Improvement is a state of mind

Really, there is absolutely nothing to complain about. It's freaking gorgeous and perfect here. No one is in the hospital (right now) in spite of ourselves. We have lots of delicious food to eat.

That being said, I wouldn't be me if I didn't whine a little.

We were back at Doctors On Call ("DOC") today, this time at their Hyatt location versus the previous Westin office. (The Hyatt has penguins! And African Crested Cranes!).  "DOC" is where vacationers go with medical problems, as the hospital is about 45 minutes away... and much less luxurious. I know this first hand, as the "DOC" doc couldn't handle my little cut and send me to the ER. The ER doc laughed at his ineptitude, but that didn't mean I was spared a 3 hour ER visit with kids and husband in tow and didn't have to have an X-ray taken of my foot to ensure no coral had penetrated my toe joint. None had.

By the way, when you think "Maui ER" you think smoking hot surfers with shark bites, exotic hula dancers with sprained hips, and sunburned 20-year olds who didn't manage to change out of their bikinis before coming to see a doctor, right? AHAHAHAHA. I had a shared exam room and my two neighbors were...an illiterate gentleman with a staph infection on his scalp, and a much older, strung out, brain-cancer-surviving foul-mouthed woman with an alleged migraine. And the girl behind me at the registration desk had an infected tooth and what appeared to be a nasty methamphetamine habit.

Oh, but why were we back at DOC at the sanitized-for-our-protection resort? Because my poor little baby has ear infection #5.  By now, we know all the symptoms (worse-than-usual nights, fever, etc.).  He's back on antibiotics as of 45 minutes ago.

The positive? We're in a place that has a drive-thru Walgreens. And we caught it early enough that he should be fine by the time we fly home in 7 days.

Aemon has two settings unless he's frolicking in the waves: crazy or cranky. But he's healthy as a horse.

Christopher is fine as well save for a little sore spot on his foot, where his skin is seeing the light of day in some new sandals.

My job is to hobble along and keep them fed and clean and safer than I keep myself. (Oh, how we come full circle: I don't think I ever properly thanked all those hard-working moms and dads who kept vacations magical, provisioned, and clean when I was a child. So a big THANK YOU to all of you now!)

And I have to tell you, vacationing with two kids - one of which an infant - isn't what most would consider "vacationing". We're redefining. Appreciating simplicity. And hiring an on-call nanny as soon as we possibly can.

(And tomorrow, or the day after, I shall post an update full actual fun, happy, awesome things! I promise.  I just get a little venty when I've been up at 4:00 for the last 4 days and can't swim in the ocean, which is a stones' throw away.)