Keep up with the Breedorfs

Hey, look! It’s another update less than a week since the last one!

First of all, here’s a picture of the gash that turned out to be not so terrible. It was hard to get a good photo of it. Theo is considering how he might injure himself with the fork. This is basically what he does with any object that he encounters: contemplates how he might destroy it, or failing that, how he might use it to cause himself bodily harm and upset his mama.

So! We took Theo on his first camping trip last weekend. There’s a family in our PEPS group that started taking their baby on 30 mile hike-in, multi-day, live-off-the-land camping trips when he was just a few months old. They just got back from a month in Mexico where they basically squatted on a beach and fished/foraged when they got hungry. Our first camping trip with Theo — uh, actually any camping trip we’ve ever taken — was nothing like that.

We started out with an easy one that fell squarely in the Car Camping category at Birch Bay State Park just over two hours north of here as we wanted to keep the drive fairly short. We’d packed the car to the gills, bringing equipment for every possible contingency (although Matt neglected to bring a change of clothes). We took our Large Tent, which seemed a lot less large with Theo’s portable crib and bag full of diapers, toys, and six dozen clothing changes in it. We originally got the tent so that Dixie could have plenty of room but our poor dog now has only one little corner to call her own.

We went with another family from our PEPS group. Theo and Annabelle had a great time for a while checking out the camping gear and exploring the dirt, trees, pine cones, leaves, sticks etc. that littered the immediate vicinity. Annabelle then moved on to petting Dixie and feeding her snacks. Theo ventured over to the cars so that he could lick the dead bug goop on the front bumpers, then see how far he could stick his hand up the tail pipes. He discovered a can of camp stove fuel that we’d hidden behind one the cars and he wanted to lick the funnel for that, too. Then he wanted to see what was going on beyond our site so he struck out along the road, trotting along and waving merrily to people in their sites. I followed him for a while then carried him back to our site, and then it was Matt’s turn to do the same. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Here’s a rare shot of both Annabelle and Theo in the same general area and sitting still for ten seconds.

Our campsite was just a few minutes walk from the bay, so we spent some time strolling on the beach. It’s not the best beach for toddlers — rocks made it difficult to walk on and with the tide out there were sharp barnacles to fall and get cut on. But there were also wonderful little tide pools with little crabs and mussels to look at, and with the bay being so shallow, the water was very warm.

That evening, we had a fantastic pasta dinner that Mindi and Nic cooked up, took a long walk around the campground (waving hi to everyone we saw), then cleaned up the kiddos and put them to bed. Theo’s room at home has blinds that block out the light, so he was a little confused as to why we were putting him to bed when it was still light out. He was so tuckered out, though, that he only protested a little then collapsed in a heap. Annabelle went down easily, too. We grown-ups started up the campfire then sat around drinking cheap beer, toasting marshmallows, and talking for a couple of hours, then turned in ourselves.

Theo slept like a log all night until just before 5 a.m. when the lightening sky and chirping birds woke him up. I was convinced that he was up for good, so I made myself some strong, strong coffee and prepared to take him on a walk but by then Theo had conked out again on Matt’s chest. Dixie and I headed out to the beach on our own to watch the sun rise over the bay. Then I came back and took this picture:

After a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, and hash browns, we broke down camp. It sure takes a lot longer to get packed up when one person has to chase a toddler around. Plus we need a ton more STUFF now. I think I’m really close to convincing Matt that we need a mini-van to haul it all around in.

All in all, it was a fun time. Not relaxing, exactly, but fun. We’re planning to definitely do it again this summer. To close, here’s a video of Theo loving the tent: