Parents of the Year

It was a rough day. This week has been extra busy for both me and J. Little seems to have gotten over the rough patch that consumed the last two weeks, but has still been a lot of baby. We discovered that he's probably phasing out one of his regular three naps, which has thrown our schedules a bit off balance. Today though, we threw the schedule out the window (and Little's much needed second nap) and decided to go out and enjoy the warm summer weather. We were going to head down to the Oregon Brewer's Festival on the waterfront, but it was pretty warm in the sun and the idea of heading into crowd with Miles on edge was not in the cards. 

So, we hopped on the Max to Mississippi Avenue and picked up lunch at the food carts and a drink in the beer garden at Prost. There was a nice shady area with a corner bench to wrangle in the little dude, but also gave him the freedom to roam around. He had a blast throwing his truck into the planter around the perimeter and gently touching the flowers. As we sipped (okay gulped) our beer and blocked Little's many attempts to fling himself under the picnic table, for a split second I was reminded of our trip to Belgium and Germany last fall. It was our last trip before really thinking about having a baby and we relished our time in the sun -- today I made every attempt to block the sun by forcing our unwilling 11-month-old to wear his sun hat.

We thought we might be able to get him to nap so we could enjoy a second drink, so I attempted to nurse him to sleep. It almost worked, but then he opened his eyes and realized there was a lot of action going on. I always try to be discrete about breastfeeding in public, but today Little insisted on hoisting up my boob toward the gentlemen who were sharing our picnic table as if to say "dudes, I don't know what you're drinking, but you should order a Mass of this stuff." He was very proud of himself and we quickly asked for our check, since he literally had not napped in six hours. 

Thankfully, on the way home he conked out in the backpack, but the rest of the evening has been a bit edgy (for lack of a better term). Clearly, he's had a growth spurt because his pj top that fit just fine not that long ago was way too tight. After wrestling him to get it on, drama ensued when we realized that there was no way in hell that it would fit over his meaty biceps. We laughed mostly out of frustration that we would in fact have to take off the shirt and try to get him into another one before bedtime. He squawked and ran around like a tiny t-rex with his arms pinned to his body because the shirt sleeves were so tight. Like any good mother I photographed his misery, because we needed to kill time before the next round of dressing and honestly, it was tragically hilarious.


Little went to bed about 7:45 and is just now settling down to sleep. It'll either be an awesome night because he's so exhausted, or the worst night ever, because he's so exhausted. Only time will tell and I'm not exactly looking forward to finding out. Needless to say, we won't be winning any parenting awards this week.