Road Trippin' with Daddy

For months we had a family vacation planned to visit Aunt Sue the Great in Washington, D.C. So, naturally, it was only fitting that my one and only summer client went nearly two weeks over her due date. Ah, well, such is the life of an on-call doula.

Luckily, my husband is amazing (like you didn't already know that) and wanted to still take Beatrice Kate (yea, by himself, for three whole days and a 4.5 hour road trip). So, seeing the opportunity to sleep-in and watch my shows on Netflix and order all the junk food I want without feeling guilty being the kind-hearted mother I am, I thought it was a great idea and an excellent opportunity for some Father-Daughter Bonding.

Naturally, when they got home, I was anxious to see the photos. I was a small bit jealous I didn't get to go (because it sounded like they had an awesome time) but also a little curious at what our child would look like after three days of Daddy Fashion Duty. The photos didn't disappoint:

Immediately, I notice the absence of a hair bow

Bea apparently quickly took to riding around in the proverbial Lap of Luxury:

See you suckers later. I'm Rollin' Out.

 

Aunt Sue also introduced Bea to the delicate world of Nutella consumption. She's still talking about that stuff:

She's going to kill me for including this photo of her Morning Mohawk

You have a little on your face...

They also took in a few famous sights:

Bea thought DC was the coolest Tunnel in the world.

No hairbow AND no nap it seems ...

Our child became an expert subway rider. Now, everytime we're heading out somewhere, she asks to ride on the "A-ven-cha Train":

She might look like a street urchin, but she's my little street urchin.

They also paid a visit to Unka Evan and Auntie Leah. You remember them, right? Well, as predicted, Bea convinced them to visit a nearby park for what else? Swinging:

Which, from the above photo, seemed like a tame form of entertainment. Oh, no. The rest of the photos tell the whole truth:

Teetering on unsafe, but I'll let it go...

Uh, guys. She's almost parallel to the ground now.

How can you tell when Daddys are in charge of vacations? When photos like the one below are taken, instead of stepping in to intervene FOR HER SAFETY:

Yep. She's practically upside down.

Ahhh, slow, deep breaths. At the very least, Beatrice Kate had the time of her life (even if her life was about to be cut short):

A little blurry, but there's no mistaken the look of pure joy

Happiness is... Unka Evan pushing a swing.

 

Oh, and they have slides in DC, too? Did you know that?

After all this adventure, Bea headed back to Unka Evan's condo to do a little people watching with "Jazz da Dog":

And a little snackin' too:

Notice how she's not even phased by having a dog sniffing her hands while she eats...

This little girl was worn out at the end of all this fun:

And now, we get to do it all again this weekend, this time in Durham, when Aunt Sue the Great comes to visit us!

Lil' Jokester

Beatrice Kate has always had a silly personality. Even when she was little, she would do things or make funny noises just to get a reaction from us. Now that she has the ability to fully express herself with words, she's come into a new performance medium: The Joke.

Except, every time she tries out a new joke on us, we're not quite sure what's going on. That's probably because she doesn't fully understand how the cadence of a joke is supposed to work. Or more likely, she doesn't even know what she's saying is a joke at all.

It's like an Abbot and Costello Routine at our dinner table sometimes.

For example, here's one of her favorites:

Beatrice Kate: Knock, Knock Daddy.
Casey: Who's there?
Beatrice Kate: No, you say knock knock too Daddy
Casey: Ok, Knock Knock
Beatrice Kate: That is SO FUNNY, Daddy.
And then she proceeds to peel into a fit of giggles.

The end. Seriously. That's her joke.

And the funnies don't stop with Knock Knock Jokes. Another favorite of hers goes like this:

Beatrice Kate: Mommy, Do you...
Me: Do I what, sweet girl?
Beatrice Kate: Do you know the Muffin Man?
Me (confused): Um, the song? The Muffin Man song?
Beatrice Kate: No, Mommy. Do you know him? You don't know The Muffin Man, Mommy. That's SO SILLY. Mommy is SO FUNNY.

Toddler humor is... well, it's unique.

