Memories of Us

Last Week

Last week was crazy.  My husband had an Air Force thing to attend in St Louis on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The graduation ceremony for the university from which he recently earned his MBA online happened to be that Saturday.  Since the timing worked out so well, and since the Air Force was going to pay for our drive out there anyway, we decided to make a family trip of it and watch Daddy graduate.  Much of my father's side of the family lives in Nashville, which is only about 4-5 hours away from St. Louis (which doesn't really seem that far for us anymore considering our road trips tend to run no less than 10 hours typically).  So, here's how the trip went.  We left our house bright and early on Thursday and arrived in Nashville 10 hours later where we stayed the night.  We left the next afternoon and drove about 5 more hours to St Louis where we stayed in a hotel for the night.  We had to run out to a mall that night to get a jacket for Will and a sweater for me because it was in the 60's in St Louis.  And, after living in Charleston for 6 years, it never occurred to me to bring anything but summer clothes to a May graduation.  Anyway, so Jamie graduated the next morning.  In our frantic and chaotic attempt to get ready and checked out in time, I made the fatal flaw of turning my back on Will while he was on the hotel bed.  He fell off.  On his head.  On the HARD floor and cheap rough hotel carpet.  We heard it.  I realized my mistake and turned back around just in time to see it happen.  It was the most awful thing I've ever experienced in my life and I'm pretty sure he felt the same way.  We both cried.  He had a goose egg on his forehead and a banged up eye.  We finished getting ready in a daze and headed out.  I then sat in the stands of graduation for like 3 hours (holding him the WHOLE TIME since they made me check the stroller) freaking out about whether Will was falling asleep because he was worn out from crying and it was nap time, or because he had a concussion and was bleeding in his brain.  It was obviously the former since you haven't had a traumatic ER post yet.  Anyway, he's fine (though he's developed a burst blood vessel in that eye which I don't like, so we may go to the doctor to have that looked at).  Daddy graduated with honors.  We were all proud and happy, but exhausted by the end.

Poor kid.
See all the sunshine?  That's another motherhood failure for me that day.  It was so cool and windy, I didn't notice the awesome sunburn he was getting on his sweet little face.
We drove straight from the graduation the two hours to Jackson, Missouri where we stayed the night visiting Jamie's aunt and uncle.  It was nice, however Will finally revolted against sleeping in the third different place in three nights and spent the whole night in bed sleeping between us.  Which means mommy didn't sleep at all.  So, I was feeling a little un-stellar on my first mother's day.  Especially since THIS is what my sweet baby looked like that day.

Sunburned.  Banged up.  I felt like a pretty bad mother that day.  (Side note:  That's his foot in his mouth.)  We didn't really celebrate mother's day actually, things being as they were on this crazy trip and not being home.  However, I have been promised a glorious maternity massage at the heavenly Earthlings Day Spa in the near future.  And I'm down with that.

So, we left Jackson, MO late Sunday afternoon and drove about 4 hours back to Nashville (where we'd left Charlie with my Aunt).  Will had another rough night and stayed in bed with us.  Will likes to sleep impossibly close to me when in our bed.  Despite the hugeness of the king size bed in my Aunt's guest room, he still managed to push me over to the very edge. And because the bed was so huge, I couldn't even reach over to touch Jamie to get his help to keep from falling off.  I finally had to resort to a whisper/shout to wake him up so he could pull Will back towards the middle.  Sleep was an issue for me this trip, obviously.  I just didn't get any.  Anyway, we got Jamie a rental car and he drove back to St Louis for his Air Force thing, leaving us in Nashville.  We had a very nice visit, though my Aunt's house (the house my dad grew up in) is far from childproof.  I had to be vigilant.  And in the wake of our hotel disaster, I was particularly hover-y.  However, we did get an adorable picture of Will sitting in his great-great-grandfather's baby chair.

Charlie was spoiled and loved on by all.  And while my Aunt's yard is fenced in and has contained many a dog successfully, Charlie is no ordinary dog.  Fortunately the hole he found/made in the fence gave him access to the neighbor's fenced in yard rather than the world at large.  So, he and the neighbor dog got to be good friends.  Anyway, Jamie returned late Wednesday to the joy and relief of all.  We had a big family cook-out on Thursday which was so fun and made me wish we still had annual family reunions like we did when I was a kid.  I think once we finish moving and life settles down a bit, I'll try and organize one.  Will enjoyed meeting everyone and showing off his little personality.

However, I think the highlight for him was getting to drink out of my water bottle.

