Here are the day by day details:
On Wednesday afternoon, Grammy picked up Henry around 3PM so that Jeff and I could get ready for our trip. We left our house at 5:45PM, stopped by a couple of stores, got some dinner, and then went to Grammy and Poppy’s house. We left their place at 7:50PM and headed to San Diego. Henry and I read a couple of books in the car (“Sam and the Fire Fly” and “The Haunted House”). I let Henry watch “Lady and the Tramp” and “Robin Hood” (part of them anyway) on my laptop. At 10PM, we found a rest stop and changed Henry’s very wet diaper. Henry passed out after that. His sleep wasn’t the deepest I’ve seen (more like the kind one gets on the airplane).
When we arrived in San Diego around 2AM, Henry announced that he was ready to “go home.” He did manage, however, to give Eric, a fellow who helped us with our luggage, a winning smile. We had nice room at the Marriott at the Marina. Our room was on the top floor (25th) and had a view of the city, Petco stadium, the Coronado Bridge, and the marina. Henry tossed and turned against Dad as he tried to get to sleep. I personally think that it was the mattress that troubled him. The new mattress that we got for Jeff’s birthday is really a fantastic mattress (Kings Down). I didn’t notice the difference between our former mattress and our new one when we first got it (Jeff did and Henry liked it right away). Having adjusted to the new one these past several months, I can see where sleeping on anything else just isn’t quite the same.
On Thursday, Henry got up at 7:15AM or so. The sunlight made it through a crack in the blinds and hit him squarely on the face. We had a nice breakfast downstairs in one of the hotel restaurants. Our waitress asked how old Henry was b/c she wasn’t expecting such strong enunciation from someone his size. She said that she could understand him perfectly…better than her niece or nephew who is 4.
SEA WORLD!
Around 10:30AM, we decided that we’d give Sea World a go. We started off at the sea lions. I bought Henry two rounds of fish to feed the sea lions. He had great fun. Then, we attempted to watch a Dolphin show. That was a bust. Henry was too squirmy and wanted to go up and down the stairs. He became irate when we wouldn’t let him, so we ended up leaving the show 5 minutes into it. He was a bit moody after that. He wasn’t as excited about the penguins as we thought he’d be. Near the inside puffin exhibit, he laid down on the carpet and said “sleep.” It was off in the corner, so we let him rest for a few minutes. We went outside, and he laid down on the pavement several times. We found a quiet area on some grass, but no Henry; Henry wanted to lay down on the pavement again. I was afraid that the trip would be ruined and we’d have to leave. Henry wanted no part of his stroller. But eventually, sleep won out while he was in his stroller. We were in one of the dark aquariums where they actually allowed strollers. We then headed to a second aquarium which had big tanks. We sat in a quiet, dark corner and watched the sea bass while Henry snoozed. Then we strolled around with a snoozing Henry. When he arose, he was groggy at first but had a rebound of energy and began to enjoy himself.We had some lunch at a pizza and pasta cafeteria place. Henry ate like a bird. We then headed to the Elmo area. Henry enjoyed running around. The highlight of the trip was when unbeknownst to us, a Elmo show of three short songs took place. Elmo, Zoey, Cookie Monster, Bert, and Ernie sang songs and danced. The children in the play area went wild! Henry was overjoyed to see Elmo.
A little girl who was probably 3-3.5 years old kept trying to hug Henry. They sat down and appeared to have a conversation; it looked like they could understand each other. They watched Elmo and company.
Henry rocked out to some of the Elmo songs and talked to people…
Watching Henry rock out to Elmo was probably the trip highlight for me. He loved watching Elmo. He got excited to see other kids. It was worth the entire trip.
We went to the “tidal pool” which was an area created for kids under 37” in height. The floor had a lot of give and contained large, soft blocks. Henry tried to take the blocks out of the area on several occasions. It was a lot of fun for him. He then played in a sandpit area. We rode on one carnival ride "Abby's Starfish Spin." Henry liked it.
The big hit of the animals was the Shark Encounter. By this time, the lines had died down considerably. It looked like it was going to rain, so a lot of people left. Henry had so much fun at the Shark Encounter that we went through it a second time after he made his request for “Again!” Afterward, we then took a second look at the flamingos and fed them some pellets. Henry managed to get a pellet on one of the flamingo’s backs without the bird noticing. We let Henry touch one of the star fish in the touching tidal pool. He did pretty well, although we closely monitored him b/c he isn’t the gentlest of petters. We went to the killer whale viewing area before leaving the park. Henry enjoyed “Shamu.”We came back to the hotel. Henry had a few bites of room service food but his eating wasn’t stellar. Sigh. We even let him watch “Robin Hood.” One of my colleagues is working on projects to discover whether TV viewing is associated with obesity. We keep hoping that plopping Henry in front of the television will put him in a mindless, zombie-like state where he’ll just eat anything we give him…but such has not yet been the case.
Thursday’s words…
331. “Bite it” (telling me to bite a piece of toast)
332. Shark
333. Whale
334. Fish
He had some other phrases, but I can remember them.
On Friday, we slept until 9:30AM. That’s a record for us! Henry was a bit of a challenge at breakfast, but he discovered the joys of French toast sticks. I spent the morning/early afternoon in the room preparing my presentation. Jeff and Henry went to the San Diego Children’s Museum. It was a short trip as most of the exhibits were for slightly older children than Henry. They chased pigeons in the park for a little bit, and Henry pointed out the "kids." Henry was acting very tired, so Jeff brought him back to the hotel before I left. He tried to get Henry to sleep, but Henry was so tired that he had a tantrum…a vomit tantrum in fact…which meant that we had to call for the housekeeping services. Jeff then took Henry in the stroller hoping that he’d fall asleep there b/c the bed was too soaked with vomit to use. I changed before going to the conference as I ended up having Henry vomit all over my shirt. Lovely! On a happy note, my presentation went well. It was a panel composed primarily of political scientists. Jeff and Henry took a nap. When Henry woke up, Jeff broke out all of his toys (Jeff had packed a lot of them) and turned the hotel room into a play area, hoping that it would make Henry feel more comfortable. It seemed to do the trick.
