*This is an older post but I figured still relevant!
“Hey, I went with a toes-free diet two weeks before vacation. It’s time to splurge, okay?!”Welcome back readers!
Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I’m sure everyone has had a big hole in their daily schedules from not having a blog entry of mine to read. Ah, I’m just kidding. I know everyone just re-read all the old ones to get their fix. All joking aside, part of the reason for the delay is that we went on a vacation with the little one. Yup, that’s right, baby’s first road trip to Sanibel. And I must say, it went smoothly. For the most part.
You know, it really is amazing how many times you come to the realization of how different things are when you become a parent. For instance, my wife and I used to be able to practically just pack up our car, pick up and go on vacation. Now? There is A LOT more to consider. The crazy thing, our baby boy probably had more stuff to bring with him than we did! And he is only nine months old. We actually rented an SUV to have extra room (we had other family join us as well, but for the sake of my hyperbole, I will still blame short-stuff).
To get to our destination in the past, the only major hindrance of time would be something traffic related. Now with our son, it is a little more complicated. For instance, when we stopped for gas, he had quite the meltdown. His screaming actually made me look forward to the “Are we there yet?” that will fill my ears years from now, sort of like a “Ghost of Vacations Future” effect. It took some time to get him somewhat calm for travel and he still was NOT happy. Oh, and we hadn’t even left West Palm Beach yet! I now present Exhibit A:
“I’m going to poop double for you guys once we reach Sanibel…”But then, he got the hang of it in a few minutes:
“ZZZZzzz..blast you all..ZZzzzzz…”Also we added on time for him to breastfeed. So what usually is about a three-hour drive took nearly five.
We finally arrived in Sanibel and were ready to start our vacation. Maybe we would head down to the beach or walk to a local….whoa, that baby is asleep AGAIN? Another realization hit: it is kind of hard to plan a to-do list with an infant. As every parent learns, children are the boss and hand out your schedule on a daily basis. So a lot of our vacation was spent hanging around the hotel or having quick outings around the island.
From the sound of this post so far, it sounds as though another vacation would be the furthest thing from my mind, eh? That I would wait until my baby boy was no longer a baby? But another realization took place while we were there: I would do this again in a heartbeat. It was definitely not the typical vacation my wife and I are used to but it was still amazing. Ultimately, one of the best parts was giving our child new experiences. For instance, it was the first time he ever helped pack a suitcase:
“Am I really going to fit in here??”It was also his first time going to the beach:
“Dammit, I thought I threw this hat OUT of the suitcase!”And, it was his first time staying in a hotel:
“Hey Dad, Sesame Street is about to come on!”Of course he won’t remember any of it, but that’s why we take photos or write blogs, to create memories. He will always be able to look back at the pictures or read the crazy things his dad wrote about him and hopefully see that we tried to make his childhood an exciting one. And we, as parents, are looking forward to many more trips in the future and to generating more memories.
-Until next time!
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