The California Adventure

It has been hot this summer. (As you know.) In Texas, it has been really and truly awful. We are on day 61 of 100-plus-degrees this year. I know that in other parts of the country and world it gets hotter or there are hurricanes or earthquakes and yes, the weather can be sucktacular in all places but what I am describing to you is less about heat and more about something like house arrest with a newborn and preschooler FOR THREE MONTHS STRAIGHT.

Just think about that for a moment. Inside, for 90-odd days, with an energetic preschooler and a newborn. Twenty-four-hours a day, seven days a week. Yeahhhhhhh. It works something like this: I can go to the pool when it's 110-degrees outside and Claire probably can too, for a little bit, but I can't take teeny Charlotte outside when it's that hot and expect her to nap peacefully in her car seat. I would basically be baking the baby.

Similarly, I can go to the playground and Claire probably can too, for a little bit, and she might have to stay off the slide so it doesn't burn her legs, but I can't take the baby out there. It's just too damn hot for a baby. She can't regulate her own body temperature but that doens't really matter as she's not a reptile in the first place and doesn't gain anything by BAKING HERSELF. Same goes for walks around the block, riding scooters and bikes, playing tag, blowing bubbles, water table, popsicles on the porch. TOO DAMN HOT.

The above items are about the limit of (free) outdoor activities in suburban north Texas during the summertime for children. We have no mountains, no National Parks, no rivers to float. We do have some lakes, but I don't have a boat and small children near a lake where I can't see the murky bottom kind of freak me out, so no lakes for us.

This is a very long and complainy way to say we were all getting very bored of looking at each other while the ceiling fan rotated above our heads. A vacation was in order. We had to leave the state. Chris initially wanted to go to Estes Park, Colorado. Mountains! Cool air! A National Park to explore! Sounds nice, yes? Then we got an invitation from my best friend to come visit her in California. She lives less than a mile from the beach, has an extra bedroom, a daughter Claire's age and, this is key, ALL THE BABY CRAP WE COULD WANT. Crib! Double stroller! Blankets! Bjorn! Boppy! Bouncy seat! Rocking chair! Washing machine and dryer! An extra pair of hands and eyes!

Hmmm. This sounded good. This sounded very good. We priced out airfare and it was just over $1,000. We could fly ourselves to Estes Park for about $400 in fuel, but then we'd have to pay for lodging and there was no stockpile of baby accessories in Estes Park and....hrmmmm. California sounds verrrrry nice, actually. But then I went to book the tickets and in the four hours since I'd last checked they doubled in price. Also, there were not two seats together on any of the seven or eight outbound flights. Shit. No California.

And then, through the absolute magic that is Twitter, Chris found a flash sale from Virgin America and we got non-stop tickets to LAX for the entire family for $650, which is a CRAZYPANTS deal. We pounced. We booked a rental car. We booked a night at a hotel near Disneyland. I started doing laundry. We were leaving in less than a week!

***

The flight was awesome. Virgin America has some lovely aircraft and very nice people working for them. Highly recommend. I did not really worry about flying with a three-month-old and almost three-year-old too much because I was going to haul them on the plane no matter what. Screaming? Get on the plane. We are going where it is cool outside come hell or high water. It's less than three hours. I can put up with anything for less than three hours.

Turns out they were both dreamboats. Charlotte slept in my arms for almost the whole flight and Claire was sufficiently entertained with an iPhone for most of the trip.

Our first stop was Disneyland. This is the borrowed stroller, a Phil and Teds. I was grateful for ANY transportation that would haul them both around but this stroller kind of kicked ass. Chris got a lot of comments and looks while he was pushing it around. It was pretty perfect for us. Claire could easily jump in and out up front and Charlotte was fairly comfy in the back. She fell asleep in it often and with a hat and blankets we thought we kept her well-shaded. (FORESHADOWING.)

We had no agenda, plans or expectations with taking the girls to Disneyland. We just figured that we were in the neighborhood so we should go and make an event of it. Her favorite ride was the tea cups, which also happens to be MY favorite ride. We strolled and saw characters and had a nice lunch. Pretty simple stuff.

After a fun day we headed to the hotel about 3p for naps and showers. We had dinner reservations that evening before World of Color - some kind of fountain, music, light show that is supposed to be awesome and Maggie told me it was can't miss. We put the baby in the pack and play the hotel provided, tucked Claire into a bed and everyone had some quiet time.

Two hours later we woke everyone up. As I was dressing the baby I noticed that her face was red. Very, very red, actually. Her arms were red too. Perhaps it was the eczema, coming back again? Except...it never really looked like this. Eczema was more peely and rough and this was bright, bright red. Was the baby...sunburned? No, not possible! We'd kept her covered up all day long! I am very annoying about making sure she is covered up at all times (but not hot) but her skin is so red and OHMYGOD I THINK WE SUNBURNED THE BABY WE ARE TERRIBLE PARENTS. I was mortified. It was so unlike me to let this happen. How did this happen? Gahhhh.