When I returned, Henry and Jeff were watching a DVD (Aladdin or Robin Hood). Then, we gave Henry a bath, and he went to bed.
Friday’s words included:
335. Kids
336. Pigeons
On Saturday, he woke up around 7:15AM. We had breakfast. We found the Pancake House but the line was so long that we decided to have breakfast at the hotel. Henry was a bit of a challenge during the meal again. These days, our breakfasts with Henry are far from enjoyable b/c as soon as Henry is done, he wants to leave and shouts out “All Done!” Sigh.
We went to Ocean Beach. Henry enjoyed the first 10 minutes of it. He liked running away from the water with Jeff. But he wanted to “go home” after those first 10 minutes were up. We walked along the beach and Henry snuggled into Jeff. On the return back down the beach, we took our shoes off. The water was cold. Henry did OK with the sand against his toes but wanted nothing to do with the water. We walked along the pier and then took a quick tour of the shops along the boulevard.
We came back to the hotel. Took a two hour nap. Henry went down easily. We rented a surrey and cycled around the marina. After we returned the surrey, we walked around. Henry headed for a popular art piece that kids were climbing all over. He met a woman who was with her three year old granddaughter, Amy. The woman was impressed with Henry’s mimicry. She was speaking to Amy in Spanish and Henry was copying her. He picked up “de nada” as a phrase. He liked the woman so much he gave her a hug. There was a man with several parrots at the marina. Henry touched one of the parrots, but it kind of scared him when the man put the bird on his arm.
We had dinner at a Greek restaurant. Henry enjoyed gyros and beef dolmades. After dinner, our Seaport excursion included a ride on the carousel. We then took some pictures near the waterfall at the hotel pool, which Henry called “the shower.”Henry watched some of a DVD before falling asleep. It didn’t take long. Our marina/Seaport trip took a lot out of him.
337. Shower
On Sunday, we considered going to the zoo but felt that we’d already pushed Henry pretty far on his discovery of the world. So we went to breakfast at the Pancake House, went back to the hotel to check out, and then went to Balboa Park to let him run around before heading home. The slides at Balboa Park were a HUGE hit. Henry tackled some pretty big slides too. He learned how to slow down his sliding by putting his shoes on the slide, and ultimately didn’t need me to catch him at the end of the slide. He trucked on past several kids who were much older than he was and acted like he owned the place. I thought I heard some parents tell their children something to the effect of “Look, that baby can do it” when trying to encourage their kids not to be afraid of the slides. After sliding, Henry tried out the swings. He was OK with them but wasn't thrilled. I don't think that he like giving up control and being put in a single location. Henry discovered pine cones at the park. He gathered several for me.
Then, we headed home. Of course, as we were leaving, Henry announced that he wanted to go to the "beach" and "ocean." Henry slept for 1.5 hours. That meant 5 plus hours of entertaining him. Not an easy task. He was driving me crazy with lots of demands and occasional requests. He’d want something, I’d reach for it, and then he’d get mad if I had to lean across him to get whatever he wanted. Five hours is a long time to be trapped in a seat. We stopped in Yuma at a Wendy’s. Henry didn’t really eat that much. Then, we stopped again, about 1.5 hours outside of Tucson at a rest stop. We let him walk around a little bit. I broke out the computer during the last 2.5 hour leg of the journey home. We watched half of the Sponge Bob movie and all of “The Jungle Book.”338. Beach
339. Ocean
All in all, San Diego is a great city. I can see why people would want to live there. Two hours or so outside of San Diego, the landscape is varied and incredibly interesting. I hope that we’ll go back there again in the next year, perhaps for just a weekend. And I can honestly say that I’ll be glad when we are truly outside of RSV season so that we can hop on an airplane. Trapped in a car for several hours with a toddler who is just burgeoning into “The Terrible Twos” isn’t exactly “relaxing.” I would love to show Henry the beach again in warmer weather. And I want to take him to Legoland and the San Diego Zoo next time around.
When we got home, Henry wanted to look at “pics.” I said, “Don’t you want to say hi to Marley and Roger?” Henry replied, “No. Pics.” He threw a fit when I said, “No.” He was a bit wild when he came in the door. He got landed in timeout twice by Jeff. Once for hitting Roger on the head with a water bottle and then for throwing things at Bitsy. The poor animals. They were happy to see us at first, but then they probably realized how nice and tranquil it was without the little guy hanging around.
We gave Henry some dinner and then a bath. He remembered how to use his Elmo potty. He had a bottle and snuggled against me for his night time viewing of “Robin Hood” and fell asleep with his head on my lap about five to ten minutes into it.
On Monday (today), Henry got up at 7AM. We read books, but he was upset that Daddy had to work. Alicia and Karina arrived at 7:30AM or so, which made Henry even more upset. He suddenly wanted “Mommy, uppy-down” which means “Mommy, hold me.” Henry hasn’t quite figured up versus down yet, so “uppy-down” covers the bases. It appeared that he adjusted pretty well after I left. At least, his screaming didn’t last long. I wish that I didn’t have to work, but don’t we all.
Speaking of work, my lunch break is over. So I need to get back to it. Signing off.
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