Turning Maggie onto the world, Erin and Jason style
Posted on August 2, 2006 - Filed Under Uncategorized
As some of you know, we have been quite busy lately. I have taken to calling this the ‘good-bye phase.’ We have been going along at full speed with regard to guests since the July 4th weekend and it’s not going to stop any time soon. We have truly enjoyed having all of these friends (and now family) visit, so I don’t say any of this to make any of you who have been here feel guilty. I only do so as a weak attempt to explain why the blog posts have been slow in coming.
So, to provide some kind of update, we’re all doing fine. Maggie seems to be (everyone should have their fingers crossed at this point) coming out of a fussiness stage. The other night, I swear she sat on the couch with me and just laughed her little head off for no particular reason. She is eating real food now, if you consider that stuff they call baby food real. She really seems to like it, although it is making her poop a bit stinkier. For those of you not counting, she is four and a half months old. Her strength is gradually increasing. And finally, she got her second round of vaccinations a week or so ago, to which she did not have a very negative reaction (thank goodness).
We have also enjoyed introducing the Magpie to many ‘firsts.’ We’ve gotten around to mentioning some of these (amusement parks, hiking, and laughing) but we’ve neglected to make the time to write about others. One of the more significant was her first experience camping. Our friend Rob came to visit the first full week of July. He’s an outdoorsy kind of guy, so I got it in my head for all of us to go camping at a campground near here. All in all, it really wasn’t that great of an experience, at least from a comfort perspective. Erin and I had purchased a couple roll up Thermarest sleeping bag pads and they just weren’t enough for us to sleep well. One of the reasons was the policy of the campground that campers must sleep on the durable (read–hard) surfaces instead of on the grass. I think that if one uses the pads as intended, i.e. in the woods on the dirt, they would probably perform much better. Rob didn’t have a great time either because his air mattress deflated during the night. Other than that, though, we had a good time and will do it again (hopefully many times) but not before coming up with some other comfort measures for sleeping. Maggie seemed to enjoy herself, watching the fire burn, staring as she does at her dog, listening to the relative silence of the night, and hanging with the three of us.
This past weekend was also a biggie for the little one because she attended her first street festival and concert. The former was the 2006 installment of Bele Chere, the largest free street festival in the Southeast. It drew approximately 300,000 this year. I noticed a couple people looking at us strangely, probably because we were carrying around a small baby. I can understand, sort of, why they might feel that way. However, the results speak for themselves: 1. She didn’t get hurt or injured in any way; 2. She didn’t fuss at all, so I think it’s safe to assume she was happy; 3. We and our friends Jerry and Michelle were able to enjoy the festival; and 4. She was ‘quietly observant’ which the experts say is when she is learning. The concert was by a band called Govt Mule, who I really REALLY like. I have to say thank you to Erin for agreeing to go, especially considering it was our fifth wedding anniversary.
I think all of these introductions speak to the fact that Erin and I are unwilling to be the type of parents that shelter their child. We really don’t think life has to stop when a child comes along. Sure, some things change, but the number of things that can stay at least somewhat the same is underestimated. Basically, we strive to live our lives the way we think is right for us and fill it up with things we enjoy, being watchful for when Maggie’s age demands we make adjustments. If no adjustments are necessary, i.e. there are no safety concerns, etc., why shouldn’t we do it?
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4 Responses to “Turning Maggie onto the world, Erin and Jason style”
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I just wanted to let you know what a wonderful time Michelle and I had. I also concur with what you wrote about Magpie, she seemed to have a great time at the festival as well! You and Erin are the truest people I know and are awesome parents. I enjoyed my stay and appreciate your friendship. See Ya
We are so happy you all came down. You guys have a way of making us feel loved and there’s aren’t very many things in this world which can serve as acceptable substitutes for that. Thank you for helping out so much with the little one; it was really nice to get some respite.
[…] Anyway, the big goodie for me is that, because hotels in the Ketchum/Sun Valley area are stupid expensive, I was able to convince Erin we should camp at a local campground. So, we leave tomorrow morning for an undisclosed campground (Erin has this thing about ‘the world’ knowing where we are, as though we were significant in some way and some terrorist sniper is going to take out our tent). I wish, for Erin and Maggie’s sakes, that the campground had a few more amenities. We will be using pit toilets, i.e. outhouses, and not have access to showers. The good news, the VERY good news, is that: “nature” will be all around, Maggie will be exposed to camping (although this is not her first time camping or her first concert), and we will be saving a ton of money. We won’t be taking the laptop with us, so look for a trip report no earlier than Wednesday evening. […]
[…] Anyway, the big goodie for me is that, because hotels in the Ketchum/Sun Valley area are stupid expensive, I was able to convince Erin we should camp at a local campground. So, we leave tomorrow morning for an undisclosed campground (Erin has this thing about ‘the world’ knowing where we are, as though we were significant in some way and some terrorist sniper is going to take out our tent). I wish, for Erin and Maggie’s sakes, that the campground had a few more amenities. We will be using pit toilets, i.e. outhouses, and not have access to showers. The good news, the VERY good news, is that: “nature” will be all around, Maggie will be exposed to camping (although this is not her first time camping or her first concert), and we will be saving a ton of money. We won’t be taking the laptop with us, so look for a trip report no earlier than Wednesday evening. […]