Vacations are Exhausting

Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything. No excuses really, just feeling rather tired and lazy most days. Plus the accumulated sleep deprivation is now affecting my ambition and desire to do anything other than brain-dead activities that don’t require any mental processing. I have succeeded in attaining my cut-free lobotomy.

We just got back a few days ago from a nice week-long vacation on the island of Maui. Ahhhhh… sun, sand, surf. No phone, no internet, no email, no schedule. Actually there was a schedule – Juliette’s schedule of waking, feeding, playing, changing, napping, eating, screaming, demanding, walking, terrorizing, exploring, charming, traumatizing and drooling.

Juliette seems to have a knack for teething when we go away – this time her upper canines are pushing out. So far they’re still under the gums but very distinct tooth-shapes are showing along her jaw and some days there are white lines on the gums where the teeth are. This must be very painful for her as she’s been crying a lot lately, often for what seems to be no reason. It is especially bad in the evenings when she wakes in the night. Baby Tylenol has been helping – or so we think. Hard to tell really.

During the week Juliette was the main star. She loved the beach, playing in the sand. Of course she tried to taste it and anything else that was in the sand… including a nice large hard chunk of coral, which we discovered chipped one of her teeth after we grabbed it from her. Bad Parenting Award #27.

She was pretty happy to splash and be held by me as I lowered myself into the water. That changed a couple days later at a different beach when a big rogue wave smashed into us and splashed all over her head. That beach was a bit rough with pretty strong surf so the combination of the noise and power of the water gave her a fright.

And of course she absolutely loved the townhouse we were staying in – lots of space to play and explore, and all sorts of new things which we don’t have at home. I felt a lot like a sheep dog herding her away from dangerous things (like the stairway which she climbed up and then fell down backwards when I turned my back for 15 seconds – Bad Parenting Award #31).

For whatever reason she didn’t sleep well there, waking up at least 4 times per night. Or should I say screaming at the top of her lungs 4-6 times per night, about an hour apart. Unconsolable except for Mommy’s Magic Nipples which seemed to solve everything – for an hour.

So now I find myself back home and at work needing a vacation to recover from my little holiday. And as I’m dead-tired that’s it for now.