Months Matter

So I guess I'm never going to finish that blog post I started on our trip to Walt Disney World. Let's just leave it with two observations: Phoebe is horrible, horrible, horrible to travel with, and Charlotte absolutely adores roller coasters. I don't recommend going to WDW with an 18 month old, at least one who is as feisty as Phoebe is. Charlotte had a great time, but Chris and I spent the entire time stressed out. We're probably the one people who come home from WDW having lost weight because how do you manage to eat more than a couple bites when your daughter is screaming to be let down from her high chair?

Here's Charlotte with her arms up at the Tower of Terror, her favorite ride. She went on it three times. I went on it once because I hate that free fall drop feeling. She also went on Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Railroad four times.

Anyway,  let's just move on...I never even got around to posting about Phoebe at 18, 19, 20 months...

18 months...

The Monday before we went to WDW, the two same ladies that evaluated Phoebe back in May came to do a re-evaluation. The speech therapist (ST) was absolutely astounded by Phoebe's progress. At the end of May, Phoebe was testing at about 5 months delayed (communicating at a 10 month level, instead of the 15 months she actually was at the time). The ST took out a book she had brought of brightly-colored pages and photographs of common pictures. Phoebe immediately saw the picture of a baby sleeping and said "Nigh-nigh." She pointed to the train and said "Ah-mi," which is what she calls Thomas the Tank Engine.

The ST was very impressed by how Phoebe can anticipate what comes next in songs and stories. For example, Chris sang: "C is for . . ." and Phoebe responded "cookie!" I said, "Brown bear, brown bear what do you see?" and Phoebe replied, "I see a garble garble." (she has, in the past, said "I see a red bird.")

After observing Phoebe for a few minutes, the ST basically proclaimed that she is no longer delayed, but right on track. She did think it interesting that Phoebe still doesn't really call me Mama or Mommy considering how obsessed she is with saying "Dada" (Dada Nigh-Nigh, Hi Dada, Byebye Dada). However, since the appointment two weeks ago, Phoebe has finally called me Mama. She now looks at pictures of Chris and me and then looks at me and says Mama (I've only waited 18 months for this!).

Our caseworker said she would close the case, but that we should feel free to call her if we're ever concerned. Yay Phoebe!

At Phoebe's 18 month well baby visit, Dr. M. was also very impressed by her progress. Phoebe was all smiles at the visit and interacted playfully with Dr. M. and his medical assistant.

Phoebe weighs 24 lbs and is 32.5 inches long - both are about in the 70th percentile. I looked back at Charlotte's 18 month visit and she and Phoebe are the same size.

19 months...

Phoebe's language acquisition has exploded. I just can't even explain how dramatic a change it is. She speaks in sentences! Not for everything, of course, but for the most part, she actually says: "I want milk please!"; "I want cookies"; "I want up!"; "I want book please!" It's amazing. I also love that she finally answers our questions with "yeah" or "no!". Phoebe, do you want to go to bed? "No!"

She has a photographic memory. There is an app of flashcards on my iPhone and iPad that shows pictures of all sorts of things. She now says whale, bear, walrus, goat, bat, bear, and a host of other animal words. Not only that, but the app will show four pictures and say: "Click on the green beans" or "Click on the walrus." I would say 9 times out of 10 she gets it right. The girl will not eat green beans, but she knows what they are from sight.

She is making connections with her world. Her bff Gabby was in a video that we watched on Facebook and her mom asked her to say "Chris." Phoebe turned and pointed at Chris. Somehow she knows he has two different names. She calls Gabby "Ba-ga or Baggy" and so she pointed at Angela, Gabby's mom and said: "Ba-ga mama."

Phoebe adores her BFF "Baggy". Here they are hugging. So cute.

20 months (well, in a week)
Phoebe is still a handful, but now that she's better able to tell us what she wants, it's been a lot easier. She can sit still for a little while at gymnastics during "circle time" and she now listens to the teacher and gives hugs when prompted. It's super cute.