Backyard Camping

Long, long ago there was a family... Before I get into all the photo-rific details of our summer adventures, I really wanted to back-up and tell you all about a fun adventure we had as a family back in May. Yep, in May. As in three months ago. Whatever, it was fun and going back to the "I miss sharing our lives with strangers" bit from yesterday, well, here is is...

Like I was saying, back in May, our family was supposed to go camping and hiking in Stone Mountain with one of our favorite Friend Families. Unfortunately, they had a last minute family emergency and since we are known to have the most unreliable cell service around, we didn't know they couldn't go until we had already gathered our supplies.

You guys, I'm already in my camping outfit!

The other problem? We had been telling Beatrice Kate for weeks about our "Adventure Camping Trip" and she would have been heart. broken. to miss it. So, because we're cheap and lazy and didn't feel like putting stuff back up awesome parents, we thought we may give Backyard Camping a go.

Camp Collins

And boy, did it go! Bea was SO excited and kept shouting, "Campin in the BackaYarda!". We knew we were on to something good. She even volunteered to help lay out the sleeping bags:

Daddy, I'm Camp Captain, you hear?

This may have been because she wanted to immediately lay down in them to "take a nap" (a nap in which she did not actually sleep. Or close her eyes):

Takin' a nap. Or not.

And, Daddy will take a nap, too.

And after 3 minutes of that, she moved on to inspecting the camping supplies. Like the headlamp. That was (apparently) in need of close inspection:

Can't see out here without some light, you guys.

After everything was deemed safe, Bea and Dad got the cookout gear ready to go:

In keeping with the authentic camp out feel, we even opted to use a tiny (microscopic sized) charcoal grill as a "camp fire":

Bea-sized Charcoal Grill. You know, for those Toddler Grill Masters.

Shortly after, the "Camp Face" was started:

Outside for 20 minutes and she looks like a wild animal

The meal turned out really good. Despite being cooked on the world's smallest grill:

Wilderness Feast.

We even used our camping plates and utensils:

Who needs your own plate, when you have Daddy's?

Some of us, ahem, didn't even bother with a table and chose to eat right off of the chairs:

What? Do I have something on my face?

Toddler-sized camp chairs/tables

Cooper, of course, was on hand for clean-up duty:

The Hoover, in action. The Toddler, destroying.

Oh, were you going to finish that?

What's a little smoke inhalation with there's HOTDOGS!

And since it's a proven fact that Toddlers Love S'Mores... it only seemed natural to finish the meal in style:

 

Some family member prefer their marshmellows a little, um, well done:

Weirdo.

And of course, Beatrice Kate had to get in on this:

You guys didn't think I wouldn't want in on this, did you ?

 

This is way too hard to eat like this...

And so did Cooper:

What? I thought you said S'mores for everyone?!? No? My bad.

Beatrice Kate preferred her S'more to be Deconstructed:

It's way easier to eat like this,  you guys.

Yep. That's... classy?

Unfortunately, her cleanliness habits took a turn for the worst around this point:

Oh, whatever, It's not like she's visiting with the Queen.

It's like she's proud to be filthy.

Whew, at least one part of her grimy little body seemed to stay clean (and girly):

She can camp like the boys, but always has a hint of girl!

Hold on a minute...

Wait! I was hoping at least a little part of you was "Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice"

Finally, nightfall came and the sugar rush crashed:

And we lit some citronella candles and hung out under the lantern light:

It was time to climb into the tent for some goodnight stories with Daddy:

See? Hand lamps are critical for backyard camping.

 Bea opted for a themed goodnight story as well:

It's an appropriate book, huh?

And we thought we were in like Flynn when it seemed that Bea was actually, really, possibly going to settle down and go to sleep. Outside, even!:

*Yawn* You guys, I'm getting sleepy.

I think I'll just..zzzzzzzzzzzz

Oh yea right, who are we kidding?:

Sike! You suckers fell for it didn't you? Didn't you?

We gave it the old College Try and Parenting Rock-Stars we are not... and after 30 minutes it was very, very clear that there would be no tent sleeping. So, we trekked inside. To our beds. And covers. And snuggly, warm mattresses. What? I never said I was Bear Grylls, people.