Escape to Paradise

Phineas and Val sporting their Aloha-wear

7 days in Hawaii. No zip-lining, no hiking, no camping, no boogie boarding, no surf lessons, no parasailing, no snorkeling with sea turtles, no swimming with dolphins, no exploring volcanoes or caves or remote beaches, no scuba diving, no kayaking, no bike trips. Bottom line: no “adventure”. Yet this trip was one of the most joyful vacations I have ever been on.

Seeing the delight in my little boy’s eyes as his tiny toes sunk into warm wet sand for the first time was thrilling. Keeping on top of him as he crawled fearlessly to the ocean edge to play in the surf was challenging. Listening to his shrieks of joy as waves washed up to his knees was delightful. Pushing him around the pool in his floating inner-tube device while he splashed, blew bubbles, and waved at strangers was the perfect antidote to stress.

I imagine in the future we’ll be more adventurous on our vacations.  I look forward to taking Phineas hiking, snorkeling, boogie boarding, and camping on our winter escapes as he gets bigger. But I hope I never forget my little guy taking on the waves from the shoreline, standing tall at 2 and a-half feet.

           

Enjoy the pictures,

Val

Brent & Phineas on their daily morning "dadventure"- usually consisting of a long sunrise walk finishing up with playing in the sand.

This kid LOVES playing in sand. Check out the yoga moves as he moves mountains of sand. So zen.

Full speed ahead! Straight for the waves!

All tuckered out. And it's only 9am

   

Edwards family heads back to Alaska.

Eight Hours

Uninterrupted

Welcome back REM dreams

Sleep. How you were missed!

In case you prefer not to read haiku, I’ll spell it out in plain paragraph form. We’re all sleeping through the night! This is a huge milestone. It had been a year since I’d gotten any more than four hours of sleep without being woken up (to pee during the last 2 months of pregnancy, then to soothe or feed the crying baby).  At once, the stress of the disrupted sleep, the crabby kid, and the exhaustion was enough to break this camel’s back.  I felt ready to ignore the wailing pleas of my sweet baby boy at 10pm, 2am, and 4am. Taking a leap of faith, I assumed that even if he was left to cry until blue in the face, he would still awake a chubby happy cherub. So we schemed.  Brent sent me upstairs so I would not have to listen to the crying. He slept in the bedroom across the hall from the kid and put in earplugs.  What happened next? Who knows!  By night #3 I was back downstairs, the earplugs were returned to the garage, and we all slept just fine. VICTORY!

There are so many books out there about child sleep stuff: extinction, graduated extinction, Furber, attachment, etc... But could it be so simple as "just let them cry"?  That is what it took for our little Phin. I think I knew this deep down.  But it is just so incredibly painful to listen to those awful screams. With a first kid, you have no guarantee that it will work. I’d never really seen such a plan in action first-hand. Then as soon as you think maybe you’re ready to try it, you read some “attachment parenting” article that makes you feel like an evil, awful mother for letting the tyke fuss a little.  Add in the frequent travel, and there just didn’t seem to be a good time to give it a try. I think it’s just one of these parenting lessons that each family has to cross on their own. There’s not a correct way or perfect time. Every family is different, and everyone’s sensitivities are set differently. I’m sure it was hard for our parents to not chime in and tell us their opinions on how we could get some sleep. But we appreciate their support, love, and withholding of unsolicited advice. They knew we’d figure it out eventually.

What to do with all of this extra energy that sleeping through the night has provided us? Oh- wait… I gotta go! He’s headed for the stairs again! That’s about it.

Enjoy some pictures from the last couple of weeks.



Above: Grandma Sue shows Phineas his new Christmas gift.
and : Brent takes Phinny for a few laps around the lake.

Our sleep strategy was difficult to implement on the ferry.

Here Phin taunts his mother at hour 15 of a 21 hour ferry ride

 while she tries to demonstrate the joy a good nap can bring.

Who let a dinosaur loose on the beach? I love this picture.

Getting bigger! Can now stand at the wheel!