Guest Post at MakesMomHappy

If you just can't get enough of our D.C. trip, stroll on over to Makes Mom Happy to see my guest post recap. Come for the me, stay for the sweet reviews and giveaways that you won't get on this blog.

D.C. Recap (Day IV)

Recently got back from taking a few days off to hit Washington, D.C. This is the last in a series of posts about how it went.

Our last day in D.C. was pretty similar to the others: subways, museums, food, all that. But a few things stood out, namely a pretty grueling march we did around the national mall to check out the sights. Trying to reconstruct our route and think it was something like Smithsonian à Capital à Lincoln Memorial à Viet Nam wall àSmithsonian subway stop. Take a look at the photo, imagine it's 100 degrees and that you're carrying an eleven-month old and you've pretty much got the picture. It was hot. It was tiring.

At this point, the biggest issue we were having with Babe-O was keeping her hydrated. She wasn't really nursing during the day and she was sweating quite a bit. She tended to snub her cup of water and we were getting pretty worried given how little she was drinking and how few wet diapers we changed. It was the fourth day of the trip when we really figured out how to keep her hydrated. The answer turned out to be bottled water. This is from a kid who never took a baby bottle and immediately preferred a cup with a straw over a sippy cup or anything else. As much as we struggled to get her to drink, it turned out that all we needed to do was share the water that we were drinking. All you had to do was hold up the aquafina bottle and she would grab it with both hands and tip it to her mouth. With a little gentle assistance to keep her from drenching herself she would drink more than enough. We stopped often and let her drink and she went through just about a whole bottle of water during the last bit of the day when we did the most walking. Cool kid.

Anyway, all of our trudging around and aquafina drinking finally landed our sweaty butts at the Lincoln Memorial. Unless you've been there, it's tough to appreciate just how big and impressive the thing is. The seated Lincoln is probably 20 feet tall. At this point, Babe-O was (mercifully) in her stroller, so we wheeled her up to the statue to take a look. Her eyes got big and she looked up at it, gesturing with her hands and babbling away. For a few minutes she pointed, shook her hands, and yammered on about the statue. It was stinking adorable and very cool that she seemed to appreciate the thing.

The memorial was our farthest destination and it wasn't until we got there that we realized that the nearest subway stop was all the way back where we started, near the Smithsonian. At this point we were all pretty beat and Babe-O was starting to fuss. It took a lot of effort, but by mixing things up a little on the walk back to the metro, we managed to keep her happily distracted. I took her out of the stroller and ran around with her quite a bit, holding her up over my head, letting her ride on my shoulders, and generally bounced her all over the place as we walked back. The extra work of tossing her up in the air and jogging back and forth while the others walked thoroughly kicked my ass, but it was well worth it to keep a happy kid all the way through the home stretch of the trip.

In the small favor of all small favors, as soon as we got to the subway station our train was waiting for us and we easily hopped on and zipped back to the hotel. The walk from the subway to the hotel was not quite as easy and Babe-O insisted on being held by her Mom for that last little bit. That was okay, though. By that time it was well past her bedtime and she was as tired as the rest of us.

Once we got back to our rooms, Mom-O hopped in the shower and I took Babe-O for her bath. Once she was all cleaned up I passed her back to Mom-O and MIL-O and hopped into the car to zip across town just in time to beat last call at that little Italian joint where we had eaten on the first night. I brought back a pizza, which we ate before packing up the car and going to bed.

The next day, we got up at about 5 a.m. to get back on the road. Once again, Babe-O woke up at almost exactly the halfway point, which was the same exit she needed to stop at on the way there. We were a little thrown off that it was still only about 9 a.m. as we were looking for lunch food, but managed to get a decent bite/stretch at eat-n-park. Babe-O and I ate pretty quickly and headed out to the parking lot to stretch our legs while the ladies finished up.

While out there, we were lucky enough to spot a parked Porsche 911 Carrera, which Babe-O had never seen before. Introductions were clearly in order. Just as we were kneeling way too close to the car so that I could show Babe-O the independent exhaust tracts, the owner walked out, probably right after gulping down the last of his coffee after spotting us through the window looking underneath his car. He was very friendly and understanding as I thanked him for letting my little girl catch a glimpse of a really impressive vehicle. As an experience, the car was at least as valuable to her development as that Van Gogh she had swatted earlier in the day at the museum (oops! painting pictured).

After that we got back in the car and made it home with no trouble, Babe-O sleeping most of the way. I made it back to the office a little after noon and managed to get all caught up on being away by the time I left at the end of the day. The half-day back after a vacation was a good idea – can't recommend that highly enough.

