Ella's 8th Birthday - Straight Outta Quarantine
We recently celebrated Ella’s 8th birthday. I have been telling her since March there will be no party in effort to manage her expectations and adhere to the social distancing guidelines. The plan was to celebrate at home with immediate family, but I wanted it to be special for her. I hoped she would have happy memories of turning 8 and not associate that milestone with quarantine. About a week before her birthday, Ella heard the news that the beaches were opening, and she begged us to take her.
At first, we told her no in effort to err on the side of caution. She was determined and launched “Ella’s Beach Birthday Campaign” to change our minds. As days passed, I saw lots of pictures of friends at the beach and it looked vacant. They said there was plenty of space for social distancing. After much deliberation we granted her wish. I packed up her sister, Ella’s two best friends and another mommy friend and headed for the white sand. Ella was so excited she kept yelling “Best Day Ever” all the way to St. Pete Beach. Every person in the car had been strictly adhering to the stay at home order and this was our first day out and about and it felt good. My heart nearly burst as the kids belted out all our favorite songs from Brittany Spears to Bon Jovi on our mini road trip.
When we arrived at the beach it was empty. Signs were posted everywhere reminding beach goers to keep six feet apart from one another and to keep the group size to ten or less. We had plenty of space around us and multiple police officers patrolled our section regularly to ensure we were a safe distance away from others. As a native Floridian, I have never felt so safe at the beach. The girls laughed and played building sandcastles and turning each other into mermaids. The water was freezing cold so naturally only the kids were brave enough to go in.
As they ran to the ocean my friend and I settled into our lounge chairs. Shortly after we got comfortable, we heard the screams. Three of four of the girls were stung by jellyfish. At first, I had no clue what was happening they were in a single file line exiting the water. Adriana was the first to start screaming. This kid is tough as nails, so I knew something was terribly wrong. I thought she cut her foot on a rock or something and began to prepare myself for a gory scene. As I was psyching myself up to deal with this emergency, I see my friend running into the water to help her daughter who had the jellyfish attached to her thigh. The girls were crying out in pain as if they were being tortured.
By this time, I was trying not to panic. I started going through my mental rolodex. Are jellyfish poisonous? How do I treat this wound? Where is the closest urgent care? Why is David Hasselhoff nowhere to be found? Lots of police but no hot lifeguards. Thankfully the employee in charge of the beach rentals came to our aid. He had a spray bottle of alcohol, rubbing alcohol – not White Claw. He helped us wash off the areas where the girls were stung and sprayed them down.
Once they were cleaned up, we applied ice to numb the pain. Ella is now yelling this is the “worst day ever”. Great, I have traumatized her, and I am convinced this is the Universe telling me to stay on my couch. On the drive home we stopped for ice cream which is the cure for everything. We continued to triage the girls throughout the afternoon, and they bounced back rather quickly. Well, mission accomplished. She will remember her 8th birthday forever.
