Well, let's see...there is so much that happened in the past 4 days, I have no idea where to start. On Saturday we woke up and got ready to go to SeaWorld, and left just in time to coordinate the 1.5 hr drive with Carter's AM nap. The drive down was uneventful, marked only by my profound culture shock. I-35 between Austin and San Antonio is basically a 60 mile stretch of sprawl. Nothing but big box stores, gas stations, and fast food. And not just WallMart and Target. EVERYTHING. Name a store, and it was there. Living in either cities or the middle of nowhere tends to make one believe that capitalism is simply a neatly defined economic theory, with the very easy, albeit controversial give and take equation that is presented in books and school and the press etcetera. Oooooooohhhhhhh noooooooo. Capitalism is a raging beast, gobbling up everything in sight. America is very distressing from this perspective. I am not going to weigh in any more than that on my personal views of the free market and what should be done about it, but boy oh boy it can be ugly. I just can't believe that there is so much stuff in the world, and that people WANT it. Anyway, hopping off my soapbox...

Oh. Remind me to tell you about the churches here in Texas. One word: HUGE

We finally arrived with full bladders and all Ava wanted to do was to see Shamu. So, off we went, but Shamu likes his privacy in San Antonio and there was no viewing tank. You had to wait for the show. So, Mom had to backtrack on a few promises right off the bat. She was content with the explanation that he was sleeping, and we would come back for the show. We did, and it was great. I am such a sucker for the dramatic music--the emotion was all heightened for the big arrival of the star, and then up in the air he jumps, right in time for the big crescendo, and whooosh, they all swim in and start doing neat things and the music is going really fast fast fast and they are jumping everywhere and suddenly they all jump out onto their little platforms in unison and everyone claps and cheers and I am sitting there in tears. It is so exciting, and I fall for it hook line and sinker. Ava did too.

We saw a ton of stuff that day, Carter particularly liked the penguins, he laughed and laughed. After 5 hours at the park, we finally called it quits and left for the hotel. We bailed on swimming and just settled in and ordered dinner, and Ava was so excited to have another picnic on the bed. I got the kids to sleep and then was awakened in the middle of the night to a hacking cough and whimpering from Carter. He was hot, and obviously sick. I dosed him with Tylenol and we all slept fitfully after that. In the morning, we debated what to do, and I finally decided that life would be pretty much the same whether we left to drive home or went back to SeaWorld--he was going to be held and walked around, and why not take him outside in the fresh air. It was not sunny, and it was nice and warm, and I had a hard time thinking about disappointing Ava, so we decided to stay. I put him down for his morning nap, and Ava and I went swimming in the hotel pool. Grandma got us little floaties for her arms, and she HAD A BLAST. She was laughing and laughing and jumping and spitting pool water at me and splashing and swimming and just simply the happiest kid in the universe. Then we sat in the hot tub, which blew her mind. She wanted to get back in the big pool, so I capitulated a bit, standing in the shallow end, and she quickly decided she was cold. So we went back upstairs to Carter and Grandma, and he was refreshed and we went back to the park. We basically did the same things as the day before, except that we hit the little kid play area. We got to go on a mini-ferris wheel, and we went on the tea cups 2ce. She adored them, and I loved them too. It was so fun to watch her grinning from ear to ear across the teacup from me as the world spun around her. It might as well have been a movie.

Carter slept the whole day in either the stroller or our arms. We got back to the hotel early, Carter crashed, Ava and I went swimming , and then we ordered room service again. I got the 2 of them down and settled in to watch the oscars. Carter proceeded to have a rough night--his coughing really was deep and gooey, but when he woke up he was not feverish, despite being off the tylenol for 8 hours, and he was pretty chipper. We packed up, and headed towards Austin, first stopping at the wild animal drive-through park. This was really neat, especially for Ava, and more than a little nerve-wracking for me. Grandma had done it before and was prepared for a giant ostrich to come attack the car, but I was not. Several antelope-like things decided her red BMW was a good antler-scratcher, and a zebra decided to bite the lovely exterior of her car, but she never batted an eye. Great sport. Everyone's favorites were the zebras, even Carter. There were giraffes in the fenced-in area where you could walk up to their cage, and there was a baby giraffe that was one day younger than Carter. SO CUTE. I decided that I really like giraffes.

Once home we settled in, and Carter deteriorated. The cough became really horrible, and he was clearly feeling like doody. He would cough, and then he would wrinkle his eyebrows, and because he was losing his voice a teeny tiny eeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh would come out of him. And his nose started running. He was one big gooey gob. Grandma took Ava to the park and I stayed to put him to sleep and then went online to look up dosing info for benadryl. While on "askdrsears.com" I read the "Call your doctor if your child experiences the following symptoms" part of the section on the common cold, and decided that I would call my doctor. They informed me that since pneumonia was circulating in Saranac Lake, and since I was the one that was sick before leaving, I should have him seen. So, we scrambled to get an appointment for the next day, and then tried to get through the night.

This morning he was seen, but not before Ava spiked a fever. He does not have pneumonia, but he does have a sinus infection and a secondary ear infection and is now on amoxicillin, which is terrifying to me since Ava is allergic to penicillin. I know drug allergies tend not to be genetic, but it is still scary. Just having the stuff in the same building that she is in is scary. So, they both are on the tylenol/benadryl routine, plus he gets the antibiotics, and a healthy dose of diaper cream. She did ok today, coughing and losing her voice like Carter but playing pretty happily, but at the very end of the day she lost her mind. I was not sure why she was crying, it was a sudden transition from fine to absolutely terrible, with no warning, and when I asked, she looked at me and sobbed "I .. don't .. feel .. good." Oh, the heartache. They were both asleep at 6:30.

More on those Texas churches tomorrow. Holy smokes. Between consumer-land and the churches and SeaWorld San Antonio, I now understand how it is that we have the president that we have. America is very big, and very red.