Ariba Aruba

I had C-Sections for both of my babies. Christian was an emergency, and Lily Grace's was scheduled. For both of them, I found that the 4 days I stayed in the hospital was like a mini-vacation. Sure, I was confined to a bed, exhausted, in pain, and totally overwhelmed, BUT the time in there was special. It was uninterupted Tina time. The hospital room was a cocoon for me. I healed. I bonded with my babies. I watched daytime TV, slept a whole heck of a lot, and rested. The only things that were missing were cocktails and suntan lotion. I mean, how sick is it that I actually think of birthing my kids via major surgery as a vacation? Really.

Chuck and I just returned from our first REAL vacation since our honeymoon in Tahiti 5 years ago last week. We spent a week in Aruba. We drank cocktails. We hiked. We snorkeled. We ate. We ate alot. We floated on the Carribean Sea. We held hands. We went to bed at 10. Did I mention we drank cocktails? It was amazing. The children stayed with their grandparents, and they were fine. And we came back more than fine. We needed the break. We needed to reconnect. Our life with 2 kids under 4 is crazy. I'm not one of those people who say "Oh, but it's a GOOD crazy". Crazy is never good. I miss having time to just cuddle with my husband without a kid waking up at night screaming/coughing/laughing/singing. I miss the long conversations we used to have that didn't revolve around potty training, cochlear implant batteries, art projects at school, and when soccer sign-ups are. Our children are our life, and I think we fell into the trap of overfocusing on them and underfocusing on our relationship. Aruba helped us figure eachother out again. We needed it.