We had this grand plan that all of us would be characters from Pixar's Brave for Halloween. Charlotte actually was Princess Merida, and I got a dress passable for her mother Queen Elinor. I never found a kilt for Chris, but I thought Phoebe could be one of Merdia's brothers who turn into bears. All the parents at Trunk or Treat thought "he" was so cute, so I decided to recycle Charlotte's bee costume from two years ago. Phoebe loves bees. We went to a Halloween party at my coworker's, who hired a photographer to take pictures of everyone and a face painter. Above is Phoebe coloring her Thomas Halloween picture. :)

And here's our pretty Merida, wig and all.

Anyway, all this to say, months really do matter for toddlers. It's so crazy how much can change in just a matter of weeks. We were so worried about Phoebe, but now we have this bright-eyed, inquisitive, jabbering toddler who loves to sing her "ABCs", hang from bars, test her limits, and run everywhere. It really is incredible.

Last picture courtesy of our friend, Brian. She is really strong and pulls her feet up and dangles. Pretty awesome.

PTSD Part One: San Diego Edition

Post-travel Stress Syndrome

I guess I can start writing this post now that it's been about 10 days since we got home. Still, it's been rough. [I was going to write one long post, but I figured it would just be too long to cover both San Diego and Walt Disney World, so here's the First Post]

Phoebe is horrible on planes. We figured that out when we went to San Diego over Labor Day Weekend. She screamed and writhed in our arms the entire way through the security line. And when I say "scream," I don't mean whimper or whine, I mean scream so loud your ears hurt (Charlotte always covers her ears when Phoebe screams). She didn't want to be in the stroller and she sure didn't want us holding her. She wanted to run, and for obvious reasons, we couldn't let her.

I had a moment of serious panic when the TSA agent was checking my boarding pass, which the Southwest ticketing agent had printed out along with one for Phoebe, and I realized that it was not my boarding pass. The Southwest agent had printed out a boarding pass for someone named Sarah Barry! I screamed: "That's not me!" Luckily, I had already printed out my boarding pass ahead of time so the TSA agent was able to pull of Sarah Barry's boarding pass, which was stapled to Phoebe's and attach mine instead. Phew. The thought of having to go all the way back to the main terminal was not a good thought. And then we waited to put all of our stuff through security. That's when Phoebe screamed and screamed and screamed some more.

She was okay when we were waiting at the gate because we let her run around. When it was time to line up to board, and I had to hold on to her, the screaming started up again. The plane ride itself was okay, apart from some screaming on takeoff because one of us had to hold her.

Still, we managed to have a pretty okay time in San Diego.

The girls absolutely loved the beach. They loved it so much we went two days in a row.

Mimi and Papi bought a bunch of sand toys, so the girls had fun filling buckets with sand and water and building castles. Phoebe mostly destroyed the castles, but no one minded.

Bucket Head.

On the second beach day, Chris decided to try his hand at wakeboarding on this wave machine. See that cute little girl next to him? It was her fifth birthday that day. She made it on the boogie board one time and then cried every time she was up after that.

My mom hosted a little birthday party for her cat, Binky, who's 18 years old. Charlotte and Phoebe helped make cupcakes, and had a great time. Some of my parents' friends came over to celebrate (mostly to see the girls).

Phoebe and Binky

Mimi and Phoebe saying goodbye to their guests (I think they look a lot alike, no?).

On Labor Day afternoon, my parents watched the girls while we went out for dinner at this wine place. The wine selection was good, but the food (which could have been great) was overly salty. Unfortunately, within an hour or two of getting back home, Chris started getting stomach cramps and then so did I. Around 1AM, after whimpering in my sleep, Chris convinced me to get up and go to the bathroom. Hooray for second round of food poisoning/stomach flu!

