We were invited to our neighborhood friend’s house to swim just like the last Fourth of July, and we were ready for a dip after that hot run. First, my mom had a chore for me to do which she knew I’d be a sucker for. I love anything that can be called a “workout”, and moving brush from her house to the Caldwell’s fire pit was the task at hand. I made several trips and ran back after dropping off a load (that sounded bad!). It was enough to have the floodgates of sweat flowing down my face and entire body. Time for the pool!

Glad to have my beautiful girls along to cool off in the water!

Avery could still care less to pose with a smile for either of us. But get her alone and…

I don’t know. She’s confusing. As is most toddlers I assume.

We swam, passed Avery around for us all to get in a great upper body workout, and finally went back to my mom’s to eat and attempt a nap. Surprisingly, the wonders of Going Mom’s nursing and loving comfort worked to get the wild wired child to nap.

We kept her up late on the 3rd to see fireworks, woke her up a few hours earlier the next day for the 5k, and took forever until just one nap. Parents of the year here! After nap time, we lounged around and entertained Avery the best we could until it was dark and time for fireworks. Then we went back down to the Caldwell’s to watch the sky light up with bright-colored explosions all around.

My mom’s house is out in the country where fireworks are allowed and neighbors all around apparently felt like they need to throw down hundreds of dollars to celebrate our independence. Fine with me, the light show was brilliant! Unlike last year, Avery watched as they lit up the sky, but she only seemed fairly amused, and only at first.

Tiredness was obvious, but I thought she’d be more into watching the fireworks than she was. We told ourselves “next year” last year, but now we’re saying it again for 2016. At 2 1/2 years old, I’m sure she’ll love them then, right?

Not long after watching the explosions all around, Avery’s crazy-tired mode set in. She was running off into a dark field as Kelley and I took turns chasing and holding her. G-Ma helped restrain the mini deviant as well. It was well past her bedtime (again), and with hardly any sleep and a lonnnngggg day, we took her back to get ready for bed.

Kelley took a bath with Avery since outside everything feel nasty and we were down wind of the giant bonfire. As I mentioned in my post about being scared for the Fourth, we did not have a portable crib this time. Instead, we laid a queen mattress on the floor where Kelley planned on sleeping with Avery.

We’ve slept with Avery before, but that was when she was only months old, and that one time I tried in her crib…

If you are wondering, it didn’t work. Not in her crib, and again, not for Kelley at G-Ma’s this past weekend.

We followed routine and I read a book before telling my tired wife and daughter good night and I went to another room to read before going to sleep. It was quiet for a couple hours, but just as I finally shut my eyes, I woke up to Kelley holding a screaming toddler and not sure what to do.

Avery had been screaming for a while and nothing my wife offered would console her. Not even the magical boob! I came in to lay on the other side of the floor mattress to keep Avery in between, but she just rolled around scaling over our bodies and falling off at least 4 times. Each time was accompanied by louder screaming and streams of tears.

Not being able to calm our child was upsetting, and Kelley hated not having a solution. She eventually told me to go back to the other room thinking Avery wanted more of her own space. I went back, but sat awake listening to the crying ensue.

Avery kept this up for 4 hours straight. Constantly thrashing around, screaming loudly, and not giving any indication of what she needed. Was it sunburn, bug bites, hunger, thirst, too much change in sleeping arrangements, firework overload, over-tired, teething, or just toddler?

Whatever the cause, I ended up falling asleep on the mattress with them, and Kelley said she watched as our overly exhausted girl sat, got quiet, and slowly fell over to give in to sleep.

So, things not to do when deciding to co-sleep with your toddler for the first time in a long time (or ever) is….

• do not keep them up late the night before you have to wake them up early
• do not expose her to an new atmosphere (it had been 6 months since our last visit to G-Ma’s)
• do not do it on a night when fireworks are going off all around you for hours on end
• do not let them drink coffee in the late afternoon….or ever

Well, we didn’t let her drink coffee, but really, you should not do that if you want to sleep.

Later that day, Avery woke up bright-eyed and bushy tailed and immediately started chatting away like nothing was wrong. We downed copious amounts of coffee shortly thereafter as G-Ma entertained Avery with a little screen time.

After several cups, I suggested we do a little workout video which my mom was up for. So we did Cardio Challenge as Kelley kept Avery somewhat restrained in the room with us. But Avery had to join in right after we were done.

I followed up with a few sets of bench press…

….and Avery did her own moves on the stability ball.

She then proceeded to do bear crawls hugs.

Then G-Ma offered to play with her, but she was not impressed with the dog toy football.

She did, however, take the ball and give it to Reno, G-Ma’s highly anxious dog, who was in a ball in a cat bed.

So thoughtful of her. They played around a little more just to get that good love from G-Ma before we went back home.

Crazy, tiring weekend for sure, but we are all glad we experienced it together. Guess we earned a new parenting badge this 4th of July! Not sure what we’ll do about sleeping arrangements next time, but we have a trip to Colorado next month to see Kelley’s parents, Nana and Papa, so we better figure it out soon.

Kelley found a crib rental service up there which sounds like a good option, but hopefully Nana knows a neighbor who can let us borrow a crib. $15/day for a crib seems too high for my liking! Ha, get it, “high” and “Colorado”….”elevation……no? Whatever…

Do you have any co-sleeping fails to share?

Any successes?

What about tips….please?