I'm sitting here on the bathroom floor (gross) of a SpringHill Suites in Portland while Gavin parties in a pack 'n play on the other side of the wall. He reached that point of being over-tired and bouncing off the walls, so it may be a while before I can move or make a sound, and thus I sit and type.
We closed out our time on the coast in the best possible way, which was not doing much at all. I didn't realize that I was kind of burned out on the adventures by the time I allowed myself to just sit still. We went on some walks, spent some time at the beach each day, probably had too much screen time and packed up our tons and tons of stuff and managed to fit it in the car, all without the muscle and logistical genius of one Dylan Miller. By the time Thursday afternoon rolled around, I was so ready to hit the road for a timely meet-up with Dylan at PDX.
Too bad that Southwest Airlines had other plans for Dylan's flight. A 10 minute delay turned into a 2 hour delay, as it usually does. So, instead of waiting around and twiddling my thumbs with a fully loaded car, I decided to head into Portland so that Gavin could get to sleep at a reasonable time. Things were great until I went to load G back in the car after a quick stop in Salem. We were parallel parked on a downtown road, and his carseat was behind the driver's seat to make the most possible room for all of our stuff. This meant that we had cars whizzing by us as I wrestled to buckle him in during an epic tantrum in crazy 106 degree weather. In an effort to make us as compact as possible, I accidentally slammed the door on my legs and bruised up my shin. But on the bright side, we didn't get hit by any cars. With Gavin going absolutely ape sh*t, I blasted the nursery rhymes and threw the first snack I could find, Annie's Animal Cookies, back to him, and eventually the tantrum subsided. Does anybody else want to crawl into a corner and fold up in the fetal position when their child has a tantrum? Because I think it's just about the worst thing ever.
Then we made it safely and soundly to Portland and even found a parking spot right in front of the hotel. I thought it was our lucky day! I've never been more off target. We got checked in with ease, and I found a luggage cart (but no bellhop, unfortunately). Gavin gladly rode the luggage cart to the car, where I loaded up just a couple of things before he spotted his stupid green lawnmower in the back of the car. Then he would have nothing to do with me or the luggage cart, and he just wanted to push his lawnmower in the parking lot. Somehow I was able to push the cart inside with him kicking and screaming and holding his lawnmower under the other arm. That was when a kind stranger offered his help, and I gladly accepted it and made sure he knew that he was a lifesaver. We made it up to room 408 and unloaded, and then I heard a gentle knock on the door. The nice stranger's wife had returned with Gavin's little green tractor that was lost in the shuffle. I was so exhausted by this point, that this gesture somehow made me want to cry. But I didn't cry because who has time for that? It was time to return the luggage cart downstairs, and yes the green lawnmower came with us, and yes it was equally as unpleasant and involved just as many tears and wrestling as the way up did.
So, the moral of the story is to never attempt checking into a bellhop-less hotel by yourself with a toddler who hasn't had a proper dinner and has missed his bedtime. It was a top three traumatic moment of my parenthood. I don't know what the other top two worst moments were, but I can remember feeling traumatized and pretty beat up many times during Gavin's infancy. And truly, I do know that people encounter much more rotten situations than mine all the time, but sometimes it's fun to be dramatic.
I don't always have the time to share stories like these so in-depth on the blog, but I'm also not always trapped in a hotel bathroom waiting for my kid to fall asleep. I do have a few funny pictures from the last couple of days, and even some from tonight. I always find time to snap a photo or two, even in my lowest moments. I'll have to update the post with those later, once my phone is no longer being used as a white noise machine. Cheers to this night being over and being able to pass the parenting wand to the second-in-command in T minus 15 minutes because I am so, so over it. It's such a shame that I'm unable to enjoy a drink on this particular evening.
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