The Grand Del Mar

Vere had a business trip on Sunday to Tuesday that he thought was going to be in Orange County but ended up being at The Grand Del Mar. Which is right in our neck of the woods! So Cole and I decided to tag along since the weather's been so nice we could go swimming and give the new travel crib a test run. I really wanted to get Cole in the water because we had a pool playdate last week and he was not into it at all.

Cole at playdate and not in the pool. I bought him a new floaty tube thing and everyone played in it except for Cole.

Baby Bjorn Travel Crib Light - Test Night #1 - The Grand Del Mar is gorgeous! Cole had so much fun exploring the room when we first got here. Little did he know this would be where we were spending the next two nights and that thing he's been dropping all his toys into would actually be his bed. Before Vere left for his dinner, I made sure the crib was all set up. We decided to put it in the hallway in between the door and the door to the bathroom. That way I wouldn't have to sit in the dark once Cole fell asleep around 7:30 p.m.

Dinner for Cole went as usually and I ordered myself dinner so it would be there before Cole's bath and I could eat after he went down. We took a bath, read stories, sang songs and I put him down in the crib and that's when the screaming started! It didn't help that the new crib lies right on the ground so it was lower than I'm used to and the transfer wasn't as smooth. After a couple minutes of full-blown high-pitched screaming I decided to pick him up, rock him and put him back down. But when I picked him up, I noticed the mattress was a little hard and realized I put the mattress in the wrong way! So poor Cole had to sit on the ground screaming while I quickly flipped the mattress. I rocked him till he calmed down and tried again...and again the crazy screaming. A couple minutes went by and I decided I'd better move his crib because he was screaming so loud and he was so close to the door. So I moved it over by the window where I ended up rocking him 3 more times before I decided I just needed to let him cry it out. I put him in the crib, grabbed my dinner and went over to the little nook near the bathroom door hoping that our neighbors had not decided to stay in and order room service. While Cole cried himself to sleep, I ate my cold dinner by the light of my iPhone on the floor next to the bathroom and wondered A) if I could still return the crib? and B) if I should just take Cole home?

But an hour and fifteen minutes after I put Cole to bed, he was finally asleep and I was laying in bed, in the dark wondering what to do since the movie I started downloading on the iPad 3 hours before still had 90+ minutes to go. And that's when I decided to write this post about our experiences at The Grand Del Mar. Now looking back, I should have just let him cry in the first place because it took less than 15 minutes for him to go down. And he probably always screams that loud, I just usually turn the volume on the monitor off.


This place is fun!


 

This isn't a good picture of Cole but check out the bathroom!



This is the hallway where Cole was originally going to sleep.



Pulling out every drawer of course.


Day Two - Things were looking up. Cole took an unheard of hour long nap in his crib this morning. It was probably because he still woke up at 5 a.m. even though he fell asleep much later than usual. Vere left for his meetings and I fed Cole breakfast and took him to explore the hotel. He just loves running around in new places. Then we met up with Vere and went to the pool. This hotel was great because it had a kids pool section and within the kids section, they have a super young kids area with 2 pools just for the young-ins and all of their pools are heated to 82 degrees! We spent the whole afternoon there and Cole loved it! He especially liked the baby pool that was 6" - 1' deep! He was splashing like crazy and walking all over the place. He even dunked his head by accident a few times and didn't even care. After a big day at the pool Cole took another hour long nap in his crib. Vere and I hid out in the bathroom while Cole fell asleep. He only cried for 3 minutes. Then Vere took a nap while I continued writing this post. We took another walk around the resort and had an early dinner and Cole went right to sleep. I'm so glad I didn't throw Cole in the car and go home that first night because we had so much fun on our mini vacation!

I could not get Cole away from this area. He just loved walking around and hiding behind the columns.

 

peek-a-boo!

 

These are just some pics I took on our walk.



They had this amazing fire pit.

 

Pool area

 

And their own helipad of course!

 

I had to take a pic of the sinks! Crazy detail!



Cole and daddy hanging out in the pool!



Cole and mommy in the baby pool!

  

Seeing his first live horse at the hotel's stables.



After our walk, we hung out in this big grassy area to let Cole run around. He was so cute because he kept running away and then coming back and giving Vere a hug. And then running away and coming back to hug over and over again. It was funny. We also taught him to be "gentle" to the flowers in this garden. He would totally get it and pat them very softly. But would forget and when he came back to the flowers he would just grab a handful again and we'd have to teach him "gentle" all over again.



Coming back for a daddy hug!



Vere and I waiting in the bathroom for Cole to go down for his nap.

At dinner. We ate so early, we were the only ones there! It was nice because Cole could be as loud as he wanted :)



After dinner photo-op by the fountain.




Gazebo photo-op.

  A few things about Cole today:

• He learned how to drink out of his straw sippy cup that I bought him 2 months ago! And it only took him about 5  minutes of watching me do it. He was so excited he downed the entire cup.
• When he went under the dining table today, he was trying to get out by going under the chair. I told him to be careful and lowered my head. And he did the same thing and crawled safely under the chair!
• Tonight during his bath he was kicking like crazy and I was starting to get mad because everything was getting wet, including myself. I told Cole "no kicking" in my stern mommy voice. He took a long look at my serious face, smiled and kept on kicking and never broke eye contact. I am seriously in for some trouble!