Work travel (part 2 of 3 in my GTTOD series)

Here's my second installment of the GTTOD series. The first post can be found here. This is a bit of a two part post.

Part One – Travel:
A little over a month ago I took my first post-Miloh work trip. I was psyched for the trip because it was to Toronto, a city I have a bit of a crush on, and because we were working on some cool stuff. I was a bit apprehensive because I was leaving Miloh at 5 weeks old.

I also felt a bit of guilt to leave Staci all alone with him and with a semi-high maintenance dog. So I sent a tweet out to a bunch of mommy bloggers asking what I should do to help Staci out. I got some great ideas.

Here's a short list of the suggestions:

• Get a cleaning person to help her out so she doesn't need to think about it.
• Order her favorite dinner and have it delivered to her 
• Stock up on her fave foods
• Get her a gift
• Put the dog in a kennel

So here was my plan. I was going to order Chinese food from the place near here that delivers (the place I now boycott because they put huge slabs of meat in my tofu dish) and stock our house with popcorn, Staci's go to snack when I'm away. I didn't need to worry about a cleaning person because we have one and she was coming while I was out...I suggest it for everyone, it's worth the cash. Kalli was booked in the "spa" she goes to. and I was going to find some goodies to bring back for her.

Here was the reality...she stayed at her parent's place to get a little extra help, so that was awesome. But that also meant that the food delivery and stock of popcorn was not needed. Kalli was at her spa. The cleaning person came. So that left the gift...I failed on that...but I didn't have much time. I did however grab some Roots stuff for Miloh including the obligatory beaver logo one, because I wore that as a kid.

So I kind of screwed my first trip up...the second I screwed up worse. Staci was going to go to her parents but her dad had strep...I should have stocked up on the popcorn and goten the take out but honestly I was so exhausted that I spaced it...sorry Staci.

So I need to step it up for future trips. That includes leaving notes or cards for her like I used to do...or notes on fake apples which I did once. We had these fake apples that she hated so they were supposed to be thrown out...but I was leaving on a trip (pre-Miloh) and decided to write notes on each one with a number (X of 5) on them. I hid them all over the house to drive her a bit crazy and make her smile. I succeeded on both fronts.

Part Two: Funny things happen when someone is away.

I did a post a bit ago about how every time Staci is out of town Kalli, our dog, gets injured somehow.

Well when I'm out of town something happens to Miloh. On my first trip away I got a bit of a frantic call about how Miloh fell off the couch and on to his head...he was brought to the clinic and all was good.

On my second trip I got a frantic call that Miloh spiked a fever. It was few days after his vaccinations so we were told to watch for it. Staci felt that he was hot and took his temp, which was high, and called the hospital. They said to bring him in. Her mom came with her for support but it was prett traumatic for them. But Miloh didn't seem to care much as he was poked and proded for blood and had a cathatar used to siphon some pee...he's a calm kid.

The good thing is all was good, he was fine. Actually his fever went down by the time he arrived at the hospital.

Which beings me to some advice for guys out there. Do not ever ask your wife and/or Mother-in-Law if they added a couple degrees onto your child's temperature just so he can be seen by doctors. It doesn't go over well. Then let's say you ask the question, don't ask if they are lying.

So I'm wondering which trip costs us more, Staci out of town and us being stuck with vet bills, or me being out of town and us being stuck with hospital bills. I fear it's when Staci goes out because vets are crazy expensive and Kalli has been maimed pretty good.