Down In Ol' Mexico

We went to Mexico last week. It was our first vacation just for us in a couple of years, since our last trip to Mexico, shortly before we had Jack. That 5-day trip was an extended period of drinking, swimming, sunning, and siesta-ing. This 5-day trip had some of those things, but with a 15-month old toddler it was rather different. For one thing, we drank less. For another, we slept less. (Jack was only so-so with the resort pack-n-play. And for a third, well, it was a classic example of a vacation where you need another vacation to recover from when you get back.

The trip was too big to cover in one blog, so I'm just going to run through some highlights.....

1. Jack started walking. Maybe it was always being barefoot, or not having his supportive walkers around to lean on, or maybe it was just the right time, but Jack started walking in Mexico. He had taken a few steps on occasion with us here, but in the resort, he suddenly held his arms up, arched his back a little, and took off, walking up to 20 feet at a time, and turning around, and walking back, always with a big, pleased smile on his face. Oh yeah, I'm walking. That's right. Can you dig it? Oh yeah. His best walk was when I was sitting on the couch doing a sudoku puzzle, Emily was in the bathroom, and Jack was standing at the coffee table near me. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw his head sort of bobbing across the room, and I looked up, and there he was, just cruising over to the bathroom, finding the door closed, turning, and cruising on back. Smiling. Just classic.

2. Jack didn't sleep on either of the 3-hour plane trips -- until the plane was shuddering and roaring while it was landing on the tarmac. No joke: the two LOUDEST portions of the entire trip were when his head slumped to his chest and he snored his way to sleep. On the way there he slept during touch down, going through baggage claim and customs, and all the way out to catch our bus to the resort. On the way back he slept through touch down and customs, waking up in baggage claim. To Jack, airports must be the easiest thing in the world: one minute you're on the plane, the next you're at the sidewalk trying to catch a ride to your hotel or car. This seems as good a place as any to mention that as Emily learned on the trip there and I learned on the trip home, he's kind of a heavy little guy, especially when he's zonked out.

3. Jack loves the ocean. Within an hour after arrival, we'd changed into our suits, lathered up, put on Jack's little cap with the neck and ear flaps ("Lawrence of Ababya," Emily dubbed him), and cruised down to the ocean. I went down to the water with him in my arms, dropped to my knees in the surf, and let the waves slam into us - my back, his legs, as I held him up a bit. He screamed with laughter, cackled with joy, like it the greatest thing he'd ever experienced. We did this repeatedly; it didn't get old for him. Except for one time when I kind of got knocked over and we both went under, but even that he was a trouper about; he sort of sputtered a bit and looked a bit befuddled, but didn't cry and seconds later was yukking it up again as the next wave crashed into us. He crawled across the sand like it was his favorite game. Since there are no oceans in Colorado, it looks like we'll either be moving or taking our share of trips to various coasts in the coming years.

4. Vacationing with a baby is exhausting. The plane trips, with Jack needing constant entertainment/soothing, were tiring. Meals, which were a constant battle to both eat and keep Jack happy (when he's not happy, or into his food, he tends to throw it on the floor), were anything but relaxing. Sleep, which either ended too early or was interrupted by a couple of hours of Jack being upset (What is this place? Where am I? Where's my nightlight that my idiot parents forgot to bring?), seldom left us feeling rested. And then there were the middle portions of each day where Emily and I barely saw each other, as Jack took a long nap and we traded off staying in the room with him with visiting the beach, the pool, and of course the swim-up bar. Emily would disappear for an hour, come back slightly burned, and I'd spare a quick kiss before making a break for the beach myself. There were no 2-hour siestas by the pool for either of us, not that I've ever been any good at the kind of thing anyway; we wanted to give the other person a little break.

5. Jack's a charmer. The guy flirts with older women. Makes serious-looking businessmen and overworked busboys smile. Behaves for all the world like the perfect baby, aside of course from those moments when he's throwing food or drink on the ground or fussing in his airplane seat because he's exhausted but has to wait another hour and a half before he can finally fall asleep. But for all the angry looks you worry you might get from people when you've got a baby with you, and he's babbling loudly about nothing, the truth is you really get a lot of smiles. Which is kind of cool.

Vacations are important. They can be more expensive than you expect, more work than you expect, and more tiring than you expect. But even as I yawn my way through this blog I know I'm not going to remember the two hours of listening to him not sleep 15 feet away in his pack-n-play for several nights, anywhere near as long as I'll remember him in his little bathing suit and T-shirt walking like a little wind-up toy across the suite with a big grin on his face, or sending peals of joyous laughter out over the waves, as another one smashed into us.