RETURN TO SOLITUDE

We were so excited when my parents decided that this summer they would rent a condo up at Solitude again. It had been six summers since we lost our Solitude condo and it was amazing to be back. We tried to make the most of it while we could.

We finally made it up to the precious pool on June 1st. We went up the day before and stayed the night just us girls. The next morning we went swimming. It was still pretty chilly up there and there was still a good amount of snow on the nearby hill. We had taken Vivi swimming for a little bit in China, but I don't count that as her first real swim since the water was so cold and she had only been in it for a second. Big sister was super helpful, and watching them paddle around together was so fun. Vivi loves to splash, but she does not like getting splashed in her face. And even though the water was warm, it didn't take long for this little baby to start shivering like crazy. We had the pool to ourselves though and it was so nice.

Ashley and the kiddos came up late that afternoon. We went on a little walk outside. It was pretty darn chilly. Poor Vivi was sick, and at the time I had no idea how sick she was. She just had a runny nose at first, but as the night progressed it got worse. At about midnight she started waking up every ten minutes crying. She still did that sometimes at home so I started out just letting her fall back asleep. But around 1AM I went to check on her and she was hot. I didn't have anything for her there and I realized the best thing would be to take her home and get her some medicine. On the way home the poor thing threw up in the car. She seemed to feel much better after though, so after waking up Brent to help clean up and get her to bed, she had a good night's sleep and we were able to head back up to the condo.

Little did I know that in the meantime, both Stella and I were coming down with whatever she had, and it was miserable. We were both sick for days and lost our voices and had a night where we felt so terrible the only solution was throwing up too. It made me realize that Vivien is a tough cookie with a high tolerance for pain and discomfort. I don't know if this was a learned thing from her being in the orphanage and not having someone who cared for her when she was sick and hurt, or if it is just in her nature. I guess as the years continue we will find out.

So our first condo visit was kind of a bust, but it still was fun. Watching Vivi and Finn play together was pretty delightful. I recently lost some of my videos and one of them was the two of them moving the travel crib closer to the bed so they could get a Tinkerbell doll from inside. Then when Finn finally got in the crib and he gave the Tinkerbell to Vivi, she went and threw it back in the crib. It was hilarious.