Heading home, what nap?, Shamrock shake, early bedtime

We were happy to spend a few more hours with the Andrew's family this morning before heading to the airport. Greg's cousins were there, so it was a little busy, but fun!

Sadie and Cassidy hiding under our beds

We had to leave the house at 9:30 AM, which is a little beyond the normal nap time start for Greg. We decided to keep him awake before departure and see if he would sleep in the car on the way there since it is a 45-minute trip. He finally fell asleep at 10:04 AM and we pulled up to the terminal at 10:15 AM. Eleven minutes of sleep! Oh boy...

After a cranky check-in attendant and an out-of-service elevator, the rest of the pre-board festivities went really well. We were able to skip the long security line and go through the short-wait family-only line - thanks Greg!

And the best part of the whole trip? Shamrock shake at McDonald's! YUMMY! They don't sell that flavor in North Carolina, so I always try to find it when I travel. Last year I was up north at the beginning of March and had one every day for a week. Greg was probably turning green in utero.

Behold, the Shamrock shake!

This was our toughest flight with Greg thus far. He was exhausted and would not fall asleep. He was not happy to sit still for long. Plus he had learned a new squealing noise and was glad to share it on the plane. It could have been worse, but it was not fun. We were all happy to land. He was asleep within about three minutes of getting in our car.

Only picture from the plane today - so serious

Knocked out on the way home from the airport

The dogs were very happy to see us when we got back. Greg went straight to his crib for a nap and Andrew worked from home. My brain was shot from dealing with a fussy baby on the plane, so I took it easy for a bit.

Greg's nap was only an hour, so he was still short on sleep for the rest of the afternoon. He went to bed early without complaint. We will all sleep well tonight!

There's the happy boy! (This would have been such a cute picture!)

Doing some exercises

Singing performance, Heritage, family get-together

Andrew and his parents joined his sister Amy's family at church this morning to watch Cassidy in a singing performance with her preschool class. Greg and I stayed home so he could take his nap.

We met up with Amy's family for lunch at the Franconia Heritage. Yes, the Heritage two days in a row! The girls enjoyed feeding puffs to Greg.

When we got back, Greg ate his lunch and then went down for a nap. The rest of us did the final preparations for the dinner get-together. Both sides of the family were invited, so it was going to be a big crowd!

The guests arrived throughout the late afternoon. We were able to take pictures of the great grandchildren on both sides - six on one side, five on the other. Ages ranged from four years to five weeks. Throughout the evening there were 35 people in the Freed household! We were very happy to see everyone.

Breakfast buffet, nap complications, grandparent visit, birthday celebration, kid time

We started off this morning stuffing ourselves on the breakfast buffet at Franconia Heritage. Greg enjoyed eating his puffs and he tried sweet potato fries. Not a big fan of the texture - no surprise!

Greg was rubbing his eyes and ears while we will still eating breakfast, which is a clear sign of sleepiness. Since he ate plenty of puffs, I decided to skip his solid breakfast and go directly to nap. To make a long story short, he finally went to sleep after babbling, fussing, diaper change, crying, solid foods, more crying, visit with a friend, and extreme crying.

Andrew's maternal grandparents stopped by for a visit after Greg woke up. He enjoyed showing off his crawling and standing on furniture skills.

Andrew's sister Amy and her family arrived in the late afternoon for a birthday celebration for Andrew, Amy, and her husband Josh. March is a busy birthday month! We took pictures of Greg and his cousins Cassidy, Sadie, and Luke. Then we took the big family group picture. It is certainly an interesting experience with ten people involved!

We had a great taco dinner and followed it up with a chocolate cake that Amy made. Delicious!

It was fun spending time with everyone and watching the different stages of the kids. Cassidy (4) and Sadie (2.5) rode on Uncle Andrew and Pop-pop's shoulders, Greg (almost 10 months) crawled from toy to toy, and Luke (5 months) watched the entire scene.

Now we're down to four adults and we're enjoying a snack of soft pretzels. Notice a trend? Andrew and I love to eat when we have visitors or when we are the visitors!

Travel preparations, plane ride, arrive at Memaw and Pop-pop's

Most of today was quite the blur for me. I was rushing around from the time that I woke up until we ran out the door to go to the airport. "Why do I always do this to myself?" I thought. "Why do I wait to pack until the last minute?" The more I thought about it though, it's not the packing that gets me. It's all of the other odds and ends - doing laundry so you can take certain items, paying bills, writing instructions for the pet sitter, feeding the baby, bathing the baby, etc, etc, etc. If all I needed to do was pack, I'd be golden.

We got to the airport with reasonable time to get situated. Going through security is always a mind-taxing process for me. Backpack, diaper bag, stroller, shoes, liquids, jackets/sweatshirts. Whew! Andrew had to go through one of the new scanners, but I didn't because I was holding Greg. We were able to take a sippy cup filled with water. The woman was very nice and explained that she needed to run a test on it. She simply held up a scanner of some sort to the top of cup - didn't need to open it or anything.

Our flight was on time, so we boarded at ~1:45 PM. I found a good seat for us and I could tell by the look of the woman behind us that she was not too pleased about the close proximity of a baby. At least two people looked like they were going to sit in our row, only to keep moving once they saw Greg. We call it "baby repellent" - our baby repels them!

