Sunday, April 30, 2006

Weekend in San Francisco 1: I am a bad, bad mother

Well, I want to start by saying that we don't get out too much as a family. I take Ziad and Maya lots of places, but my husband works a lot, even by Silicon Valley standards. He works at nights on the weekends, both Saturday and Sunday. To him, missing a weekend night counts as taking a day off. This made it all the more surprising when he suggested a weekend in San Francisco. No work on Saturday night? That's a major vacation for us. He was even willing to go to the ballet, which is HUGE. So he made the hotel reservations, and I got us the tickets.

Now I am going to say, in my own defense, that when my kids get sick it rarely lasts very long. The progression is usually something like this: droopy and not very hungry in the evening, tired and maybe nauseous the next morning, feeling better by noon, and jumping around like nothing ever happened in the evening. Friday night, Maya was kind of listless, but nothing dramatic. It was really only noticeable in hindsight, because on Saturday morning she said she was tired and didn't want to get out of bed. She didn't eat or drink anything, but around mid-morning she threw up anyway, and the dilemma emerged, full-blown in its urgency. Should I try to change the tickets? Should we cancel the weekend? She didn't really seem too sick, and I did have every reason to think she would be feeling better by the time the ballet started that afternoon. When asked for her opinion, Maya said she wanted to try to go. So I gave her a bath, helped her dress, and we set off for San Francisco. And of course, halfway there, as we were stuck in traffic near the airport, she threw up again. I never saw it coming. I didn't even think she had anything in her stomach. (What kind of mother counts on an empty stomach to keep her daughter from throwing up? A bad one, that's what kind.)

Well, we had another dress for her to wear, and this time she said she really did feel better, so we actually went to the ballet anyway. I still can't believe we did that. And she really was fine, and it was beautiful, and Ziad sat very still in his seat and didn't annoy anyone. But every time Maya cleared her throat or coughed at all, I jumped. "Are you okay, do you need to go outside, are you okay?" She was always okay.

Today, though, the car still smells. I guess she did us a favor, because it really did need a good thorough cleaning, and it's getting that for sure.

4 Comments:

Blogger Vivian said...

Your weekend sounds wonderful, taking two kids to ballet (and a husband) is beyond my imagination, but sounds like everyone had a great time. Sorry to hear about Maya getting sick, but as you said, good time to clean the car. What was the occasion?

4:32 PM  
Blogger Sarah said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

3:58 PM  
Blogger Sarah said...

There was no occasion, really, except that this was the one weekend performance of the story ballet (Sylvia) which I thought would be easier for Ziad and Nabil to sit through, since it has fancier costumes and sets and an actual plot, not just a lot of abstract movement. And it did seem to really hold their attention.

Are we still on for Friday?

3:59 PM  
Blogger Vivian said...

Next Friday, 12th.

9:26 AM  

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