A Month of Firsts - Road Trips, Babysitting and Flights

Yikes, no posts for the whole month of April...and we're halfway through May! April was a busy month, I'll try to recap...

We drove out to Bend for a few days in mid-April. Archer did great on the car ride there and slept most of the way. He was a little more fussy on the drive back... Hated the car seat. That is pretty typical these days. If you can get him to sleep in it, all is good. But if he's not tired, and he has to be strapped in his car seat, he is not a happy boy.

Next up was Archer's first night with a sitter. We went to Jason's cousin Kerry's wedding at Timberline and Uncle Mavrick watched him in his hotel room while we were at the wedding. He drank 3 bottles and was sound asleep when we returned. Couldn't have asked for a better sitter for our first time away from him. And yes, there was LOTS of texting checking in...sorry Mav! ;)

And finally, trip number three in April, the big one -- first flight to visit Grandma Caroline and Grandpa Louie in Edwardsville. Archer and I traveled solo and it went much better than I expected. Everyone was helpful on our flights. On the return flights there were empty seats so we used Archer's car seat part of the time instead of him sitting in my lap the whole time. He slept most of the flights.

In fact, the only hiccups we had involved diaper changing... On our layover in Seattle I decided to put a new diaper on him before they were starting to board. I'm in the handicap/baby changing stall juggling all the diaper accessories and right as I'm about to get the new diaper on, he pees and poops at the same time ALL OVER his outfit, the new diaper, our changing pad... We finally get that all taken care of (luckily I did this a half hour before boarding - it took almost that long!), and get on the plane. Just as we are pulling out on the tarmac he poops AGAIN and I can feel it up the back of his onesie. This rarely happens, so why now?! I didn't want to gross the guy out next to me, so I tried to hide it with his blanket. :) I wait until we are up in the air and the fasten seat belt signs are off, and we do another diaper/outfit change in the tiny airplane bathroom. Glad we traveled with 3 extra outfits!!

We had a great time during our visit with Grandma and Grandpa... It was sunny most of the trip. We spent an afternoon at the Botanical Garden in St. Louis, and spent lots of time hanging around the house and watching Grandma take care of her own botanical garden. Archer got to meet lots of family friends. And I got to eat at Steak N Shake!

Below are some photos from our travels.

Archer on our Bend trip:


This is how Archer looked most of the flights:


At the Botanical Garden with Grandma:



Getting coffee at Sacred Grounds. Archer didn't get any, can you tell?


Asleep in the living room:


Smiling at Grandpa:


One last pic before leaving Grandma and Grandpa's: