Well last night we got a text from one of the aunts, Karin, who works at a restaurant called Shanty. (It was on Diner's, Drive-In's, & Dives a while back.) She invited us there for breakfast & would be our waitress! It was nice to meet her (& her husband even stopped by to say hello & even give the girls a gift) & to know that we at least KNOW someone in the area now, just incase we need anything. They were very nice to us...& we had a great breakfast!
Karin told us about a mall close by that we could go to...for something to do. It was very much appreciated cause we need ideas of stuff to do while we're just waiting for our last appointment & to go home. We were about 1/2 way through breakfast when Cali was playing around in her syrup. I should have known better than to order her something that required syrup. (DUH!!) Anyways, she was getting messy & sticky & we just didn't like that. All of a sudden she started crying...& crying...& crying...& CRYING! She wouldn't stop! Eventually it went down from sobbing to more of an annoying-type of cry that was meant to be more of a statement to us that she was still there. Oh it was horrible. Dustin & I traded places so I could sit next to her to see if I could calm her down. Nothing helped. I tried kissing her butt with anything & everything I could find. Nothing helped. We tried bribery. We tried threatening (LOL). We tried tickling. Again...Nothing helped. And again...Oh it was horrible. I kept looking around & no one was staring at us so she wasn't bothering anyone. We even tried ignoring her, but she just WOULDN'T STOP! About 15 mins of this & poor Dustin was just getting ticked off. We felt horrible that we were guests there & Cali was acting like this. (Btw: any parenting advise/hints/tips on this kind of situation would be greatly appreciated.) So Dustin ended up taking her outside & putting her in the car. Then I packed up all our stuff & we left. Again...I felt so bad that she acted like that when we were invited somewhere. But what do you do?!
On a big side note: This trip has been SO incredibly hard for Cali. The other 3 families that are/were here also have an older child (ages 5 & younger....Cali being the youngest) & then their youngest child had the surgeries. It's a concensus among all the families that the older child is the biggest problem. We can take care of the younger one that had the surgeries just fine...but the older one is so tough. I mean think about it... They have no idea what's going on. They're not at home (not even in their own STATE), not in their own beds, don't get all their regular toys, don't get to do their regular routine or see any of their regular people, or even go to their regular places at home. Instead, their lives are turned upsidedown. They're in different hotel rooms, are going to weird places, going to hospitals, seeing their siblings hurting with big "owie"'s. They don't know which way is up. For the most part, Cali has been handling herself alright, but boy does she have her moments...& the "moments" here are so much more often & worse than they are at home. We try to have daddy/Cali time & mommy/Cali time as much as we can, but there's only so much you can do.
So continuing on... We got in the car & decided that even though Cali was being a pill, that we'd go to the mall so she could run around & let off some steam. We found it easily & got there, but she refused to walk or ride in the stroller...she insisted on being carried. Unfortunately, she's getting up there in weight & it's pretty difficult to carry her everywhere. Long story short...we left the mall very soon after we got there cause she couldn't handle it. I think that by far...today ranks in the top 5 worst experiences we've ever had with her.
Unfortunately, Dustin & I have to not do what we want, cause Cali is being "punished" by going back to the hotel room. Even MORE unfortunate is that Cali doesn't even understand that! We can go back to the hotel all we want but come on...Dustin & I need to have a life here too. So when she said she wanted to swim we said no. On the way back to the room (oh around noon maybe) Amie & I decided to hit the mall with her 2 kids & with Brooklyn. Cali & daddy went back to the room (which daddy was perfectly fine with cause football was coming on). We had to take Cali's seat out of the car so we could put Zac's seat in. Well apparently when we took her seat out & then mommy left was when Cali really knew she messed up. Dustin said that she kept saying "I good girl Daddy. Mommy leave. I swim now." LOL
So Amie & I went to a mall that's pretty close to our hotel with Brooklyn & Amie's 2 kids. We got there maybe around 1'ish & didn't leave until 5:30'ish!! It was fantastic. We just walked around browsing, getting coffee's, & going to the bathroom! :o) When we got back to the hotel I took Cali swimming cause she'd been super good for Dustin. Then we ate dinner & she fell right asleep.
Now for the "Darn Drains" comment... I hate those things. I really do. I can handle the dressing changes. I can handle the no sleeping. I can handle everything...except those darn drains. I've definitely cussed them out over the past few days. Our typical dressing change routine is this: putting Bacitracin on the stitches, putting vaseline gauze over the areas, putting regular gauze over that, then putting the stretchy wrap over the top of that. In order for it to stay on her head we cut a hole in the wrap for her little face, so it goes under her chin. Then we put the drains under the wrap & pull them 1/2 way through it so they'll stay in place. In order to get her to not pull on everything we have arm restraints/immobilizers that go on her little arms so she can't really bend them & get to her head. Sounds simple enough right? Wrong.
She's learned to pull/tug/grab at her dressing WITH the immobilizers on. We've managed to keep her from pulling it completely off...until today when we were walking around Bath & Body Works. She pulled the ENTIRE thing off. One arm had the restraint on & the other didn't. But she pulled it off. I yelled for Amie so she could help me put the other restraint on & then I re-dressed the area as quick as I could. How sanitary.
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| Her sneeky little grin...after the 2nd time she took her dressing completely off! |
So that's that for today. Brooklyn still detests her antibiotics. It seriously smells horrible, but it's gotta be done. Tomorrow we don't really know what we're gonna do in the AM, but tomorrow evening we're going to have an early dinner with Christine & her family cause they're leaving on Tuesday. I can't believe they're leaving already! (Josh's surgery was 1 week before Brooklyn's....so that means that we just have a week to go, almost.)
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