Well, that's the D.C. story. I'm sure I left a lot out, but I think I hit the high points pretty well. The whole thing brought me closer to Babe-O and it was a just plain incredible experience. It was very cool to hang out with her 24/7 with minimal distraction from work and other obligations. Plus, now we know that Babe-O can handle herself on the road and in the city, which makes me really excited to start going other similar stuff with her – both big trips like this one and smaller ones closer to home. Two thumbs, way up, big time.

D.C. Recap (Day III)

Recently got back from taking a few days off to hit Washington, D.C. This is the third in a short series of posts about how it went.

By our second full day in the city, Babe-O had pretty much mastered the whole routine. She would sleep in her stroller or on my shoulder when it was naptime or skip naptime and be no worse for the wear. Either way, we didn't really miss a beat as she modified her routine to accommodate sightseeing and other touristy activities. We did the normal stuff, Smithsonian museums and all that, and she was awesome all day long. But the best part of that day was dinner.

The four of us (Mom-O, Babe-O, MIL-O, me) went to the Old Ebbitt Grill, a niceish, semi-historical bar/restaurant near the White House. We were a little concerned with how Babe-O would do, way past her bedtime and after a long and active day, in a nice place with tablecloths and soft music and all that. Of course, by now you're probably picking up on the pattern and know that she did splendidly once again.

It did start off a little rough, however, when we came to the entrance, which was a revolving door, and only a revolving door. After several awkward attempts to get the stroller through the thing, a near-by shoeshine guy showed us which of the decorative doors we could use, which I popped open, just about knocking a big plant to the ground on the other side. The restaurant guy inside didn't seem super impressed at the time, but fixed the plant and got us a table pretty quickly. We got to our seat to find a high chair and a special place setting for Babe-O, featuring a single silver spoon on top of a cloth napkin. She immediately grabbed it and held it up to the light like Excalibur or something, and we unanimously dubbed her new accessory the Spoon of Justice. She held onto it for the rest of the meal.

They didn't exactly have a kid menu, so let her help herself to a cheese tray appetizer, which featured a bunch of weird, very flavorful fancy cheeses. She loves cheese, but usually doesn't get anything any more exotic than cheddar. But she ate this stuff like a sophisticated little lady and impressed the manager lady while she was at it. Manager Lady and the servers all seemed impressed by Babe-O, who sat in her spot at the end of the table, quietly babbled with us and ate things like blue cheese and seafood.

We got through dinner with no problem, but had a little bit of difficulty at the very end. After ordering desert (booze), I scooped Babe-O up for a diaper change. On my way back to the restrooms, Manager Lady spotted us and told me that they didn't have a restroom with a changing table. In an effort to keep up my public persona of superdad, I told her that was no sweat and headed back to the bar area to find the men's room.

There was no men's room. Just a single bathroom for everybody, about the size of an elevator. And for a really nice place, it was dirty. As I walked in, our server saw me and asked if I was going to change her in there. When I told him I was, he pointed out that he must need more practice because he'd never be able to change his kid in there. He also promised that my drink would be waiting for me when I got back to the table, apparently not thinking that I might like him to pour it directly down my throat on the spot.

So I walked into the bathroom. There was a sink and a toilet and that was it – nothing big enough to accommodate the changing pad, much less the baby. I knew that Babe-O wasn't going to like this, so I turned the sink on full blast to drone out any fussing (the bar was about two feet from the door and there were people eating right on the other side of the wall). I sat down on the toilet and spread the baby out in my lap. She started screaming and I just worked to get her taken care of as quickly as I could. By the time I had the new diaper on and started to get her little dress all straightened out again, she was really wailing and I was getting a little bit flustered. Just as I was looking for a place to throw the old diaper away, I glanced at the sink and noticed that my full blast faucet setting had not only sprayed water all over everything, but had also filled up the (apparently) slow-draining sink, which was now spilling all over the floor.

After shutting the water off and making an awkward attempt to clean up one-handed while holding the kid away from all the gross surfaces in that little room, we stepped out and were greeted by a bar full of folks who were probably wondering what all the screaming and swearing coming from the bathroom was all about. Fortunately, Babe-O settled down immediately and I didn't have to walk back to our table with her screaming and carrying on.

After that, it was back to the hotel to rest up for Sunday, when we would basically deathmarch ourselves to the remaining corners of the city.

