girl, Daddy!