Was it relaxing? Yes.
Was it lots of fun? Of course.
Was it rejuvenating? Definitely.
Did we enjoy it? Absolutely.
But you know, life isn't perfect.
Angel has been sprouting her second molars in the past week and she was down with fever for days before the trip. I took her temperature and anything above 39 degrees celsius was enough to make me a paranoid mom. So I brought her to the doctor though knowing how they operate here, the doctor would only prescribe me with Coke and more liquid paracetamol.
Which he did.
But he also examined her lungs, ears and took some specimen from her throat so we at least confirmed it wasn't a case of a bad virus. Phew.
In any case, I half expected while the trip would be awesome, we were also in for a pretty rough time with a sickly, fussy, highly irritable toddler.
I guess I was both right and wrong.
The tough moments:
1) Seeing her hold her jaw and telling me "Mummy, pain pain"
2) Her gums were so red, swollen and bled too easily
3) She refused to take most of her food, even sweets that she loved, so yes, she really was hurting
4) Waking up to hear her cries in the middle of the night, along with the peacocks horning
The sweet moments:
1) Though she was hurting, that didn't take away how easily she smiled, giggled and laughed
2) She loved every bit of the zoo, talked to the animals, fed them and played with them
3) We went to the amusement park and sat on many rides which never failed to light up her face
4) We had steamboat and barbeques for dinner and it felt awesome to just be the three of us, along with zebras, ostriches and goats at our front porch
What more can you ask for in a happy holiday?
Picture from http://dentalcarematters.com
Yesterday, she was having her time-out (we don't really believe in spanking kids) and was crying so, so badly that it made my heart ache. But as a rule of thumb, when she's being punished by one parent, the other is not allowed to rush to her rescue or it defeats the purpose. So we left her alone in a corner for a couple of minutes and when we went to pick her up, the hubby and I got a shock because she had blood running down the corner of her mouth, probably caused by biting her super-swollen-and-red gums.Uh oh. Seeing blood never makes me happy.
Still, I'm glad she's hanging in there because other than gently brushing her teeth, forcing teething gel onto her gums, giving her a cold drink to make her happy, making her porridge to eat, I'm not really sure what else I can do to ease her pain.
But at least I can promise her my love and that I'll be by her side to face everything with her.
I'm hoping that's enough for now.
Till more updates and pics from the trip!