Vacation Adventure

Ever since Judith was born, we haven't been on a true vacation, and have done staycations instead when John takes time off.  The hassle of dragging tons of gear with us while traveling with an infant or young toddler was enough to cause me to say, "Screw it, it's not worth the hassle!"  Yes, I realize thousands of people travel with infants and young toddlers, and do just fine.  For us, it was a hassle since we would have to try and cram extra equipment into one of our cars (which are both on the small-ish side), and we were content doing day trips instead.

This past weekend, though, we decided to finally do our first hotel stay with Judith instead of spending 8 hours round trip in the car, which was not appealing to us.  John's side of the family had the annual reunion in New York, and we knew early on that we wanted to go.  John was able to use one of his vacation Sundays so we could spread out some of the travel time and not drive ourselves crazy trying to do everything at once.

The weather was gorgeous, and was unseasonably warm, so that was a pleasant treat.  The drive north went smoothly, and Judith was actually really well behaved.  We were hoping she would take a nap, but she was way too curious about the passing scenery and too interested in the activities we had in the car for her that sleep was really low on her priority list.  John and I were both hoping for some awesome foliage because we knew that the leaves should really be changing a lot, and there were some really gorgeous pops of color, but there were also spots where it was still really, really green.

Our hotel was able to check us in early so we could squeeze in a vest treatment before we went to John's cousin's house.  I was trying to figure out when we would be able to do treatments because the schedule was really full, so being able to do it earlier than I thought was a nice bonus.  I was also glad that Judith didn't try to fight us when we said it was time to do her treatment, and I think the novelty of being in a new room (and letting her explore a bit before we started) helped.

We had a wonderful time at the reunion, and it was great to see John's side of the family again!  We haven't had a chance to see some of his cousins in quite a few years, and most, if not all, of his cousins were meeting Judith for the first time, so catching up was really nice.  Judith was able to play with her many cousins and had lots of land to explore.  I still have to chuckle at how fast the Philly Pretzel Factory rivets disappeared, and John and I were already talking about what we're going to do next year since we think we're going to have to take more.  We intentionally decided to take the pretzels because we knew it was something that most of his family couldn't get where they live, but John didn't think people would go so crazy over them.  We were only going to take a box of 50 rivets, but I got 2 boxes for about 100 total instead, and I'm so glad I did because 50 never would've been enough!

Saturday evening we drove around a little bit, and went to the Wegman's grocery store that was nearby.  I've been to Wegman's before when John and I camped along Lake Erie before we were married, and I always enjoyed shopping there.  We don't have one really close to where we live, so this was a treat, and I knew I wanted to get a couple boxes of their half-size spaghetti that one of my friends posted about on Facebook the other week.  I know that sounds like a silly thing to get, but I never saw this before my friend posted about it, and I hate breaking regular spaghetti in half whenever I make it because I always manage to scatter pieces all over the place.  I do love my pastas, so I also went nuts over the selection they had, and for a good price!  I didn't purchase a lot there, because I didn't want to travel with all of that and risk most of it breaking, but we did decide we're going to bite the bullet and drive to the nearest one to stock up on different types, and to also get some of their other tasty things, like their baked goods.

Sunday morning we had the opportunity to worship at one of the churches John grew up in.  Having this opportunity was especially awesome, because it's not something that we can do often, and people were so glad to see John again.  One of the members there has an adult son with CF, and she was really excited to meet her in person.  After church, we headed home, but we wish we could've spent an extra day there so we could've done some touristy things before leaving.

I was really impressed at how well Judith handled the trip.  I was nervous about the whole traveling with CF thing, and figuring out the logistics of getting treatments completed while on the road and in a hotel room.  Granted this trip was probably easier than what it could be or what it will be in the future, because we don't have to worry about nebulized treatments.  It does, however, make me think about things like using the flutters once she's old enough so we don't have to drag her vest if she doesn't want to, and also about the amount of space we used in the car.  It's not something that we're going to jump on at this point, but I think we're going to have to consider getting a slightly bigger vehicle if we do decide to travel more frequently.

Overall, though, things went really well, and went more smoothly than I anticipated.  We're fortunate that Judith is usually good in the car under normal circumstances, and I think that, along with new activities and distractions, helped her on this trip.  We had such an enjoyable time that we're already looking forward to next year's reunion!

