Birthday!

We drove to Cape May, New Jersey, yesterday for a 20 hour visit to surprise our friend who turns 40 next month. It was so great to see them after they abandoned us for New Jersey last year so it was great fun when her mother invited us and some other friends up during their family vacation to surprise her. We had a blast catching up with friends, but Andy had the most fun riding bikes with Mia and Liam, playing emergency and jumping on the air mattresses. It was so great to see them playing together like no time had past. Meg was also lapping up all the extra attention of all the additional family ready to hold her, play ball and tell her she was so beautiful and perfect.

Meg had a hard time settling into sleep in the pack and play and probably wailed for about 45 minutes before finally going to see. Andy finally conked out on the air mattress around 9:30. The big kids were exhausted. After an exhaustive reading of Texts from Last Night over many glasses of beer and wine and lots and lots of laughs, I finally turned in around midnight. Just in time for the town air raid noise to go off for the town's volunteer fire department. Meg then woke up and refused to go back to sleep for anything. I tried to hold her in bed, I gave her water, I tried putting her back down, I tried feeding her, I tried a bottle of milk, I tried driving her around. Nothing. With a house full of 15 other people, I couldn't really just let her cry like I might have at home. Instead, Bjorn took her into the car and she finally conked out and so did Bjorn. What a hero, seriously, sleeping in the car. We were all exhausted today.

We are planning another trip to the beach with friends later this summer and I'm a little worried that she hates the pack and play so much that we're doomed. I have thought about letting her sleep in it in her room a few nights to get her used to it. Any other ideas?