Please excuse the pregnancy cleavage.  It's a little out of control at this point.  Which kind of pisses me off since they didn't even WORK last time, but whatever.  As usual, we brought our camera and neglected to take any real family pictures.  And the ones we did get inevitably had people with eyes closed.  We did get a good one of the next generation though.

That's  Erin and Luke, wife and son to my cousin Josh.  Luke is just a few months older than Will and also a giant.  We apparently just make large children in my family.  It was so fun to hang out with everyone and to see the boys together.  I can just imagine the fun they will have together as they grow older.

We drove home on Friday, taking the long, scenic route through the Appalachians.  By accident.  Stupid GPS.  So, we didn't get home until 10 PM on Friday.  It was a long day and the end to a long week.  We've spent the weekend recuperating.  I enjoyed seeing all our family and introducing them to Will, but oh my, it is nice to be home.

In other news, I kind of look pregnant.

Sixteen weeks.   Still only up 3 pounds though.  So I ask you, where did the belly come from?!

Road Warrior

That is a long trip.  That drive from Charleston to Dallas.  LONG.  Especially with a dog and a baby.  Especially when it's super cold out.  And it totally sucks to have 10 days to visit, and only end up visiting for 6 because you are driving for FOUR of them.  Flying is just so expensive though.  And we took so much stuff (all of which we used, by the way).  Plus boarding a dog is costly.  It made sense to drive.  It really did.  And in theory, it seemed like the best idea.  And probably was, if you're being objective.  But objectivity only takes you so far.  It only takes you to the Mississippi border approximately.  Then subjectivity takes over.  And subjectively speaking, that car ride freakin' sucks.  Too long.

Will is a road WARRIOR!  He is an AWESOME traveler!  He sleeps or plays with his favorite toy, Mortimer the Moose.  He hangs out with Charlie, who is riding on the folded down seat beside him. 

He allows both of us to sit up front, even letting us just reach back to feed him a bottle.  Eventually he gets lonely and starts fussing, but then he's all smiles when one of us climbs back to sit next to him for a while.  He is just so good!  The trip could have been so much worse.  SO much worse.  Really, the only bad parts were the diaper changes (especially the stinky poopy ones).  Because it was cold!  And the idea of changing him in a truck stop gave me chills (DISGUSTING!).  The solution?  When we would stop, Jamie would bundle up and take Charlie out to pee.  I would climb in the back, toss Charlie's bed out of the car, close the door to keep us warm, lay down the changing pad in the 3' x 2' space where Charlie's bed had been, sit with my legs apart, pull the baby out his car seat, lay him down between my legs, change his diaper as quickly as possible, and wrangle him back into his car seat before Jamie and Charlie freeze to death.  Seriously people, it was intense.  I felt like SuperMom. 

Here we are hanging out after a diaper change and bottle, enjoying some time out of the car seat.  People, check out those chubby little ankles!  Also note that my son has HUGE feet!  I'm thinking he'll easily top 6' someday.

We pushed hard on the trip down, wanting to get there as soon as we could.  Jamie had to fly on the morning we had planned to leave, so we didn't actually get on the road until nearly 5 PM.  (By the way, packing the car was TOTALLY my finest hour!  We didn't even need the cartop carrier.  I rocked OUT with my bad self!)  So, we drove until we couldn't drive anymore and then stopped for a few hours in a hotel.  La Quinta allows dogs, so we found one and checked in.  Never do this people.  Look ahead and read reviews.  We managed to find the most disgusting La Quinta in the entire United States.  Anyway, Charlie liked everything about it except the elevator.  We got him to ride up to our room the first time, because he didn't know better.  But when we tried to take him down the next morning, he almost found himself standing alone on the floor.  Luckily I hopped out when it became apparent that he wasn't going to join us.  However, he liked everything else.  Especially the mirror in our room.  He spent quite some time checking himself out.

 

I have to tell you though that the 5 hours we spent in this hotel were far from restful.  All four of us shared the king sized bed.  The baby slept (I use that word loosely) between me and Jamie, with Charlie on the other end.  I think I got three hours of sleep (not consecutive).  My baby likes to kick.  I'll just say that.  And he likes to rub his feet together.  My husband nicknamed him Cricket on this trip.  At least Jamie slept enough to be functional the next day.  We left at 5 AM, when the baby woke up for good, making any further attempts to sleep futile.  We arrived at our destination 11 hours later.  It was a long hard trip.  But in the end, it was totally worth it.  I'm just glad my little dude handled it so well.  Because it made things so much easier when instead of a crying baby, I got to see this . . .