Mini Vacation

We just got back from 5 days on the coast. It was wonderful to recharge our batteries and have tons of fun with family. Adia spent Friday night, Saturday and Saturday night with DiDi while Daddy and I stayed in a hotel. DiDi was a little worried about keeping Adia busy and what nighttime would be like, but Adia did really well. She didn't nap so she'd go to bed really early and sleep pretty late. They had fun at the park and Adia loves shopping with DiDi.

When we arrived at DiDi's house on Sunday morning, Adia came running to the door. She gave us a little smirk, but then ran back into the living room to play. I think she was worried we were going to take her. Despite being pretty indifferent to our return, she started following me around the house and didn't want me out of her sight.

We headed to the beach, even though Adia didn't want to get in our car. Adia was excited to see the sand, but wanted to be carried to the water. She immediately sat down and started digging in the sand once the toys were out of the bag. She ended up covered in sand, but she didn't mind at all.


We walked near the water for a little bit. Daddy chased her with the wheelbarrow, Adia giggling and screeching. She thought it was the best game ever.






When we were all thoroughly frozen, we tried to convince Adia to head back to the car. She wasn't thrilled to be headed back. She wanted DiDi to carry her and got super excited when a helicopter appeared. She loves watching airplanes so the helicopter was a treat.




When we got back to DiDi's house, Daddy fell asleep on the couch so Adia, DiDi and I went to the park. Adia wanted to show me how she can climb up the big ladder and go down the big slide. She'd first done it the day before with DiDi and given her quite the scare. Adia quickly climbed the ladder, sat down on the slide and down she went. She said "Weeee!" the whole way down and when she got to the bottom, immediately said, "Again!" She went on it several times before heading back to the little kid area. That didn't last long before she wanted to go back down the big slide and play on the big kid equipment.






We spent Monday at Gamma and Papa's house. Adia was so happy to see them, even though she didn't like seeing DiDi leave for work. Adia watched Wall-E with her buddies and a little Kung Fu Panda. She ended up taking a long nap on me.


That evening we met some friends for dinner. Adia acted shy, but the second we walked in the door at their house, Adia followed the girls right into the bedroom and started playing. She loved every minute of it. They ran around squealing. There was lots of laughter. Adia was definitely in her element. When the girls went to bed, Adia climbed into my lap on the couch and fell asleep. She woke up when we put her in the car later and stayed awake until we got back to DiDi's house. She insisted on saying goodnight to DiDi and then we cuddled and fell asleep.




Tuesday was another Gamma and Papa day since DiDi was at work. Daddy and Papa thoroughly wore Adia out by chasing her around the house. Adia also tormented the cat and dragged Gamma's purse over for the usual emptying.






She found a lolly pop in Gamma's purse and all hell broke loose. She ate some of it at the kitchen table, but bit her tongue. She started screaming bloody murder and had a full out tantrum when they took the lolly pop away. She came running to me, but her tantrum continued. Eventually she just snuggled up against me and fell asleep. She slept for over 2 hours while I enjoyed the snuggles. It was definitely a much needed nap.


Dinnertime was quickly approaching so Gamma, Adia and I went to the grocery store. Adia had a blast riding in the car cart. We came back to the house and Adia played with the cat while I cooked dinner. Papa and Daddy came back from their movie and entertained Adia. Adia kept climbing in her chair, more than ready to eat. She didn't end up eating much once we all sat down. She actually dumped her cup of water in her plate instead and refused to eat anymore. We took some leftover steak and a potato to DiDi before heading back to Eugene. Adia was super happy to see DiDi and stole bites of steak from DiDi. Adia insisted on seeing Pig Pig. She said goodbye to her before we loaded up in the car. Adia started crying when DiDi closed the door. She wasn't happy to be leaving her, even though DiDi will be in Eugene this afternoon.

We got home pretty late last night. Adia stayed asleep through the transfer from the car seat to bed. She was up bright and early though. She's going to be so surprised to see DiDi today and even more surprised to have everyone come visit her for Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Adia spent the weekend with DiDi and GG the guinea pig. I'm not sure which one she was more upset to see go. She loved petting GG, but she also loves hanging out with DiDi. We went to the play area and out to lunch. We soon had to drive up to Auntie Colie's for dinner and DiDi went home.





Adia slept on the way there and woke up just a few blocks from Auntie Colie's house. It would haven't been too bad, but Adia's been waking up coughing which is followed by puking. This time was no different. We were lucky that is was mostly mucous, but it still smelled.

Adia was super excited to see all her relatives, especially Papa. It made her forget DiDi leaving. She played the longest time with Papa and Unky Eck, sliding across the floor on Auntie Colie's big stuffed bear.





