Our Trip to Denver - Part 2: Denver Adventures

Jordyn, my mom, and I all had a great time in Denver. I enjoyed my conference, my mom enjoyed getting to spent a lot of time with Jordyn, and Jordyn loved the stimulation of new sights, sounds, and people. I got to show her off to some of my current and previous work colleagues, and she charmed them all! She was in a great mood most of the time, and she was full of smiles and giggles. She usually is at home, too! We went to the Denver Zoo, and I got to see a friend of mine that I hadn't seen in about 8 years, and meet her 13-month-old son (they live in Denver and met us at the zoo). It was so nice to be able to attend the conference, but not have to leave Jordyn home and not see her for 5 days (which I wasn't going to do - I wouldn't have gone to the conference if my mom couldn't/wouldn't have come). Thank you to my mom for coming with us to make that possible!

It was an exhausting trip, that's for sure. When I wasn't sitting in conference sessions paying attention and taking notes, I was giving my mom a break from her nanny duties and/or doing all the usual stuff - taking care of or playing with Jordyn, washing bottles, etc. We ordered room service the first night so I could put Jordyn down to sleep, but she was up later the other nights. One evening I wore her into the exhibit hall at the conference for the opening reception while my mom took a break and so I could show her off. She ended up sleeping for 45 minutes (she hadn't taken an afternoon nap), but then woke up and hung out with my friends and I until about 10:00! The last night, we went out to dinner with two of my colleagues, and I was really worried Jordyn was going to totally melt down, as she again hadn't taken an afternoon nap, and had been up for something like 6-7 hours. But, aside from a little crankiness, she was great - smiling and giggling and charming everyone in the restaurant!

Hanging out on the floor in the conference area of the hotel late one evening. One of my colleagues took this picture when I put her sunglasses on just for fun!

She didn't sleep through the night once in the four nights we were there, but some nights were better than others. She started each night in her crib (the hotel had one for us to use; I didn't bring a pack n play), but ended up in my bed at some point during the night. One night I think she may have been teething, as she woke up many, many times, but mostly she woke up once or twice. I got annoyed at my mom the first night, because she didn't want to turn the tv off when I was trying to get Jordyn to sleep. She wanted to watch the final performance show of American Idol, and somehow really didn't think it was going to be a problem to have the tv on during her bedtime routine and while I was trying to get her to sleep for the first time in a new place (really? WTF??). I ended up taking Jordyn into the bathroom for books and her bottle, but it was still an issue when we went out so I could put her into her crib. My mom didn't think so, though, and left the tv on. It took forever to get Jordyn to sleep, and I was really frustrated. My mom also doesn't like Jordyn's white noise, and kept bringing it up, because she didn't want to have it on. I persisted, though, because I think it does help Jordyn sleep, and because it's not about my mom - it's about Jordyn! (As an aside, though, when does it make sense to stop using white noise? Do I continue with it indefinitely, or does there come a time when it's no longer necessary? Have we already hit that point??)

Here's the crib the hotel lent us. It had a sheet on it, but I brought my own crib sheet, since I don't know what detergent the hotel uses, and Jordyn has sensitive skin (Although since she slept a lot of the time in my bed, I'm not sure it really mattered. I also brought her own towel and washcloth). On the left side of the picture you can kind of see the makeshift changing table I set up on the desk in the room.

 Jordyn playing on the floor of the hotel room.

One of Jordyn's favorite things these days - a water bottle! (I make sure the lid is screwed on really, really tight).

Here are some pics from our trip to the Denver Zoo:

Jordyn was exhausted when we first arrived, and was really cranky. She fell asleep, and slept for about an hour and a half, so she missed seeing a lot of the animals. It didn't really matter, though, as I think she's a little young for the zoo. She was more interested in just looking around at the people and random things, and didn't really focus too much on the animals.

 I don't know if you can see it, but the sign behind us says "Mother and Child". It was in front of a statue of mother and baby elephants. I didn't even read the rest of the sign, just thought it was a good photo op for an SMC and her child (who was still sleeping). :)

The one animal Jordyn did sort of focus on for a few seconds was a monkey, when it was close to the glass and moving.

 Hard to see, but there's a cheetah behind us (to the left of Jordyn).

The hotel was right on the 16th Street pedestrian mall. The only vehicles allowed on the street were buses that you can take up and down the mall, and my mom took her on a bus ride once or twice. My mom said Jordyn made the connection between the song "Wheels on the Bus" and an actual bus and it's wheels. Who knows if that really happened, but it could have! The street/mall was full of stimulation for Jordyn, and she loved it! There were people, lights, music, other sounds... everything from people playing pianos in the middle of the street, street performances, horse and carriage rides (we didn't go on one, but she saw the horses), lots of people... all kinds of stuff. We'd be walking down the street with her in the stroller, and she'd just break into spontaneous laughter. This happened multiple times. It was so funny!

The conference itself was great, with really good sessions, and awesome keynote speakers at the beginning and end. I especially loved the final speaker, Corey Ciocchetti (coreyspeaks.org), who spoke about what he calls "authentic success", and it was such a great message. I highly recommend going to hear him speak if you ever have the chance. After his speech, I bought his book and had him autograph it, and told him what I had done to achieve contentment (one of the aspects of authentic success) - become an SMC. He thought it was great. :) Also, I actually won a raffle from one of the exhibitors at conference, and the bag of stuff I won had some cool little toys for Jordyn in it.

Now if I can successfully get Jordyn back on east coast time quickly and easily, I'll be able to deem the trip a complete success. When we got home this morning after 3am, she transferred from her carseat into her crib, but woke up a few minutes later, right as I finished getting ready for bed. So, I took her into my bed, and we slept from 3:30-10am. Then she was tired again at 11:30am, so took a nap from then until 2:00pm. I kept her up the rest of the day, and put her down for the night around 8:15. She woke up about an hour later, but went back to sleep again around 9:45, so I'm hoping she'll sleep through the night and be done with jet lag!