Beach Weekend

We went to Ocean City for the weekend. It was wonderful to have a change of pace and access to a pool, the beach, the board walk, and a hot tub in the bathroom big enough for our little family to sit in together! There is a particular hotel that we stay in there because it has all the things listed above, and we've gone there 4-5 times already. We really like staying there. We usually go in the off-season, so it is cold and windy and we don't do more than a quick walk on the beach. This time we were able to let Captain Adorable play in the sand for as long as he was interested. He saw a seagull (first one up close) and chased it until it flew off. He then remarked to me "duck doing." Which is his way of saying "What is that duck doing?" I thought it was really cute that he called it a duck and took that opportunity to tell him the proper name. I think he was more interested in the sand, though. He even licked his hands after we left the beach. I guess they were salty? He hasn't eaten sand for ages now.

We also went down to the board walk on both days. We rented a surrey, which is a bike vehicle. The one we rented (for an hour each day) was designed for two people to pedal while sitting side-by-side, with a third sitting on the bench between or on a little bench on the front. Here's an example of what I am talking about.) It was a bit cold because of the wind, but it was a really nice way to cruise the board walk and do lots of people watching. Captain Adorable just wanted to sit on my lap and "drive," i.e. pretend to steer with the steering wheel in front of my seat, but it was impossible for me to pedal with him on my lap and a bit difficult for Captain Obvious to pedal the entire vehicle and its load on his own, so we could only let Capt. Adorable have his wish for short periods.

Captain Adorable also had a fabulous time at the (heated, indoor) hotel pool on both days. On Saturday when we went down, he immediately saw the other kids there jumping in, and proceeded to copy them with glee! It is a little dangerous, actually! Of course Capt. Obvious and I were both in the pool, ready to catch him at any given moment (or to swim around with him or whatever he wanted to do), and he still managed to jump in once when I was not looking at him, which caused me to have to go completely underwater to fish him off the bottom! I did not take my eyes off him again unless I was holding him! He also happily puts his face/head underwater. He needs goggles, though, as his poor little eyes were all red after his adventures! I don't even know if they make goggles small enough to stay on his head!

Unfortunately, I am not feeling good. On Friday I woke up feeling rather bad (weak, head achy, and nauseated), and Captain Adorable did not want to hang out with the mother's helper (who seems to be exactly what I hoped for!), making it difficult for me to get anything done. However, together we convinced him to allow her to go on a walk, pulling him and his babies in his wagon. They stopped at the playground and she assured me he had a great time. I think he was just too excited about the trip to really settle into hanging out with her that day. I was feeling very bad by the time we left, and actually had to ask Captain Obvious to pull over so I could vomit when we were only about 8 minutes from the house. I vomited again later also. This time there was not time to pull over, but I managed to pull out the plastic bag from the diaper bag and the whole thing was contained. I hate chemo. I could not even enjoy a glass of wine with Captain Obvious while we were at the beach because I felt so queasy.

Tomorrow we go to JHH for blood tests and the CT scan that will tell us whether the cancer likes the chemo or not. I almost hope it is still growing so that I can stop chemo and do something else. But that is irrational. The best would be if the cancer hated the chemo so much that it was shrinking, but good news would be that it had just stopped growing. I can't promise an update tomorrow, but I will update to share the news with all of you when I can.