Canada, Part 3

There is nothing more glorious than coming home to 70 degree weather with a sleeping baby.  Everett came back from this trip with leg rolls.  And here's why: HE EATS LIKE A GROWN MAN!  For breakfast every morning he ate (voraciously) a half a bagel, a waffle, and yogurt.  There may have been more in there.  It's all a blur of mountains of food at this point.  I split most of my food half and half with him, and I was full way before he was.  It's startling sometimes.

Our trip started off with time spent in Detroit.  We first met my sister who flew in from Denver.   Then we got to see a long time high school friend whom we haven't seen in many years.  It was so good to see you, Matt Rudy, and meet your wonderful wife.  Then we got to have brunch with a good friend from Dallas, Arash, who is doing his residency in Detroit.  These visits were so wonderful. 

Then we drove to Canada, where the border patrol man wanted to know how we could possibly be related to someone in Canada.  How strange, I know.  Our trip to Canada was for my cousin, Marna's, wedding.  (Part 3 because it is the 3rd visit over the last few years to Canada for a cousin's wedding -- not the same cousin, don't worry.  Sisters.  And also for the theater theme...hang with me one minute.)  Marna's now husband, Paul, is fantastic.  We got to spend a little time with them both when we visited Sturgeon Bay a few months ago.  They both are entrenched in the theater world, and therefore, fittingly, they had a theater-themed wedding.  The ceremony was held on stage.  There was a narrative about how they met and the things they enjoy together while objects to symbolize the story were placed in a suitcase on stage.  Tables had to sing for their dinner at the reception.  Oh, and my favorite part was that Marna and her dad walked down the aisle while one of her bridesmaids sang so beautifully, "'Til There Was You" from The Music Man.  When I say "sang beautifully," I mean give you shivers and make you wanna cry beautiful.  But I'm a sap at weddings and usually have to think about something else a few times during a ceremony to keep from weeping like a baby.

We met my parents in Canada, and it is always wonderful to see them.  Everett was so happy to see his Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Lauren.  And I think it was mutual.  :)

We Made It!

Ahh, home sweet home.  It's always nice to make it home after a trip, but when you're traveling with a baby, the words "we made it!" mean so much more!

Walking through an airport with a baby, I usually feel like I'm carrying a bomb or something equally offensive.  Most people look at you, not with the "your-baby-is-so-precious" eyes, but with the "you're-not-on-MY-flight-are-you?" eyes.  And once they've realized that you are, it's the "you're-not-sitting-next-to-ME-are-you?" eyes.  Everytime he starts fussing, my inner voice hears everyone else's inner voice saying "oh no, heeere we go."  The woman behind us on the flight today asked the flight attendant for aspirin.  Even though Everett was sleeping I just knew it was her preparing for his commotion.  Ok, maybe I jump to conclusions, but I just hate inconveniencing other people that don't think my baby is just too adorable for words.

We attempted to cause less of a commotion putting Everett to bed at the hotel after the wedding.  We had a genius plan to change him into his pajamas before we leave, and then just sweep him from the carseat to the crib.  Everett peed all over those plans.  Literally.  And on his Dad too. 

Here are a few not helpful things that commonly happen on a trip.
 - In the hotel, there is almost always a person that says sweetly, "Oooh, hello cutie pie.  I heard you this morning."  I don't think they realize how much that makes me feel like crap.
 - Turning to look when Everett is crying on the plane.  That doesn't help.  But thanks for your concern.  Was that concern?  Hmm.

Well, it was a great trip.  Sorry for the negativity.  But as a friend pointed out - it's about being real not about always showing the perfect side.  I'll blog more about that later and include some pictures, but now I'm going to relax.  Everett has been sleeping for hours.  Poor baby - we disrupted his sleep schedule big time.  But he still wins the "award for good travel" according to a man on our flight.  Yay!  THAT was a very helpful thing to tell me.  :)

Born to Ride!

Before you ride you must wrangle the dino and earn his trust.

Baby's First Haircut!

