Deception Pass

I am sitting watching the Mariners and Red Sox (yes, mom I know amazing :-) on my first night being by myself for multiple hours with both of the kids! We have survived, so far, Eliza and I still need to get to bed without help... we are making baby steps.

We also survived our first car camping trip with two kiddos! We went down to Deception Pass State Park this past Sunday with 6 other families to camp for the night. Only 4 of us stayed the night but all 7 families had a campfire dinner and fun on the beach. That would be 4 two year olds, one 4 year old, and three infants and a dog! I know we are crazy! It was a pretty successful trip minus the Eliza screaming fit for almost 45 minutes around midnight. Luckily the adults had not gone to bed yet and amazingly enough she did not wake any of of the kids. Even Corbin slept right through it while in the same tent! But man it was tiring! We had a group site away from all other sites which was huge and great for the kids to run around relatively safely. But of course the water pump was right near the cars and just barely out of site at times, which attracted most of the toddlers. We had lots of running after Corbin and bouncing Ellie and making sure Brindzi didn't eat burgers or get freaked out by toddlers trying to steal her ball. Phew.

Here is our gaggle of boys. 6 boys! Miles, Luca, Alden, Corbin, Brody, and Bjorn!
Thank goodness that Eliza and Uma have joined the group!

And the awesome mom's who have to wrangle all these boys (with the help of dad's of course).

Miles, Uma, and Eliza enjoying some tummy time on the beach.

Corbin, Brody, and Luca playing in the sand.

Sleeping babies.

Campfire time was good but a little scary at times with that many kids running around eating marshmallows with a hot fire near by.

Hmmm...how did this happen???

The next morning after breakfast we headed to the beach again. We were all bundled up from being in the shade at camp... Corbin quickly shed his clothes down to his diaper.

It was fun but tiring. I am glad we did it. I didn't sleep well and it was stressful trying to figure out how to keep Eliza warm but not too warm and not wanting to wake everyone else up. We were all VERY tired the next day. It was nice to have our new big 6 person family camping tent! We fit all our gear, 4 people, and our dog! It was very nice. Who knows what next year's camping trips will look like with two mobile kids....

Summer moments

It's hard to believe summer is coming to an end soon. Only a week and a couple of days before Adam goes back to school... but we have been having lots of fun these last two weeks. We seemed to have turned a corner here. Things have been much better. Eliza is setting into a little more of a routine, Corbin is getting a little better, and I am slowly trying to take over more responsibility with both of them all by myself. Here are a couple of picture from the last week.

Eliza and her bigger buddies, Charlotte (5 months) and Miles (4.5 months) at Boulavard Concert in the Park.

My little boy isn't so little anymore. He fell asleep in the car the other day and I got to snuggle with him in my arms for a few moments. It was only a few moments but oh... his sweaty little head again my chest. It's been so long. He seemed so BIG!

We headed to the NW Washington State Fair in Lynden on Wednesday. A trip I always enjoy. This year Corbin had much more fun and even got to go on his first rides! Adam of course schemed a little more about what collections he and Corbin will some day submit. Eliza slept through most of it, much like Corbin his first time. I took some pictures of Corbin eating his first corndog on my phone but can't seem to get them on the computer yet. It was a fun time had by all.

Standing in line for his first ride.

On the airplane with daddy!

Merry-go-round with mommy!

This past week we have re-introduced Corbin's baby Albert (he named him...) to help with some of Corbin's behaviors. Albert has now gone almost everywhere with us. He goes and takes naps, gets his diaper changed, which took one whole side of nursing to do :-), gets fed with a bottle, or nursed, gets to go in the swing, in the bassinet, listens to stories, gets his blanket on and more. He has suddenly become a life saver! Here we all are hanging out in diapers (well the babies, not me).