I felt so awful in the morning that my parents took the girls to the zoo, so we could stay back and rest (Chris never got sick, lucky guy). So, our flight was that afternoon. I still felt terrible, but we had to get home. This time, Phoebe did fine while we went through security, but did start screaming as we were getting close to boarding. Some lady (with only one child) made a comment, within earshot: "Now, {baby's name} don't be naughty like those other babies." As if there were anything we could have done beyond letting her run wherever she wanted! And then the Southwest guy announced over the PA, as they were beginning boarding, "And remember, this is a no screaming flight." So yeah, that was fun. Also, I looked really great what with my post-vomiting broken blood vessels all around my face and neck. Everyone probably thought I was some alcoholic mother, unfit to be parenting such an unruly child. I was totally judged. Phoebe screamed the last twenty minutes of our flight (it was only a little over an hour flight total), and Chris and I turned to each other and said, "We have to do this again in a week?"

Where Dreams Come True

Last week I was in San Diego for my organization's annual conference.  Since my parents no longer let me travel to San Diego without Charlotte, I flew down on Tuesday with Charlotte in tow.  I have to say, it was the easiest flight I've ever done with her.  She and I ate breakfast together in the food court, she colored in her coloring book, and she obediently followed every direction I gave her. I'm just so proud of how big she's getting.

Anyway, while I was working, Charlotte enjoyed three fun days with her grandparents - she went to the zoo, to Sea World, and charmed the pants off our neighbors.  On Thursday night, Chris flew down, but he headed straight to my parents' so I didn't see him until Friday.

On Saturday, we made the pilgrimage to Disneyland.  Having grown up in Southern California, I went to Disneyland quite often, but hadn't gone since Chris and I got married five years ago.  We were so excited to go there with Charlotte. And Chris was excited to implement his Fast Pass/Stroller Pass plan.

The weather was perfect, and Disneyland was decorated for Halloween.  The first ride we went on was the Haunted Mansion, which was redesigned to look like Nightmare Before Christmas. It was cute, but I actually think the original Haunted Mansion is much scarier. Then we went on the Winnie the Pooh ride.

Here is my first belly picture at 18 weeks

What Charlotte loved: the carousel, the flying Dumbo ride, and Casey Jr's train.

But Charlotte's absolute favorite moment of the day? Meeting Mickey Mouse.

It was her naptime when we finally got to the front of the line, so Charlotte was pretty tired. She just went right up to Mickey and gave him a great big hug.  And she wouldn't let go, so Mickey kind of looked at us, like "What should I do?"

Thankfully, she did let go and we were able to get these great shots. Charlotte was in heaven.

And of course, we couldn't go to Disneyland and not get Charlotte her very own Mickey ears. She was very clear that she didn't want the Minnie ears or the special Halloween ears, she wanted the very simple Mickey Mouse ears.

Charlotte did great. She napped for over an hour in her stroller. Papi watched her while Chris, my mom and I took turns going on Splash Mountain.  For the record, I did go on all of the roller coaster rides, except for Thunder Mountain, since we never got over there.  I'm glad Chris implemented his Fast Pass Plan, especially for Space Mountain, because the crowds were crazy that day. For Space Mountain, Chris and I zipped through the Fast Pass line, received a Rider Swap card, went on the ride, and then gave the pass to my parents. They got to bypass the line completely and go in through the disabled route. It was great.   The only ride that definitely gave me some pause afterward was Indiana Jones - it was truly bumpy - but other than that, I had a great time.  We stayed until about 9:15, but didn't exit until we got this cute picture (although I wish I was viewed in profile because I look really wide).

A perfect end to a magical day.

*Next up: Monday we find out if Baby Berry 2.0 is a girl or boy!  What's your prediction? Mine is girl, so is Chris'. But who knows? We could be surprised!

Planes, Trains and Weddings

This has been a strange and busy past few weeks.  Strange in that it's June, and it feels like February. We've had rain for days, mixed with some days of thunder, lightning and hail.  There have been days where the temperature didn't get up above 65. In late May and early June. This is unheard of!  Where is summer? At this rate, our pool will never be warm enough to swim in.

Okay, moving on.

We had a great time during our trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan for my cousin Shannon's wedding.  Traveling there was a little tough because our flight was at 6AM, and Charlotte napped for a total of one hour on the plane.  She was pretty upset when we first got to the rehearsal dinner, but once she had some food, she rallied and made friends with everyone.

