The Longest Day

We took Tai camping this past "weekend". Actually, we were only gone from the house for 25 hours. But it felt like a week.

Unfortunately, Tai did not enjoy himself as much as we thought he would. He was not exactly miserable and I wouldn't say that the trip was a disaster, but the jury is still out on whether we'll go on our 3-night Labor Day trip to the Berkshires. Tai was just a little crankier than usual and never quite pleased with his current situation (be it the ergo, his camp chair, or one of our laps, he always seemed to want to be elsewhere). It was difficult not to have his exersaucer for him to play in, or even a soft place for him to roll around on the ground.

And he was not terribly keen on sleeping between us on the air mattress, in 50-degree weather. I can't imagine why not. Actually, we think that Tai's fussiness during this trip might have been teething-related. His bottom chompers have arrived, so we assume the top ones are getting ready to make their appearance as well. So maybe that issue will have taken care of itself by early September and he'll be in a better mood for the next trip. I guess we'll see.

That said, the trip was indeed quite fun (albeit thoroughly exhausting). We took a lovely hike on Saturday morning, during which Tai got to sleep and Buttons got to run, sniff, and swim. Later that afternoon, while Minh and Buttons took a snooze in the tent Tai and I hit the beach and took a little dip. Tai enjoyed his first-ever cantaloupe and was a big fan of watching the campfire burn. Maybe we'll make a camper out of him yet! (click here for more pictures).

It was encouraging to see that nearly everyone at the campground had kids with them, though none as young as Tai. It seems like camping with a toddler must be lots of fun. The family at the site next to ours had a couple of young kids, one of whom was named Ty. All day and night we listened to the dad say his son's name and each time it made us flinch, like he was talking to our son. Of course, the ridiculous nickname that dad had for his son, "Ty-Guy" is nothing compared to the clever nickname we have for our baby ("Tai-Guy").