The final installation of the travel series...
A little back story first: The day before we left for Florida, we went for CJ's 9 month check up. Everything was great. The doctor who saw him was in love with him. Seriously, I thought she might steal him. For a while CJ has had a cough that the doctors kept calling "interesting." He had a chest x-ray to make sure his trachea was ok and lung x-rays to make sure he didn't have pneumonia. They thought he might have pneumonia so he went on antibiotics, steroids, an inhaler and a decongestant. At the nine month check up everything looked great...no problems lingering. Happy mama and a baby on no medicine!! But then, the next morning booger bear woke up with a 102 fever. What the heck? So we went back to the doctor, and it turns out that in the 12 hours since he last saw the doctor, he got a bear of an ear infection. To make it worse on the little guy, he had an ENT referral where they stuck a tube down his nose to investigate the "interesting" cough a little more. The ENT doctor said everything looked ok and if CJ was his kiddo, he would be content with the fact that he just has an "interesting" cough. But he agreed he did have a good ear infection. So we were off to Florida with just antibiotics for the ear infection. While we were there he didn't eat well, and wasn't his usual self, but he wasn't miserable either. We chalked it up to the ear infection, but alas we were wrong.
In the car on the way to Tennessee, we realized it was actually the antibiotic making his tummy upset. The evening before, the poor guy went through 4 pairs of jammies, and on the 8 hour car ride, he went through 5 outfits. I won't go into detail except to say that nothing was coming out of his mouth...all the other end. :( That being said, we had a miserable little guy until the medicine was finished. All he could eat was applesauce, yougart, bread and crackers. These are 4 of his favorite foods, so he was ok with the lack of veggies. But since he wasn't feeling great I didn't get the camera out too much, so forgive my lack of CJ pictures. You can tell by his eyes he isn't feeling well, but his Gran and Nanny sure were glad to see him!
CJ loved playing the piano. I hope he got Scott's musicality, because if you've ever heard me sing or attempt to play the piano...you know I don't have any! Scott on the other hand has natural ability that makes me jealous.
My mom was so sweet and kept our sick little man and let Scott and me have a mini-getaway. We went to Memphis for a night and it was so much fun. We stayed at the Peabody hotel.
It overlooked the Mighty Mississippi and downtown Memphis.
The Peabody is also across the street from Rendezvous, a famous rib joint. Some of the waiters have worked there for over 60 years. They had a yummy dry rub, and getting to eat dinner without having to keep little hands out of everything and getting to enjoy an uninterrupted conversation with my wonderful husband was an extra special treat. The other bonus of the Peabody is that is is about 3 blocks from Beale Street. We didn't go out at night, but walked down the next morning...
But the best part of the Peabody was their famous ducks. If you don't know the story, after a long day of duck hunting, one of the owners (who had a little too much Jack Daniels) put his live duck decoys in the lobby fountain as a joke. When he got up the next morning and realized what he had done, he rushed downstairs, expecting the ducks to be all over the hotel. Instead, he found them still in the fountain and a crowd gathered around to see them. He realized he was onto something. He hired an animal trainer, and the rest is history...
It was a great little get away, and great to spend time with my mom and Nanny. After all the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends, CJ only ended up a little more spoiled. But as my granddaddy said, "There is a difference in spoiled, and spoiled." And CJ is the good kind...
