First Family Camping Trip

We've lived in Colorado for nearly a year now and have yet to embark on a family camping trip. At the advice from a mother of one of Gabriel's preschool classmates, we decided to book a camp site a local place that is literally 20 minutes from our house, the idea being that when things go terribly awry (we have an 18 month old, remember) we can just pack up and be home. We figure this will be a good test run, and we'll make it to the mountains next time.

Cherry Creek Reservoir has not only the campsite but also a lot of other outdoor activities like a lake and beach, playgrounds, bike and walking paths, etc. It's large enough that you don't feel like you are in the middle of Denver (ok, it's a little south of Denver proper, but it is still urban). 

The boys were so excited about going camping. Gabriel and Andy camped out in our house to get Gabriel used to sleeping in a tent, and as for Judah, well we are just winging it. We found the campsite with ease, set everything up. Family camping means bringing a big cooler with all kinds of fun food, a net enclosed food tent in addition to the sleeping tent, and camping chairs for all, just to name a few things. This makes camping with kids a lot more enjoyable than "roughing it" and it's easy to bring all of this stuff in the car, versus hiking it into the woods in a traditional camping sense.

After setting up camp, we explored the area for a while before coming back to start on the first night's dinner. The boys enjoyed hot dogs, watermelon, chips and smores. We were amazed at how much fun they had playing in the dirt. It was a rather dusty campsite and they practically bathed in it! They also enjoyed sitting around the fire after the sun went down, although keeping Judah away from the grill/fire area was taxing! When it was time for bed, we set the boys up in their sleeping bags and they each got to hold a few tea light candles as little mini night lights. As expected, Judah would not stay in his bag (he's only ever slept in a crib) and wondered around the tent for several HOURS. Gabriel fell asleep pretty quickly.  At some point in the night, after he had finally fallen asleep, Judah managed to get turned around in his bag and had his head buried in the bottom. Andy heard muffled crying and found him trapped and upset - poor boy! We all slept about as well as you would think we did :)

In the morning, our early riser, Gabriel, was the last one up! This is quite rare, for him to a) sleep past 6am and b) be anything but the first one up. We all enjoy some eggs and bacon for breakfast, then decided to head to the beach area for a swim. By late morning, we were feeling very tired and ready to head home. One night was enough for our first trial run! 

Overall, success though. Having to change Judah's diapers is not fun and he is a bit on the young side for camping, but both boys had a lot of fun and Andy and I, although tired, agreed we should definitely do it again. In the mountains next time, perhaps!

setting up the tent

Our campsite

So dirty! Bring more wipes next time.

Playing in the dust

The watch says 10:22, and that is a beer on the beach in the background. Yep.

Did I mention we brought Tsali? :)

Nineteen Months

I think that this month can be summed up with "phrases". Judah seems to be working really hard at communicating with us and has managed to start speaking, for the most part, in phrases and simple sentences. As I indicated in his 18 month post, there is no way to keep up with all of his new words, but he continues to add new words every single day. A sampling of his new phrases include:

- I funny

- I hungry

- I a big kid

- water please

- I want more

- I like it (wike it)

- I don't like it (i don wike it)

- Happy Judah, all done!

- I want it

- I go night night

- I go potty

At his 18 month appointment (which happened at 19 months) he jumped up in percentiles for both height and weight, and he did really well on his developmental evaluation. His current stats are:

Weight: 26# 5 oz. (74%)

Height: 32 3/4" (49%)

HC: 19 7/8" (98%)

One (kind of funny) note about his language development is the way he says "tr" ... like in truck. Yea, he pronounces the "tr" like an "f". SO a train is a fain and a truck is f---. And the thing is he LOVES trucks, so any time he sees one he squeals with delight f---, big f---! Oy. We have pretended it doesn't mean anything, especially so Gabriel doesn't realize what the word actually is and just encourage him to enunciate the "TR". The worst is when Gabriel gets adamant about correcting him and starts screeching "Judah! It's not f--- it's truck!!" Hopefully we won't have a cussing sailor for long!

He continues to be quite the climber and I am trying to get better with letting him find his limits, especially on the playground. I'm not all the way there yet and still spot him pretty regularly, but the fear is all me and zero from him. He is going to be our little dare devil. He almost completely self-reliant on the mini kick scooter at 19 months and we didn't even give Gabriel that scooter until he turned two. He also has started eyeing the balance bike, slow down Judah! 

Nineteen months and moving up Judah!