The day of the wedding was gorgeous.  The ceremony was at a beautiful old church right off of the University of Michigan Campus.  I was worried about how Charlotte would do with the time change and a morning wedding, but luckily they had childcare during the ceremony.  Here are a few pictures that the babysitter/photographer took of Charlotte and two other young wedding guests (one is Shannon's cousin Sawyer).



Charlotte in her cutie dress



I was a tad annoyed that they let Charlotte play in the mud sand as it got on her shoes, but luckily not on her dress. However, it sure beat a wriggling toddler during a beautiful wedding ceremony.

The reception was at a country club close to where Shannon lives, and it was really fun as well. It was great to see old friends of the family (I haven't been to Michigan since I was in high school), all of whom doted on Charlotte. They had a photo booth set up, which was a blast.  I let Charlotte choose which hat for each of to where, and this is what she chose:

Mimi and Cha-Cha

Charlotte did really well at the reception, and eventually we got her to take a nap in her stroller for about forty-five minutes.  And because it was an afternoon wedding, we were able to go back to the hotel, swim in the indoor pool, eat dinner at a loud but yummy German restaurant, and have Charlotte sleep in my parents' room while we saw a 10 pm showing of Bridesmaids.

And of course, how can I not show a picture of the radiant bride and her new husband, Joe? They just looked ecstatic all day long.

Photo by Mark Bogarin Photography

The next day we walked around the U of M campus.  My mom and I wanted to get Charlotte some Michigan clothes, but Chris wouldn't allow it.  He likened it to someone giving me Stanford apparel, so we had to pass. 

We had about 10 minutes to grab a few snacks at the famous Zingerman's Deli before rushing to the Amtrak Station to board the train to Chicago.  Charlotte loved the idea of being on a train, and once again, barely got any sleep at all.  When we left Ann Arbor, the sun was out and it was beautiful and warm.  When we got to our stop in Hammond,  Indiana, Chris' mom was waiting for us, and it was pouring down rain and hailing, some hail so big it was at least golf ball-sized.  It was pretty crazy getting Charlotte, and all of our luggage off the train in the pouring rain.  We were all soaked and recovering in the car while Charlotte shouted "Bye bye choo choo. Bye bye choo choo."

Our time in Chicago was brief, but also a lot of fun.  Charlotte immediately took to Gamma and Gampa, and has been asking where Gamma is ever since we got back.  We went to the park, and saw the ducks.  We also went to the Museum of Science and Industry, where Charlotte saw more Choo-Choos and planes up close. MSI is normally a lot of fun to visit, but it was overrun that day by school children.  Imagine hundreds of children, who can literally taste the start of summer vacation running around with a handful of chaperones. To me, it was a nightmare.  I get really uncomfortable in crowds, so it was a relief to escape to the under 10 Idea Zone (we have pictures, I just haven't uploaded them yet) where Charlotte actually had room to run around and explore without fear of getting pummeled by a bunch of tweens. We also had a little time to visit with Charlotte's Aunt Jennele and Cousin Anya who adored seeing Charlotte.

The onlyreally crazy part of the trip was actually the return trip home.  We got to the airport almost two hours before our scheduled departure.  After waiting in the so-called express bag drop-off line and then the longest security line I've ever seen, we only had 15 minutes before our flight was scheduled to depart.  Without even putting on Charlotte's shoes, I grabbed her and quite literally ran past 25 gates, only to hear once I got to our gate that due to inclement weather, our plane would be delayed. And it was delayed by three hours because of lightning and our plane being diverted to Indianapolis.  This actually ended up being a blessing in disguise because we wouldn't have been able to get food for Charlotte otherwise. She (and I) also burned some energy walking up and down the moving sidewalks about 20 times. 

Coming up in the next few weeks: more wedding celebrations and someone's 2nd birthday! Now if only the weather would begin to act more like June (I know I'll regret writing this when it's 110 degrees outside a month from now).

Blog Fail

So big fat blogging fail.

It's been a month since I last posted anything.

