Home!! And A Question.

We’re home!! Vacation is awesome and we had a wonderful time, but it’s always nice to be home.

This morning when we told Ali we were going home, I think she really got the concept, because she kept saying “Home – AJ? Home – Pop? Home – Gramamma?”. It certainly seemed like she understood that we were out of town, and we were going back to town where all of her people are.

Ali had a curious thing happen while we were at the beach, and so I thought I’d put it out there and see if any of you other Mommies (or Daddies) know what could have caused it:

We ate a wonderful seafood dinner Thursday night at The Original Point Restaurant, one of our favorite places to go.

I got Ali the kids combo plate, with fried fish and fried shrimp, along with french fries and green beans. This was her first experience with shrimp, I think.

She ate a TON. She loves green beans, so she ate all of those, all of the little shrimp, the whole piece of fish, and several fries. All dipped in tartar sauce.

On the way home, we stopped at CVS for Daddy to run in and get a few things, and while he was inside, I looked back at her, and her eyes were filling with tears, and I could tell she was holding her quavering lip in, trying not to cry.

She finally gave in and started crying. I wasn’t sure what the matter was. I started by trying to comfort her, ask her what was wrong, placate her with a book, remove her shoes, tell her “no fuss” (thinking it might be a fit), all to absolutely no avail.

I finally got her out of her car seat and started walking around with her, with still no luck.

Now, this is VERY odd for Ali. She never cries unless she’s hurt (these days). If anything, she’ll whine, but not a full out cry.

Chris came out and was able to calm her down, but as soon as we put her back in the car, she started screaming. At this point, we started to suspect a fit again, so tried the “no fuss” thing sternly again (which actually does usually work if she is pitching a fit).

I then tried to bribe her with m&m’s – “you can have an m&m if you stop fussing!” She stopped long enough to get her two m&m’s, then started again. She cried very convincingly on and off for a while.

After all of those strategies, I finally realized that something really was the matter. It certainly seemed like a pain cry – she didn’t have an attitude about it at all, and the way it would come and go as if she was in pain certainly seemed genuine.

The best thing I could figure is that her first exposure to shrimp may have needed to be a little lighter, rather than a whole plate of them, and maybe it was hurting her tummy? I was going to have Chris stop at Rite Aid, but she calmed down a few minutes before we got there.

She was fine for the rest of the night, except for the extremely icky (and hot-tub-cooked) diaper mentioned earlier that also seemed to indicate a tummy issue.

So I was wondering, is this a known issue with shrimp? And has anyone else had this problem with their toddlers?

I’ve heard several different things about when toddlers are allowed to eat shrimp, but at any rate, it will probably be a WHILE before we attempt shrimp again.