Ben Was Good

Pictured to the left: Sam, Abby, Kyle, Mary, Dominic, Audrey and Jacob. Kyle, Dominic and Audrey are my niece and nephews. Ben escaped the picture before I could snap it, so I inserted one of him on the merry go round.

Ok...We are back from camping. And yes, there were times we wanted to pull our hair out, but overall, Ben was good. Let's start with Wednesday night. We surprised the kids by telling them at the last minute that their cousins were joining us on our first night of camping. They arrived at our house, we ate dinner and then left for Pittsfield, Illinois. We set up mostly before dark. After setting up, we started a fire. The kids really loved the way we were right next to a playground. It was an "old fashioned" playground with swings, merry-go-round, see-saw (yes you heard me right!) and a tetherball pole (just like the one on Napoleon Dynamite). Which old fashioned playground equipment piece do you thing one of our children cut his eye on and was sent to the ER for stitches? The see-saw!! Maybe this is why they don't have these things anymore. Of course they were in total darkness on the playground and were playing in an unconventional way on the see-saw, walking from one end to the other, when Sam jumped on one end and the other end went up and knocked his cousin, Kyle, in the eye. He is the one in the orange jacket. If you look closely, you will notice his eye (near the pole) is swollen and purple. It took us one hour of being in the campground to already have an accident and be quite familiar with the town hospital (which, thank God, was only 1 mile away). I stayed back with the other 7 kids (aaaahhhhh!!!!) and managed to do s'mores and handle two toddlers with a dangerous fire. Our first night could have been better. The good news was that they got right into the ER with no wait and were back in an hour! I know how ER visits are and felt fortunate this wasn't so bad.

We learned from past camping trips with toddlers, that you got to wear them out and put them to bed late. Rule #1-- DO NOT try to put them to bed at a regular time...especially the first night. They are too wound up and will only drive you crazy waiting for them to tire out. There is NO separate room or bed with walls.

Mary had the pack-n-play, so Ben was in a regular bed with no rails to keep him contained. We waited til about 10pm to put Ben down. After laughing at his shadow on canvas tent end, talking a little bit and then finally laying down, he fell asleep. Not too bad. I think it took maybe 30 minutes. Mary had a tough time adjusting to the new surroundings and wouldn't go down at first. I got her out of bed and put her down later, right before the rest of us. It worked.

Naps? What naps? We did no scheduled naps for Ben. He fell asleep in the bike trailer at 4pm our first day there and Mary took her regular nap. She was exhausted from the night before. We left Ben asleep in the stroller, which leads us to Rule #2-- When camping, NEVER move a sleeping child from whatever place he/she fell asleep. They are in abnormal surroundings and are sure to wake up as soon as you move them. Let the sleeping baby lie!!! We've left many a child sleeping in a car, stroller, bike trailer, etc., while we went about our business at the campsite.

Mary adapted quickly to her new bed and after day 1 and slept well for naps and bedtime. We kept Ben up during naptimes and let him snooze when he needed it (car rides, trailer rides, etc). We kept him up later every night and he ended up sleeping in later in the mornings. This worked well for us. After night 1, we were going down with him around 9:15 and he would be asleep by 9:45pm. We all got good sleep. Both kids slept through the night with no problems. We do not take this for granted. Last year was horrible...with lots of middle of the night wakings and crying. Ughh. In a camper when EVERYONE can hear the crying, it can be quite irritating. So, for the fact we were spared this, we are grateful.

The only "pull out your hair" times were:
1) When I thought it would be a great idea to have a picnic on a lakefront picnic table we found on a walk. I went back to the trailer to make a lunch for our whole family, brought it all the way back (via bike and trailer), to be greeted with a crabby Ben who cried, screamed and complained through our whole meal. It was not pleasurable at all. It was barely bearable. He was definitely tired and faired much better after some downtime back at the trailer.

2) On the way home, during the last 40 minutes when Mary had her nap interrupted and cried and screamed the rest of the way home. Arrgghhh.

Not bad. I did have to sleep with Ben every night, but this wasn't a bad trade-off to a good night's sleep. The other "not so hot" thing was that Ted and I barely talked. We were so busy with the kids, tag-teaming and going to bed the same times the kids did...there was no time to connect. BUT, sharing all the fun activities together helped us to bond despite our lack of conversation. We rented a golf cart and took many rides around the lake. We also played in the sand on the beach (too cold to swim), played on the playground, went fishing, roasted s'mores at night, roasted hotdogs for one lunch, rode bikes, took the younger ones for rides around the like in the bike trailer, watched a blue heron fly around the lake, watched Geese enjoying the shady banks of the lake, and tried to see a movie at the local Drive In theatre but their projector was broke. Oh well. The kids didn't even know what a Drive In was. Another highlight was when I ruined the waffle mix (I thought my handwriting said '2 cups of milk', but it really said, '2 cups of mix') so we all went to McDonald's and played in the play area afterwards.

To give some more camping with kids rules:

#3--Don't worry about keeping them clean. They will be filthy the whole time. You will only get frustrated when they play in the dirt right after a bath...so just save the bathing all together! We did do some sponge baths, but overall, they were filthy the whole time. Which leads us to another rule...

#4--Don't bring cute clothes that you really care about. They will only get filthy in the first two minutes they wear them.

#5--Keep your eyes on the little ones...they tend to run off. In the rush of getting ready to leave, we lost sight of Mary. We freaked out and looked all over the place...she was in the car.

#6--Make your meals in advance so you don't have as much work while camping. I remember impressing my in-laws because we had meatloaf and mashed potatoes while camping. Meatloaf is great to make at home in those mini-pans and warm up in the microwave at the campsite. Ok...I'm embarassed...we do have a microwave. And mashed potatoes? Well, with a microwave, the boxed variety is very easy! 5 minutes! I'll also pre-form burgers at home. This saves time at that campsite.

#7--Bring a star chart. I wish I did. Only in campgrounds (or other rural areas), is the sky so untouched by city lights that you can see all the stars. We did some gazing, but it frustrated us that we didn't know what the heck was up there and what they were called.


#8--Bring games you don't usually take the time to play at home...cards, puzzles, games, etc. We have had more fun with games like "Connect Four", because it's just as much fun for adults as it is for kids. One year we had a tournament, and one of the kids ended up winning. I like to play Phase 10 with my sister Lisa and her husband Paul, and double solitaire with my mom. She never gets sick of that game. I can ask her at any moment to play and she will because my dad doesn't like cards. When it rains, we always have something to do!

#9--Bring friends and family!! But make them get their own site...you need a least a little privacy. We wanted this trip to Pittsfield to be just our family, but the Masek's ended up joining us for one night and one full day and we had so much fun. Having other adults with us really helps with the younger kids. They often give us breaks. We usually take one big trip a year with my family. My parents have a trailer and my sister has a pop-up. My other sister, Becky and her husband, Jerry usually hitch a ride with my parents. We've been to St. Augustine, Florida...Holland, Michigan...and Orlando, Florida. This year we are going to Gulf Shores. The big trips are great to share with them. My sister, Lisa and I always wish we were neighbors so we could see each other more often. When we're camping, we are neighbors.

#10--Always, always, always bring s'mores. I can't think of camping trip we've taken without s'mores. We always bring them. My dad likes them with peanut butter. I tried this and yes, it was scrumptious!! Kids love roasted their own marshmallows over the fire. We have special roasting rods that are extendable. I love these. When we were younger, I remember going out to find a good roasting stick. I guess that's one memory my kids won't have...but they won't have dirty stick remains on their marshmallows either.