By the time we took off, Greg was ~2 hours overdue for a nap. I was really hoping that he would settle down and sleep on the plane. Well, he did not. But he was a real trooper. He spent the whole flight in Andrew's lap. Greg stayed busy by smiling at the aforementioned woman behind us, playing with a new book, and taking puffs from me and feeding himself.

We landed after a little over an hour in the air and headed to baggage claim. We met up with Andrew's dad there. While waiting for the luggage, I noticed that another baby from the flight was starting to get fussy. We had met briefly while waiting for our strollers after the flight, so I pushed Greg over to say hello again. She stopped crying when she saw him. Crisis averted! The mother thanked me for stopping by.

Greg finally took a nap on the way home from the airport. We got to briefly see Andrew's paternal grandparents upon our arrival. Then we had empanadas for dinner. Delicious! Greg had his first store-bought versions of green beans and sweet potatoes. I truly do not have a problem with store-bought food, it certainly has its place, but it just isn't the same as homemade!

Greg had some good play time with Memaw and Pop-pop after dinner. He played with the music table, xylophone, books, and was introduced to the ball popper. He loved it!

They each read a book to Greg before sleepy time. After he was tucked into bed, Ron, Debbie, and Andrew went for a dip in the hot tub. The current outside temperature is 33 degrees. Elise doesn't participate in hot tub time in that kind of weather! Brr!

Eating strike, playdate, "new" music table, Max takes the big bed

Where has my son gone? He has been replaced by a baby that doesn't eat every morsel that we put in front of him. Mealtime has been a struggle for the past two days. I didn't even try to feed him any of his dislikes today.  He is acting fine otherwise, so I am not worrying about it. We'll file it under the always-keeping-me-guessing category!

We went to a playdate at the house of our friends Leslie, Vivienne, and Miles today. Babies, babies, and more babies! Ten in total. Some were on the move, some observed for crawling tips. Give it a few months and all of the mommies will be chasing babies around. How will we be able to carry on a decent conversation?!

"Hey, they have a music table too!"

Babies everywhere!

Happy babies

I had another successful Craigslist pickup today. Greg loves his music table, but he has flipped the page on it so much that it no longer works. The rest of the table still functions, but only on one mode. And he really loved the page-turning noise. So I hunted down another one on Craigslist, including the Spanish-speaking mode. Now we get to learn new words en español. «¡Arriba!»

I have been packing on and off all day for our journey to Pennsylvania tomorrow. This weekend will be Greg's third and fourth time on a plane. His last flights were almost half of his life ago! Here's hoping he is a happy boy on the plane!

Last night there was a rare sighting: Max and Hank were sharing the big bed. Max usually never goes near that bed for fear of Scout, but he has slept on it several times in the past week. Maybe he's figured out that it's a lot more comfy than the other bed that has basically been smashed into a pancake. Hank still goes for the recliner for overnight accommodations and I'm too much of a softy to kick him off.

Rare sighting

"Yeah, I'm on the recliner. So what?"

Bonus pictures:

"Mama, I reorganized the shelf for you!"

42 Weeks

Superyard on Craigslist, playground fun, Happy Birthday to Andrew

I had been on the hunt for a superyard play yard on Craigslist for quite a while. They are posted occasionally, but they are often priced close to what you can buy a new one for on Amazon. Yesterday I did my usual search and a new listing appeared! Eight panels for $35, which is half the price of a new set. I called immediately to say that I was interested.

The seller and I agreed to a pick up on Wednesday. He gave me his address and later I looked it up on Google Maps to get an idea of where it was. Then I typed it into the GPS before Greg and I left to go pick it up. I drove down the street looking at the house numbers: **0, **2, **4... and reached the end of the cul-de-sac with no **6 in existence. Google found **6, the GPS found **6. Where is **6? Luckily the seller was easy to reach on his phone. Either I got it wrong or he told me the wrong number. The real one was **4.

The superyard itself was in good shape and the seller was very nice. A Craigslist success!

Greg and I met up with some playgroup friends at a local playground this afternoon. He went swinging and then played in the mulch with his pals.

Greg's friend shuffled over to say hello

"Hi!"

Checking out the mulch and sticks

Today is Andrew's birthday. Happy birthday, hubby! I got a card for him "from Greg" that had a frog on it and said "Hoppy birthday, Daddy." Father and son celebrated the day by reading the "best book ever" - Nobody Listens to Andrew.

Reading before bed

Around the house, swinging and sandbox, another bee, stairs investigation

Tuesday was a stay-around-the-house day. I worked on laundry and tidying up the kitchen. Greg worked on exploring the house. At one point I looked over to see Greg standing there holding onto Max's tail. Greg was proud of himself. Max is such a champ.

The knees are red from crawling everywhere

He doesn't sit still for long

"I'm coming to get you, Mama!"

It was a very warm day, but it was nice under the deck. Greg and I spent some time swinging and then playing in the sandbox. I'm pretty sure that I am still having more fun with the sand than he is.

There was another bee on the back deck, so Andrew took care of that one like he did the others. Go away, bees!

Andrew and Greg investigated the stairs in the evening. Greg was interested in checking everything out and even put his knee on the first step momentarily.

"Dad and I are checking out the stairs."

"This banister is pretty funny, Dad!"

We took a nice walk with the dogs after the temperature cooled off outside. We all enjoyed the fresh air.