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A family vacation
Just back from a week sharing a vacation house in the Brattleboro, Vermont area with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bard_bloom's parents, brother, sister-in-law, and niece and nephew(ages 10 and 7).
Vacation with an infant is not the same as a real vacation, especially when your "day job" is taking care of said infant. The part of the house we were in got lots of light, which means the little guy woke up at 6 am give or take every day. Vacation with your inlaws is also not the same as a real vacation, even if you mostly like them. I was able to deal with Bard's mom much better before the baby, but this visit, our styles clashed massively.
But Rhys had a great time with his extended family. We went to a farm with a wildlife "preserve" containing butterflies, exotic birds, and one very out-of-place guinea pig. We went to another farm with a big petting zoo, at which the baby got his fingers licked by many lambs and then got to sit on a miniature tractor. We cooked many things, which were mostly appreciated, although the sausage gravy I made to go with some biscuits someone else made was highly undervalued. Rhys made new progress toward eating little chunks of table foods (and thus rejecting spooned foods), climbing stairs, and finding things he shouldn't, such as open beer cans left under couches by previous guests. (His finger's healing fine.) I got the kids addicted to Fluxx.
One vacationish thing I did get to do was to read the latest Harry Potter book. So now I'm caught up on the story. The house had wireless, but it was rather kludgy, so I don't have the website quite ready to go yet as I'd hoped, but we're Very Close Now. Bard and I also got to go out one evening, something we almost never do anymore. The baby apparently cried a long time before going to sleep, but then slept well. He's used to nursing right before bed, so if he doesn't get to, he's kind of lost. I'm never sure if I should feel guilty about that.
I'm missing doing updates here. I think even if it's not the fine essay writing I'd aspire to, but just mundania, I'm going to try to make the effort to update more regularly again.
bard_bloom's parents, brother, sister-in-law, and niece and nephew(ages 10 and 7).Vacation with an infant is not the same as a real vacation, especially when your "day job" is taking care of said infant. The part of the house we were in got lots of light, which means the little guy woke up at 6 am give or take every day. Vacation with your inlaws is also not the same as a real vacation, even if you mostly like them. I was able to deal with Bard's mom much better before the baby, but this visit, our styles clashed massively.
But Rhys had a great time with his extended family. We went to a farm with a wildlife "preserve" containing butterflies, exotic birds, and one very out-of-place guinea pig. We went to another farm with a big petting zoo, at which the baby got his fingers licked by many lambs and then got to sit on a miniature tractor. We cooked many things, which were mostly appreciated, although the sausage gravy I made to go with some biscuits someone else made was highly undervalued. Rhys made new progress toward eating little chunks of table foods (and thus rejecting spooned foods), climbing stairs, and finding things he shouldn't, such as open beer cans left under couches by previous guests. (His finger's healing fine.) I got the kids addicted to Fluxx.
One vacationish thing I did get to do was to read the latest Harry Potter book. So now I'm caught up on the story. The house had wireless, but it was rather kludgy, so I don't have the website quite ready to go yet as I'd hoped, but we're Very Close Now. Bard and I also got to go out one evening, something we almost never do anymore. The baby apparently cried a long time before going to sleep, but then slept well. He's used to nursing right before bed, so if he doesn't get to, he's kind of lost. I'm never sure if I should feel guilty about that.
I'm missing doing updates here. I think even if it's not the fine essay writing I'd aspire to, but just mundania, I'm going to try to make the effort to update more regularly again.
no subject
As for nursing to sleep - I did that for months and months. The biggest problem is the issue of self-soothing - apparently, this is one of the few areas where formula-fed babies are ahead of breastfed ones. I know people who put their babies down after a bottle, still awake, and the kids put themselves to sleep. This is totally incomprehensible to me - Elizabeth still wants to be rocked, probably because I nursed her to sleep until I stopped nursing at 12 months.
Every nursing mother I've talked to does exactly the same thing, so don't feel guilty. Do, however, start putting him down and trying to get him to go to sleep on his own. Even if you have to stay in the same room, it'll be a break for you, and the first step towards weening (if that's starting to be an issue.)
As for Harry Potter, they're some of my favourite books ever. I pre-ordered Order of the Phoenix, picked it up at 7:30 a.m. the morning it was released (though Elizabeth was only two months old at the time) and read it in 48 hours, robbing myself of considerable sleep in the process. I was very upset at who died in it, though.
no subject
After I grew up, my mother (a full-time mom) shared one of her vacation memories. "We'd just finished loading the car with four kids, luggage, and dog. As we started to pull away, I looked back at the house and thought, 'We're getting away from it all!' Then I looked into the backseat, and realized, 'We're taking it all WITH US!'"
Hope you're relaxing some at home now. :)
no subject
Hannah and I just went to see the Potter movie yesterday, and she has actually read several of the books in the series (which is a major thing for my is this MY kid? usual non-reader).