week ending aug 16, 2009

Week ending Aug 16: This week the kids and I went to Ocean City and Chincoteague. We stayed for two nights in MomMom’s condo in Ocean City, the kids played their first miniature golf, rode the rides, and did their first solo boogie boarding. Alex was very excited to play mini golf since we have two golf video games, and Chloe said she was just going to cheerlead because she was afraid she wasn’t going to be very good. I strong-armed her into trying it and she had a blast. We didn’t keep score and at the end of the 18 holes Chloe said “we all won!” I guess she thought that getting the ball into each of the 18 holes constituted winning. I have to concur that we did all win since it was a great time for all of us.

The solo boogie boarding occurred because once we got far enough out that the water was deep enough for me to ride with them, the waves were so big that I hardly had the strength to hold onto them floating on the board while the waves were crashing over us. So we walked back to shallower water. There was another little girl boogie boarding who was 7 and she showed Chloe how to do it in the shallow water. She was really brave and got splashed quite a bit but kept her head and had some great rides before Alex came and asked for a turn. I could hardly believe how well he did since at the beginning of the summer he considered it a near tragedy if he got pool water splashed on his face. It is so great to see them making such progress.

Unfortunately on our way to Chincoteague Chloe started throwing up. At first we chalked it up to car sickness (despite that I’d given her Dramamine), but when the throwing up continued even after we arrived we knew something else was going on. Chloe had a few weeks with really no complaining about her stomach, and then in the days leading up to the vacation she complained every day, so maybe it was something that had been building up for a while. At least 3 people have asked me recently what other options my doctor has offered besides the medicines. It seems telling that multiple people are coming to the same conclusion.