Work has been super busy. I went to DC at the end of March for our annual lobbying trip, and let's just say the federal government budget is extremely important to my organization and our members.  So I've been wtaching the excitement over the federal shutdown with a lot of anxiety.  Crisis averted, thankfully, but we still don't know what has actually been cut from our budget.

Last week was our state day at the capitol and three straight days of meetings.

And now I'm at home with food poisoning or a virus. Not sure.  Charlotte had two straight days of, ahem, extremely explosive diaper blowouts. Both of them happened during naptime, getting stuff everywhere.  Yesterday was so bad, I had to wash her bumper, her stuffed animals, and put Charlotte straight in the bathtub.  But what Charlotte has (had?) is nothing compared to what  hit me at 10PM last night.  Every hour to two hours through the night I was throwing up.  And I'm still feeling horrible this morning.  I also look disturbing, like some kind of zombie, because all of the blood vessels around my eyes and mouth have burst, so I have red blotchy spots all over my face.

I just called the Kaiser advice nurse, giving her my symptoms and mentioning that we're leaving for Costa Rica on Wednesday. She asked, did you call the travel clinic? Um no, I wasn't aware I was supposed to.  So she just sent a message to them, and they'll go over CDC recommendations.  As if I could drive anywhere right now. Uggh.

If I can just get to the point of keeping some food down, I might actually get some packing done.  We fly first to San Diego to drop Charlotte off with my parents (who can't contain their excitement) and then fly out the next day to Costa Rica!  We have a few things planned -- scuba diving, drinks with paper umbrellas, zip lining, checking out monkeys and sloths and all amazing creatures. I. Can't. Wait.

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Moving on to asking for your advice.

Charlotte has hit the terrible twos early.  She has tantrums over such silly things.  On Thursday, I couldn't pick her up because of meetings that went past 5 o'clock.  I called Chris on the way home and asked what he wanted for dinner, and his tone was of sheer frustration.  Apparently, Charlotte had been crying for the past hour because he made her leave her sippy cup at daycare.  She calmed down once I got home, but then when I told her that it was bath night, she lost it again.  (We've started Parent and Child swim classes and she loves them. I've told her that the pool is like a big bathtub).  Needless to say, she was extremely disappointed that our bathtub was not the pool, and refused to go in.  When I made her, she then threw a tantrum when I took her out of the tub. Oy!

This may come as a shock, but apparently you can't rationalize with an almost two year old! 

Does anyone have any books or suggestions about how to help with these tantrums? Charlotte calms down as soon as we give her what she wants, but we can't just give her everything she wants, for obvious reasons. 

Anyway, time to take a nap.  I barely slept at all last night.

Will plan to post with a report on all the fun things Charlotte will be doing with her grandparents, and all the fun things we'll be doing!

Christmas and Family Matters

Well hello there.

I haven't really been all that great at blogging recently.  I hope you'll forgive the insanity that's ensued over the past two weeks.

We've had Christmas Eve through today off from work, and it's been a whirlwind.  Christmas was just so great.  I was so excited for Charlotte that I woke up at 6:30 that morning, even though she didn't wake up until almost 8!  It just gave me a flashback to all of those Christmases during my childhood when I could barely sleep the night before because I was so excited.  I remember reading in bed, doing anything to pass the time until I couldn't wait any longer and would rush downstairs to see what Santa brought.

Charlotte doesn't quite get the concept of Christmas yet, but when she saw all the presents downstairs, she just got so excited. 

The Cozy Coupe was a hit, even though it was a major pain to assemble.  In fact, it was so ridiculously hard (mostly because it was poorly designed, with imprecise plastic molding that made it impossible for the various plastic pieces to snap together) that I returned a half-built one.  But Charlotte loves it so much, that it just makes the hour-long assembly (and the broken blood vessels in Chris's hand) worth it.  She hops in, she puts her stuffed animals in for a ride.

My parents got Charlotte a really great play kitchen (which was shipped to us and had about a thousand different pieces, but was still easier to put together than the Cozy Coupe), and Chris's sister got Charlotte a bouncy turtle.  There were also at least a dozen other gifts.  Chris looked at the living room and said that it looked like a "toy-nado" had hit.

