Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Emma and daddy, happy birthday to you! Emma turned 2 last Sunday and Troy turned 29 the next day. We celebrated birthdays in Disney World this year with my parents and had a "magical" time. We got an amazing deal through the military discount program and were able to arrive on Sunday and visit all four parks over the next 5 days. Emma did really well with the long days and over stimulation...until Wednesday. We decided to try out the awesome pirate ship pool at our resort. It was supposed to be heated, but, well, it was wasn't. So we tried the "big" pool. It was better but still not too enjoyable. We spent more time sun bathing and people watching - yes, she gets it honest. At lunch Emma became comatose - she just layed on my chest - my child doesn't turn down food people. She and I went back to the room and took a nap. After nap we headed to the Hollywood Studios park which resulted in a trip to the first aid center. This place isn't called Disney
World just for semantics - this place has thought of everything. They had a nurse who took Emma's temp and offered a dose of motrin and further instructions for "Disney paramedics" who can assist in-room by dialing 911 from our resort phone - you get this? When you dial 911 from Disney, you are not connecting to the world we know - it's the disney people. I'm still not sure if I think this is cool or scary. Anyway, to make this incredibly long story short - we ended up at a "disney" urgent care center the next afternoon to get a shabby diagnosis of absolutely nothing. No flu, no ear infection...instead we were told we brought her "too early".
Troy came down with "nothing" that night, and me, well I was glad I hadn't...until Friday morning. The "nothing" creeped on me too. We still managed to walk through Animal Kingdom, which by the way, is the most disappointing place at Disney World. We arrived home late Friday night and thought we were on the road to recovery.
Sunday afternoon we had a small birthday party for Emma at my parent's house. Poor girl, she just didn't have the energy to celebrate. She laid in the bounce house most of the time and let everyone else's jumping bounce her around. We took intermission while opening presents. We tried to keep our germs to ourselves.
Emma has been to her own doctor this week and still has "nothing" that she is supposed to just ride out. I guess that's what I have too - "nothing" with a side of cough and no voice.
Anyway - aside from colds, Troy and I still can't believe we're the parents of a 2 year old. Emma is doing new things everyday that amaze us, catch us off guard, and sometimes act as a check and balance of our parenting skills. Having a child is the closet parallel we've experienced to understanding God's love and desire for us. Emma is a excellent accountability partner!
