Emotional

The first few days at Sea Ranch were a bit, shall I say, emotional for my babes. It began with McGee not taking a nap on the entire 4 1/2 hour drive up there and then waking up screaming hysterical in the night (the norm for any night he hasn't taken a nap). From there it just seemed that the tears came at the drop of a hat for him and Miss Em seemed extra, um...screechy.

Whenever something didn't go her way, or she wanted something, or I think just for the fun of it, Miss Em would start screeching. It's not a cry really, nor a whine either, to me it just sounds like a not so enjoyable parrot making their irritating squawk or screech. This may sound harsh for me to be saying about my precious girl, but growing up with a mother who couldn't handle screaming or high pitched sounds, I also have a very low tolerance for them and this screeching behavior is not something that endears Miss Em to me (or anyone really).

{When I asked McGee when looking at this picture if he was happy or sad

he said, "Emily looks sad, but I look cold." It's true! :) }

The second night McGee woke up in the night again, this time he was just crying and said he needed the bathroom then he grabbed hold of the sides of the toilet and acted like he was going to throw up. He never did and it wasn't real dry heaves, but it was so sad when he said pitifully sputtered, "I need a washcloth" and pointed to the back of his neck (usually a cool washcloth is our first defense when nausea arises). Then the next day at the beach (photos attached) it was a bit windy and the tears came flowing from both kids once again. Needless to say we didn't stay too long, although they did eventually get distracted by digging in the sand for about 10 minutes before the wind made them cry again. Finally Wednesday night Daddy and I were going out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary and the kids were seated at their table ready for the delicious dinner Grammy had been preparing all day. Everyone was happy and excited to eat and then I see McGee's face totally transform as he realizes we're leaving. He completely fell apart, crying he wanted Mommy and he wanted me to stay home and not go out. Now I'm not a mom that is attached to my kids day and night, I have bunco I go to monthly and Scrap-N-Chat and numerous errands that I run all of the time while leaving the kids home with dad or one of the grandmas. Even at the nursery at our church goodbyes have never been too difficult for our kids to handle, but this time McGee was not having any part of it.

As a mom, it tears me up seeing my kids in distress, especially when they're calling for me, but I knew we needed to go out and we weren't going to let his outbreak change our plans. As we started to leave for dinner I realized I'd forgotten my camera, but I wasn't about to go back inside to retrieve it and make everything worse. After dinner we did stop back by the house and Daddy ran in to get the camera and what did he see? A very happy, contented McGee having a wonderful time with his cousins and not even noticing that Daddy was back. A good reminder to me that although there are certainly times where we mothers DO need to drop everything and just hold our babies, not every breakdown requires this and they DO move on, let go and get better.

Now I don't know what reason there was for all of the emotion that was flying around between our two little ones, maybe it was just a hard transition for them, maybe because of all we had packed they thought we were moving, maybe they had a lot of indigestion issues...there are a number of possibilities really, but I am just happy to say they eventually snapped back into their normal fairly level-headed and happy-go-lucky selves and truly enjoyed their vacation. More happy posts to come on beach and pool fun and playing outside!