Charlotte only had one day to enjoy the onslaught of new toys and then we were off.  Off to South Carolina to celebrate my grandparents' 60th anniversary and their 80th birthdays (in fact, my grandpa's birthday is today).  We booked our tickets using frequent flier miles, but to buy Charlotte's ticket would have been over a thousand dollars, which was way too much, so we did the whole lap child thing.  It was a very different experience from when we went to Maui and bought Charlotte a seat.  She's not used to sitting on our laps, and even though we had a super early flight, it took a long time for her to stop fidgeting and fall asleep.  Luckily, she did fall asleep during both legs of the flight.  We had a three hour layover in Dallas, which was also tough; there was a toddler play area thankfully.

We flew into Charleston a day before my mom did, so we had a chance to explore the city before making the two hour drive north to Myrtle Beach, where my grandparents live.  Charlotte did pretty well on the flight, but she absolutely did not want to sleep in the Pack N Play at the hotel.  She also did not want to go to sleep, even though we had all woken up at 3 AM.  Because my mom didn't fly in until 6 PM, we had the whole day.  The weather was freezing, but sunny.

The gorgeous homes of historic Charleston, and the horse that Charlotte love

Snack time

We walked all over the city.  Charlotte actually fell asleep in her stroller, despite the 40 degree weather.  We took the opportunity to warm up in a really cool wine bar with an Irish name, run by a German guy. After Charlotte woke up we visited the Children's Museum of the Low Country to pass the time before my mom arrived.  Charlotte really enjoyed the grocery store, where she stocked up on loaf after loaf of bread.

After that it was time to drive to Myrtle Beach.  We were there for three full days and they were jam-packed with family time. My mom and her two brothers and their families were all there to celebrate my grandparents' anniversary.

All the grandkids (and great-grandkid) and my grandparents, who look really great for being 80!

 Charlotte had so much fun getting to know her cousins.  My cousin, Ellie, who's 12, spent a lot of time entertaining her, which was great for us. It was so nice to play board games with my cousins, without having to worry about keeping a perpetual eye on Charlotte.

In honor of my grandparents' 60th anniversary, my mom and uncles created a Jeopardy! game with questions about the town in Michigan they grew up in and other family-related trivia.  My mom and uncles took turn playing Alex Trebek.

Even though we didn't have very much down time, we did get a chance to walk along the beach.  It was cold, but Charlotte loved chasing the seagulls and picking up seashells.

The trip was pretty short and not exactly what you would call restful, but it was so great to visit with my family.  We are all so scattered throughout the country, so the last time we were all in one place was at my wedding, four and a half years ago.  Charlotte did really well, even though she had some issues acclimating ot the time change and sleeping in a different place.  Traveling was exhausting, especially yesterday, since we had to drive two hours to the airport (it ended up being a total of 16 hours before we got home) and I think we've learned our lesson about not buying a seat for Charlotte.  And of course, I now have a cold from all the traveling and sleep deprivation.  I'm just hoping it's all cleared up soon, so I can enjoy my 30th birthday in just 4 days!

Yosemite Camping Adventure

Hi Everyone,

Just got back from our first camping trip as a family!  We went to the Yosemite Valley, and it was beyond fantastic.  I hadn't been to Yosemite for over four years, which means that the last time I was there, Chris and I weren't even married yet.  A lot can change in four years.  Heck, with Charlotte around, a lot can change in just a few days or weeks.

Yosemite National Park, being as popular as it is, requires that you book campsites four months in advance.  So back in May we decided to book five campsites in the Valley.  There was a glitch in the system, so we wound up not getting all the sites together, but it didn't wind up mattering.  Everyone was pretty close by.  We went with 22 people, including five children under three (three of whom are under the age of one!).  All of the adults (those sans children) decided to make the trek up Half Dome on Saturday, making Chris and me kind of jealous not to be able to join them.  Chris has summited Half Dome seven times, and I've summited it twice (almost three times, but the last time Quarter Dome was covered in snow, and I didn't want to do it), and it's such a feeling of accomplishment when you get to the top.