Eliza got weighed on Thursday. She weighs 11 pounds! She has a few more rolls at this point than Corbin did. They still almost look identical at this age, 5 weeks. Some of the differences include, her forehead seems smaller, smaller mouth, lighter eye brows and eye lashes, her head is slightly less round, she has smaller eyes, and slightly smaller features all around, except those rolls! She also has dimples and her hair has a redish tint to it. She is also really strong. She can hold her head up really high, so high, that she is already rolling over from her tummy to her back! Corbin didn't do that till he was 2 months old. I am trying to get her's on video but so far no luck.

Eliza at 5 1/2 weeks.

Corbin at 5 weeks.

Eliza

Corbin

We also had the opportunity this last weekend to get pictures taken professionally! It was really cool. A mom from our play group works with a guy who take pictures of kids on the side. You get a garage, a bunch of families, he sets up all his equipment, and then the kids just rotate through. There is no "sitting fee" and so you just pay if you want any of the pictures he takes. Then he donates all the profits to charity. Pretty cool! He got some great shots of Corbin and Eliza. If you would like to see them go here

http://photos.karmagarage.org/KarmaGarage/KG-003-August-14-2010

And then click on Eliza and Corbin's picture. The password is Eliza (case sensitive).

Next up... camping adventure tomorrow night with friends.

Smiles

Here are some smiles from earlier this week.

I am going to work on a fair post soon and some professional photos that were taken too.

Home --> Larrabee --> Home

I. Prologue

As you may know, I've been planning to take Corbin bike-camping this summer. We'd practiced sleeping in the tent, without success. We tried again last week, and again were unsuccessful. Continually with this mentality that we are "playing" sleep-in-the-tent. So I was a little worried. But I made a reservation! And reservations at state parks are annoying! So we were going!

II. Also

We are bike travelers. We camp by bike. We tour by bike. It's something we like to do. Erin and I have done it, and I've done it without the family.

People have told me, when Corbin was born, and with Eliza, that "your life's gonna change." And that's true. My life has changed (obviously). But not in the way "those people" think. I will not stop doing the things I like to do. I refuse to do that. But I will change so that I can do those things in a new way, a whole-fam-damly way. So life changes, yes. But the main way it changes is that now I load up my bike with stuff, and then hook a trailer to the back.

III. Day One: Home to Larrabee State Park

Miles: 14.04 (14.04 total) Riding time: 1:25:49
Trains: 5

We left home after Corbin's nap, which he miraculously took to early and well. The night before he had been a wreck because he wanted to go camping "Right now! Ride bike right now!" In the morning we had to tell him the campground was closed for us until after nap to get him to shut up about it stop fussing about it.

My plan was to ride to Fairhaven mostly by road, and then take the Interurban Trail the rest of the way to Larrabee. This was partially successful.

The trail from Fairhaven to Arroyo Park was excellent. Very flat, very easy. I passed a bike commuter. I...er...wasn't keeping track of who passed me. Anyway, at Arroyo Park the trail became suddenly treacherous. Impassable by kid-trailer. So onto the road I go.

This was kind of annoying, since the main reason to take the trail was to avoid a narrow, curvy, uphill section of Chuckanut Drive. And this was exactly what I had to go up, now that I was back on the road. Ah well. Traffic wasn't too bad. And I did have two flags.

After surviving the least pleasant part of Chuckanut Dr., I rejoined the Interurban. Very nice. Until.

Sigh. Such good intentions they had. A fresh layer of gravel covered the trail. Perfect for walkies. But for me, with my touring tires, it was a bit mushy and pretty slow going. First chance I had, I abandoned the trail for good.

And then we arrived. Corbin hadn't fussed at all the entire ride. I had fussed more, actually.

We had a snack of breadsticks as we set up the tent, and then headed down to the beach to put our feet in.

Feet in

Rocks

Corbin on rocks

Snack on the way back to the campsite

Contemplating a slug's life

When we got back to the campsite, Corbin's friend Alden and his dad Eric had arrived. Eric just finished climbing some really tall mountain around here, and was a little tired for biking and/or camping, but they'll make it next time. It was still fun that they got to come have dinner with us!

