July | 2010 | The State Of Cate

This summer has been my first time vacationing with a little one. The things that used to make me giddy with excitement (amazing views, luxury linens, beautiful bathtubs) now take a back seat to the all encompassing importance of one solitary thing: where will the child sleep. Parents, can I get an Amen!? You find yourself searching your vacation rental for obscure cubby spaces and large closets and with a gleeful excitement say, “ooh yeah, I can fit a pack n play inthere.”

The success of your vacation is measured by the nooks and crannies where your children will place their little heads after a long day of building sand castles and frolicking on the beach.

A small room you all share with nothing to shield you from the glare of your toddler at 3 am: bad vacation.
Echo-y bathroom with enough space for the crib but nothing to cover the windows: medium good vacation (no drapes means early morning wake ups and going to the bathroom between the hours of 8pm and 7am are out the question but at least there is a door you can close).
Walk-in closet with no windows: jackpot.

Now, it goes without saying that having their own room is the best case scenario but unless you’re rolling in the dough like Brangelia, it’s unlikely this will happen.

Below are a few pictures I’ve snapped from this summer’s sleeping situations:

Vacation Spot: W Hotel in Atlanta – Buckhead

Sleeping Spot: This one was tough. Miles is literally in the shower. The bathroom didn’t have a door, it had a sliding see through shoji screen. Not good.

Vacation Spot: Cabin in Blue Ridge, GA
Sleeping Spot: You can’t really tell in this picture but Joe is standing in the bathroom attached to the room we slept in. Miles pack n’ play fit perfectly in there and we put pillows over the windows. Snug as a bug in a rug. Oh, and there were other bathrooms in the cabin, so no one had to hold it. Perfection.

Vacation Spot: Visiting my brother in Minneapolis, MN

Sleeping Spot: I don’t know if I should be proud of my innovation or embarrassed by my desperate measures to get some sleep. Miles doesn’t sleep very well if we are in the room with him. He thinks its play time. So, I thought that if he couldn’t see me then he wouldn’t know I was there. Didn’t really work. Very, very tired Mommy.

We celebrated Miles’ first birthday today with his cousins, JD and Kingston. Since our lives are a circus anyway, we figured we might as well have our very own to celebrate the boys turning one. (Miles’ actual bday is Aug 6 but we picked a day in the middle of all the boys)

Below are some of my favorite pics from the day.