She has exceeded our best expectations. With the exception of the first night, she has been fantastic. First night she woke up every 2 hours, and Mr Snork, terrified the hotel would throw us out, walked her on the beach, every couple hours all through the night. After spending the next day delirious with no sleep, Mr Snork relaxed about the possible hotel baby discrimination, Mouse realized he wasn't running to walk her on the beach at 2 am, and gave up. Babies are crafty.
I was relieved to find out vacationing is almost the same, except there's a tiny creature who wants things. Wanting things is her THING right now, and it's really the only thing she's good at, so we humor her, in hopes she soon develops other, less taxing hobbies. (That, and we're whipped). Sometimes we cave and stay home during happy hour and let her take a nap, and sometimes we pretend we're in charge and take her for a run in the stroller. And she screams for 2 miles, to let us know she doesn't like it. But, what travel partners are perfect? At least, this one can be bought with crackers. (For a few minutes at a time, so I really need to find a longer lasting alternative, or buy stock in cracker companies). And she only snores a little.
Sunshade + blow up bathtub + baby UV suit = HOURS of fun on the beach. Mr Snork and I take turns snorkeling and diving for sea glass. The beached parent invents games with rocks, monitors sand intake, build sand towers for Mouse to crumble, and bathes the Mouse in the ocean. She loves it. I haven't spotted obscene amounts of sand in her poop, so we must be doing OK. Once we had to emergency evac - she rubbed her eyes as she played in the sand. It was a little ugly, but she recovered after a shower and a nap. For all the time we spend on the beach I'm surprised it only happened once. All this playing makes her nap super hard. This morning we spotted turtles from our balcony, and I dispatched Mr Snork to go snorkel with them, and make sure they aren't rabid or mean, or anything. After he swam with them and cleared any human related psychoses they might have and they still stuck around, I went down and also had a turn. Mouse slept through all that, but she's not much of a snorkeler anyway.
My mother emailed me and told me she had a dream of Mouse taking her first steps, in the sand. Because she had a dream the night before Mouse was born, (that she would be born), we have taken the appropriate steps to let this dream happen. We've walked her on the beach, and on the plush Hyatt lawns. (We aren't even staying in Hyatt. We go down there for the grass). We've tried sunrises, and evenings, and live bands. No dice. As soon as we let go off her hands, she promptly nose dives for the ground. Or sits back. I'm thinking it was a dream glitch. I have put hours into this, and all I have is a million pictures of Mouse butt scooting around on all fours, away from us and our aggressive need to teach her things.
The only thing Mouse consistently doesn't like (other than sitting in her carseat) is shopping. She gets super antsy in the stores, dives for displays, chews tags, attacks things, and thrills Mr Snork every time we have to make a hasty exit. No touristy loot for me. I make do by looking at the windows, and making a mental note to Ebay things later. I should make physical notes, but it would ruin Mr Snork's day each time. This way, I'll reliably forget each thing once I'm three storefronts down.
We take her into Lahaina art galleries, and she pretends she's into art. She's almost snobbish about it. There were some silly paintings with a bear and rabbits, and the salesperson rushed over, telling us how perfect it would be for a nursery. Mouse stared her down like, "Why would I want this ridiculous bear?? The place next door had a stunning bronze mermaid sculpture, so please leave my face, and take your nursery rabbits with you". Like us, I'm pretty sure she's obsessed with Vladimir Kush,
and Fabian Perez.
Lucky for her, they're both available to stare at locally at Laguna Beach, because it might be a while before either one comes home with us.
Speaking of beautiful pictures - I tried, despite popular protests to take an ADORABLE picture of Mouse and Parrot named Pearl that hangs out in Lahaina, charges $30 per picture, and is an exquisite shade of greys and pinks. As soon as Pearl, perched on my hand entered Mouse's line of sight, she started reaching for her with vigor indicative of plucking and other unfriendly behaviors. Pearl freaked out and was replaced by a not-nearly-as-exciting dull green bird, who was a veteran and a trooper. Our "Aloha from Maui" postcard choices consisted of 2 shots of Pearl scaling my arm in desperate escape attempts and 4 shots of Mouse glaring at the stoic green bird. No $30 material in sight. I guess 10 months is too early? My plan is walk her past the birds daily, until the novelty wears off, and she can play nicely with them for a fraction of a second. I have 6 days to accomplish this. Mr Snork is hoping I fail and save him $30, so I'm double committed.
In Mouse's defense, she lets me take countless pictures of her, for free. A lot of our time is spent doing just that, on the beach, on the resort grounds, under every plumeria tree or hibiscus bush I can spot, and in the wild. Sometimes, Mr Snork mans the Mouse while I climb waterfalls and try to get artsy with the camera. They climb waterfalls too, but prefer the outskirts of the waterfalls, with less slippery rock. Mouse can also play with a pile of rocks by the river while we have lunch. Sometimes, we all hang out in the shaved ice trailer by the road and eat the ice, watching the Sugar Cane Train go by. Other times we hide, and watch her head bobbing in the pack and play, looking for us, when she's supposed to go to sleep. Like right now.
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