I guessed she'd be somewhat uncomfortable later but I figured that might be the extent of the damage. It didn't look *too* bad. She was acting just fine and dandy. But, then I Googled "baby sunburn" and everything came back uniformly consistent on what to do next (which the internet almost NEVER is, about ANYTHING): Call your doctor at once if you suspect your baby has a sunburn.

Shit.

Primary concerns with a sunburned baby were dehydration, but Charlotte had been eating like a champ all day. I didn't think she was dehydrated. She also wasn't cranky in the slightest. She didn't act like her face and arms hurt and what was also odd is that I'd felt like her chubby legs had been exposed to more sun (if any, because really, she was VERY COVERED UP ALL DAY). But perhaps there was some odd reflection that bounced the rays up under her hat? I don't know. Her face is just so RED. GAH GAH GAH. As I fretted over what to do next, Chris was toweling the baby's face with a wet washcloth.

I called the night nurse, since it was 6p in California and 8p in Texas by now. As I described her symptoms the oddest thing began to happen: the redness was rapidly dissipating. Over three or four minutes it totally vanished. Chris had an ah-ha moment and pointed at the sheet in the pack and play. It had probably been washed in some sort of horrible, industrial strength bleachy detergent concoction and she was probably having a reaction to having her face on it while she slept. This made a little bit of sense as all we use at home is hippie laundry soap. When Chris was toweling her face, it must have removed some of the irritant. Night nurse agreed that might be it, but to call tomorrow if she was still red, but since she wasn't upset and was still eating not to worry for the time being. Watch and wait.  

We bathed Charlotte, waited about ten minutes and the whole thing vanished. I breathed a big sigh of relief. We did not sunburn the baby. (I knew it!)

In that hour of fret we had missed our dinner reservation and Claire was SUPER cranky (I think she would have slept until morning if we'd let her). We sort of looked at each other and knew that it was a terrible idea to go back to the park with our two kids. Even if we could get Charlotte back to sleep at some point, Claire was beyond done with being conscious for the day. We went to a pizza joint a few blocks away, had some beers and came back to the hotel. Wise decision. There was no World of Color for us on this trip.

When we got back to the hotel we had an unanticipated problem: What was the baby supposed to sleep on? We were using the 2 blankets we'd brought to double swaddle her and she had barfed on every burp rag we'd brought with us. We looked around for a bit and finally put one of Chris' undershirts on the bottom of the crib.

And that is how Charlotte's first trip to Disneyland and overnight stay in a hotel went. Looks like we should spring for a place with classier linens next time. (Haaaa, I kid. We were in a Fairfield Inn by Marriott, which is a perfectly fine, if relatively simple place to stay. Seriously, I ADORE Marriott properties. Bring your own crib sheet, though.) (Which, I actually thought about bringing my own but we were space limited on luggage so I sacrificed it at the last minute. Lesson learned.)

Comments

[Jessica]

I have made a note: bring crib sheet when traveling to the Blathering (we're renting a pack and play). Score one for hippie laundry soap!

I'm glad you had fun!

[Elsha]

Sounds fun! And I totally recommend the vacation where someone already has all the baby stuff. We stayed with my grandma (in southern california) and the only thing we had to bring for both kids was a car seat for Will, they (mainly my cousins who live out there also) had everything else. Very great. We also went to Estes, but we drove (seeing as we live in Colorado) so we hauled up lots of baby stuff. And the weather in Estes was gorgeous.

[Courtney]

I love the picture of Claire in the stroller. 1) she is smiling, and 2) the big glasses are so SoCal!

[HereWeGoAJen]

I've always taken a crib sheet with us, in the hopes that she would sleep better on something familiar that smelled like home. Nice to know that my obsessiveness paid off in another way too. Plus, this one time, we went to Vegas and in her crib? A king sized sheet that they just kind of folded up.

I think I want that stroller. And I don't even have a second kid.

I love Disney. I'm glad you guys had a good time!

[meghan]

Same exact thing happened to S when I took her to FL when she was 13 weeks old. And then another time a hotel had a pnp but no sheet at all. I now keep one in the suitcase already otherwise I know I'd forget when rushing to pack.

Looks like a great trip...glad you had fun!

[Mama Bub]

Glad you had a great time! I packed a crib sheet for our first (and likely only) trip with a baby, and I was so glad I did! They just gave me a GIANT flat sheet to wrap around the pack and play "mattress." Honestly, she would have been swaddled in that thing by the time the night was over, there was so much of it.

[Maggie]

Oh poor baby!

And no World of Color just means you'll have to go back! :) I'LL MEET YOU THERE!

[Erica]

Glad you had a fun trip! Woo! Man, I can't imagine being cooped up in the house like that for so long. We'd all go insane. Hopefully the weather will turn soon if it hasn't already.