B just left for an overnight work trip, and of course Bryson is sick. I was up literally all night with him until 4:45 when he finally fell asleep. Until Matthew woke up – at 6:13. And Matthew woke up sick too (I knew this would happen after listening to him cough all night on the monitor). So here we go. Happy effing Monday! 😉
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We’re on vacation.
With a toddler and a 9-week old.
We must be crazy.
B is always (ALWAYS) saying he needs a vacation. Before Matthew was born, we booked a trip for when he’d be 8 weeks old exactly, and we hopped on that plane at the end of August, and off we went. Just like that, for four nights to Colorado springs, complete with super fancy meals and busy activities at the Broadmoor. It was wonderful. Traveling with a baby was EASY!
This time, we said we’d take a vacation when “the new baby” was 8 weeks old but we didn’t book it. Bryson is a fussier baby than Matthew was (Bryson is sooooo gassy) and 3 weeks ago, there was no way I thought we’d make this happen. But B said he needed a vacation, so I started planning.
Vacationing with a toddler is hard. Not the baby – but the toddler. Bryson goes wherever we go, just like Matthew did 2 years ago today. Matthew, however, has opinions about what we do, and don’t, do. Matthew has a shelf-life at restaurants of about 45 minutes. Matthew NEEDS his daily nap. And now, Matthew needs an adult beside him in the big bed. Bryson’s quirk right now is that at night, he’s too gassy to sleep. That’s not a big deal… I can function on little no sleep.
We’re in a two bedroom townhouse and B is sleeping in one room with Matthew, and I sleep in the other room with Bryson. We come back for naps, eat quickly, trick Matthew out of the pool to avoid crazy fits, and I nurse very publicly in 95 degree heat. This is hardly a vacation!
So why are we doing this? To get away from it all? No – we brought “it all” with us. To relax? No – no one besides the boys are relaxing. To spend quality time together? No – we’re doing a lot of “dividing and conquering.”
We do it so that our boys learn to adjust away from home. We do it so the boys can learn early what it’s like to see, and experience, different places. We do it for our own sanity, because even with the chaos, we’re not bored at home. We do it so that we can say we did! And we do it for moments like these – the moments that become family memories.
This is one magical moment!
I had a whole post written, but not yet saved, on my mobile WordPress app when I added pictures and it crashed. I hate, hate, HATE the mobile WordPress app on our phones. Gah! It was a REAL post too, and not just a post of photos.
But now, this post is just a post of photos. Because its 5:05 AM and I’m tired. And my nursing, fussy, gassy baby may be nursed enough to sleep to sleep in his rocker and not with me.
The gist? We’re on vacation, but it doesn’t feel like a vacation since we have the complexities that come with traveling with a toddler and a newborn. But we are having fun – as evidenced by the storage space being used on my phone to document said fun. 😉
(I keep getting upload errors when trying to attach images, so there will be no snapshot to this edition of “The Monday Snapshot!”)
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I started taking these pictures of Matthew on accident, really, when he was a little over a year old. I was cycling out his 6-12 month clothes and replacing them with 12-18 month clothes. When I took the picture of him on his pile of retired clothes, I wished I’d done that every time he moved up a size. I told myself then that I would do that every time he moved up to a new size… And I’ve remembered to do it!
Matthew was still in some 18-24 jeans (and could still wear them now) and t-shirts until just now so I’ve been waiting to take the photo. It turns out that Bryson is moving to all 3-6 month clothes now (which is exactly when Matthew moved into them too), so it was time to take his photo on his 0-3 month pile of clothes.
Taking Bryson’s photo today really made me wish I’d done this all along with Matthew. Sigh!
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All the Sun For You 