Baby's First Roadtrip

Grant has, of course, logged many hours in the car. But never anything that would qualify as a road trip. Our first trip to New York with Grant came much earlier than anticipated due to the death of my Dad. But the trip would have happened sometime in the late spring/early summer anyway since it's a trip we usually make at least once a year.

So a trip that we used to do in one day that took anywhere from 14-17 hours we broke down into two days (this is where I'm from). Grant is a good baby...but we were not about to keep the poor little guy strapped into that car seat for that long. Each day ended up being around 9 hours (or even a little more) with the driving and the stops for meals and leg-stretching. We stopped at a hotel in Pennsylvania both ways and it actually ended up being the same hotel both times. I have to say that if we happen to stay at that particular hotel again in the future (and I wouldn't be opposed to it) I will be getting up early enough to make a waffle at their breakfast area. Both times I had to turn down the make-your-own-waffle because we had to leave. Damn it I wanted a waffle! 

The drive was fairly uneventful. Grant slept most of the time and when he wasn't then he was playing with the toys I'd hung from his car seat handle or trying to eat the blanket draped over him. Occasionally he would snack on a sock. I will say that I don't know how he slept so well with Nate reaching back every 15 minutes to make sure he was breathing.

We very quickly learned how to get good at feeding on the go and our pit-stops were well managed and not as long as we had thought they would need to be (except for our lunch stops at Panera...yum). Most places we came across had a baby changing station in the women's AND men's bathroom, although we did find one or two that only had it in the women's room. There was one McDonald's in Ghettoville, VA that didn't have a baby changing station at all! I wanted to take Grant up to the register and change him on their counter. But I did not. How do you not have anywhere for someone to change their baby?!

Even though the trip was for a very sad event, we did manage to make some good of it. Being Grant's first trip to New York it was also his first time meeting a lot of people. And visiting with some people who hadn't seen him in a while. I didn't get pictures of him with everyone but here are a few:

He met Uncle AJ - and apparently loved his nose and facial hair

 

And Aunt Melanie - he loved her too



And they loved to play with him and make him laugh!

 

And he met my friend Jenny (who is going to be a mommy herself come July!)



And he got to see Auntie Shauna again (she spent Christmas with us)

 

And he had a reunion with his Great-Aunt Bonnie who hadn't seen him since he was a month old!



It looks like he remembered her :)



He also met Mollie who seems to consider him less of a threat than Brodie does (However, she did air hump in the direction of anyone holding Grant. It was kind of yucky.)

As you can tell, we were not lacking for entertainment for Grant! But for those times that it was just us and we couldn't hold him all the time a neighbor had kindly let us borrow their exersaucer which helped us out so much! And I think Grant enjoyed it too :)

Yay for entertainment!

We also had to borrow something to bathe him in because we had no room in the car for our baby bathtub. So another generous neighbor let us borrow their baby bath seat. At which point I discovered that my parent's bathtub no longer held water. There was no plug for the tub. A quick assessment of the situation led me to the sink! Its a double sink so it's perfect! The extra sink held my rinse water.



Not a great pic but one of the few not showing his little peeper.

 

I thought he might not be crazy about it but he didn't mind it at all!



A good pic taken by his Daddy while Mommy did some shampooing

We got to spend some time with Mollie, my parent's chocolate lab. She had been living with my sister since my Dad was admitted to the hospital back in January. Mollie has had as rough a year as the rest of us. She loved the mess out of my parents and has been a very sad girl without them. She ran away from my sister's house twice while I was there and guess where she came? Home.

The loveseat is hers.

 

So what if I fed her some ham & cheese? Look at that face!



That doesn't look comfy to me, but who am I to judge?

Mollie was nice enough to share when little man needed a nap

Our last day there was AJ's birthday. He requested Chicken Alfredo which my sister made from scratch and it was delicious! And AJ's wife Melanie made some cupcakes. But calling them cupcakes doesn't do them justice...look at this!



Cupcakes made to look like a TV dinner! How fun!



I made him make an excited face.

I know this post is dangerously close to being too long...but I have a lot of good pictures :). We brought our bumbo seat & play tray with us as a highchair so Grant could still have his veggies. Uncle AJ was very amused by the tiny person learning to eat so he wanted to give it a try. And he did a pretty good job!



Grant puts his arms up when he's ready for a bite. I had never noticed that until AJ pointed it out.





We were all very entertained and took lots of pictures :)

 Like I said before, even though it was a very sad time we managed to make the best of it. It's always good to be with family. "Home" will never feel like it did when I was a kid. Especially without my parents. But it's always nice to know that we can all still hang out, be comfortable and lean on eachother when we have to.

I will say, though, that it's always nice to be back in your own bed. Grant hated his pack-n-play so he was in bed with me every night. Even at the hotel:



Grant at the hotel. One more day of travel left...poor little guy was a trooper!