Summer Vacation and Sleeping Troubles

We recently took a vacation to Texas. I believe the only place hotter than Texas in July is an oven in Saudi Arabia. Temperatures were 103+ every day except the last when it cooled down to 99. Despite the extreme conditions, we had a wonderful time. Allow me to say up front that we have NO pictures because our camera "disappeared" the first day we went to the pool. I'm hoping the relatives email some shots, and if they do, I'll be sure to add them. Thus, until we get a replacement camera, you are stuck with just anecdotes and my feeble descriptions.

We first went to a resort called Lost Pines just outside of Austin. It had a nice pool, lazy river, and smores served every night at 8-ish (all diets were suspended for the duration of the trip). The first night was rather troublesome. Every time Bode lay down, he screamed, and loudly at that. The only time he wouldn't scream was in the stroller. And since we were concerned about the neighboring rooms, Bode and I spent some quality time from 12-2 am and then again from 4-7 am strolling around the hotel grounds. At least the temperature had fallen to the mid-80's, and we did see some armadillo and a couple skunk. Later that morning as I napped, Ashley took Bode to a local clinic. Diagosis: ear infection. Fortunately, the medicine seemed to work and he was able to sleep that night, expect he wouldn't sleep in the crib. Therefore, for the duration of the trip, Bode slept in the big bed between Ashley and me which he loved (more on this later).

After a few days of R&R at Lost Pines, we headed to San Antonio with a slight detour to Austin to see Ashley's Uncle Bud. The entire crew had lunch. Note the entire crew consisted of Ashley's parents, her Aunt Patti and Uncle Dwight, her cousin Penny and her family Milton (husband) and kids (Chelsea, Cricket, Callie, and Josh), Josh's girlfriend, and Ashley's brother Dave and his wife, Kathy, and their two kids, Teddy and Charlie. We stayed at another resort in San Antonio just across the street from Sea World. There was another pool with lazy river, and more smores. We lounged at the pool and spent a day at Sea World. Bode really liked the sea lion show (he thought they were big dogs). We also saw the Orca show, but stayed away from the splash zone :-) The grandparents watched Bode for a little while enabling Ashley and me to go on one of the big water rides. And what trip to San Antonio isn't complete without a trip to the Riverwalk for some Mexican food.

Bode seemed to like spending time in the swimming pools, and also enjoyed playing with his cousins. Unfortunately, the sleeping in the bed has caused some trouble since we've come home. He no longer likes his crib. Before we went on vacation, we could put him in his crib, and he'd be asleep in five minutes. Now he's learned there's stuff going on outside his room, so everytime we try to get him to go to sleep, he screams, and screams, and screams some more. Usually at night he'll scream for ~1 hour and then nod off. Occasionally he'll be up in the middle of the night screaming. And the naps seem to have gone the way of the dodo. Yesterday (Saturday), when we put him down for a nap he screamed for 90 minutes before we gave up. We had hoped the lack of nap would make him sleepy at night. No such luck. And today (Sunday), we're again trying for a nap. We put him in the crib at 1:15. It is now 2:55 and he's still shouting. The annoying thing is daycare has said Bode still naps great. Hopefully it's just a (short) phase.

Ashley is out shopping. Hopefully she gets us a new camera because I just reread the post. Damn this thing is boring without pictures :-) Pleasant week to all.