Hi! I thought I’d say hello and give you another update while Elaine is out for the evening in Portland and I’m in the hotel monitoring the baby.
I hinted to it the other night, but we’ve developed a nice routine of spending the first night of each town together and then each taking a night out to explore the town individually. It’s worked well so we can see more of the city and not be stuck in the hotel all night. I don’t know how other families vacation, but it is hard to sleep all in one bedroom when Mason goes to bed so early and you have to be mindful of every light thats turned on and noise.
Right now we basically put our pac’n play in the corner of the room and build a huge fort of pillows, suite cases and blankets so he can’t see us and try to keep some light out. Guess it works but I always wonder what the hotel maid thinks while our room is getting cleaned
Sometimes we have to do desperate things to have a semi-normal evening in the hotel. Elaine told me that on her night in the hotel in Corvallis she curled up in the bathtub with a book and a pillow just so she could read and not strain her eyes in the dim light. I am not that much better- right now it is 8pm, Mason just fell asleep, I have a nature sound noise on through my phone, and I’m typing away on a tiny screen for this post.
If I won the lottery we would stay in giant hotel room suites or connected rooms on every vacation. And I’d get an iPad for these blog posts!
In other news I thought I’d share that we bought Mason some leg warmers in Corvallis and they’ve done a great job of keeping him warm and helping him adjust to a colder climate.
Until this trip I didn’t notice how much of a Southern California baby he was until I realized that A) he didn’t have shoes and is usually bare foot every where we go & B) he has a lot of cloth pants and its never bothered me when his pants turned into capris.
We quickly learned how valuable leg warmth is and that layers are his key to cold weather survival. I now also see the value of shoes too. If you look back at our photos, you’ll probably never see one of Mason while he is wearing shoes, yet alone socks. That has changed on this trip and now he is in full body gear. He will probably go back to his hippy So Cal ways once we get back to Santa Barbara but he at least fits in with his baby peers in Oregon.
Teeth. Molars are hard. About a week or so before our trip Mason’s molars started coming in and everyone’s sleep has decreased. They must hurt really something bad because he has been upset (to say the least) in the night and more fussy during parts of the day. It’s crazy how strong he is when he is upset and flails his weight around. It isn’t every night, but almost every other one is a l o n g night. His teeth are moving and coming in but I don’t think any of us will complain when this stage is over.
We’ve had a great time in the Rose City and we’ll have some photos up in a couple days. But here is one of a banana slug we found on our walk yesterday near the Japanese Gardens… yes this is a random photo for this post but banana slugs seem pretty cool.
Oh, Boy! 