A couple of weeks ago, we got back from a week long trip to San Diego and L.A. We went to San Diego as part of a conference where Kristen was presenting and networking and L.A. to visit my brother James, his wife Stephanie and their daughter Melanie. We had a fantastic time and Davis was a great traveler. It was great to escape from Boston for a while, see our family and give Davis some new experiences.
We left Boston late in the afternoon on Saturday, arriving very late in San Diego with a connection in Chicago. Davis loved the airport and he spent all his time on the ground watching plans and trucks. His favorite part of flying seemed to be landing. When we landed in Chicago he kept saying "More? More?". Even after a full day of traveling he was sad to get off the plane in San Diego and kept requesting "More plane?". We were amazed at how easy it was to fly with him across country and he took to staying in a hotel room like a champ.
We had one day together to enjoy before the conference started and we spent it at Sea World. There is no doubt in our minds that Davis' favorite activity at Sea World was the Orca whales. We attempted to take him to the Sea Lion/Otter show, but when we sat down and watched for a bit he looked at us like "What? This is really lame". He was especially confused when people clapped after a sea lion did something, which to Davis just didn't seem to warrant clapping. We left not too long into the show. In stark contrast to this, Davis clapped after everything the whales did during the "Shamu show". If the whales left the main tank for the human-only portions of the show, Davis would sign and ask for "More whales?? More whales??". Increasing in pitch the longer the whales weren't seen. The entire time, he was standing on Kristen's lap jumping up and down. We probably haven't seen him so excited before.
Exploring the tide pool at Sea World.
After Sea World, we went out with Mom for a quick dinner, then went to Old San Diego to run around the park before bed. Part of my strategy for the trip was to tire Davis out as much as possible during the day. For the most part it seemed to work as he slept in the stroller and went right to bed at night.
Kristen's conference took up almost all the time between Sunday night and Wednesday afternoon so Davis and I spent a lot of time exploring the sites of San Diego. Monday we went to the San Diego Zoo, Tuesday the Wild Animal Safari Park, and Wednesday the USS Midway and Maritime museum before meeting up with mom again.
After a great breakfast at the Village of La Jolla on Monday, we ventured to the zoo. It was enormous and a lot of fun. Every now and then Davis would notice there were animals, but he really just enjoyed running around and exploring. Since the zoo was so big so we started with a bus ride around most of the park. After that we walked, explored, walked and explored and walked some more. His favorite part of the zoo was the fake caves and sea ice by the Polar Bears. He spent about 45 minutes in the sea ice eating his apple and being silly with the other toddlers and kids who cycled through the exhibit. Some of the other highlights of the zoo: seeing a cheetah out for her walk, the female lion who reared up and tried to paw a toddler through the class, watching the Monkeys play above a fish tank, picking flowers and throwing them in the water and the black Jaguar.
Playing in the Sea Ice
More sea-ice time
Lions!
The light by the pandas was way more interesting than the pandas
He had a very interesting encounter with a bird who seemed to be guarding something.
My little ham
We spent a lot of time picking up flowers and throwing them in the water.
After the zoo, Davis and I went back to Old San Diego, this time in the sunshine, to have dinner and run around before heading back to the hotel. Davis enjoyed the cannon, dropping rocks through a hole in a bench, climbing a tree with another toddler and hearing the trains at the nearby depot.
Dropping rocks through a hole in the bench
Climbing trees
Climbing on the canon
Tuesday, Davis and I went to the Wild Animal Park which is run by the same organization as the zoo. They have a big park where lots of different types of animals are able to mix together. We spent the whole day are the park and walked at least 6 miles by the end of the day. We saw another cheetah out for its walk (Davis was asleep when we saw the third cheetah out for its walk) and saw a lot of animals with a lot of space. The park was about 40 minutes outside of San Diego and they had a lot more room for the animals than traditional zoos. Some of the highlights: The cheetahs out for their walks, being out in the glorious sunshine, the elephants with tons of space to roam, feeding the ducks, seeing 2 of the last 7 white rhinos in the world and the playground.
Tram ride through the park
Exploring the flowers.
Hanging out by the gorillas
A Secretary bird. I thought this was very cool. They stomp their pray to death.
The petting part of the zoo
About to pet the deer. At least he didn't try to ride it
Wednesday, Davis and I had a short day together before we meet mom after the conference ended. We headed down to the maritime museum where we saw a replica of the HMS Rose (used to film Master and Commander) then headed to the USS Midway where we had a blast exploring the flight deck and planes. After the conference ended, we picked mom up and headed back to the zoo. We enjoyed a quick trip including the polar bear caves again, feeding the gorilla statues and lots of climbing and running around.
