1,582 miles forward and two steps back

Daddy and Clay on our flight into LaGuardia; Clay did so well!

Clay and Mommy on the flight into LaGuardia; not sure why I look like a nerdy high schooler in this picture.  I'll blame it on the lack of sleep I got the night before - it's HARD to pack for a week away from home with a baby!

On our second full day in Connecticut (and our third night of Clay sleeping in a pack and play:  read - an unfamiliar setting) I had a realization.  The realization was that in being 1,582 miles from home, we may have actually taken a few steps back in Clay's bed time routine. 

Although we haven't been super strict in adhering to the Ferber Method of "sleep training" we had been using the principles to help get Clay to sleep on his own.  We've definitely seen success with this at nap time (before our trip he was putting himself to sleep for at least one of his naps each day) and for the most part, he was able to get to sleep within 15 minutes of going down for bed.  Well when you share three of your four walls with neighbors, letting him cry a little on his way to sleep is NOT an option.  I'll say there's a part of me that was a little excited about this (I mean I got to cuddle, sway, and pat my little guy to sleep - such a hard job ~NOT!~) but I hated knowing that once we got home we'd have to start over with letting little man cry in timed intervals.  Blech!  Okay, enough with that!

So the days after Monday were filled with more good food (we found a local burger place that we thought was probably pretty popular - turns out it was its first week open but it was still great!) and we went back to the restaurant where we ate the first night (The Beach House) and once again it was great!  Clay and I played a lot in the hotel room - he was so much fun AND he started try to sit on his own (he could manage about 4 seconds or so). 

We even got to explore the town a little bit.  The houses there are amazing!  Jim described them perfectly as being like the house in Father of the Bride... only bigger - so true.  Most of the houses had siding in either a sea gray, white, butter yellow, brick red, ice blue, or squirrel taupe.  Front doors were clad with beautiful led windows and porches looked warm and inviting.  It was beautiful.  Our last full day there, I'd planned to take Clay for a walk in the park.  That plan was altered to just driving around and looking at houses after I started noticing all of these signs saying that permits for park access were available at the civic center.  At first I thought that the permits probably only pertained to the rec fields but when I got over to the rec fields, it appeared that the rec fields had signs with different verbiage but still with the same message to keep the riff-raff (read: me) out.  Oh well!  I still got to drive to through gorgeous neighborhoods and Clay and I walked up and down their main street some.

Here are some pictures from our trip:

Clay and Mommy before we hit up Stamford on our own.



Clay had a lot of floor time in Connecticut (I brought a blanket with us so that he wouldn't be on a nasty hotel floor - the hotel the was nice but in my book all hotel floors are pretty skeezy).  He played a ton and I played some too by doing things like placing toys on his head and then texting Jim pictures with charming captions like "Help me, Mommy is trying to see what I would look like if I were a cyclops".  Clay was a good sport... Jim just thought I was a "mean mommy".



My guys chillin' after Clay's bath time.  This picture is great but it doesn't capture the look of pride that Clay had on his face knowing that he was lounging just like Daddy - too sweet!



When we were in Connecticut, we found out that our friends - The Musgraves - were expecting a baby girl.  After I heard the great news, Clay woke up from his nap and I told him that he was going to have a girlfriend!  Seriously, this is how he responded to the news!  (We learned Meaghan's name on our drive into Manhattan; guess Clay will have to take her there when he proposes! J/K...or am I?)



Here's my weeble wobble; we tried to catch him sitting up on camera but our timing was off every time.

I guess that's about it for Connecticut.  I'll post about the NYC leg of the trip soon - it will most likely be a pictorial account of our trip.