has swine flu impacted your travel plans?

it did mine.

we were scheduled to take a trip to washington, d.c. to visit my best friend from high school, jeremy, and his husband nick, who just bought a fabulous new home in a maryland suburb of d.c.

i'm not usually one to buy into paranoia, but something about taking Kitten on a plane right now just didn't feel right.  i'm 99.9% sure that everything would have been fine, but i'm 0.1% sure that if something ever happened to Kitten i'd never forgive myself.

i polled just about everyone who would listen to me and the results were split.  half the people said, "just go, it'll be fine."  the other half said, "when in doubt, don't."

so i called my pediatrician, ever the voice of reason.  because when you have kids, apparently you completely lose all objectivity and i could NOT decide what to do.

he said to go, but put a face mask on her while in the airport/plane.

yeah, no.  A) trying to keep a face mask on an 8 month old for a two-leg trip is like, well, trying to keep a face mask on an 8 month old.  and B) i'm not taking my child anywhere that she needs to be wearing a face mask per the advice of her ped.  sorry.

but i talked myself into going on the trip anyway, and went ahead and booked our rental car and did those last-minute things.  and then on wednesday (the day before we were to leave), Kitten got sent home from daycare with vomiting.  we got her home and she was fine, but then i started coming down with symptoms of an upper respiratory infection.  (NOT swine flu.  just a head cold.)  i thought to myself, "if you hadn't been SO stressed out about this trip for the last four days, you wouldn't be getting sick right now.  do you really need one more reason?  screw it."

so i cancelled the trip.

i'm 99.9% sure that i overreacted, but i'm 0.1% sure that i'm comfortable with the decision i made.  and that 0.1% is the part that matters when it comes to my peace of mind and my child.

so we booked a bed and breakfast in springfield, missouri and had a truly restful time playing scrabble in the sitting room while Kitten snoozed in her pack and play.  then we drove around and visited a couple of caves and headed to branson, where we are now.  we've got a two-room suite at a resort.  last night we overindulged at a seafood buffet and then came back to the resort and rented movies from the front desk, put Kitten down in the bedroom and enjoyed our evening.

i will say one thing: there is much to be said for staying at a bed and breakfast when you're traveling with a child.  it sounds counterintuitive, but it's actually much better than staying in a traditional hotel room.  for about the same cost, you have (almost) all of the luxuries of home, and you can put the baby down and then go into the next room to finish the evening just a few feet away - but without having to dim the lights and keep the television off beginning at 7:00 p.m.  

yes, Kitten's bedtime is 7:00 p.m.  i know that sounds WAY early but that's just the time her little body is ready.  if i tried to keep her up later i'd have a screaming mess on my hands.  i fully anticipate that as she gets older her evenings will lengthen to 8:00 or 8:30, which is Princess's bedtime.  but i can't complain - she sleeps through the night until 7:00 a.m.  my little alarm clock.  every day of the week.  woo-hoo.  buh-bye weekends. 

actually it's not so bad.  my weekends are wildly productive now.  like right now, for instance!  it's 9:00 a.m. and i'm finishing my second cup of coffee and blogging - while J sleeps in.  we're going to switch tomorrow and he's going to let ME sleep in.  then we're going to go to eureka springs, which is pretty much our favorite place to be.

bliss.