Oregon - A Tale of Two Guys

So I have been asked to submit a “guest blog” about Cash’s trip to Oregon. So here we go.

Saturday
Saturday morning we pack up and head to the airport. I nearly start sweating just thinking about the idea of flying alone with a 2 year old, but here goes…I had planned ahead and made sure to plug in the DVD player and put ELMO in the player the night before so I would be sure to have my one secret weapon just in case Cash began to break me early in the flight. Mommy dropped us off at the airport, we got through security (although of course we were “randomly” selected for extra screening…which is great when the carrier of the child is somewhat out of shape and pretty tired of holding a huge child already!), we found our gate, made it to our own open row of seats, and prepared to take off. We departed on time and just as our wheels left the ground, Cash announced “We flying!”. Then about 10 min’s into the flight Cash was looking really sleepy and I asked him if he’d like to a watch a little Elmo and take a nap. To which he whispered yes, so I put down the food tray, got out the DVD player, took out my own book (which I would read while he was sleeping), and gave Cash his blanket to further promote the idea of sleep. Just as I flip the switch on the DVD player and begin to thank myself for being such a great traveling parent, I realize that for some reason the DVD player had NOT started working. I casually check the switches and other options as I’m sure it was fully charged when I left this morning! Well apparently the DVD player was in the ON position all night and therefore not actually charging at all! This of course was not ok with Cash and he made me very aware of how much he wanted to “watch a little Elmo”. He was still a very good boy the rest of the flight, but not to the point of me ever being able to consider reading even a page of my book. So instead we read books, colored on paper (and other random things), watched the people around us, and ate LOTS and LOTS of snacks!!! Nevertheless, we made it to Oregon safe and sound and it was a relief to have some reinforcements in the form of grandma and papi waiting for us at the gate.

That night we unveiled the first of my old toys for Cash to play with and that was the Hot Wheels car collection. He drove them around and made all kinds of fun car noises for the rest of the night and quickly announced that his favorites were the “truck and broken car” which were a Tow truck and some random car you could attach the tow trucks line to and pull around. Which he did for hours.

My biggest fear beyond the actual flights back and forth, was that of how bed time would work and how much sleep would actually take place during this trip. So I attempted to recreate our home routine as much as possible and it actually worked pretty well the first night. He watched Elmo, had his bottle, I put him into “Grandma’s special bed” (since it’s really just a crib and big guys like Cash would never knowingly sleep in a crib again), read books, and said goodnight to family. Within 10 min’s he was asleep and I didn’t hear from him again until 7:30 the next morning.

Sunday
Cash woke up yelling and when I went into his room he told me he was “scared of that birdie”. There were a lot of birds chirping outside his window, so I guess one of was a little too persistent.

After a quick breakfast, we took Cash to the beach to walk in the never ending sandbox and grab some lunch. Who knew the beach was built for running on. Cash sprinted everywhere. He would just take off running and laughing and seemed to have a great time. That was until he was jumping in a puddle and managed to splash his pants too much and all of a sudden was paralyzed and unable to take another step from fear that his legs would feel the cold pants rub on them. So needless to say, it was my job to carry him the rest of the way. We had clam chowder for lunch and went back for round 2 on the beach. It was during round 2 that he saw some live crabs and learned from the nice crab catching man that you can apparently rub a crabs belly and make it go to sleep! Who knew? Sure enough this man rubbed the crabs belly and eventually the crab relaxed and put down his pinchers and the man offered to let Cash touch them, but he politely declined. (I’m sure the turn away and hide in grandma’s arms was polite). He slept most of the way home and finished off his day back in the tent village playing with cars and other random toys from daddies past.

He wasn’t quite as ready for bed tonight…when I asked him about going to bed, he said “get the birdie outta my room daddy”, so I had to go in and “remove” the birdie so it was all clear in his head. I let him stay up until my bedtime around 9:30 pm or so because he was being good and just playing while he watched Elmo on TV. He went down pretty well, but then come 2:30am I heard some screaming. To make a long story short, I ended up sleeping on the floor next to his bed the rest of the night and HE seemed to get a pretty good night’s sleep after that.

Monday
This morning we went a place called the AC Gilbert House which has all kinds of fun stuff for kids to play with. He played with the trains, dinosaurs, cars, and even some crazy psychadelic video room. He had a great time! Later that afternoon a couple of my friends came down to visit and one brought his 4 year old daughter Brooklyn along. She’s just as shy as Cash so as they each played with toys in their own areas. About the only phrase I heard Cash say was “that’s my toy”. But overall I think they had fun. Cash seemed to wear himself out though because about 20 min’s after Brooklyn left, he laid down on the floor. So I put him into his “special bed” and he took about a 2 ½ hour nap. When he woke up he got to help grandma make some spaghetti for dinner and played with toys in the tent village until it was bedtime. Being his final night in Oregon, Cash didn’t go to bed until about 10pm just to be sure he got his money’s worth out of the trip. Once he was down he slept well and woke up around 6am the next morning.

Tuesday
Tuesday morning Cash got up and helped papi make some biscuits for breakfast before it was time to head to the airport. After breakfast we each packed up our “pack packs” and rode with papi and grandma to the airport. We said our goodbyes and promised to come back and see the squirrels again as soon as possible. Cash requested to walk through the airport instead of sit in his stroller, so we SLOWLY and distractedly made our way through security and all the way to our gate. We spent our time at the gate enthralled by all the planes, trucks, trailers, bags, men and ladies as well as the chocolate covered pretzels we bought once in the airport. Once we boarded the plane we got our own row and Cash took his seat by the window. About 10 minutes after takeoff Cash started to look really tired, just like on the initial flight out. This time I was prepared and I quickly unbuckled his belt and gave him his blanket and dummy. He laid his head down on my lap and promptly fell asleep (with his hand in the pretzel bag). He didn’t wake up until after we landed in Vegas.

Cash was a great traveler and we had a great time! The only thing that could have made it better would have been if mommy and Cooper were there too. Next time!