Funny But Not At The Time

Ginny had a rough day of vomiting out pretty much everything inside of her (and then some). She is feeling better now but is really weak and went to bed early, so I (Tim) am taking over blog duties tonight.

Today I had one of those "it's funny now but was anything but funny at the time" stories. It all started when I took Katie to the park this morning. Ginny was sick and Rosa was napping, so it was a perfect time to let Mommy rest while Daddy and Katie went out. It was also an uncharacteristically cool and breezy day in Monteria, so it was a great day to be outside.

We walked around the park a little (and by "walk", I mean I walked and she rode in my arms). We sat on a park bench and ate Cheerios. We talked about how Mommy and Daddy love her, and how when you love someone, you cannot ever stop loving them, so we will love her forever. Eventually she started rubbing her face into my chest like she does when she is about to fall asleep. Before I knew it - bam, she was done.

A little background on Katie and naps: like most toddlers I have been around, she hates to take a nap even when she knows she needs one. As soon as you lay her down, she turns into R2D2, making "beep" and "boop" sounds and doing everything in her power to keep herself awake. You just have to wait it out and it's not like you can go anywhere either seeing as how we are all stuck in this hotel room. Sometimes she goes down quick, but other times she will lay there making noises for an hour. So you can imagine how fortunate I felt that she fell asleep in my arms at the park. Now if I could just get her back to the hotel, she could nap for a good 1-2 hours while Ginny continued to rest.

Getting her back, however, was going to be the tough part. I started making my way back through the park, past the guy who got in my face trying to sell me coloring books ("She can't really color right now, amigo!"). Then I made it across the super busy street that separates the park from the city - the one where you have to run and dodge taxi's to make it across. Then I navigated through the maze of sidewalk vendors, one of which was blasting super-happy-techno-music, the kind Katie likes to dance to. I thought for sure that would wake her up, but she just stirred a bit. Meanwhile, the car horns were going off left and right (people beep their horns a lot here, typically to warn when they are headed for an intersection or seeing people about to cross where they will be driving - it works well because I have yet to see one fender-bender despite the heavy amounts of traffic, but it's not so great when you are trying to keep a 2 year old asleep).

Finally, I made it to the hotel, my right arm about to fall off from not being able to switch her over to my left arm, and my left arm falling asleep from trying to support her head so she wouldn't bounce when I walked. I pushed the button for the elevator and nothing happened. One of the staff workers came over to tell me it was out of order. Great. So now I had to climb five flights of stairs. I carefully made my way up, trying not to let her bounce at all on the steps or let her hear my out-of-shape heaving. I made it to the 5th floor then managed to fish the room key out of my pocket to open the door, all the while holding her perfectly still.

When I got into the room, I saw that Rosa had just woken up and was playing on the floor. This was perfect - I could put Katie down for her nap and take Rosa out so that Ginny could get even more rest. The final challenge would be taking off Katie's velcro shoes. That velcro sound never seemed so loud as it did then, but still she managed to stay asleep. I had done it! I made it through all of that with her not waking up at all!! I was Super Dad!!!

I bent over to gently lay her down in her bed. I backed up, proud of my work. Unfortunately, I backed up right on top of Rosa's little hand. Apparently the weight of my shoe and the fact that I am like 15 times bigger than her must have "hurt" (she needs to toughen up), so she SCREAMED out in pain. Right away Katie's eyes flew open, and it was over. She was wide awake. It took a solid hour of R2D2 noises before she even got sleepy again. Sigh..... the joys of parenthood.