Doug & Amy's Rattle Tattle: Jacob Enjoys Camping!

Jacob has now taken his first camping trip and survived quite nicely. We headed up to Standish for five days and four nights. There were many firsts for Jacob and many redos. Some of the firsts he missed because he was napping/sleeping and others were because he just wasn't paying attention. The big first that he missed was the campfire. He fell asleep on the way back from singing Karaoke. He made it almost all the way back, but then crashed.

Jacob sure enjoyed the camper as his mother and I were constantly saying no to him. We didn't think setting the fire extinguisher off inside would be a good thing for him, us or the camper. We kind of thought Jacob forgot about climbing up steps, but he sure has his game back on. He is now working on the steps at home as is more active in the pulling himself up and checking things out, not to mention starting to really walk along the furniture, doors and walls, etc.

The most excited I think Jacob got during the trip was when we were walking to the beach and arrived. Before we even got around to get Jacob out of his stroller, he was already breathing heavily through his teeth like he does when he gets excited. He obviously knew what we were doing next..

The biggest challenge while camping and concern once we got back home was napping and sleeping. We were able to Jacob to nap in the morning and then again later afternoon (after heading to the beach or pool). The morning consisted of putting in a movie while we catnapped with Jacob. Okay, so Amy watched the movie while Jacob and I slept. This worked out pretty well as Jacob would get a great nap in the morning and then a small one in the afternoon. Even with little sleep, Jacob still didn't go to sleep until 10 or 11 pm. He just didn't want to give up because there was so much to do.

Fortunately for Amy and I, Jacob didn't get extremely inquisitive about the outdoors until the last day. We were able to keep him next to the picnic table on some towels and carpet. After he saw what else was around the campsite on Sunday and Monday, he was on the prowl to see what he could find and get into.

Here Jacob is nodding off at the tail end of a walk. He made is with 3 sites of ours before crashing. Amy asked if he was still awake with about 5 sites to go and I said yes. I was working on the other side of the camper when Amy came over and asked me again. Of course, I wasn't sure why, but the picture says it all...

There are many more stories, but too many to list here. We all had a great time as the weather was not overly hot, even though we did run the A/C in the camper on occasion and needed to run the furnace a bit at night and only had a few sprinkles on Sunday night when we were getting ready for bed and had most, if not everything picked up for the night. It was a great time, but Amy and I think it was time to come home and thought Jacob was ready too. We are looking forward to camping again this summer, hopefully in August for a number of days and then a weekend in September.