It was another hot morning in the tent with the sun beating down on us while we slept. The original plan had been to have gotten up very early this morning so that we could be on the road to Waverly practically with first light. Last night, around two in the morning, Liesl started screaming and screaming. This went on for hours. She was so loud that Dominica had to leave the tent for a while and dad woke up inside the house which was sealed off as he was running on air conditioning.
Liesl was up screaming for hours. It was horrible. We were never able to figure out what was wrong at all. Our best guesses were that her eye teeth were coming in and really bothering her or that she had had night terrors that had woken her up. It just went on and on.
Once Liesl finally fell asleep – we moved her to the mattress with me and Dominica went and slept on the air mattress to get some distance from the screaming girl – she was still restless and would wake up crying on and off throughout the night. It was a very rough night for everyone.
When Liesl and I woke up this morning Dominica had already gotten up and started getting ready to go. She had given up on trying to sleep and had been up for a while. It was pretty warm when we got up. Oreo stayed in the tent with Liesl and I. He really likes sleeping outdoors too.
So Liesl and I got up and came inside to start getting ready for the day. Dominica was feeling pretty sick, probably from a lack of sleep. So she went back to bed and took a nap for a little while. So I logged in and worked for a little bit to make sure that things were okay at the office before I was going to be mostly out of touch for the day.
It was ten when we finally hit the road. About two hours later than Dominica had wanted to have left but we made good time and were at the farm in Waverly before noon! We had no idea that it was so close to dad’s house. We had been expecting a drive of over three hours. So it ended up that only arrived maybe twenty or thirty minutes later than we had wanted to have been there. Not bad at all – especially considering that Dominica is not feeling well at all and that I was able to work before leaving and was able to stop and get gas on the drive.
We hung out at the farm all day. Liesl had the best time playing with her cousins. She is old enough now that she can totally just go off outside with them and the older girls watch over her and she just has so much fun playing with the kids. I think that what she really likes is the independence of being able to go play without needing any adults to be around.
Liesl spent practically the entire day, it seems, outside. She especially loved playing in the plastic castle and the jungle gym for the little kids. I don’t know that she did very much playing with other kids her own age. There really are only a couple that are close enough to even remotely consider to be “her age” and even then you have to stretch pretty hard. Garrett is the closest and they play together all of the time. When Clara is older she will be in the same play group but not for another year and a half, most likely.
It was a very hot Fourth of July with temperatures going into the mid nineties and bright, unbroken sunshine. It was pretty intensely hot. It wasn’t so bad stepping outside for a minute here and there but being in a house without air conditioning in that heat does get to you after a while. As long as I wasn’t moving too much it was okay but if I had to go chase Liesl or something like that I would get hot and not be able to cool back down.
We stayed until about eight thirty in the evening and would have stayed longer but Dominica was still not feeling well and wanted to get up to Ithaca so that we could get into our hotel room. So we took off. Liesl stayed awake for the drive which was surprising after getting a horrible night’s sleep last night and her only nap all day being the hour and a half that she got in the car on the drive down to Waverly before the day began.
The drive up to Ithaca was quite easy. It really was not all that much driving today. It just felt like it was going to be a lot. So it was just after nine thirty when we drove in to town. It has been a really long time since Dominica has been in Ithaca. She was thinking that it felt awfully strange being there. I have been there much more recently than she has.
We stopped at Taco Bell and grabbed a quick bite for dinner. It was way easier to get food before getting into the hotel rather than after we had and Liesl had gone to bed. Then we would have been sorry.
We were off to bed rather early tonight. It was nice. We have a king bed for a change and Liesl just slept with us – which always makes her happy. She has been not sleeping with us pretty much since Dominica left to go to New York so we have pretty much broken that habit and should not have a problem sticking with it once we are back in Texas. Fingers crossed. We are planning on having her sleeping in her own room again right away.
We were probably in bed by eleven. We are at the Comfort Inn on Elmira Street where I always stay when I am in town on business and where dad used to stay when he would go to Ithaca long ago. The hotel is pretty nice but our air conditioning did not really work at all and the room was seventy eight degrees with no air movement all night. Better than the ninety-something going on outside but at least outside there is some breeze. We were a little uncomfortable at that temperature but we did manage to get to sleep. The bed was comfortable.
Tomorrow morning we are hanging out with the Winans in Ithaca. We have not seen their house nor met their daughter Emily yet! We have not seen them since their wedding in September, 2006! We will be back to Pavilion at dad’s house tomorrow evening.