The Long Drive Home

Leaving the cabin is always difficult.  There is a procrastination that sets in, delaying an inevitable return to reality.  Most Sundays before we head home, we take a boat ride around the lakes.  This ride almost always takes longer than you think, but nobody seems to mind; it's as if staying on the lake pushes back the laundry waiting at home.  Eventually, though, you dock and tarp the boat, take the long trek back up the stairs from the lake shore to the house, and you pack the car as tightly as you can.  It always seems more full on the way home, probably because you hastily repack what you so carefully packed for the trip up.

Today was no different.  We wanted to hit the road by 3:00, but we didn't dock the pontoon until about 2:45, so we didn't get on the road until about 4:15.  (I'm learning that everything, including leaving, takes much longer with a child in tow.)

Even leaving at 4:15 with a gas and dinner stop, I had expected to be pulling into my driveway no later than 7:15.  I had figured that holiday traffic would have thinned; the resorts check out between 11:00 and Noon.  Road construction, while in full swing, didn't seem bad during the drive up.

I figured wrong.

Our drive took just over 4 hours.  After gassing up and starting the bulk of our journey at 4:30, we traveled 157.2 miles in 3 hours and 55 minutes: roughly an excruciating 40 miles per hour.  There was construction at both ends of the drive; the last one I detoured around, backtracking and upsetting the ghost of my father.  There were two rainstorms bringing traffic to a halt.  And there were idiots on the road, doing 62 in a 65 in the left hand lane, matching the pace of the cars in the right lane.

Anyone who's driven with me knows that this was torture at a cellular level for me.

As I got off the freeway and turned onto the road that leads home, I leaned over to Stacy and said, "Look!  Open road."  I was able to drive freely for the last half mile or so.  Pulling into the driveway never felt so good.

Now off to tackle the dishes I left from Wednesday.

Rainy Day

It rained almost all day up at the lake. Not much more to say than that because we didn't do much more than watch it rain. It was so humid that to do anything at all was to sweat, so we sat around. 

Except for the extreme humidity, I enjoy days like today. You have conversations with yourself that you didn't plan to have. You spend quality time with your family, locked in a cabin, making too much food and laughing with a baby. 

Today was a good day, but I'm looking forward to heading home to my A/C. I've spent a day in the sweat lodge; I've had my visions. Enough is enough. 

Sunshine

As Stacy sat on the bed about to feed Grayson his nighttime bottle, I leaned over to kiss him goodnight. He smelled like sun.

Obviously sun doesn't have a smell, but that is the best way I can describe the cocktail of perfumes he was wearing tonight. Sunscreen came together with lake water and dog slobber. That came together with pine sap and baby food. It was a form of alchemy, really, turning everyday elements into the scent of golden sunshine.

Today was a great day. Grayson took his first boat ride and first swim in the lake. The weather was perfect. Delilah ran up and down the beach.

I'm so grateful for moments like these.

Independence Day

I'm up at the lake, and I'm on my phone, so this will be brief. It's about 10:30 at night. The sky is half cloudy, but it is still in the mid 70s outside. The air is humid. Mosquitos are buzzing. The lakes are alive with private fireworks. Every few minutes the show slows down only to pick up again from another section of lake. 5-10 minutes of booms then a minute or two of silence. Then the next show starts.
This will last for another hour, give or take. Then the loons will take over. Grayson will sleep through it all. Delilah isn't even bothered by it. Although she will stir with the loons at dawn.

For me, it is the perfect way to celebrate the fourth. Happy Independence Day.

Drained

After the episode of food poisoning, I went about 40 hours without food, save for a few saltines and some water. 

Since then, I've had a banana, an apple, a ham & cheese sandwich, and some soup.  I still don't have an appetite, and I still have zero energy.  What little energy I had this morning, I spent on taking Grayson into a scheduled appointment; I'm amazed at how long such things take for so little.  We had his cap adjusted.  This took about an hour.  In that 60 minutes, I was left to hold him while he squirmed and explored.  Exhausting.

I took a half day at work today, hoping to get some rest this afternoon, but Grayson had other thoughts.  He wasn't feeling well, so day care called to have me pick him up.  Though he slept for at least half the time, I still expended tons of energy watching him for 3+ hours before Stacy got home to tag team it.

I'm utterly impressed with Stacy.  Even though she has been just as sick as me, she has managed to harness some source of strength to make it through today.  She even just gave Grayson a bath (because he puked all over his pajamas).

Hopefully my energy returns tomorrow, as we are headed up north for a long weekend with the family.  If it does, I have Stacy to thank for it; I couldn't have made it through the rest of today without her.

I've Got a Good Excuse

So I obviously missed posting yesterday, but I've got a good excuse... or a horrible one.

Food poisoning.

I made spinach and ricotta ravioli on Monday night.  Something about it wasn't right.  By 10:00, I was feeling pretty crampy.  Stacy woke me up around 12:30 to say that she had gotten sick.  Then I got sick.  Really sick.

I hadn't been that sick in the longest time.

I was able to go back to bed after about 45 minutes.  When the alarm went off, I got sick again.  Stacy and I spent the day at home trying to keep water down.  We took turns napping.  My mother was a great help; she took Grayson to daycare (we were in no shape to care for a child), and she babysat him into the evening.

I had meant to blog, but I didn't have any energy.  I napped instead.

Back to work today, but feeling drained.  I've had an apple, which seems to be staying down.  Regular blogging will commence this evening.

9 Months Old Today

Grayson is 9 months old today.  He's 9 months old already!  I can't believe how time has simultaneously flown by and stood still.  It seems like yesterday that Grayson was gasping for his first breaths and wailing at the relatively cold air around him.  But it also seems like he has been crawling forever, giggling when you give him a zerbert and smiling as he chases the dog.  The whole thing has been a blur, but there are moments I will never forget.  I will always remember his first bath at home, in our kitchen, in that little, pink bucket we got from the hospital.  He pooped in that bath.

He has spent an equal amount of time developing in this wild world as he spent developing in his mother's womb (give or take a week).  In the womb, Grayson moved from a cell or two, growing lungs and a spine, arteries and intestines, fingers and toes.  After being born, he has gained almost 3 times his birth weight, learned to nurse, eat pureed veggies, even feeding himself little puffs of grain.  He has learned to smile, recognize faces, sit up and crawl.  This past week, he has started to clap.

Today is a day of wonder for me.  I wonder what the next 9 months will bring, and what Grayson will be doing on April 1, 2014.  I wonder what the next 9 years will bring, as Grayson is in the 4th grade... or 18 years, as he goes off to college (or whatever they call college in 2031).  I wonder what I'll be doing, and what the world will be like.

Thanks, Grayson, for filling my world with wonder.