Weekend Fun

We had a long and busy weekend, but it was a blast!  The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and I'm so glad that it's really feeling like fall.  The cool weather made our weekend activities that much more enjoyable, and it was nice to not be sweating our butts off like we were earlier in the week!

On Saturday we decided to go spend a few hours at Hersheypark.  It was a nice change to be able to walk around in jeans and a long sleeved tee instead of shorts and a tank top and still feel like you have to remove about 5 layers including some layers of skin just to cool down!  The temperatures didn't even get out of the upper 50s, which was unexpected as they thought it would get into the 60s, and with the cloud cover I was hoping that it would mean the crowds would be minimal/mostly locals would be milling around.  For a while, we didn't have to worry about long waits or bigger crowds, but as the afternoon went on it filled up so we decided to leave since Judith was starting to melt down anyway.

Sunday was more typical of what Sundays usually are, except we had the chance to go to my cousin's house so we could visit with them and my aunt and uncle.  They were at the shore for a few days, and stopped there before they headed home.  My decision to spend the day with Judith at my parents' worked out well, because they got to see Judith again.

On Monday, we had the rare treat of John taking a day off and being able to go do something fun as a family.  Normally when he has a day off he uses it as a work day for church stuff, but since the weather was awesome and we knew school was in session, we decided to go to Zoo America for the morning.  Judith had a blast looking at so many of the animals, and absolutely loved the fish in the pond in the bear habitat.  I wish I would've been able to take pictures, but my new camera body hadn't arrived yet (side note: I'm 99.99% sure my camera body was fried one of the days during Judith's hospital stay, because I stupidly didn't think to take it and myself out of the room the night they did the x-ray in there. It was a used body to begin with, and was a fantastic starter body to get into the DSLR world, but it was still an expensive mistake, and a really dumb one as well.  I learned my lesson, that's for sure.  And now I'm getting a super early birthday/Christmas present so I have a camera and can take lots of pictures again.).  She did well for the first half of the zoo, but about halfway through she just didn't have the attention span anymore so we called it a day and went to get lunch.  We're already planning to go back again in the next couple of months, especially since I want to try to hit the habitats she didn't really get to see because she was done.  Anyway, we finished off our adventure with a trackside lunch on our way home, and Judith was so excited to see 3 trains!

Day Out with Thomas

Last Friday, we took Judith to the Strasburg Railroad for a Day Out with Thomas.  This is something John wanted to do with a future child ever since we found out I was pregnant, and this year she was old enough to appreciate it.

The day was warm, but not overly humid so that was a plus.  We knew it would be crowded, because it's the height of tourist season and the railroad is a huge attraction even when Thomas isn't there (having Thomas there makes it even more of an attraction), but really it wasn't too bad because they had things laid out well and there was a good flow to the foot traffic.

Our first stop was to the tent they set up that contained all of the Thomas gear you could possibly want.  We bought Judith a shirt, a Thomas die cast engine, and some stickers.  Next we took a picture with a blowup engine (I think it was Percy...), then walked around to see what else they were offering.

While we were waiting in line, I was able to get a good picture of Thomas returning to the station:

John and I were busy plotting which car we wanted to try to get on.  He enjoys riding in the open air cars, and given the heat of the day I was more than ok with riding in the open air car.  As soon as they started boarding for our scheduled run, we made a beeline for the last car so we could ride next to the caboose.  We had some awesome seats, right next to the exit, and Judith had a view of the inside of the caboose:

The ride was about 22 minutes long, and they only took it halfway down the tracks.  It's a nice length, especially for young kids who don't have a long attention span.  Judith was absolutely excited to be riding on a real train, and not just the ride trains they have at amusement parks:

We decided not to purchase the combo tickets this year (which would've given us a ride behind one of the steam engines), but in retrospect I wish we had done that.  Judith enjoyed herself so much that she would've loved an extra ride!

We got a nice family picture taken while we were on the train, and after disembarking from Thomas, we rode to the end of the yard on a restored trolley.  I wanted to try taking Judith for a ride on the hand carts, but by that point she was starting to melt down, so we decided to head back to the car and drive to the Red Caboose Motel to watch Thomas go by.

John and I talked about going back again one of the 2 times Thomas will return to the railroad, but I think we're going to wait until next year and try to go on one of the regular runs sometime in the fall.  There are just so many things to do while you're there, and I'm glad that we're still close enough to the railroad that we can take Judith multiple times if we want.

