Sick on Vacation

I hate being sick. I hate being sick on vacation even more. I tend to get colds and such more often than I'd like, but they rarely get in my way of doing things. A bit rarer is getting something nastier...like a stomach bug. And so it is that we're on vacation for the holidays visiting my brother-in-law and his family when a few of us have been stricken with a stomach flu over the course of a few days. It started with Malcolm and then spread to my wife, my brother-in-law and myself. Not fun at all (although it was funny watching Malcolm in the midts of recovery come running into the kitchen, puke, slip on it, get up and keep running...all in one hysterical motion...of course, we had to stop him and wipe him down less he get puke all over the place).

While Natasha & Malcolm are doing much better, Ken & I are still in the tail end of this thing. I figure we should both be close to 100% by this evening as the vomitting and diahrreah have stopped (well...in my case the dry heaves and constipation). And the Fensters should be moving on to the second half of their trip up in Napa visiting Natasha's parents.

Anyway...up until the nastiness of the last two days, this has been a fun trip. Malcolm was very good on the airplane. Sure there was some fussiness here and there, but for the most part he handled the six hour flight well. It also helped that we were able to spread out across the entire back row as the plane was half empty.

The big thing we had planned on doing while here in Burbank was taking the kids to Disneyland. We had gone last year at this time, but Malcolm was only six months old and not displaying much interest in anything. This time was very different.

His favorite TV show right now is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, a show designed for little kids as they learn problem solving. Most episodes feature Mickey and his friends (Donald, Goofy, Minnie, Daisy and Pluto) as they try to solve some sort of problem (throwing a surprise party for Minnie, helping Daisy find her sheep). Unlike other shows Malcolm watches, this one he will drop everything for and come running if we put it on. He could be in another room and the minute he hears Mickey say "Hi everybody" he comes speeding to the TV. It rather funny as he tends to move faster than his body lets him at times.

So...anyway...imagine the look on his face when he gets to see these folks up close and personal. Unfortunately, while I was watching him through the camera lens trying to get a shot of him as he saw Minnie for the first time, there were too many things blocking the camera's view. But I got to see his mouth open in surprise and delight even if the camera didn't.

He had a lot of fun that day in the park, even if he got quite shy and a bit afraid when he finally met Mickey (we got a picture of him, Tash & Mickey). He even got to go on his first ride and didn't really freak out about it (it was the Monsters Inc. ride and though he's never seen the film, he seemed to enjoy the scenery until the rooms with all the doors in them...that freaked him out).

Anyway...that's all for today. Back to resting for tomorrow's drive to Napa.

Be seeing you.