More to come…

D.C. Recap (Day II)

Recently got back from taking a few days off to hit Washington, D.C. This is the second in a short series of posts about how it went.

The first thing we learned about Babe-O on this trip is that she is a master traveler. This held true on our first full day when we left the hotel on foot for the subway. Except for two trips to the kickass Italian joint mentioned in the previous post, we didn't touch the car the whole time we were there. The subway was just a few blocks away and we could ride it all the way into town and get wherever we needed to go that way. Babe-O never fussed on the train and put up with all the commotion and running around between connections beautifully. It didn't matter if she was in her stroller or being carried by one of us, she was a complete trooper and didn't slow us down a bit.

Note to subway-travelling parents: The sooner you decide you are willing to take the stroller on the escalator, the better off you'll be. Trying to use the elevators taught me how inconvenient it would be to be handicapped (besides the obvious). Every station has an elevator. But generally there is only one, even if there are eight different sets of stairs/escalators going to different levels and different areas. That means you need to go out of your way all the time just to get to the floor you need. Using the escalator makes life easier. In fact, when the escalators weren't running for one reason or another, we found it easy to just pick the stroller up and hike up the stairs than to find an elevator that gets off where you want it to.

Anyway, I think I was a teenager before I set foot on a subway for the first time. I'm glad that Babe-O was able to get her foot in that particular (sliding) door before the age of one.

Small, flammable world

Our first stop in the city was the National Archives. We breezed right in, which was a relief because it was hot and the last time we went there it took hours to get through security. We faced a very stern security lady who made us dismantle all our crap, which was pretty much the name of the game every time we tried to go anywhere. This is a little bit of an ordeal with the stroller/diaperbag and all that, but we never had too much trouble with it. We got through, hopped on the elevator, and as soon as we hit the button we heard a loud, repeating noise that sounded like an electric slide whistle. It turned out it was the fire alarm and the whole building was evacuated. And by building, I mean block. It was at this point that we noticed that the tightly-wound angry security lady was armed. She was making very sure that everyone got the hell out of there and away from the building. We took about two steps out of the elevator (after Mom-O paused to take some catastrophe video) and then we ran into Mom-O's aunt, uncle and cousins. They live about an hour away from us and were (evidently) also visiting D.C. that weekend. Crazy coincidence. That stuff freaks me out. We talked for a while out on the lawn and then went our separate ways after getting the feeling that the security lady might shoot one of us as an example to the rest of the loiterers.

I have a stroller (and I'm not afraid to use it)

After some more sightseeing and running around the city, we made it back to the archives to see if things had calmed down. They had. Apparently there was a bus on fire nearby and they had to evacuate just to be on the safe side. On the downside, this time there was a bit of a line to get back in, but we waited in it and got through in about thirty minutes. Once inside, we checked out all the goofy stuff they have in there, Taft's big bathtub, George Washington's wooden thong, that sort of thing. Then we made our way to the rotunda where they have all the really badass stuff, like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Every American should make an annual pilgrimage to the rotunda to see those documents. It will help you keep your head on straight politically and recharge your patriotic batteries.

The line to get into the rotunda was a little more than an hour long, but as we stood there, a security guy came over and told us that the stroller entrance was just down the hall. We went over there and were shocked to find out that we could just walk right in without waiting. That was really the only time that having the stroller/baby really sped things up, but I was impressed none-the-less.

No, no…take your time…we'll be right here

After the rotunda, we went over the other side of the building where the research side of the Archives is. That was the whole reason that MIL-O wanted to come down, so that she could do some genealogy research on her family. She and Mom-O headed in to get their bearings before spending a longer chunk of time there the following day. You have to be 14 to go in there, so I was more than happy to stay outside with Babe-O while they went inside. We goofed off on the steps out front for about an hour before meeting up again and heading back to the hotel.

Five Guys and a baby

One of the coolest thing about travelling with Babe-O was that even though she had her own food packed, in general, she pretty much ate whatever we ate. Usually this just meant a stray french fry or a bit of salad, but she really blew me away with one particular lunch. We went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries, where all the burgers are doubles and all the beef is well done. You might know it as the burger-joint-of choice of a certain famous individual.

The burgers are absolutely awesome. We held one up for Babe-O to inspect, just for the sake of a laugh and maybe a photo opp, but the little carnivore chomped right down on the thing. These burgers are big enough that I could barely get it in my mouth, but her little jaw opened wide and took a huge bit of beef. She loved it right away and went back for more. So.Freaking.Proud.