Miscellaneous Musings

We had a pretty good weekend!  Judith continues to do well on the health front, so that's always great news.  I've been following the story of the young girl in Philadelphia at CHOP who has CF and is awaiting a lung transplant, and have done a lot of thinking about the disease, how close we are to getting the new drugs through the study phases and hopefully into the hands of patients, and even feeling sad because her condition is deteriorating so quickly.  It's yet another reminder of how much I hate this disease, and wish no one had to go through it.

On a lighter note, Judith and I had even more time together since John had a work day at church, so we took a trip to Target in the morning.  Our closest Target does get busy, but it's usually not super cramped and is often a pleasant shopping experience.  But Saturday's experience was even more awesome because we went right as they opened and only had to "share" the store with a few other shoppers.  We were able to get everything we needed and pay quickly, and were out of the store in under a half hour (score!).  I was planning to take Judith to the park in the morning so we could avoid the heat of the day, but it was pretty cloudy and things were still fairly wet so we skipped it.

Sunday we went to our choir picnic.  Go figure Judith refused to eat most things, but did manage to eat some cake for us.  I'm just grateful she ate something that was calorie-dense!  She was being a bit of a pill, and wanted to be on the move constantly because it was a new environment with lots of things to explore.  She wasn't too bad, but I could tell when it was time to leave and get her home for a delayed nap.  Judith also had her first experience with splitting maple seeds and putting them on her nose, and I even joined in on the fun at one point (Judith declared I was a "silly mommy" because of that).

Today was definitely an indoor day.  It rained for most of the day, and while the air temperatures were decent the humidity was up.  The highlight was meeting with the contractor to get an estimate for our new flooring.  We have the install date set, so now all we need to do is go shopping for something we like!  Both John and I feel relieved that we finally have this scheduled and it will be done by the end of the year.  We're going to do the lower level like we planned, but we're also going to do the upstairs hallway since that carpeting is the same age as the carpeting downstairs.  We were thinking about doing the steps, but we decided to wait until maybe next year to do those, and we'll probably also do the upstairs bathroom and both bedrooms.  The carpeting there isn't as old, but there are already some colorful stains on them thanks to Judith and her Pediasure (at least when she vomits it on the new floor, it'll be easy to clean up...).

Memorial Day

Today we spent some time at Hersheypark, and Judith had a blast!  We didn't do the water rides today since it was a little cool for that, and the water in the wave pool wouldn't have had a good chance to warm up yet haha.  She did get to ride on the kids' flume, and a few other rides, though!  I think it's going to be another year before she can start riding on a few more things, but for now she has a pretty good selection of rides that she can ride, either with us or on her own.

It was fun spending the day with my parents and my grandparents, and I know they all enjoyed watching Judith on the rides!  Something really neat happened to my grandfather today: he was wearing his Army hat (he's a Korean War veteran), and a group of teenage girls struck up a conversation with him about it while they were waiting in line to get ice cream, asking which war he served in, where he was stationed, etc.  One also gave him a hug!  He got his ice cream, and came over to us to sit down on a bench to eat, and the girls came over and wanted to talk to him more about it!  I thought it was so cool that they were interested in hearing his stories!

January Thaw

We've had quite the warm streak the past few days, and if the predictions hold true tomorrow will be the warmest yet.  I'm pleasantly surprised that we didn't get blasted with a.) a massive nor'easter/blizzard or b.) insanely heavy rain that would cause flooding this past week since it was Farm Show week, and many years in the past we've been hit with big storms.  Hooray for uneventful weather!  The downside is all of our snow is basically gone.  Not that there was a ton left to begin with - mainly the gross, dirty piles caused by the plows and whatnot.  Many would disagree with me, but I hope we get a fresh coating so we can go out and play in it.  As long as it's not on the day we have our appointments, I'm cool with it.

Judith started out the week with some disappointment since we took all of our Christmas decorations down last weekend.  We traditionally leave everything up until Epiphany (sometimes until the weekend after depending when the 6th falls), and since it was actually on a Sunday this year it kind of worked out nicely.  Judith got used to seeing the tree in the living room whenever she came downstairs, and when it wasn't there anymore she was trying to figure out what happened to it.  Even though we didn't do a ton of decorating this year, it was still neat to see her reactions to everything and explore the ornaments and lights.  I was proud, too, because she generally left the tree alone and didn't try to undecorate it too often!

