Head to toe

Things have been a bit out of hand in the Land of Adventure.

First was the Portland road trip, which was probably the shittiest trip I've had in a very long time.  Hamburglar was great.  He is still my favorite road trip companion.  In fact, we had so much fun in the car on Mama Baby Road Trip 2.0, we went for a 3.0.  But more on that later.

We were staying with a friend in Portland who has always been a bit like a second mother or an older sister or something.  But she's getting divorced and has gone kind of crazy.  We were going to stay four nights with her, but we stayed two because neither of us were getting any sleep.  So we decided to go to the beach and get a hotel.  Silly me didn't think about the fact that it was the second to last weekend before school started, so we drove from seaside to Astoria while Mr. Adventure, back at home, called every hotel in the world.  They were all booked.  We ended up driving to Longview and got the last hotel room in town.  Mr. Adventure said it was called the "Town Shallot."  It was the Town Chalet and it was GROSS.  And creepy.  And room 13 was the only room available.



We then had to go back to Portland to get my Boba out of the friend's dining room, then we went to brunch with another friend.  On the way back home, we stopped for the night in The Dalles.  We had a swim in the pool, a shower, some food and Sophie the Giraffe and I shared a Lemon Drop.

The best part of the trip was stopping at the Bonneville Dam on the way down.  Though, there was a van full of a family of people that looked pretty imbred that parked two spaces away from me, where I was sitting in the back of the car breastfeeding the baby.  The dad walked around to where I was sitting in my car and stared through the window at me while he walked by and I gave him the finger and his kids and grandma all hung out at the back of the car.  When one of them leaned on it, I may or may not have yelled, "Get off my fucking car you cunt!"  They were all wearing matching orange shirts.  Except grandma.  But I bought Chumbercules his first pocket knife from the gift shop!  It even had his name on it.  Well, the abbreviated, casual version of his name, but I wasn't expecting to find a pocket knife that actually said "Chumbercules."  And what 11 month old doesn't need a pocket knife?

Last weekend, my best-friend from college came out to visit Chumby and I.  We went to the Farmer's Market and wandered around downtown a bunch and she bought a fancy new belt and buckle.  Sophie the Giraffe and I shared a beer.  I think she might be a lush.  But this Kolsch from Ninkasi was pretty good.

And Hamburglar started walking on Monday!  He's getting better and better at it every day.  If I want a good laugh, I just put a pair of shoes on him and watch him walk around.  I read that 3 out of 4 babies are walking by 12 months.

Then, on Tuesday, I was making dinner and my dad called because my stepmom was out of town and he needed a ride to the ER.  He has a brain tumor behind his right eye.  We all (me, stepmom, Hamburglar, local brother) drove him down to Salt Lake to see the Neurosurgery specialist guy at University of Utah hospital.  My oldest brother and favorite sister-in-law got into town that night, so they're staying with my stepmom and my dad is scheduled for surgery on Tuesday.  They are hoping they can pull it out through his nose.  I guess we will see.  People keep asking if I'm okay, and I'm fine.  Worrying won't help anything.  And, statistically, people that have family and friends with them before surgery have a more positive outcome.  I think I'm going to fly back down to SLC on Tuesday because, right now, I kind of never want to be in my car again.  Keep your fingers crossed that it isn't cancer.

In non-brain-tumor news: Chumby is going to Dog Park Baby's first birthday party tomorrow!  And I'm picking up Little Miss Adventure from school today and am excited to hear about her first week of first grade.

And that's about it.  Like I said, it's been kind of crazy around here.  Hopefully they get dad's brain all sorted out and my favorite baby continues to do awesome and amazing new things.

Diaper stripping revelation and baby's first road trip

It’s time for a revelation:

Calgon sucks for stripping diapers.  I mean, that chick on the Internet said it worked, but I tried it and it didn’t.  Maybe I did it wrong, but I felt like it made my inserts less absorbent.  I don’t know.  So, I had heard about RLR and how it is super amazing at stripping diapers, and it is!  I found this post and ordered a couple packets of RLR from Amazon.  I washed all my diapers and inserts per normal (cold rinse, hot wash/cold rinse with Calgon and diaper safe detergent) then I threw in a packet of RLR and ran them through my normal wash cycle, then rinsed them, like, 5 times.  It says to rinse them until no more suds come off, but my washing machine is a terrorist and locks itself shut so I can’t open it and look inside (I have a top loader).  How much I hate my auto locking washing machine could fill its own blog.