 I don't even feel right calling him a baby anymore!  He is one ounce of confidence away from toddling.  *sigh*

Yesterday we decided we should trim the hair covering Everett's ears.  That little change made such a big difference that we decided to trim the whole thing.  Eric did the trimming, and it looks so much better.  Though we would have liked it a little longer, he at least won't need another cut for awhile.  Here he is clean cut and looking like a big boy! 

 BEFORE

 AFTER!

Nooooo!

Everett did so many new things today! The first of which started at the very beginning of our day. I got him up in the morning, put him on the changing table, and he promptly shook his head "no". Oh really? This is not his most favorite part of the day. This is when he's anxious for some food and doesn't care what's been sitting in his diaper for the past 13 hours. Eww! While learning to say "no" is not going to be my most favorite thing in the world, I am still so proud of the ability to express himself like this.

The next new thing was climbing up onto the fireplace hearth! Great new skill for our monkey boy. I'm just worried about how in the world he'll get down if I'm not there to do it for him. (not walking yet)

And another thing. He has really been hating his bath lately, so I bought a bathtime book. It's waterproof and involves washing the animals with a washcloth. Eric has been reading it to him for the past few nights, and tonight when I opened the book he grabbed the washcloth and started to "wash the duckies" with no prompting. Amazing! He's learning things so fast, and it is so fun to watch.

And finally, what I am most proud of. From the day we brought him home, it has been a goal of mine (among others - I'm not crazy) to give Everett the gift of rhythm. I have no idea if this is an innate or learned quality, but I feel like it's vital to the fun things in life. Music, dancing, coordination, etc. I've had music on, danced with him, sung to him, drummed with him, etc. If there is a song on, I'll try to drum a simple form of the rhythm for him to hear. Today while watching Sesame Street, he actually started dancing in rhythm to the music. And earlier in the day he was drumming (he does that a lot) on beat with some music. I love it!!! And I really love to see him shake it! It's so cute. :)


Ooh, ooh, just one more thing. Lately Everett and Frankie (the cat) have become buddies! They started out ignoring each other. Then Frank was not that interested as Everett's interest grew, though he was always concerned if Everett was crying. And now, despite Everett's attack hugs and tail death grips, they actually enjoy being near each other. So sweet. I really enjoy watching Everett get excited to see Frank every morning.

Of course all this new stuff happened while Eric worked a day shift today. At least he didn't start walking.

"Everybody Loves Red Chicken"

Today we had a most lovely dinner. At 5pm. We GOT there at 5pm. We must have a baby, huh? :) There were three other couples there when we arrived. Perfect! We went to The Clay Pit, an upscale Indian restaurant in Austin. In our humble opinion they have the best korma around. Our dinner actually spanned 2 hours and Everett was the best baby ever. Humble, I know. :)

Eric and Everett really bonded over some tandoori chicken. Eric was continually feeding the chicken chunks when I attempted to give Everett a bite of chicken with lettuce on the fork as well. He pulled his head back and looked at the fork with a face that said, "whaaaat is THAT?" in more of a "you don't expect me to eat that" kind of way than a quizzical way. He put the forkful in his mouth and promptly removed the lettuce dramatically throwing it to the ground turning to Dad for the next bite. We thought it was hilarious. So if he never eats a salad, you can trace it back to this night and us encouraging him as we found his refusal hysterical.

The next hysterical thing was when he had a labored bowel movement at the table. If you've ever seen a kid take a poop in his diaper, you know the face I'm talking about. How funny that you can do that at the table of a fancy restaurant. Let's face it - babies can do whatever they want. We rock-paper-scissored it out for the diaper change. I lost, and it's a good thing because this one was for experts only.

And then we had a peaceful and leisurely drive home. As cars flew by on I-35, Eric watched his gas mileage rack up from the far right lane. Ever since we've gotten a hybrid with wood trim he's been driving like a Grandpa (no offense Dad). I blame the hybrid and the wood trim equally. You see it has a screen that displays all of our fancy stats, and he gets great satisfaction watching us get 99.9 miles per gallon. As a frugalista, I fully understand this. I just do not understand that this happened to my husband who fully enjoys his MazdaSpeed. Though THAT car has red baseball stitching instead of wood trim. ;)