Trace's 1st Hurricane

This week has been quite an experience for Trace. He has survived what I'm sure will be the first of many hurricanes of his lifetime. And while I know he won't remember everything that's going on, I definately know that he knows something's up.

He did great throughout the storm, he slept right through the worst part of it, which was such a relief for me. I was afraid he might get scared, but it didn't seem to phase him. He was, however, fascinated by the rain. My dad and Ernie would take turns holding him up to the window to watch it.

As we listened to the sounds of trees snapping near the house; he was busy reading books, playing with cell phones, and parading around in his wagon. Then the inevitable happened...we lost power. Ernie and I have both weathered many storms in our lifetime; but somehow this one seemed to be a little different knowing that we would be riding this one out with a one year old. Losing power has been one of my biggest fears about facing this storm over any other. It stressed me out thinking about how uncomfortable Trace might get or what other challenges we might face without the convenience of electricity. (i.e. MILK!) We did our best to plan ahead and buy powdered milk and my parents brought up as much ice as they could fit into their car along with other belongings. So, once it went out; I decided to just be optimistic about our circumstances and pray that the power would come on as soon as possible. That was Monday.

On Monday night/Tuesday morning Trace woke up sweating and cranky; so I decided to strip him down to just his diaper and that is how he stayed for the next two days. Luckily, Tuesday was still a bit of an overcast, so the house didn't get quite as hot as I imagined it would. Trace had a good day just sitting on the porch with the grandparents, watching the rain and the people passing by. That night we tried giving him a cold bath to cool him down, but he wasn't having the cold water. So, we warmed it up and he was just fine. I think he especially liked taking a bath in the dark. He was fascinated by his shadows on the bathroom wall!

On Wednesday morning we woke up dreading another day without power, knowing that the sun would be out today to add to our misery. Ernie and I decided to try to go out and get ice and/or milk because we weren't doing to make it through lunch with what we had. We went to a couple of stores with no luck. We also went to look into getting a generator. When we got to the store, we realized what we were up against. The line was wrapped around the building and the store hadn't even opened yet. The worry began to set in over the idea of us having to battle not only the line for the generator, but finding gas, an extension cord; not to mention milk. I gave up, called a friend who had power and decided it was time to leave home. Ernie was going to have to go back to work and remain on call after hours for the next few days. My parents were leaving to try to get back home, even though they weren't sure they could get there. That left me staying home with a hot and cranky baby and no supplies or means to get them. So I packed up our things and off we went to stay at a friend's parents house, which was such a blessing. They welcomed us with open arms and made us feel so very comfortable.

Trace is getting so much attention from the whole family, I'm afraid he's going to have withdrawals once we return home to some normalcy. The only down-side is that we miss Daddy. He's come to visit a couple of times and we joke that he has "visitation rights" in this "separation." But in all seriousness, we are doing really well and count ourselves very lucky and blessed to have survived this storm without the loss of anything more than power and a fence. Many of our neighbors and friends were not as fortunate. It's times like these that put it all into perspective and make you so thankful for all we've been given. Even when some things are taken away for a brief period, what matters is we're safe and sound.