They had the fire going when we got there, so we got straight down to what boys do. Poking sticks at fire. Alden and Corbin were both well behaved and kept a safe distance, for the most part.

Cooking dinner

At some point Corbin lost his shirt. And by "lost" I mean refused to keep it on.

"Seriously! I have no idea how all this dirt got on me! It was on the ground, and now it's on me! It's a mystery!"

Corbin got to have s'mores for the first time. He found them delicious and sticky. And his first line after finishing? "I want some more." I didn't give him any more because he didn't say it right. OK. I gave him half of one, and I ate the other half as a language-precision-penalty.

Alden and Eric left around 9(?). We packed some things up and headed down to the bathroom for diaper changes and teeth brushing and what-have-you.

Secret weapon for tent success: Lightstick

We got in the tent about 9:45. No sense going to bed at a reasonable hour. We read some books and sang some songs. We played with the lightstick, which I eventually had to put away. Corbin has only slept with us a couple of times, mostly with Erin on trips. Never in a tent. I wasn't sure exactly how (if?) it would work. He decided he didn't want his sleeping bag, for one. He used his blanket. And then he proceeded to lay on my arm, on my chest, on my neck. To climb over me to the other side. It finally ended up something like this:

Tent wall--Corbin--Me--Corbin's pad--Corbin's sleeping bag--Tent wall

I estimate it was between 10:30 and 11:00 when he/we fell asleep. He never asked to go home or sleep in his bed. He said several times, unprompted, that he was "Having fun." So, I don't know, dodged a bullet?

Day Two: Larrabee State Park to Home

Miles: 12.21 (26.25 total) Riding time: 1:19:39
Trains: 2 (but also, foghorn!)

I don't really like sleeping in tents. Sleeping bags and pads don't really agree with me. But I survived.

I think I woke up at about 6. Corbin was covered in my sleeping bag, and I was spread across what part of my pad he gave me and his pad. I managed to nick some of my sleeping bag, too.

At about 6:30 Corbin woke up, said "Mommy go?"

"She's at home," I said. His response was to fall back to sleep.

At about 7:30 he woke up for good, and his first words were "Ready go home now." They were also his second four, his third four, and maybe his fourth four. Clearly, it was time to get moving.

We had instant oatmeal and bananas for breakfast. I had hot cocoa. It was chillier than I expected. Corbin insisted on sitting on my lap during breakfast. Also, triangular cups are awkward for drinking.

Once we were up and about and playing with a dead lightstick, spirits were a little better. To make sure I kept things moving along, Corbin decided to wear his helmet.

The ride back was uneventful. I skipped the Interurban altogether. Chuckanut was not too busy, and I took the lane down the curvy narrow part and made the Volvo behind me wait until we got to the bottom.

As we approached town I ran through several potential routes, all containing more hills than I preferred. I ended up zig-zagging through the cemetery to avoid steep uphill gravel trails. It worked out, but was a little haphazard. I also had to avoid playgrounds, since Corbin was informing me of his interest in getting out and playing at a playground, and I had no intention of stopping or increasing the intensity of his pleas.

We made it.

IV. Epilogue

My knees hurt a bit, despite not much riding, but it doesn't really seem like things went that much slower pulling a twenty pound trailer and a thirty pound boy. Slow patches were more because of the trail than the load.

Corbin went to sleep early for his nap. I will go to sleep early tonight.

Next year, Birch Bay. Who's coming?

1 month

Little Eliza was one month old yesterday!

She is starting to smile. She has dimples. She is hard to get to sleep unless you put her in the swing. She sleeps well at night and has been giving me a 5-6 hour stretch already! She grunts in the morning after her 2nd feeding, even though she is asleep, she keeps me awake. Corbin loves her.

Here is the post from when Corbin was one month old. Hopefully I will get some side by side shots to compare how similar or different were at around this time. Look how big he is now!