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Life with Levi
Levi’s first hotel
stay
By Amanda Rodeheffer-Olson
This past weekend, our little family ventured to the big city of
Indianapolis to visit my grandmother, aunt and uncle. Normally,
we would have stayed overnight with them, but since this was Levi’s
first official night away from home, we opted for a hotel instead.
When we first arrived at the hotel, Levi thought the elevator ride was
cool. He giggled when it took off and again when it stopped on our
floor.
Next was the hallway. For some strange reason, this was Levi’s favorite
part of the hotel. I’ll tell you why later.
Finally, we arrived at our room. When we entered, Levi was looking
around curiously. But when the door closed, he came unglued. Even
Lambie couldn’t cheer the poor boy up.
Eventually, the crying stopped and he realized that there were new
things for him to get into. And then he was fine as he tried to make
calls on the telephone and push all of the buttons on the alarm clock.
All was fine again until we lay him down on the bed to change his
diaper and put on his pajamas. Mommy had to keep him focused on the
fact that his jammies had Lightning McQueen and Mater from the Disney
movie Cars on them.
Eventually, he settled down on the bed next to Daddy and watched Big
Bang Theory. Soon after, he fell asleep.
The plan was for him to sleep in his Pack and Play so Mommy and Daddy
wouldn’t have to worry about him rolling off of the bed.
But plans rarely work when the baby has plans of his own.
As soon as Daddy lay him down in the Pack and Play, his eyes instantly
shot open and the crying began again. And since he has been sick
lately, and Mommy and Daddy didn’t feel like cleaning up a puke-mess,
he was placed back into bed.
It was quickly decided that Mommy would get to be the lucky parent to
sleep with the crabby sleep-deprived baby. So I lay down on one side of
him and pillows were placed at the edge of the bed on his other side.
Daddy even threw a few pillows on the floor for good measure.
Mommy quickly realized that Levi, just like his Daddy, is a flopper
when he sleeps. At first, he lay very still and watched the television
until he fell asleep again. Then the flopping began.
And unfortunately, Levi is also light sleeper like Mommy. Every time I
would try to move or pull up the blankets, he would start to wake up.
Not good.
So Mommy lay as still as she possibly could until the baby was good and
asleep.
But by this time, Daddy had also fallen asleep and the snoring symphony
began.
Daddy would snore, followed by Levi’s little baby snore.
Big snore. Little snore. Big snore. Little snore.
This continued for a very long time. I’m not exactly sure how long
because the alarm clock was on Levi’s side of the bed and I am
admittedly blind as a bat without my glasses.
Finally the snoring ceased, and I finally began to fall asleep. Finally.
Flop. Flop, flop, flop. Cry. Flop, flop. Snore.
Mommy was awake again.
This cycle was repeated many times over the course of the night. When
Mommy was finally able to fall asleep, and just got to sleeping good,
it was time for Daddy to get up.
Levi was soon to follow. And apparently a morning hotel room is more
fun than a nighttime hotel room.
Or at least it was when he figured out that he could jump on the bed.
So while Daddy was loading up the car, Mommy and Levi built a pillow
fort, and Levi had fun jumping on the fort and squashing it.
When that got boring, next came the chair rides. Mommy put Levi in the
rolling desk chair and pushed him from one side of the room to the
other. This got a great many giggles from the little one.
Then there was a knock on the door. Levi was excited to see that it was
Grandpa Tony, who was staying in the room next door with Grandma Von
and Aunt Beejy.
At least I thought he was happy to see Grandpa. In reality, he was
happy that the door was open. Because he took the opportunity to shoot
past Grandpa’s leg and down the hallway, giggling all the way.
Grandpa gave chase, and eventually caught up to him near the other end
of the hallway. From there, Mommy took over and chased him back to the
room while Daddy and Grandpa took the rest of our stuff to the car.
But once we got back to the room, Levi didn’t want to go back in. So
Mommy grabbed him and took him in before he had the chance to wake up
the entire floor.
Once he calmed down and had his coat and hat on, it was time to go for
good. So as we headed down the hall to the elevator, Levi secure in
Daddy’s arms, he kept saying, “Go! Go! Go!”
Pretty sure the ones he didn’t wake up the first go-round were awake
after that.
Not really sure when Levi will get to stay in a hotel again, but I do
know one thing for sure.
Next time, it’s Daddy’s turn to “sleep” with the wiggly baby.
And Mommy just might get her own room!
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