To Take Her or Not to Take Her!

Tomorrow my husband and I are off to the gulf coast to spend a few days together, alone! The last time we were away together was our honeymoon two years ago. So, it's been a while but that is the norm, or so I hear, for parents of little ones! We are very excited but also a little sad to be leaving our Bee. This will be the longest we will have been away from her since she was born! Usually, if she goes to stay at Nana and Papa's it only for a couple days. This time we will be away from her for FOUR days! Because of this we hedged back and forth trying to decide if we should bring her or not. It was very close! Taking her with us would be so fun! Just spending the day at the beach, taking her swimming and to Fort De Soto park for walks on the trails and out on the sand bars! Watching her discover new things! Hearing her laugh and have fun! Hugs, kisses, lots of love!! Plus, she looks sooo cute in her bathing suits! It would be a great time! Then, we remembered, we would have to rush back to the room for naps, we would have to turn in on the early side so she wouldn't get too crabby, we would be up early every day so no sleeping in! Trust me that child has an internal alarm clock that rarely lets her sleep past 7:15! Most importantly we would have to deal with meltdowns and temper tantrums and the terrible two's get closer everyday!!! Not exactly relaxation friendly! So, our decision started to sway! If she did not go we could stay out late and have some cocktails. We could sleep in for four days straight! Heck, we could sleep all day if we wanted! No getting up in the middle of the night to have to check on her, which repeatedly still do even though she is older! We could literally walk out of the room to the beach and plop down with out having to plan out everything and make sure we had everything we needed for her. We could read!!! Uninterrupted reading! And not kid's books either! Our decision was soon made after that. We decided NOT to take her. We have told ourselves, she's so young she won't feel left out or be mad at us for not taking her. She won't even remember it later in life! We are hoping these things will help us get through the guilt of not taking her and of course the sadness of missing her while we are gone!! We are going to miss her terribly but know Nana, Papa and even Uncle D will be taking care of her! It will like a mini vacation for her as well! She loves going over there so now I feel no guilt! Mom and Dad deserve some time away and we are grasping on to it for dear life! (Sigh, but we will still think about her contantly and wish she was with us!)