But it worked out for the best because we had a great time exploring the Valley with Charlotte.  First, let me admit to you that I was worried about camping with Charlotte.  We didn't know how she'd sleep, how she'd handle the cold, or how we could keep her from getting filthy.  On the last concern, it became immediately evident that there was nothing we could do to keep her from getting dirty.  Charlotte adored the dirt.  She walked all over the campground, picking up strewn bottle caps, shoving dirt and pine needles in her mouth, chasing after tree squirrels, and throwing rocks.  I basically had to stop worrying about the dirt and embrace it, because the second I wiped it off, Charlotte would stick her hands back in the dirt.  She was so covered in dirt that she reminded us of the Peanuts character, Pig Pen.

Check out those adorable itty bitty hiking boots!

The dirt on this bottom? A speck compared to the fistfuls she would pick up.

To protect her from her from stubbing her toes, I bought Charlotte some adorable Keen hiking boots that were on sale at REI.  They have reinforced toes, and even though this trip may be the only time she ever wears them, they were well worth the money.  She stumbled and tripped on countless rocks over the two day trip, but not once did she hurt herself.  Money well spent.

I was most worried about how Charlotte would sleep at night.  Luckily, Chris' parents got us a family-sized tent for Christmas, and it was great!  The tent was big enough for a full-sized air mattress for us, the Pack N Play for Charlotte to sleep in, and plenty of room to spare.  Both nights Charlotte slept great; we never heard a peep from her.

The cold mornings proved to be the only sticking point.  The Valley gets really chilly in the morning, much more so than the early evening, because it takes so long for the sun to rise over the granite.  Although we dressed Charlotte in warm fleecy outfits, her hands were freezing, and she would not keep her mittens on. This caused her to get really upset until we brought her back to the tent to warm up, after which she brightened up considerably.  Diaper changes were also a challenge because the wipes were so cold to the touch. Poor thing.  I hope she'll figure out soon that mittens = warm hands.

Cold mornings

While the large group of childless adults hiked Half Dome, we joined the Wiseleys on a hike to Mirror Lake to get a view of Half Dome from below.  It was our first time really using the baby carrier we bought on sale at REI, and it was fabulous.  When we first tried it out at home, Charlotte screamed and screamed while we were putting her in the carrier.  Once we got her outside, she stopped crying and actually enjoyed herself.  In Yosemite, Charlotte didn't even cry once when we got her in the carrier.  Mirror Lake is actually a seasonal pool, so while we were there it was nothing but a huge sand pit.  It was about a three mile hike roundtrip, and the only downside was that Charlotte fells asleep on the way back, but was up so high in the pack, she had no where to rest her head.  Her head would flop every which way, and Charlotte would whimper with her eyes closed.

In the backpack and ready to go!

The Merced River, I think

Playing in the sand at Mirror "Lake"

Falling asleep on the way back to camp.



It's amazing the amount of stuff you have to lug when you're camping, but you have to multiply that by five when you're bringing along a toddler.  From food, to a booster seat, to the Pack n Play, to a dozen onesies, it's a lot of stuff.  We brought sippy cups that you could recycle when you're done using them, which ended up being a wise decision because Charlotte kept dropping them in the dirt. 

I could go on, but I won't.  Camping with Charlotte turned out to be so much better than we could have hoped for, and it was made even more enjoyable by the fact that we had so many friends with us.  Charlotte had a great time, and we can't wait to do it again.  Our friend, Elizabeth, even decided to come just with Baby Samantha (who's only three months old), because her husband Lawrence was sick.  I was astounded, but Elizabeth handled it like it was no big deal, which, as it turned out, it wasn't. 

Camping Mamas! (Left to Right): Stephanie and Charlotte (15 months), Elizabeth and Samantha (3 months), Amber and Tucker (almost 9 months), Susan and Jackson (11 months)

Maui Wowie

Here are my tips for an amazing trip to Maui with a 13 month old.

