Watching William

My daughter-in-law Carrie had to attend a mandatory meeting for her company on Monday through Wednesday November 12-14. Since she is still nursing 7 month old William, she asked if I would stay in the hotel where she was and watch William during the day. She reserved a two bedroom suite at the Residence Inn Marriott in the town of Rancho Cordova about 15 miles east of the Hawthorne Suites where Frank and I stayed in Sacramento for his birthday. This was not coincidence; we planned it that way. On Sunday, Frank and I checked out of our hotel, drove up to attend a small train show in Roseville, at the Placer County Fairgrounds about 20 miles northeast of Sacramento. Then he dropped me off at the Residence in Rancho Cordova before leaving to go back home to Livermore. Carrie arrived at the hotel around 7:30 Sunday evening, November 11th.

William is a happy smiling baby and he took to me right away. This photo is from Monday night, after our first day together. We survived even though the morning and afternoon two hour promised naps never materialized. They were more like one ~20 minutes and one ~30 minutes. But William was mostly happy with only two melt-downs, one occurring right when my son called to see how things were going. He laughed as he heard the answer.

Monday, our first day was non-routine. We were on hold waiting to change rooms. Due to overbooking from rescheduling to house forest fire evacuees, we could not check into the two room suite until later that day. I spent Sunday night on the sofa bed, not extended. Adding a Pack 'n Play, a stroller, a car seat and a spread out quilt full of toys on the floor to the room tended to indicate that opening up the sofa bed seemed too much of a drama to be worth it. Staff was going to come and help me move sometime during the day but still William and I were in limbo trying to manage nap times around staff availability to relocate us. I was learning how to use the bottle warmer. I think the instructions printed on the side label were in 6 point italicized font. When my kids were little I used a pan of boiling water or later a microwave. "You used a microwave for breast milk?...", Carrie exclaimed in horror. Yup. And all three kids survived. Imagine that! Monday night was hard for Carrie because William, who now sleeps through the night, was up several times for her. We suspect teething is the culprit. 

Tuesday, I decided to take the non-napping William on a long stroller ride. He was so so tired – still cheerful, but so so tired. I told his mom "If he falls asleep in the stroller I am just going to leave him in it." She concurred. We walked for about 40 minutes and William was wide-eyed taking in all the scenery. One block from the Residence Inn is the Sacramento Children's Museum so William and I went in for about 40 minutes until it was time for his 1:00 bottle, hopefully to be followed by a long nap.

He liked crawling around on the brightly colored carpet, on a mission to reach an air delivery system that spurted out chiffon kerchiefs.

It was a toss up which was more fun – watching them shoot out or playing with them afterwards. His clothing ensemble that has the crab on the butt has a coordinating shirt. On the front it reads "Pinch me. I'm cute."

William took only a short snooze after his 1:00 bottle but by now I was not expecting much more. Frank arrived late afternoon on Tuesday. Frank would stay over and drive me back home on Wednesday. On Wednesday we asked for a late check out and were granted time until 2:30 pm. Frank and I took William back to the children's museum for a longer visit.

The front of the museum has a lending library of children's books. It is sponsored by McDonald's.

Once inside it was easier with two people interacting with William. If nothing else, one is available to capture the precious moments in photos. William liked the water play, inserting his fingers in the squirting streams of water.

He liked the big fish.

... especially a close up look.

"See Grandpa?" he seems to say as he flashes one of his characteristic smiles.

The museum had seats near the water tables just perfect for infants to sit in and splash. And splash William did!

Of course those seats do tend to fill with puddles of water, as shown by William's butt.

... and by my lap from when I held him. Frank and I took turns holding and hugging William to try to absorb some of the sogginess into our own clothes.

 Here are Frank, Mickey, William, and Donald just chillin' together.

"Hiya, Mickey! How ya doin'?"

The light-brite pegs do emit a soothing glow but they are also very tasty, too. I hope they help emerging teeth.

A fenced in corral area was off to one corner for a wider range of free-crawl. I thought the mural was exceedingly pretty.

Back in the room Frank held a very tired William.

William fell asleep for a short while in Grandpa's arms.

Before we parted on Wednesday afternoon, Carrie took this photo of Grandpa and Grandma and William. All seem very happy! Once Frank and I were home, I took a loooong nap!