Road Trip!

Yesterday, Henry and I braved the interstate for a short (but sweet) visit with Aunt Heather. For those of you who know her, you know that Heather loooooooooooooooooves LSU football. So, it should come as no surprise that she made her way over to Florida for the big game, that she also managed to scout out the team hotel in Ocala, and that she wanted her sister and nephew to come join in the Tiger fun. So, off we went...against my better mom-of-a-travel-hating-3-month-old judgment.

The ride up there was actually relaxing. Henry slept, and I enjoyed being out of the house for the afternoon. We got there around 4:15 and went to eat at Cracker Barrel with Heather. On that note, if you ever need a major ego boost, just take your baby to Cracker Barrel during the Friday Fish Fry. Within 10 minutes of being there, several homefolks had come by to admire the baby and tell me what great genes he must have...also, how much they love his name, that he is SUCH a good baby, and that he is perfect. For a girl living a trillion miles away from anyone she really 'knows'...I sure do feel like I've got some friends at the Cracker Barrel.

After our dinner there, we went to one of my all-time favorite stores - Target. We browsed the shelves for an hour, left with, like, two items in our basket, and snapped a few pictures in the parking lot before heading home to Orlando. These are some of the first pics that I've gotten to be 'in' with the baby since he was born. Like most mothers, I'm always behind the camera, so it's a rare occasion that I actually appear in a picture...and most of the time, when I do, I'm all wonky-eyed and half-smiling because I'm so focused on getting the baby to look at the camera. So, these were a nice treat for me...
















































Heather snapped this one as we were packing up, because she thought Henry looked like a little angel peering out from behind my shoulder. I'm biased, but I think she may be right.
Sad to say, though, this little "angel" was not so angelic on the ride home. We made it, oh, about 5 minutes down the road before he started yelling...which heightened to screaming....which quickly elevated to wailing...which prompted mommy to pull over for a cool-down. We stopped at a nice Turnpike rest area, and it took me every minute of 45 minutes to make his head stop spinning around on his shoulders. He was asleep as I started to load him back in the car, but of course, he woke up going into the seat and started the screaming all over again. This time, though, he was more amenable to the pacifier (thing #498734942 that motherhood has unexpectedly taught me how to do -- hold a paci in a baby's mouth in the backseat from my spot in the driver's seat) and was asleep in a few minutes. Due to our little scenic route, we didn't get home until after 10...and he woke up coming into the house, so he didn't feel like going back down until 12. So, all in all, it was a great visit with Heather...but a VERY long evening. Oh well, such is the 'new normal' around here -- and we were just happy he made up for it by sleeping until 9 this morning!





















After his breakfast this morning, we decided to start back to our family tradition of eating at Brian's Restaurant on Lake Ivanhoe on Saturday mornings. Today, we were so excited to be joined by our friend from Mississippi, Stephen Dummer, and are happy to say that Henry was awesome at the restaurant the entire time. This weekend, Stephen and his wife, Geneva, are in Orlando celebrating their first wedding anniversary and Stephen's birthday. Congrats, guys!