Our Caged Bird SCREAMS

[originally written on August 18th] Our move to Toronto was stressful to say the least.  We packed up the house on June 18th and the moving van arrived in Toronto on July 4th.  In between, we stayed in several different hotels and eventually slept on an air mattress in our rent house when we couldn't take the hotels any more.  Our sleeping arrangements were less than ideal for a baby and toddler.  We thought once the kids room was set up, we'd be back to normal.  HA!

Campbell has been refusing to sleep in his crib.  Every night he would pitch a huge fit (waking up Mack in the process).  Eventually we resorted to letting him fall asleep in our arms and then carefully putting him in his crib.  And every night a few hours later, he'd be screaming bloody murder and would end up in our bed.  And instead of getting progressively better it was getting progressively worse.

Finally Campbell and I had a "communication"break through yesterday.  I tried putting him down for his daily nap and he freaked out.  I needed to pump milk for Mack, so I let him scream for about an hour, hoping he would go to sleep.  He eventually woke Mack up, and I couldn't take it any longer so I went to his room.  I gave him books and toys and told him it was time to lay down.  He refused.  He grabbed the toys and said "I don't want this" and threw them out of his crib.  Then he grabbed his crib bumper and said "I don't want this."  

Light bulb... despite all the SIDS warnings, his crib bumper used to be a great source of comfort for him.  Every night he would sleep squished on one side of the crib with his head buried in one corner of the bumper and his feet buried in the other.  I looked into Campbell's tear-soaked face and asked, "Campbell do you want a big boy bed?"  "Ya..." "Do you want to sleep in a bed like daddy's..."  "Ya..."  That night we took one side of Campbell's crib off.  Holy cow, he went to sleep in it.  He still woke up in the middle of the night and ended up in our bed, but at least he started in his own bed and made it for more than an hour.  And today, happily went down for a two-hour nap.  What a big boy.  It's hard to think that something that used to provide such comfort was now the source of all our problems.  And I'm so proud of Campbell for figuring out how to tell me what he needed.  I only wish I had figured it out weeks ago.

Algonquin Park

VACATION!  To say the past year has been a whirlwind is a serious understatement.  The last vacation we took was when Campbell was 6 months old (nearly TWO years ago).  Brad had heard from several colleagues that going to Algonquin Provincial Park to see the fall leaves was a must while in Canada.  So we booked a hotel (for one night, let's not go too crazy here); we loaded the kids into the car on Saturday morning and headed North.

Brad and I were so excited to go on vacation.  The Wednesday night before our weekend getaway, he texted "I'm so exited we should start packing now!"  Let us not forget that we were going on a 36 hour vacation.  Packing for one night should not have taken 3 days of preparation.  And yet, as we loaded the back of the Yukon with all our gear, we barely had enough room for the dogs.  Luckily, we didn't have far to go before they were dropped off at kennel.

And we're off!  Oh wait, is that our tire deflating.  Stop for lunch... stop to air tire... stop to find a place to replace tire... all service stations closed.  Make decision to press on and get there.  Mackie losing it because she HATES sitting in her car seat.  Finally arrive!  40 degrees and raining...  Hey, let's go check out the park with a 2 year old and screaming 9 month old...  View the park from the car with a deflated tire...  Get pulled over by warden who just wanted to tell us that our tire was flat ... head back to hotel.... eat frozen dinners from hotel microwave... survive the night in a chilly room with teething baby and wide awake toddler.

Sunday... let's regroup and eat breakfast in the inn restaurant.  It's impossible to mess up breakfast; unless it takes 45 minutes to make 3 pancakes.  1.5 hours later... okay team Johnson, it's time to put our rally caps on and pull this thing together.  We're headed back to the park for our hike and photo op if it kills us.

Campbell loved the .8 KM hike!  For a week we had talked about seeing a moose or "hopefully fox."  We settled for rocks, moss, leaves and sticks.  The rain held off just long enough for us to make the hike and get our photos.  Poor Mackenzie was so exhausted she fell asleep in the Baby Bjorn.  But the leaves were really beautiful; and at least we can say we've been to Algonquin Park.