Over the River & Through the Woods . . . . .
Whew - what a crazy few weeks we've had around here! It all started on December 4th when Neal's grandfather passed away. According to Jewish custom, the burial typically has to happen within 24 hours, but there were a lot of roadblocks, so the funeral was on the 7th instead. Neal's sisters and all of their babies came for the funeral, so Aviva had lots of cousins to play with while Neal's father sat shiva'h.
After driving down to New York for the funeral, Aviva & I decided to continue on to Neal's parent's house for the week because we were heading out to Iowa on the 14th and I didn't think that it would be good for Aviva to travel 6 hours each way one weekend, and then turn around and take an 18-hour trip the next weekend.
Neal came down on the 12th with the dog and cat in tow, and we headed out super early that Sunday. We were going to stay overnight in Toledo (the halfway point), but when we reached Toledo at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, we decided to just continue on. So, we drove 17+ hours all in one day. Of course, just outside of Chicago, we drove into TERRIBLE weather (while I was driving, naturally), and so a normally 3-hour trip took us almost 5 hours to get to Cedar Rapids. Ugh! We were all going about 35 mph on the highway - yikes!
While all of this was happening, Aviva had THE most explosive diarrhea known to man. We had to stop multiple times to change her (clothes and all), and once we even had to pull over into the emergency parking area on the Ohio Turnpike to change her. The outfit was so gross that we just scooped it all up and pitched it into the trash can. Gross!
Aviva was sick for the first two or three days that we were in Iowa and then seemed to get better. Neal walked in his graduation ceremony on the 19th, during which Iowa City got slammed with terrible wind and snow. Brrr . . . .
We delayed my family's Christmas get-together until 26th (instead of the 19th due to weather), and that was a lot of fun. Aviva got to play with all of her cousins & began getting faster and faster with her crawling.
Back at my mom's house on the 28th, Aviva woke up with more gross poops and vomiting to boot. It was the first time she had ever thrown up, so I don't think she really knew what was going on. Of course, this all went down at about 3:45 in the morning! Ugh!
We put her on the BRAT diet, but unfortunately that didn't help too much. She was still sick until we left Iowa on the 3rd. Blech!
We drove through to Cleveland on the 3rd, with a sick Aviva in tow. We got there around 6pm and just relaxed in the hotel. Aviva couldn't get comfortable at all that night, so Neal and I bundled up the baby, the dog, and the two of us and headed out for Philadelphia at about 2:30 in the morning.
After rolling in around 9:30 that morning, we passed off a very sick Aviva to Neal's parents and headed to bed. We were worried she might have had croup, but luckily it never fully surfaced. Aviva is still hoarse as of today.
Of course, we were going to head back home yesterday (Tuesday), but Aviva managed to throw up about four more times. Yuck! Not what we needed.
Finally, we made our way home today. It's been an entire month since Aviva & I have been home, so it's nice to just sit and be quiet for a while. I can't believe that four days ago, we were still in Iowa. It just seems like time is passing, but I'm merely just watching everything happen in slow motion. But hey, at least our house didn't burn down or anything while we were gone! Okay, off to bed . . . . .
After driving down to New York for the funeral, Aviva & I decided to continue on to Neal's parent's house for the week because we were heading out to Iowa on the 14th and I didn't think that it would be good for Aviva to travel 6 hours each way one weekend, and then turn around and take an 18-hour trip the next weekend.
Neal came down on the 12th with the dog and cat in tow, and we headed out super early that Sunday. We were going to stay overnight in Toledo (the halfway point), but when we reached Toledo at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, we decided to just continue on. So, we drove 17+ hours all in one day. Of course, just outside of Chicago, we drove into TERRIBLE weather (while I was driving, naturally), and so a normally 3-hour trip took us almost 5 hours to get to Cedar Rapids. Ugh! We were all going about 35 mph on the highway - yikes!
While all of this was happening, Aviva had THE most explosive diarrhea known to man. We had to stop multiple times to change her (clothes and all), and once we even had to pull over into the emergency parking area on the Ohio Turnpike to change her. The outfit was so gross that we just scooped it all up and pitched it into the trash can. Gross!
Aviva was sick for the first two or three days that we were in Iowa and then seemed to get better. Neal walked in his graduation ceremony on the 19th, during which Iowa City got slammed with terrible wind and snow. Brrr . . . .
We delayed my family's Christmas get-together until 26th (instead of the 19th due to weather), and that was a lot of fun. Aviva got to play with all of her cousins & began getting faster and faster with her crawling.
Back at my mom's house on the 28th, Aviva woke up with more gross poops and vomiting to boot. It was the first time she had ever thrown up, so I don't think she really knew what was going on. Of course, this all went down at about 3:45 in the morning! Ugh!
We put her on the BRAT diet, but unfortunately that didn't help too much. She was still sick until we left Iowa on the 3rd. Blech!
We drove through to Cleveland on the 3rd, with a sick Aviva in tow. We got there around 6pm and just relaxed in the hotel. Aviva couldn't get comfortable at all that night, so Neal and I bundled up the baby, the dog, and the two of us and headed out for Philadelphia at about 2:30 in the morning.
After rolling in around 9:30 that morning, we passed off a very sick Aviva to Neal's parents and headed to bed. We were worried she might have had croup, but luckily it never fully surfaced. Aviva is still hoarse as of today.
Of course, we were going to head back home yesterday (Tuesday), but Aviva managed to throw up about four more times. Yuck! Not what we needed.
Finally, we made our way home today. It's been an entire month since Aviva & I have been home, so it's nice to just sit and be quiet for a while. I can't believe that four days ago, we were still in Iowa. It just seems like time is passing, but I'm merely just watching everything happen in slow motion. But hey, at least our house didn't burn down or anything while we were gone! Okay, off to bed . . . . .