I had a subbing day this past Thursday, so Judith got to spend some time with her Pawpaw.  They had a blast together (like always!), and it was a good change of pace for both of us (even though I was essentially walking into a petri dish at the school because the illnesses are hitting hard).  I was kind of glad for the diversions since it took my mind off of everything else that's going on with her.

The worst part of the week has been the news reports of the flu epidemic.  I'm germophobic to begin with, and this has set my anxiety over the edge.  I've been keeping Judith at home as much as possible, and trying to avoid crowds.  I know eventually we won't be able to avoid this stuff, and won't have the luxury of staying home all the time (like when she's in school), but right now it's very much a personal situation for me of "old habits are hard to break."  I think if the strain going around wasn't so virulent and if the vaccine was offering greater protection I'd feel a little differently.  I'm even nervous to take her to her appointments, especially since we have to go into the main hospital for the ultrasound.  I highly doubt Judith'll keep a mask on, but I'm really going to try to get her to wear it for her own sake.

Meds are DONE

The last dose of bactrum was given this evening, so now we wait to see what the reculture yields.  I'm not super optimistic about this one because of the battles over the last 2 weeks, so we'll see what our next steps will be.

In the meantime, we've been having some fun around the house, and Judith's been parroting everything we say (literally - this was quite obvious on New Year's day when she echoed "Oh shit!" seconds after my mom said it).  She is absolutely obsessed with the dogs, and is constantly laying her head on them to give them hugs and asking for "tisses" (kisses).  Lady has been getting a few extra workouts since Judith started chasing her, and especially loves when Judith leaves smaller toys laying around so she can steal them, bringing them to me to throw, and instead having them confiscated so they don't get littered with teeth marks.

I also started thinking about some "upgrades" we could make in the living room, mainly in terms of toy storage, and to give Judith an area to do activities.  Once the tree is down, I want to get a storage system to put her toys in so we can be a little more organized, and also so I can weed through stuff that she doesn't play with anymore or is too young for her.  There's a very nice storage system at Ikea that I want to get, and this will give me an excuse to finally make a trip to that store so I can say that I've been to one!  The other thing that's catching my eye is a toddler table and chair set.  There are 2 options that I like, and both would make a nice addition to our main room (in place of the Pack-n-Play).  It's giving me something positive to look forward to, and I can't wait to hopefully set this in motion soon.

Pumpkin Patch 2012 and a Culture Update

We've been pretty busy the last few days!  Saturday we took a trip to the pumpkin patch.  My MIL and niece came for a visit, and went with us.  Judith did have a good time, but she seriously protested the hayride.  She was melting down waiting in line, and was still having a fit when we got on the cart.  John ended up taking her off the ride and took her to play in the kid's area.  My niece and I continued on the ride and had a good time!

Judith really enjoyed herself sensory area!  They had feed corn in troughs and old tractor tires, and the kids could dig and play with it.  They also had some hay bales with little slides.  She got to see some chickens and goats (she kept saying "doggie" for the black and white goats), and picked out a small pumpkin.

I do have pictures from Saturday, but I'm waiting to post them tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday.  So if you're curious, you'll have to come back later!


We did get the culture results back for Judith's abscess.  Go figure she cultured positive for MRSA.  The spot is getting better, and hasn't drained for a few days.  However, we had to switch antibiotics, and getting her to take the bactrum has been a massive battle.  All of my regular tricks that we use to get the drugs into her have failed miserably.  I've tried masking the meds in pediasure, pudding, water - just about everything I could think of.  No matter what we do, she can taste the meds and promptly spits them out.  Giving it to her straight results in lots of puking and gagging, so that was quickly ruled out as an option.  We have 4 days/8 doses to go, and I have a feeling it's going to be a long 4 days.

Weekend Fun

It's always nice when we get to spend time with family!  My parents are great, and they usually see Judith at least once a week.  My in-laws don't get to see her as often, and it makes me feel bad - thanks to work schedules and the distance (granted it's not nearly as far as some grandparents deal with) arranging times to get together can be tricky.  However, this weekend Judith got the best of both worlds and was able to spend time with all of her grandparents and almost all of her great-grandparents!

