We're Going to the Beach, the Beach, the Beach...

On the spur of the moment, my family decided to go to Port Aransas. I am really a homebody, but I knew Ambree and Jack would love it, so I started packing (well, the night before I started).

Once the car was loaded up, our cargo included:
11 bags (plus 2 small bags)
a booster seat
a stroller
a pack n play
6 lovies, 3 pillows, 3 sheets and a blanket
2 sound machines, 2 sets of monitors
a sewing machine

All for two days and two nights. Just 3 people, two of who are smaller than one person when combined.

The plan was to leave between 8:30 and 9:30, so that we would be on the road asap, and in Port A by naptime. Well, that got pushed back to 10:45 because Mommy was a little behind. But that was fine. So I get everything into the car, including Chloe (who we were dropping off at a friend's house on the way) and Ambree. ALL I have to do is grab Jack and throw him in the car.

I come back into the house to get Jack after loading Ambree to screaming and crying. I find Jack covered in white. Crap, I think, this is the second wardrobe change of the morning and most of his clothes were packed. But the crying wasn't just because he was messy. More worried, I scooped him up, realizing upon inhalation that he had been in the baby powder. (I only had the baby powder out because the night before I tried to use it to deodorize Chloe, but gave up and had to bathe her anyway).

I rinsed his face and found the baby powder, which he had spit up on. So I called poison control, and went to get Ambree out of the car. (Chloe wouldn't leave the car, because she was too afraid of not getting to go somewhere). They said to put him in a warm, humid shower to rinse him and open up his arm ways, but to take him in if he showed signs of respiratory distress. I did all of that and changed his clothes. But he was still coughing, his nose was running, and sometimes it sounded like he was wheezing. Ughh. it seemed benign enough, but I didn't was to go across Texas and worry every time he coughed. So, I called the pediatrician, and like most times, they told me to go in, but not into the pedi office. We're going to the ER!

I unpack all of the interior of the car (after working at a hospital, I was mindful of car theft), coax Chloe out of the car, and head to Dell Children's. All was fine with Jack and we were in and out in about an hour. I fed Jack the lunch that I had packed for a picnic mid-trip out of my hand in the hospital room, while Ambree ate hers and watched Barney.

By the time we left, we were over 4 hours late. We should have already been there, no one had napped, and everyone was ready to go home.