Ruminations upon Tuesday July 30, 2024 in Reykjavík, Iceland
Very early in on our first, and only, full day in Reykjavik, like 3am early, Shai woke Eliana up with a very uncomfortable stomach. Eliana is the intuitive ones when it comes to our boys' stomachs, and had wisely determined that She and I would split up and share beds with Shai and Matanel in case they needed middle of the night, weird timezone, wonky sleep schedule bathroom support. I awoke to his cries of discomfort to find them in the bathroom working to get something out of either end. Eliana was also texting her pediatrician sister (Thanks Shira!) so we could keep on top of any medical needs we may have. Everyone was pretty sure that is was a mix of crazy travel, weird sleep, and, let's just say, minimal bathroom success.
Eventually Shai went back to sleep, and we got up in enough time to have breakfast, get Shai to the bathroom, let him rest some more, and get out and across the street for our 2 buses to a scheduled Golden Circle tour (see our instagram and other posts for details). As we were walking out the door with 10 minutes to spare Shai's body decided it was time to go again. Sick day it is! We quickly determined that Eliana and the other boys would continue on the tour, and I would stay home with Shai. The choice of parent task was a pragmatic one - Eliana had all the tour details and confirmations, as well as the bus app, more readily available. So Shai went and lay down while the rest of them traipsed off across the street to the bus stop.
Almost immediately Shai asked for his water - we had designated a water bottle to him overnight just in case he had something contagious. I realized it was in the bag Eliana had with her. Making a snap decision I told Shai I would be back in 1 minute and flew down the stairs and across the street to get the water bottle from Eliana. As I got there she informed me she had just texted me that she didn't have her wallet, and the bus was due in 90 seconds (do note that this was the third of 3 buses we had identified that would get us where we needed to be in time). Zoom! back across the street and up the stairs, grab the wallet, and back down and across to Eliana and the other boys. The bus was a minute late, so we got the handoff done as we saw it round the corner a quarter mile up. Successful start to the day!
I got back up to Shai without having locked myself out of the Airbnb, and we settled into our day. He felt yuck and tired, so I set him up on the couch. I offered a movie in lieu of the trip day, which he was open to in the home-sick and not-really-feeling-like-doing-anything but don't-want-to-sleep kind of way. Before we started the movie I grabbed a quick bite and made a coffee. Given the state of morning I had skipped both intending to make up for it at the first tour stop which was to be a nice cafe.
After my quick sustenance we logged into Disney+ account (always remember to delete your logins from shared TVs!) and Shai selected Ratatouille, with some encouragement. We made it half an hour through the movie when he decided he was done and wanted to sleep again. He did that and I took the opportunity to also catch up on my missing hours. For the previous while and through this upcoming rest period he felt unwell but did not have any, ahem, externalization or symptoms.
He slept for a bit and woke up 1. feeling well and 2. a bit hungry. He ate some simple, gentle on the stomach food. Earlier in the day I told him if he felt up to it at some point we could walk down to the supermarket and find a gatorade type drink, a go to in our family for sick days. He said he would like to, so off we went. A block out of the house there was an inquiry as to the availability of bathrooms at the market. Back to the house we went, where I was quickly informed that we would be staying.
Shai was getting especially bored, still not feeling well, and was not at the time sleepy. So we worked together on this website. We finished up the Tour Dates and made some small other tweaks to the site. Shai then decided to sleep a bit more, and woke up right around when the rest of the family got home. Lo and behold he woke up, if not fine, in a much more manageable state. We all made the walk to the supermarket for dinner and next day travel food.
And Shai got his gatorade.
