Celebrating Seven

This year for WC's birthday we decided to do something that we've never done. We decided that we were not going to throw a birthday party. Every year its nothing but a hassle from relatives asking us to work around their soccer schedule, out of town wiccan ceremony, to people who simply don't understand the term RSVP...a call, email or a text to say yay, nay or even maybe would be better than nothing. So I end up purchasing food and cake to serve an army because, lets face it, you don't want to be the host who runs out and risk being left with an ass load of cake. This past summer Jay wanted to go on a family weekend together before school started-one problem- he has to give a 30 day notice to use his vacation time. WC started school in two weeks. That idea shot but then I set my sights on fall break, which just happened to fall the same week of WC's birthday. So the idea of taking a trip for his birthday was born. But where? It couldn't be too far and had to be something he'd really enjoy.
A day or two later Jay emailed me a link to The Chattanooga Choo Choo website and a weekend package for two adults and two kids which included a two night stay in a Victorian Train Car that had been turned into a hotel room and tickets to the major attractions: Creative Discovery Museum, Aquarium, IMAX, Zoo and Model Railway Museum. Perfect. I made reservations the next day. For us it couldn't be more simple. Chattanooga is about a two hour drive for us. We'd drive up Thursday morning (his birthday) and stay the night and Friday night before checking out Saturday morning and hitting our last attraction before heading home. We told WC about our plans and made sure he was cool with foregoing his traditional party for a trip. He was all for it.
Wednesday before the big day I was taking WC to his yearly checkup with the pediatrician. Two minutes from the office my cell phone rang. CJ was sick at the daycare and I had to go pick him up. He wasn't running a fever but he'd had three bouts of a diarrhea and per policy, must be picked up in an hour. Luckily they gave me a reprieve to take WC to his appointment. But the future of a carefully planned trip hung in the balance of this child's digestive system and whatever was wrong.
WC passed through his checkup without hitch. She was very happy (as am I) with the sucess of the inhaled steriod at keeping his asthma symptoms in check better than ever. In his entire life he's never experienced such a long stretch of healthiness (Praise God!).
We arrived at the daycare as CJ's class was coming inside from morning outdoor play. He spotted us at the end of the hall and screamed 'Mommy' and flew down the hall as fast as his little legs could carry him, beaming smile he jumped into my waiting arms. He seemed perfectly fine to me. They confirmed he hadn't had another bowel movement since they called me. It didn't matter. I had the day off work anyway. So we went home, I still worried about the trip. The decided to prepare like we were going and pray that CJ didn't take a turn for the worse.

Stay tuned for Wednesdays entry on our trip. Tomorrow I'll be leading my first den meeting for the scouts!!!!!