Things I learned after camping with a toddler

This past weekend marked G's first ever camping trip.  My brother-in-law organizes an annual camping excursion for his birthday.  Last year we declined since G was just a couple of months old and nursing round the clock.  This year we happily RSVPed "yes" but decided to only stay one night instead of two.

Here is my short list of things I learned after camping with a toddler:

1. If your child is not 100% walking, he/she will get really dirty.  Whereas before the "dirty" part of camping never seemed to bother you, now it will.  Immensely.
2. Your child will not sleep as easily in a new environment (already knew that) without his sheepie (parent fail) AND in a bed with both of his parents.  He was so deliriously tired but took a good hour and a half to finally crash and burn.  
3. You will be so tired that when your child does finally fall asleep at 8:00 (okay, I realize it's not THAT late), you will stay in bed with him instead of joining everyone else because (a) you don't want to leave him alone in a camper bed where he would easily fall off if he happened to wake up and (b) you really are tired and he's a good excuse to just call it a night.
4. Although camping isn't nearly as stress free when you're chasing after a cranky toddler, it is still special in its own way to create new family memories.
5. You will take zero pictures even though you brought the fancy camera.  Mom fail.
6. And you will pack waaaay too much.  Somethings never change!

Needless to say, we survived our night o' fun and even plan on going for round dos (perhaps an entire weekend??) in December.  We brought a tent (and pack-n-play, duh) in preparation of "roughing it out" but some friends kindly offered us the second bed in their camper.  Who can refuse that invitation?  Next time we will set up his pack-n-play wherever we camp because he is not a fun co-sleeper.  All night long he went from the foot of the bed to the head of the bead, from R's side to my side, etc.  Between the kicks and bumps from G and waking up just to make sure he was still on the bed and alive, it made for an eventful night's sleep.  Fo sho.

In other news, we also survived the tear duct probe (obviously) after enduring his sad and heart wrenching screams from the check-out desk.  We were given antibiotic drops to use twice daily for a week and will go back in a month for a check-up.  If things aren't good and clear, we will have to go to the children's hospital to have Crawford tubes put in.  Poor buddy.