Watching the gorillas
Feeding the gorilla statues
Feeding the gorillas
Playing with the elephant statues
Thursday, we had a wonderful family breakfast overlooking the cove in La Jolla where we watched a person swimming and every minute or so would se the head of a sea lion pop up just behind her. After that, we headed back to Sea World hoping to see another whale show. We saw a few of the sites we'd missed the first time, including feeding the sea lions and the shark tank. Davis and Kristen were even able to touch a dolphin! (Davis correctly called this whales as well). We also took in a different, more educational version of the Shamu show which Davis once again enjoyed. After Sea World, we packed the little one in the car and drove up to L.A. to start our visit with James and Stephanie.
L.A. was great, we had a lot of fun. Davis and Melanie were fantastic to watch together. They taught each other a lot and played really well together.
Playing with one of Melanie's trucks.
Melanie
Playing with Melanie's bike
Davis and Melanie
Friday we went to a train museum / exhibit were Davis was in heaven. He really enjoyed the trains and taking a model train ride around the park.
Trains!
More Trains!
James, Stephanie and Melanie
And more trains!
There goes a train!
Cousins
Taking a train ride
Saturday went to the local farmer's market were we picked up some amazing fresh fruit and produce. We had the best oranges we've ever had before packing up the kids and heading to the beach. The toddlers had a great time digging in the sand smashing sand castles, wading in the water and being outside. My brother took a few pictures that I hope to get uploaded soon.
The kids had some more fun playing together that night:
Wresting?
Wresting / Hugs
Sunday, Kristen's flight left very early in the morning. Davis and I had a final morning with James, Steph and Melanie. We went to the park to enjoy some final sunshine before Davis and I headed back across the country solo. Davis was a great traveler: I really couldn't have asked for more from the little guy.
John does a fantastic job capturing our weekend activities, but I wanted to add some little stories about Davis.
Davis gives kisses
A couple of weeks ago Davis looked at me and then very pointedly turned his head to the side. I finally clued in and turned my head to the side and he gave me a kiss on the cheek! Kisses are now a regular visitor in the Naegle household. Dad is a little sad that they seem to be mostly reserved for Mom right now.
Davis is a total ham
Davis knows exactly when there's a camera pointed at him or someone is looking and he can really ham it up. When we went to the soccer game on Saturday night, there was a row of teenage girls sitting behind us and he had them wrapped around his little finger. I couldn't even count the number of times I heard "Look at those eyes", "What a happy guy", "Oh what a smile", or "What cute hair!". Davis spent most of the time in his seat turned around entertaining them.
Davis has hair (unique hair at that)
We like to joke that Davis' hair growth has been the reverse of male-pattern baldness. He started out completely bald, and stayed that way for a long time. Then he started to grow "the ring" of hair. Right now he has hair on top with a widow's peak that is slowly filling in. The hair on top is still quite short and tends to stick up all over the place. When we were grocery shopping this weekend the couple behind us in line asked if his hair stuck up like that naturally or if we styled it like that on purpose.
Davis is resourceful
Davis never ceases to amaze us. Saturday morning the three of us were in the living room trying to wake up. Dad was laying on the couch and Davis laid down on the mat that was stretched out on the carpet. When I tried to join him he pushed me off and said "NO! MINE!". So Dad was nice enough to give me a pillow and I laid down on the floor next to Davis (but not on his mat!). Well, Davis decided my pillow looked pretty good so he tried to horn in on it. In an attempt to teach a lesson, that feels borderline abusive, I said "No, mine.". Davis just looked at me for a second, turned around and walked into our bedroom, grabbed a pillow off our bed and then walked right back into the living room and laid down with it. Whatever misgivings I had about showing Davis what it feels like when someone doesn't share, they dissolved when we saw how resourceful he is!
Davis has a special spot in the living room
There's one spot in the living room that Davis will always go to for the following things:
To put sunscreen on (you can usually get sunscreen on three limbs before he starts to run around)
To put shoes and socks on
To give the kitties treats
To do the "bicycle"
Today, as I was getting ready in the bedroom for the bike practice we went to, I said to Davis "I'm going to ride a bicycle, do you want to ride a bicycle?". Davis immediately ran to his spot, laid down on his back, and bicycled his legs in the air.
Davis has many words and phrases
Davis is clearly understanding a lot of what we say now. However, I have learned it's important to realize the gaps in what he understands. For a while we have been struggling with him throwing his food at meal times (dinner especially). It's been getting a lot better, mainly John and I think because we have greatly de-emphasized our response to it. A few nights ago, Davis had a great dinner with no food throwing. I said "Davis, wow, THANK YOU very much FOR not THROWing FOOD". Davis immediately, in short order, threw the two strawberries and the eggplant on the floor and against the bookshelves. That folks was entirely my fault since I now see that what he heard are the capitalized portions of the sentence. Here are some words and phrases Davis is saying a lot now:
No, wait
What's that?
