Life Lesson Learned

When your toddler is teething and running a fever off and on because of vaccinations and is way fussier than usual and you think that maybe you should call off your weekend in Chicago...LISTEN TO YOUR INSTINCTS AND STAY HOME!

Sigh...lesson learned.

Betsy had been puny for a couple days, running a low grade fever, and generally not being her usual fun self. We took her to the pediatrician for her 15 month checkup on Friday morning. The dr. said that the fever was probably just from teething...she's getting about 5 teeth in right now.

She got 4 vaccinations which made her even more hysterical than she already was and made her fever go up.

We were supposed to leave for Chicago on Sunday morning and we began to think that we should probably call it off.

She seemed a little better on Saturday evening and her fever was gone. Then she woke up screaming 5 times that night. Again we thought we should stay home and forget the trip.

But what did we do after our gut told us several times not to do it? We packed up and headed out!

The bright spot was that we did get to have a nice visit with our friends the Wilcoxes who used to live here in GR and who moved to CO and who have now relocated to Aurora, IL. Betsy loved playing with their five great kids. She chased 2 1/2 year old Becca around the house trying to hug and kiss her, but Becca wasn't too thrilled about this pushy little broad trying to paw at her. Becca's older siblings, on the other hand, thought it was hilarious and kept asking me to put Betsy down so that they could watch the chase ensue once again. :) Poor Becca!

After our visit we headed downtown to Embassy Suites and had some room service and got settled in.

The next day Myron had business meetings most of the day so Betsy and I took a long nap and walked a couple blocks to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch. Normal Betsy would have thought this was the coolest place ever, and for a half hour or so she seemed to enjoy herself and her Jurassic Chicken Tidbits. Then it was time for one of many meltdowns. So the nice waiter packed up our food and I drug a screaming toddler and all our stuff out the door and back to the hotel.

That night we decided to bundle up and go see the Christmas lights on the Magnificent Mile. Betsy promptly fell asleep in the stroller and didn't wake up until we returned to the hotel where we ordered Giordano's pizza and called it a night.

Today we packed up and headed to the aquarium where we spent nearly $50 to spend all of an hour and a half trying to convince Betsy that this place was really cool. She seemed happiest when she could run through the corridors and watch her feet move with her snow boots on. We could have done that at home for free.

So, we put her in the stroller, grabbed some snacks from the vending machines (that aquarium doesn't even have a cafe...you'd think you could at least grab a fish sandwich there!) and Myron ran across the frozen tundra to the car. By the time we met him outside Betsy was asleep again. Thankfully she slept almost all the way home.

Such is life with a toddler! Oh well...in a few years we'll tell Betsy this story and we'll all have a good laugh at how dumb her mother was when she was a new parent!

Now, I'm going to bed...for a week...I wish.