Thursday was a day of solo parenting.
Heather started feeling sick late Wednesday night, and by Thursday morning, she was in a bad way — sore throat, nausea, headache, body aches, basically flu-like symptoms (though she did get a flu shot this year, leading us to speculate about exotic tropical strains). I took the boy out for a few hours in the morning, getting breakfast at the cereal bar (when else will he get cereal topped with gummi sharks?), hanging out by the fake lagoon, playing in the sand and swimming.
We returned to the room to change out of our wet clothes for lunch. Heather wanted to join us, and got out of bed, and got dressed, and got out of the room, and made it, oh, maybe a hundred yards down the path before it became apparent that she would not be able to continue. We walked her back to the room. River and I got a quick lunch and went to the little grocery store to get Heather some dayquil and such.
We got back, and she was sleeping. I didn’t want to go too far in case she needed us, so River and I went to the kiddie pool for the afternoon. He had a wonderful time — the water at its deepest there goes to his chin, so he can run all around the pool without assistance. He met another little four-year-old, a girl who is a member of the same fandom (they’re both devotees of Mickey Mouse Club House), and they played for a while. Rather relaxing.
Honestly, if not for the fact that I was worried about my sick wife, and run ragged from being in sole charge of an overstimulated preschooler, it would have been a nice day.
We came back to the room, where Heather was awake, but not out of bed. She’d called the doctor — at least with River’s ear infection, she had the opportunity to master out-of-state doctor’s appointments — and the advice nurse told her she probably has strep throat. Apparently it’s going around, and the symptoms fit. We got an appointment for Friday morning so she can get tested and, presumably, get some antibiotics, for what little good they do with strep.
If it is strep, she’s apt to be miserable for the rest of the trip, which means more solo parenting and escalating exhaustion, so basically: vacation is over. No more relaxing here. We go back Saturday afternoon.
I never want to leave my house again.
Aw, that’s horrible! I’m sure I speak for all of the Pratt/Shaw fans when I say I hope she feels better and that your next vacation will be illness and drama free. (It sounds like your little man is having a blast though, so it wasn’t a total loss!)