No way!
Thank you
Stop
Outside
Truck (by far his most used word it seems)
Socks (sounds a lot like truck)
Shoes
Toes
This
More
Mine
No
No, Mine!
Davis can play follow the leader
We have great fun playing follow the leader with Davis. We can stand on one foot and he'll stand on one foot. We can lay down on the ground and bicycle and he'll do that (sound familiar?). He's great with songs too like "Head, shoulders, knees and toes". Some things he's learned at daycare are "Cheers", high fives, and fist bumps (called "pound"). Another game Davis loves (particularly while naked after a bath) is chase.
Davis loves music
Davis continues to love music of all sorts. Anything from the ice cream truck to grammie's cell phone ring can elicit a dance. Dad found a great musical set at a garage sale that has been very exciting for Davis (probably less exciting for our downstairs neighbors). He loves to drum and play the recorder. He also enjoys taking the recorder apart as well as using it as a drumstick.
Davis loves Domino
Davis and Domino continue to have a pretty close relationship. We still spend most nights chasing Domino out from under the crib at bedtime and letting him in the room first thing in the morning. One morning last week I was getting his lunch ready when I decided to peak in on them and found Davis carrying Domino. Domino looked less then enthusiastic about it, but just hung there like a limp rag doll until Davis put him down, at which time he bolted from the room. You'll notice we never mention Lilly and Davis' relationship. Lilly keeps a large distance between them unless Davis is helping us feed them. Davis is a great counter and table sentry. Whenever the cats are somewhere they shouldn't be, he lets us know.
This weekend, we headed up to White Lake State Park in New Hampshire for our second camping trip of the summer. This is the same place we went before, and it is a great campground for kids. There is a very shallow, sandy lake, a great playground and it is a much closer drive than many other areas near the white mountains. We went up mid-morning on Saturday and came back around noon on Sunday.
A few of the highlights:
All three of us went swimming in the lake. Davis had a fantastic time walking out in the water then being held by mom while dad dove in the water near by. I learned an important lesson (again): don't do something unless you want to do it 20 times. I ran and dove next to Davis and by the time I came out of the water, he was saying "more" and making the sign. I had to then repeat this about 20 times, but my reward was fantastic toddler giggles.
It was a little cooler this time, so Davis got dressed up in his camping flannel. Pictures are below.
We spent about an hour and a half at the playground while we cooked over the coals on the grills at the beach.
We aborted our hike when it started to rain, but the path was easy enough that Davis got to walk part of the way back. We did have to guide him around the bear scat.
Putting the little guy to sleep was both a challenge and immensely enjoyable. When we were in there with him to try and calm him and put him to sleep, it just turned into a very cute and lovable play and cuddle time with Davis. the tent with the sleeping bags spread out was too much like playtime and apparently, when we lie down on the ground, we get sat on. Eventually we had to leave him in the tent for him to go to sleep by himself.
On the way back, we stopped to pick blue berries. Davis quickly got the hang of it and had very blue hands and lips by the end. We paid for an extra half pint to cover his "contribution" to our haul.
While picking blue berries, I caught and rescued a dragon fly. It was trapped in the netting covering the berries and I managed to catch it and release it outside the nets.
A few of the pictures:
In the flannel in the campground
Dirt, dirt and more dirt were the story of the trip.
Taking a snack break in the car. He would sit still here for a few minutes, which was a nice change.
Hiking
Hiking
More hiking. Checking out the camera.
One of the highlights of the hike was banging on this rock with a stick.
We took our first "camping" trip since expanding our family by one last April. Camping is in quotes because:
We only went for Saturday night
We were able to drive out the campground gates and goto Dunkin Donuts at 5:15 in the morning
We ate all our meals out
There was a playground in the campground
However, we were in the woods, sleeping in a tent and had a camp fire. Davis had a blast, he loved the playground, beach, sand and running around in the woods. We stayed at White Lake State Park in New Hampshire near Conway and the White Mountains. The shallow beach and great playground and shorter drive than many other campgrounds made it a great place to stay with Davis.
Saturday we went for a short hike:
Davis is in charge of course:
As with many New Hampshire mountains, the top is bare granite. It was a little challenging for Davis to run around on, but he had fun scrambling and climbing around:
On the way home, we stopped at the New Hampshire State Liquor Store / Rest Area. After getting stuck in traffic and using everything else in the car to entertain a cranky boy, I finally failed as a parent:
There are a few more pictures on picasa web albums, but are variations of the above.
ps. We stayed in site 80a, next time I would pick site 32a. It was well back from the campground road and had a lot of distance between the adjoining sites.