1. Go to Maui. 

Seems obvious enough.  It's paradise.  It just might be my favorite Hawaiian island, and I really liked Kauai.

2. Buy a seat for your baby.

Seriously. Worth every single penny (it also helps that we got an amazing deal for Charlotte's ticket and we booked frequent flier miles for our seats, but still. Worth it!).  We had a 6AM flight the day we left.  Charlotte was awake from the time we left our house until we boarded the plane to Los Angeles.  And then she zonked out and slept the entire flight because she was in her car seat.  We had a pretty short layover in L.A., and then we were on our way. Although we didn't get three seats entirely together (because United sucks and are completely unaccommodating -- the lady at the front desk in L.A. wouldn't even check to see if Chris could get a seat nearby), we did manage to trade with a guy who had one seat in the middle row one row in front of Charlotte and me.  Anyway, shortly after take off, Charlotte fell asleep and slept for a good three hours.  The remaining two were spent playing and eating lunch/snacks.  On the way back, same thing. Even though we had a red eye and the flight didn't leave until well after Charlotte's bedtime, she did not fall asleep until she was in her car seat and we'd taken off. And she slept the entire time.

3.  If you follow tip 2, buy this thing, the Traveling Toddler Car Seat Accessory:

Basically, it's a strap that attaches your rolling carry-on to any LATCH-compatible car seat.  Then it turns into a makeshift stroller, but way more comfortable. I read about it on the Advice Smackdown several months ago and had to get it.  Chris was skeptical when we got it in the mail (it costs about $15, but probably was only $0.50 to make), but it worked great.  Charlotte loved it, and you would not imagine the number of people who made comments about how ingenious it was.  Truly.  We checked Charlotte's stroller, and this thing was all we needed.

4. Make sure the grandparents come along (or in our case, make sure they let you tag along with them).

Vacations with a baby are generally not what you call "vacations." They're more like every other day with a baby, just in a different location.  But having grandparents along (or anyone willing to give you a break) made the trip to Maui definitely shift over to "vacation."  Chris and I got to go scuba diving in Molokini, where we saw a spotted eagle ray and a dozen sea turtles; we went snorkeling together while my parents watched Charlotte play in the sand; we went to a spectacular dinner together (see the first picture above); and we did an all day trip on the Road to Hana (if/when I get a chance, I plan to write on each of those adventures at our travel website because they deserve further detail, even if only for me to remember always).  We would never have been able to do a single one of those things without their help.  Thank you so much, Mimi and Papi.  I know Charlotte misses you already.

5. Baby Gear Rental

We stayed in a two bedroom timeshare while we were on Maui. I'm a planner. For months before our trip I started thinking about Charlotte's bedding situation.  Where would she sleep? What would she sleep in? I called the timeshare staff and asked about whether I could rent a portable crib.  I could, but it would cost me. $12 a day. For 9 days.  Insane.  That's more than the cost of checking the Pack N Play.  So that was my plan until I somehow decided to Google search for baby gear rental.  Turns out, baby gear rental companies are thriving businesses on Maui.  No fewer than seven showed up.  Anyway, long story short.  For about $60, I rented a Pack N Play, a high chair/booster seat, and a sun tent for the entire week.  The rental gear company set it up before we got there and picked it up after we left.  Easy!  And having a Pack N Play proved even more useful, because we could set it up on the tennis courts, put Charlotte in there with a bunch of toys and her sippy cup, and the four of us could play doubles!  Moreover, we'd put Charlotte in our room each night, and then when it was time for us to sleep, we'd move her and the Pack N Play into the living room.

6. Timeshare/Condo

Babies are picky eaters. Maui is expensive.  Having a timeshare/condo where you can make your own food is absolutely critical. We bought all Charlotte's normal food the day we arrived, so we were stocked with whole milk, Eggos, tortillas, fruit, etc.  I don't know what people do who stay in a hotel the whole time.  Spend a lot of money or rent a mini-fridge, I guess.  We were also lucky in that previous guests left a bunch of sand toys that we used and left for future guests. Charlotte loved playing in the sand.

 7. Final Tip? Bring Your Cute Baby.