Just one thing

The only real issue we had with Babe-O through all our travels was that she wasn't drinking enough water. She ended up a little dehydrated by the end of the day, so we just had to stay on top of offering her water all the time. Don't know if she was just distracted or what, but she was not drinking enough. By the end of the trip, though, we figured it out.

More to come…

D.C. Recap (Day I)

Just got back from taking a few days off to hit Washington, D.C. This is the first in a short series of posts about how it went.

I guess this is what a vacation feels like. Right now Mom-O and I are side by side in a hotel room in Washington D.C., clacking away at our keyboards just before midnight, trying to keep up with our blogs/work. Don't take that the wrong way…it really isn't me bitching that we're on vacation but are still up in the middle of the night working. This has actually been great so far, even though most of the day was spent in the car. I haven't touched twitter. I checked my voicemail once and my e-mail once. Both of us are waaaaay more unplugged from technology and work than we have been in a really long time. So this'll be good. Today is Thursday and we're going to be here until we head out on Monday morning, which now that I think about it is a pretty long time (in a good way).

So today started with me getting up after about three hours of sleep and going into the office butt-early to get everything in order so that I could leave without being stressed about work. Around noon we were in the car, Mom-O, Babe-O and Mom-O-in-Law. Mom-O-in-Law (MIL-O?) is particularly stoked about the trip because she is a genealogy nut who is going to be like a kid in a candy store in the national archives. (While she's there, I plan to behave like a kid in a candy store too, only I'll most likely actually be in a candy store someplace.)

It is about a six-hour drive for us, which meant and awful lot of time for Babe-O in the car. We haven't done a trip this long with here since she was tiny, and even then we just left in the dead of night so that she'd sleep the whole way. This time around we just carved it into two three-hour chunks with a good break in the middle to stretch/eat/play.

Babe-O nailed it. She was awesome. MIL-O was in the backseat to keep her company and she took two big fat naps that pretty much ate up most of the downtime. We made it here no sweat and I have renewed confidence in our ability to travel with the little one.

Once we got here, we checked into the hotel and moved in to our rooms. We ("we" as in "not me") actually went to the trouble of unpacking the suitcases and moving into the dressers and closets, but I guess that'll be kind of nice since we are going to be here for a few days. Babe-O loved the hotel. She rolled around on the beds and was in a generally great mood, so we decided to push our luck and take her out to eat way past her bedtime for the sake of letting her enjoy some of the day out of her car seat.

We went to what turned out to be a completely kickass Italian place. This was the first time in my life that I have been the ONLY white guy in an Italian restaurant, so I knew from the get-go that we were on to someplace special. Babe-O was in a great mood and charmed the hell out of the servers and other guests. She waved at people across the room and impressed our server with how well she sat in her booster seat and ate her kids-eat-free buffet food like a little lady. I was proud as hell to be her Dad and the food was freaking amazing. Good times had by all.

Then we finished up and headed back to the hotel to put her to bed. We are staying in a suite, so she has her own space in the common area where we set up her pack-n-play, which was going to stand in for her crib while she was away. Unfortunately, that plan fell apart a bit when Mom-O decided that it was too risky to have Babe-O sleeping alone by the door to our room, where any run-of-the-mill nutcase could break the door down in the black of night and disappear down the hallway with our girl. Needless to say, as soon as I'm done typing this I'm going to get up to go to the bathroom and almost certainly break my toe on the pack-n-play, which is now crammed in our room with us. On the plus side, she is sleeping soundly and is safe from any would-be invaders that might be prowling the halls.

More to come...

Front-heavy hiking

I've been stalling on this hiking post for a few days now because I was really hoping that one of the people in our group who was taking pictures would have e-mailed them out by now, but no such luck (hint, hint, photogs!). Anyway, blog post now, photos later.

We took Babe-O hiking at a place with big rocks. It was kind of a weird spot, but for six bucks you get to hike around a big loop in the woods with big, impressive cliffs and rock formations. I used to do the camping/hiking thing occasionally, so I was pretty stoked about the whole outing, even more so because I got to expose Babe-O to some genuine outdoor adventuring. She rode around strapped to my chest in her ever-useful Jeep carrier, which has now proven that it can accommodate everything from emptying the dishwasher to semi-professional rock climbing.

She did great. No fussing, no complaints, just riding around and occasionally cooing and shouting at the surrounding scenery. With any luck, this will lay the foundation for many daddy/daughter adventures.

Mom-O and nature don't really get along, so it'll be very cool if I can get away with having a buddy to run around in the woods with me. Time will tell, but so far so good.