Elijah the Woodsman

We went on our first camping trip with baby E this weekend. We weren't sure how he would do, but we were both pleasantly surprised. Eli loves being outside and camping gave him the opportunity to spend all day outdoors. We went to southeast Oklahoma on the Arkansas border along the first scenic byway in the US. The route took us deep into the winding stair mountains, which if you're from the west are more like big rolling hills. My heart was happy, because they are covered in pine forests. One of the things I miss most in Tulsa is the presence of evergreens. We live at almost sea level and all the trees are deciduous.

Hiking has changed a little for us since we've had Eli. He really likes to get out of his carrier and explore. This makes the going very slow. He likes to look at everything. His favorite is to pick the bark off trees. He also enjoys shaking the thin trunks of sapling. Luckily, he was pretty tired out from all the fresh air so he slept for a couple hour so we could hike through some steep, rocky bits that he wouldn't have been able to do. I was pretty terrified of ticks- last time we went camping in Oklahoma our camp site was infested by ticks- but I didn't see a single one this time around, thank goodness!

At our campsite Eli was very interested in helping us collect sticks for the fire. It hadn't rained in awhile and so we had lots of very dry branches at our disposal. Everything that daddy did, Eli copied. It was so sweet. He wasn't very happy when we actually lit the fire, however. He was pretty scared at first and wouldn't take his eyes off it. He kept pointing to it nervously. Once he grew accustomed, he kept his distance. He still collected twigs, but he threw his firewood from the distance of his comfort zone making a pile of sticks 6 feet away from the fire.

It was pretty cold at night and I was kept awake worrying that my baby was going to be too cold. I was freezing, but fortunately he didn't seem to have any problems. In the morning, when he saw where we were, he repeatedly pointed to the tent walls and said over and over, "da-doon"- his word for balloon. He has a love/hate relationship with balloons, but being inside a da-doon didn't seem to scare him. 

In many ways it was a lot harder camping with a baby. Everything takes longer, it feels a lot more exhausting and you have to pack so much more stuff. What makes it worth it is how magical everything is. Everything is new and exciting. It forces you to take things slower and really observe the world through your child's eyes. We had a good time and I feel more confident about doing it again.