I’ve already downloaded my photos to my computer, but I’m still waiting on Jay’s. A nice big slideshow of our trip will follow soon. In the meantime, we had a great trip (minus an injury I will get to later)! We stayed a few nights with my Uncle Eddie and Aunt Kate (and my Mom who was visiting the same week). We got to see my cousin Suzanne and meet her kids. It was very nice to introduce Theo to more of my family, and especially to have him play with Suzanne’s girls. She had a little pool party so they had quality time. We had amazing food that my Aunt Kate made from scratch every day (literally, everything), we went to the Rose Garden, and walked a bit around downtown Portland, mostly Powell’s the Pearl District, and on another day the waterfront and food carts. We went out with Jay’s brother two nights after we put Theo to sleep so we saw a tiny bit of nightlife. We moved to Andreas’ and Amara’s on Thursday and on Friday we headed to stay on the Sandy River at the base of Mt. Hood for the weekend. It was such an awesome place. The weather was perfect and the house was spacious. We grilled, and cooked, and played in the river, threw rocks, took a small hike in the nearby Mt. Hood National Forest. On Sunday, we visited the Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood for some hiking around and photo taking. The Timberline Lodge is where they shot the hotel in The Shining (from the outside, anyways).
Theo did great, overall, but it was certainly not without challenges. He was out of his comfort zone, for sure, and throughout our trip he would say, “go home”. 🙁 He enjoyed himself with everyone, without a doubt, it was just very clear when we needed to step back and provide some additional attention and comfort to him. We talked a lot about vacation and visiting family and he would refer to this. I think he understood and knew we would eventually be going back home. On my birthday, we had dinner at my Aunt and Uncle’s and at one point I looked at him, he smiled and said, “family”. It was really sweet. It was nice, in a way, to know that home is such a happy, comforting place for him. I realize it’s all he knows but I also recognize it’s due in part to our happy life in Brooklyn.
The doozy of the trip was when he fell off of the bed at Andreas’. I was alone and it was really scary. I was attempting to change his stinky diaper and he was flailing around not wanting me to do so when I turned around to grab the wipes. He fell off backwards onto the hardwood floor. It was awful. I had no idea if he was hurt, where he was hurt… We were both in tears in a strange house with nobody else around. Luckily Amara got home about 15 minutes later and helped us for the next couple of hours. He kept saying, “outside”, and “take a walk”. So, I strapped him to me in the Ergo and we walked to the nearby park. He eventually calmed down a bit, but was definitely in some pain. My Uncle is a pediatrician so he came over to check him out. Theo was definitely hurting and it seemed to be just in the shoulder/clavicle region, no head trauma thankfully. We decided not to take him in to an ER for x-rays since even if it was a fracture, there isn’t much they can do. We decided to give it some time and see how he was over the next day, or so. We kept him pumped up with Advil and a great topical ointment containing, Arnica, that Amara had on hand. Over the next couple of days we were at the cabin and he did really well. He would still say, “hurt”, a bit and he definitely wasn’t using his right arm as normal but he could use it for some things and didn’t seem too bothered by it. We decided to wait until we got back to NY to take him to see his pediatrician and see if an x-ray would be necessary. If my Uncle wouldn’t have been there to check him out/help us, I’m sure we would’ve been in the ER. SOOO, I took him yesterday and she pretty much said the same stuff. He is much less bothered by it now, definitely has limited range of motion, and he is naturally providing his own sling for himself. It was sad to see his little arm not able to do the tasks that his other arm could do. When the ped did exercises with his arm, he didn’t wince or cry so it was nice to see much of the pain has subsided. She said we could see the orthopedist for an x-ray to confirm whether there is a slight fracture but they won’t do much else. Give him another week, or two, and some exercises, and he should be quickly on the mend. He is quite a strong, little guy. It felt like we kept having little injuries all week! He wound up with a fat lip by the end of the trip, too. I guess I’m in for a lot of bumps and bruises to come. Lord knows I had many broken bones while I was growing up!
Anyhow, we are all happy to be home and very thankful for a nice family vacation. We probably won’t be doing that again for awhile. The time change and everything is tough on the little guy (and us!). I think we are all getting back to normal. Although, since we’ve been home Theo has been sleeping until 8:30 so that has been fabulous. 🙂 Stay tuned for photos.
