Vacation...the silver lining

If you don't know why we need a "silver lining" post for our June vacation, you can read the original post here. I warn you, however, that it might be tedious or whiny. One day many years from now it might be funny. I'm hoping this will be the better post. Here's the stuff that got us through the week, made us smile, made us laugh. Here's the stuff I really want to remember. Initially, I thought I'd make these each separate little posts. That was nearly two months ago. Since we've all waited so long, I'll just put it all in one...think you can handle it? ; )

On June 7th, LO woke up from his "nap" and was suddenly sticking his tongue out all the time. Now, DH and I can both roll our tongues, so I had been showing him that. Since that is hereditary, there's a great chance he can do it too, though I expect we won't know for a while yet. There's also a great chance that I'll seriously regret encouraging my son to stick out his tongue. It was so funny though! Before "nap," no sticking out of the tongue, afterwards, suddenly he did it every 30 seconds. We had no idea why.

Later in the day, I finally felt/saw his first tooth popping through. The next day the one beside it was on its way too. We realized that LO was sticking his tongue out to feel his new teeth! It didn't last long. Though the teething lasted another week or so, the new tongue tricks were over in about a day.

The next big event of our "vacation" was LO's first time in the pool. I had planned and planned for this. We had bought swim dipes, rashguard, and a water jacket. I thought for weeks about his schedule and how to get him to the pool somewhere in there. I did NOT plan for a cranky, tired, vacation boy however. (who would?) So it took me a little bit to decide to just go. I thought perhaps the extra excitement would help him nap. This was before I knew he was teething. So we gathered all the pool stuff, lathered LO up with sunscreen (I forgot the rashguard), buckled him in the car and we were off to the pool. He was so tired he looked like a zombie. It was so great to have DH with us, so we have our first dip on video as well as a few pictures. LO stubbed his toe on the kiddie pool and started crying. The water was also pretty cold. It took him a while to get used to all of it, but he did smile a little towards the end. After our brief 20 min in the pool, we dried off and prepared to go back for our nap. We took a quick pit stop on a real swingset, which was as much of a hit as our tired little boy could stand.

(Watch closely in this video and you might see LO stick his tongue out)

Our last big experience of the week came on Friday. DH had been so generous in getting me out of the cabin all week that I really wanted to make sure he got to do whatever he felt we were missing before we left. For him that meant a brief family hike. Our best time of day in LO's schedule for that was after his morning nap attempt and lunch. Unfortunately that coincided with the noon sun. In keeping with our attempts to recreate in spite of LO's mood, we packed things up and drove to a paved path that was supposed to be easy and relatively short. I packed some water and a sunshade for LO and we hit the trail. The first 20 or so minutes were fun. Then it got really hot and LO was really over the novelty of the whole thing. Poor DH was wearing LO in our Ergo carrier, so they were even hotter. I pitched in by taking LO and attempting to hike faster, then we ran out of shade into the blazing sun. We could see that the trail cut through an open field back towards the car. It also had a path to the pool area that appeared shaded. It was hard to tell how far either route went. I had the bright idea to take LO on the shaded path and head to toward the pool area. We could cool off there, stay in the shade and wait for DH. DH would endure the open field and drive to the pool area to get us. I kept the water and DH was on his way. LO and I walked a little farther and I saw a road I thought I recognized as the one we came in on. I decided to leave the trail and wait on the side of the road thinking DH would be by very soon. I'm not sure how much time passed, but it occurred to me that I might be wrong about the road. I could be standing waiting for him on a route he would not take and would not know how to find. I called him on the cell and he didn't answer. I tried to flag down three cars to ask the name of the road. You'd think that a woman with a baby on the side of the road would make a person stop. Access to this resort was very well controlled, and I don't think I looked too threatening. Anyway, the third car stopped and confirmed I was on the right road. They had also seen DH getting in our car. So LO and I hung out in the shade. I was so glad to have been teaching him to drink from a cup without a lid. I was able to keep him cool and give him water from our water bottle. DH was in the next car and we all enjoyed some A/C. We got LO back to the cabin and he was so exhausted he took a whole 45 minute nap. We were all just really grateful to have survived what could have been a really ugly experience. No more hikes at high noon until winter!

So those were the highlights of the week. The hike was not much of a silver lining, but something worth remembering. You know, I used to always like to know when my next vacation would come. I like always having something to anticipate. This time DH and I have no idea when our next one will be. That might be because we are still trying to recover from this one!