On Saturday my in-laws made the trek to our house and spent some time with us in the afternoon (and they brought some very tasty Cracker Barrel meals with them - yum yum!).  Judith loved playing outside with Grandpa, and was having a blast showing both Grandma and Grandpa some of her new "tricks" (talking, silly faces, etc.).

Today, Judith got to go to church with her other grandparents (this was the first Sunday my dad was able to go back to church after his surgeries!), and she had fun being her silly self.  We spent a good chunk of the afternoon with them, and her great-grandparents stopped by for a visit with her.  They bought her a new toy!  She got her "first car" - it's one of those cars where you sit in it, but it has a long handle for the adult to push, sort of like a stroller.  Judith absolutely loved riding around in it!  I have pictures, and will try to remember to post once I upload them.

The one thing we didn't get to do today was go and visit Judith's other great-grandmother.  Judith was rebelling against naps and was having way too much fun doing everything else, so we decided to skip the visit and I took her home instead.  We're hoping that maybe we can squeeze in a visit in the very near future, since I know Great Nana's looking forward to it!

Reculture and Miscellaneous Musings

Our days have been fairly busy lately, especially now that Judith is walking all over the place and getting into everything she possibly can.  She seriously wears me out big time - at least I'm getting a decent amount of exercise chasing after her!

Thursday and Friday of last week we enjoyed some warmer weather.  Friday's temperatures were high enough that I was able to break out one of the adorable smocked sun suits I purchased for Judith a couple months ago!  I decided to go with the Preppy Alligator pattern from Shrimp & Grits Kids:

 Removing all of her animals from the chair

Check out that ruffle butt!

Adorable detailing, and a bonus side-eye (she's getting rather good at that...)

On Saturday I packed Judith and the dogs into the car and drove to my parents' for a little visit!  The dogs were excited to go to their house again, but were apprehensive at first - they weren't sure about what was going on with my dad, and they finally warmed up and realized things are ok after an hour or 2.  I went with my mom to the salon to get haircuts, and Judith had a great time trying to de-shelve the brightly colored bottles of products and playing in the hair that was cut off of my mom's head and my head.

Sunday afternoon we caught a break.  John played in our local AGO chapter's member's recital, and got a ton of compliments on one of his arrangements!  Thanks to these people complimenting him, he got an extra dose of motivation to start contacting publishers to get some of his stuff out there (I've been encouraging him to do this for years, but I guess this was the push he needed to really take it seriously).  Since Judith decided naps are for quitters (that made for an interesting worship service), I stayed home with her so she could sleep and I could relax.

We'll skip over Monday since it was a boring day with minimal action.  Fast forward to today: I took Judith to Hershey for her reculture of her throat/sputum.  While we still have 3 more doses of TOBI to give her, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the meds worked and the pseudomonas are gone.  We probably won't get the results until Monday.

I was alone with her for this appointment, and thankfully she didn't have an epic meltdown - she was by no means happy about having her throat swabbed, and melted down a little bit, but it didn't last as long as normal.  She even reached out to the nurse for her to hold her!  Of course after the nurse swabbed her, Judith gave her best "boo boo" face and cried, but when I reminded her that she wouldn't see Dr. Graff at this appointment she calmed down.

Speech therapy went well today!  Judith babbled more for her therapist, and we got a charge out of her carrying around a canister lid and laughing hysterically at Lady, who was closely trailing her - Lady naturally saw a disc shaped object and assumed it was a frisbee for her, and wanted to play with it but Judith wasn't giving it up!  I knew she was getting tired on top of it, because she was extra silly, but I was also impressed at how focused she was when playing with Lady!  Naturally Lady had a blast chasing after Judith, even though she didn't understand why Judith wouldn't just throw the lid for her.

Some Much Needed Alone Time

John and I were lucky today that my parents were available to babysit Judith.  We got some gift cards to Applebee's (from my parents - thanks, mom and dad!), and I suggested we take an afternoon or evening to get away from everything and spend some time with each other.  So we took a few hours this afternoon to do some shopping and grabbed a late lunch/early dinner.  It felt nice to get away, but at the same time my anxiety was flaring up a bit and I was worried about Judith.

It's not that I don't trust my parents - I really do, and they know what they need to do to care for her.  I'm so accustomed to being with Judith 24/7, and it's very hard for me to let go enough to enjoy the rare moments I do get that are toddler-free.  Even when I'm working, I call at least once a day to check in.

I really need to learn to relax...