The evolution of vacation

Tight quarters!

We just recently took a family vacation to Florida to visit/invade my parents who are escaping the Canadian winter to stay in a condo for a month. Overall it was a wonderful week - with that said I have learned a few things from vacationing with my kids!

1) When you go on vacation with your kids, you get to spend a lot of time with your kids.
2) When you go on vacation with your kids, you have to spend a lot of time with your kids...
3) A toddler is not interested in sitting on your lap for any length of time - this includes the 3-hour flight where they are required to sit on your lap
4) Saving money on flights by going with a "discount airline" is at a cost - no leg-room, no inflight movies, no food and apparently no cleaning staff
5) IPads are saviours!
6) If you call something a diaper bag - the airline won't charge you the "carry-on" fee
7) Strollers pose a high security alert - at least that seemed to be the case based on the amount of time the Airline took to "clear it"
8) You can lose a soother on the plane
9) People are generally sympathetic to a travelling parent with young kiddies - even when your kid is crying/yelling for several minutes or slapping the head of the person in front of them (that really happened)
10) No matter how many challenges - giving your kids the experience of travelling to new places is totally worth it!

I will have so many memories from this trip. It was great to have so much time with Nan and Gramps. I loved how much time Cooper spent in the pool each day - at least 5 hours and we estimate about half that time was spent under water. I loved that we did it and we survived - a good reminder for when we plan the next adventure!

Worst Mom or just really busy?

I would be lying if I said I had any sort of handle on this work/life balance crap. I literally feel like I am flying by the seat of my pants most days. I get out of bed with a renewed sense of calm and within 30 seconds my heart rate is rising as I'm signing permission slips and packing lunches.

Today was a particularily bad parenting moment for me. Cooper has been sick...ALOT - it's apparently the curse of starting Junior Kindergarten. He's had Hand Foot and Mouth Disease, Hives, the flu and a chronic ear infection to name a few. Add his sister and all of her little daycare illnesses to the mix and Peter and I are missing a lot of work. Ahem...I mean our kids have been sick a lot and it's stressful!

So this morning when Cooper came into my bedroom and told me his tummy hurt and he had a fever (he didn't have a fever) I dismissed it as a kid who's gotten used to staying home and is trying to pull one over on me. I felt a little more guilt when right before he got on the bus he said "But mom, my tummy is still hurting" but not enough to stop him from boarding and heading off to school.

I got to my desk and cringed all day long whenever my phone rang but his school never called - that is until 3pm...apparently Cooper wasn't feeling well...."oh dear, we'll be right over to pick him up!" WORST MOM EVER.

It's just hard because with every day I miss of work I have to make it up. We're staring down the barrell of a week of holidays and I need to get some work done so that I can relax on the beach with my hopefully healthy kids.

So yes, I turned the other way this morning against my better judgement and we'll likely pay for this with a day off from school, or maybe 2 or 3.