Anyway, the RLR seems to have returned my inserts to their previous glory of absorbency.  And they don’t smell funky anymore.  Yay!  Word on the Internet is that you should do monthly maintenance stripping.  If the RLR works as well the second time, I will buy a ton of it to have on hand since I will be doing this monthly for at least a year (but probably longer).  Calgon is still amazing for normal hard water washes and I am still adding it to my laundry, but I don’t like it for diaper stripping.

Also, Zulily has Little Monsters brand cloth diapers on sale for $10 a piece right now.  I ordered four of them, because I couldn’t resist their cuteness.  I got the brontosaurus (or Apatosaurus if you want to be all accurate and stuff) and a couple others.  I really wanted the moustache one, but I limited myself to four and I thought the ones I picked out were cuter.  Though both the anchor and the moustache were incredibly tempting.

Chubs McBabylegs went to the pediatrician for his four-month well check.  Dr. Soulpatch commented on his strength and overall buffness.  We may have a baby body builder on our hands.  Hamburglar weighs 17 pounds and seems to have evened out a bit.  He’s in the 80^th percentile all across the board, which means that he is no longer short and fat with a big fat head like he was before.  Sure, he’s still heavy with a massive noggin, but at least he’s long enough to pull it off now.  Dr. Soulpatch was wearing striped socks with tiny little jolly rogers on them, so I think this relationship may work out.  Because I like to decide if I like people or not based upon completely arbitrary and shallow reasons.

Hamburglar and I went on our first solo road trip.  Mr. Adventure couldn't make it, so Chubs and I went together.  He slept most of the way and wasn't too cranky.  It worked out really well.  The weather was crazy and we drove through ridiculous fog pockets like this on the way there and back.

But, we made it to Seattle and it only took about two hours longer than it took me pre-baby.  And Seattle was lovely, per usual.  I didn't realize how much I miss it.

We had lunch at the Jolly Roger Tap Room with my old roommate (little mahi sliders and the jalapeno ceasar salad are amazing!).  Hamburglar was grumpy being there and, at one point, I had to change his diaper.  It was not easy.  There was no changing table and there was only a pedestal sink that turned on automatically, so I couldn't put the diaper bag in there and I ended up holding him over my shoulder, trying to take off his pants and diaper and get him all changed.  I’m just glad he didn't poop because that would have ended a whole new element to the challenge. 

That night I had dinner at a friend’s house with her and her family.  She is super pregnant (due February 5^th) and I was bringing her baby clothes that Hamburglar has grown out of and she gave me a ton of size 12 month to 2 year that I will give back when I’m done with them.  Yay!  Chubs tried out her doorway jumper and LOVED it, so I bought one off craigslist for $10.  He doesn't seem to love the one I bought as much, but whatever.  He is enjoying it.  I think part of his love of the other one was the 2.5 year old that was helping him get his bounce on.

The next morning we had dim sum at House of Hong with another pregnant friend and her husband.  (They are having a girl in May and she and I are currently in negotiations for arranging a marriage.  She has offered a dowry of three chickens, but I think I can get more if I hold out a bit longer).  I love dim sum. 

After that, we set off to Olympia to visit college friends.  We had lunch and hung out and I put Hamburglar's fancy new (old) Seahawks onesie on him in preparation of the big game.  Now, I’m not saying that Chubs’ Seahawks threads are what won the game, but I don’t think it hurt.

After one night in Oly, we headed back home the next morning.  The trip was a real whirlwind and left me missing my friends even more.  I think if I pack up the wee babe and take him visiting again, we will go longer.  Three days wasn't nearly enough and we spent so much time in the car.  I think it was a bit unfair to Fatty.  But he loved my friends and they seemed to love him.

I think I may need to move back to the West Coast.  Mr. Adventure grew up near Tacoma, so he seems down, it’s just a matter of agreeing on where we live.

Also, I know I've said it before, but I love this fucking baby.  And he is my new favorite road trip companion