When it was time to eat, Adia was more than ready. She claimed her seat and was ready to go. She ate some of the pork and mashed potatoes, but decided she'd rather play instead. She got down and climbed into the chair in the living room. All was fine until she put too much weight on one side and went head over heels, the top of the chair (that's not connected to the base) falling on top of her. There was a collective gasp from everyone at the table followed by an alarmed, "Mommy?!" from Adia. She was perfectly fine, landing on a bunch of pillows and nothing hard.

She played hard with Papa after dinner, ate some M&M caramel apples and had lots of fun. No trip can be without incident though. I tossed the bear at her, catching her off balance and she flat on her face. She got right back up to her feet and started saying, "my nose?" Her nose was bleeding! It bled quite a bit, but not for long. She continued to play, running in circles through the kitchen, dining room, living room and hall. When it was time to leave, Adia was exhausted. She was asleep in no time and stayed that way after getting home.

On Tuesday, Daddy decided he wanted to go to the beach. Trips with Adia always end up being adventures so I knew I needed to pack wisely. I loaded the picnic basket, packed some extra clothes for Adia and we bought some food at the store. Adia fell asleep pretty fast in the car. When we were halfway to Florence, Adia started coughing. I knew what that meant. I was getting prepared for the ensuing vomit that follows her coughing fits. She coughed and coughed and coughed and sure enough, started to gag. I caught the first few heaves, but then my hands were full and I had nothing to wipe them on. Daddy found a place to pull over and just in time. I was dumping the contents of my hands out the door when Adia full on puked. It was everywhere. All over her and her car seat. She puked a couple more times and couldn't breathe while she was. She looked terrified. We finally cleaned her up enough so Daddy could get her out of the seat. There she was, standing on the side of the road, while I mopped up her seat and Daddy took off her shirt. When her shirt was off, Adia started saying, "It's cold." Luckily, she hadn't been wearing her sweatshirt at the time and she wore that until we could get to Gamma's and give her a bath, along with the car seat.

Adia didn't want back in the seat and I don't blame her. It was stinky and she was worried she'd puke again. She didn't have a choice though. We got to Gamma's and Scott put her in the tub. I had the job of removing the car seat from the car, taking it apart and scrubbing it. I had to remove the shoulder pads and keep them off. They're going to take a lot of work to get the smell out of. The seat was really easy to take apart and put back together. The puke had made it all they way to the hard shell. I put it back together and back in the car. I'm going to have to scrub it again though because it still smelled this morning.

We were finally ready to hit the beach. Our only problem now was no exact change for the day use fee. The place Daddy wanted to go didn't have a change machine. We drove all over the park trying to find someone who could make change, but no one could. We ended up leaving and stopping at the Myrtlewood Factory. Every time we stopped the car, Adia would cheer, but when she realized she wasn't getting out, she'd get upset again. This time Daddy jumped out of the car, ran in, bought a small car for Adia and got back in. We finally had $5. Adia also liked the car.

It was chilly at the beach because of the wind, but still nice. I've been there on much colder days. Daddy carried her up the sand dune while we slowly followed. When they made it to the top of the hill, Adia yelled, "OCEAN!" She was so excited.





This time she was even more excited about the sand and liked running from the waves. We tried to get her to eat some lunch, but she wanted to play instead.





She ended up walking up the beach with Gamma, collecting shells and dodging waves. She now has a whole pocket full of shells and rocks.





Adia didn't want to leave, but we lucked out. Just as we were coming over the hill, Papa pulled up! She was so happy to see him. She'd been yelling for him since we pulled into their driveway. She especially liked the lights on the top of his truck.









After chatting with Papa, we went for our hike. Adia loved that too. She saw a salamander almost immediately. She liked staring into the water and listening to the birds. She walked for the longest time before wanting to be picked up. She let Daddy carry her for a long time and then only wanting me.













I carried her for the longest time, but when I was just too tired, Gamma took over. Adia was happy up there and we headed back to the car. It was getting dark already.



Adia destroyed Gamma and Papa's house. There were toys everywhere. Then she took out the tuperware too. She jumped up and down when Papa came home. She also chased the cat a bit. DiDi came for dinner and Adia was excited to see her too. After dinner Adia played with Papa and Daddy slept on the couch.

Adia was exhausted when we left. She fell asleep before we even got the highway. She was fine until we reached our street. She woke coughing. We had an awful night. She was awake off and on all night long, coughing and puked around 4am. She finally got up around 5am to be with Daddy. She seemed tired all morning and in the middle of Walmart, she fell asleep on me. She's now been asleep for over a hour.

Eye Exercises

We did Adia's eye exercises after dinner tonight. She was really good at threading the Perky-Os onto the crochet hook. She really seemed to be enjoying it too. Her concentration was awesome and we laughed every time she went cross eyed. It was tough work! When she finally tired of the "game" we let her stop. I never saw either eye veer off the entire time.