Papaya Mom

Adventure Dad sent me upstairs to enjoy some alone time. I can hear that Papaya just fell and bumped her head on the floor while he was doing dishes, but she seems comforted by him. It is hard to let go and let him have her, yet that is what I crave on long days like today.

What is new with us? Everything. New house new schedule new job…

New house. It’s beautiful and brand new. The brand new part means we drive through the construction zone of our neighbors to get to our house, this is mostly alright except when we find things like bricks in our driveway. A delivery was “misplaced” on our driveway yesterday and I had to wait for them to move it before I could get into our garage. Brand new. The kitchen is AMAZING, I don’t know if I can say that enough. Five burner gas stove, island, wall oven/microwave, deep sink, and on and on and on.

In this new house Papaya’s crib was set up in our bedroom and she’s sleeping in it. She started to roll around a lot and get frustrated at us in her sleep, so now we put her in her crib after she falls asleep in our arms in the rocking chair and she sleeps for about 4 hours before a nurse break, back to crib, 4 hours and then in the bed with us for the last few hours of the morning. It’s nice, and bittersweet.

New Job. Adventure Dad works a darn lot and I’m sick of it, no shock. Let’s hope it settles down in a week or so and he can come home before 7 p.m.!!!

Off to take photos of the house….

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The Pentagon that is. I saw it today, in real life, as we drove by. We drove through Alexandria and up through the District and then back out to Fairfax. I’m just in shock that it’s not black, it always was in my mind’s picture. Maybe that’s why I think of it as the Death Star.

It’s brick, light and tan in color, brick. My husband is going to work there, going on Friday for the first time. It’s like working in the boss’ office, although I guess that would be that White House down the street. He’s excited, and possibly nervous, although he’d never admit that.

Although we’ve had our ups and downs this last week, to buy or not to buy, I’ll miss all the time I’ve had with him when he goes back to work. I like having a house husband.

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http://holdmenear.com/cart/index.php?main_page=page_3

I love my hotsling, I often give them as baby gifts because they are so easy on the “uptake.” I would cradle Papaya in it as a newborn as we waited to be seated at a resturant, by the time we sat down she would sleep in the cradle carry while Adventure Dad and I had our first post-baby dates. Then, she was so excited to go in the kangaroo carry facing forward and see the world. She would giggle and point and all sort of things! Now, it is my easy on/off hip carry carrier. I have one in the car and others in the house (to match my outfits of course) and love it. I’m constantly telling people about them, where to buy them, and such. When moving cross country, and driving, the carriers I took were a Mei Tai (Kozy) and my fleece Hotsling.

Yay for babywearing!

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Jackson, MN to Chersterton, IN

Oh dear. It is 9:30 p.m. and we just made it into our hotel room.

The day began so well with an alarm at five a.m. Adventure Dad got up and showered, loaded the car and got gas while I awoke and dressed then managed to change the outfit and diaper of Papaya without waking her. We were on a roll, a good one, we hit the road in sub-freezing temperatures with Papaya asleep before we even hit I90 which was visible from our hotel. This idea was from a friend who home birthed her third child last saturday, I should have known she has a higher tolerance for pain than I.

We made it 150 miles and two hours before breakfast at the Canadian Honker. Little did I know when I selected this restaurant that it was in the middle of the multi-block area that houses the Mayo Clinic. As Adventure Dad said “this is the town of sick people!” I like to think of it as a town of Doctors where the sick people come, but that is a whole other thing. Nonetheless, breakfast was alright with the highlight being the coffee we both needed (even I drank some, unusual) and cinnamon roll that fed all three of us before our meals arrived. On the way out of town our sweet girl fell asleep again, and while Adventure Dad drove, I did too. The only issue was by this time we had fog, as the sun rose it had begun and did not break until noon. Minnesota was all fog, the kind where you go below the speed limit because you can only see a few hundred yards ahead of you even though the Big Rigs are passing you on the left at twice your speed and disappearing into the white beyond.

Next stop was Madison, Wisconsin which I had visited once at 16 years old with a friend. This time our goal was the Madison Children’s Museum which was right across the street from the capital building and along the pedestrian-only State Street. What fun! We walked and window shopped and made it to the BEST Children’s Museum thus far. Okay, we’ve only been to two, but this one rocked. I got all sorts of ideas for our finished basement in DC and a lot (80 in 90 minutes) of pictures of the princess. She played in a house, on stairs, with a kaleidoscope, with brushes, teeth, nets, a garden, a kitchen, cows, dinosaurs and a boat. By the time we moved on to Angelic Brewing Company for lunch she was very tired. A quick meal (and pint glass for the collection) and on towards Chicago we went. This was at 4 p.m. and we had already made our minimum 350 miles that day. Why did we go on?

So we hit the Chicago area around 6 p.m. What happens then? Rush hour, oh, and rain. Yep, we spent two hours passing through Chicago wanting to get past the traffic so that when we stopped for the night we did not need to worry about morning traffic. We got far enough and even found a hotel, but when we arrived it was next to the train tracks on the bad side of town. We stopped long enough to nurse Papaya so that I would not burst, and got back in the car. Papaya was amazingly good, she had yet to protest the car-seat on this long long day.

So that is how we ended up here, at the Hilton Garden Inn in Chesterton, Indiana. The Bob Evans next door was about to close when we got here, so we rushed over to eat dinner and then got into our hotel room. Papaya is in the bath with Dad and I’m looking back on our longest day yet. Minnesota then Wisconsin then Illinois and now Indiana. Four states, one long day.

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Our first great restaurant on this trip was tonight in Rapid City, South Dakota! The Firehouse Brewing Company was a find thanks to one of those fliers in the lobby of our hotel room that Papaya feels the need to remove from the rack. The food was awesome; beer bread was a hit with Papaya as was the beef from my plate, Adventure Dad had bangers and mash (a favorite of his) and two of the house brews. Strong Arm Porter and Brewers Gold were good, 3 out of 4 on the Adventure Dad-likes-it scale. If you are ever on I90 going through the area we highly suggest this stop in an old firehouse, they are kid-friendly with a free firehat for Papaya and, of course, another Pint glass for Adventure Dad’ collection.

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