I have been writing this post for about a month and am just now getting around to finalizing it and posting it...sorry for the delay!! Read on and you will understand why!
April has been one crazy month for us!! Ryan got to meet her 2 cousins, Seth and Brady, when we took a trip to visit Dave's brother, Shaun, his wife Heather, and these two amazing and adorable boys. It was Ryan's first "road trip", and it was definitely a learning experience!
Meeting Seth & Brady for the first time!!
They live near Raleigh, NC, and it is about a 7 hour drive for us. Ryan was fine and dandy for about half of the trip up. But after about 4 hours in her car seat, she started to get restless, fussy, cranky, and hungry. We stopped and spread out a blanket on the grass in the shade of a shopping center and let Ryan crawl, play, climb on daddy, and have some lunch while Dave and I took turns stretching our legs and eating our lunches. It was a fun little family picnic! We hung out for about an hour before packing it all up and strapping the poor babe back into the car seat and heading off down the road...I don't think we made it 20 miles before the meltdown was bad enough to force us to stop again. There was next to NOTHING at the next exit, so we stopped in the parking lot of a dumpy old gas station. Dave walked around with Ryan until she basically fell asleep on his chest...I'd say maybe 45 minutes.
She slept most of the rest of the way, and woke up just as we were pulling onto Shaun and Heather's street. Ryan loved meeting her aunt and uncle! Seth came bounding down the hall to give her a hug, but Brady was much more reserved. He peeked out from his room a couple of times before slowly making the bashful walk into the living room. He gradually warmed up to all of us, and in no time the 3 kiddos were laughing and playing in the floor together.
Aunt Heather
Uncle Shaun
It was so fun to see Ryan with Seth and Brady. She loves "big kids", and she was completely enamored by the boys. Seth and Brady were so good with Ryan.
Cousins!!
Playing with Brady
Our last night in North Carolina
The North Carolina trip was a learning experience for us. It was good because we were traveling somewhere where children lived, so if there was anything that we forgot, Heather was right there to cover us. It was a nice, short trip to ease us into the big, huge road trip we took at the end of April - Georgia to Illinois, Illinois to Iowa, Iowa to Illinois, Illinois to Georgia....
10 days of being "on the road" with a baby!................
And we all survived, quite well I may add! We left Georgia on a Friday morning. Ryan woke up at 5 a.m., so we decided to just roll with it. Dave got her up and fed her breakfast while I got ready and continued packing. (did you know that you have to take everything that you have ever owned with you when traveling with a baby? It sure felt that way, anyhow.) It took us probably a day and a half to pack. We kept making last minute lists of things that we needed to remember to pack. We had to take EVERYTHING because while in Illinois, we would be at my grandparents house, but in Iowa, we would be in a hotel for 4 days. I had to bring everything I would need to wash bottles - dish soap, bottle brushes, drying rack, even a sponge! We had 2 medium sized storage bins filled to the top of things needed to care for a baby.
By 7 a.m., Ryan was just about ready for her morning nap, and we were ready to go! The timing worked out great! We had bought Ryan a new car seat the week before - we learned on the NC trip that she fussed in her seat because she was sick and tired of being strapped in a lay down position for hours on end, so we got her a fancy new seat that can recline or sit up! It is quite an impressive invention! Plus, it converts to a booster for when she is bigger, so it will be her car seat from now until she doesn't need a seat anymore (which I think is 17 years old in Georgia now...just kidding, but just barely).
We stopped at Chik-fil-a for a drive-thru breakfast (our tradition for traveling) and Ryan needed a diaper change before heading off again. She fell asleep pretty quickly after that, as did I! I woke up just as we were coming off of Monteagle (my LEAST favorite part of the trip!!) and Ryan woke up just before Nashville. We needed gas and lunch, so we stopped at Cracker Barrel. We walked around the store for a bit, ate some lunch, walked around some more, then spread a blanket on the ground under a shade tree and let Ryan crawl around, practice standing, and have some juice. Our stop was about 2 hours, which is the amount of time Ryan needs to wear herself out. So we got back in the car and se was asleep in no time! She slept all the way to Southern Illinois!
Papa and Grandma Judy greeted us on the porch. They could not believe how much Ryan had grown! We had a great time in Illinois! As usual, Judy had a huge spread of food prepared for each meal! And we went to the Bonnie Cafe for biscuits and gravy for breakfast (the best ever!) My great-uncle and great-aunt came over one night to meet Ryan. Sunday was Easter, and the Easter Bunny left Ryan some great gifts! Then we went to my old church for service. After church, we all headed to my aunt and uncle's house for Easter dinner - chicken & dumplings, my favorite! All of the food was so yummy, but Dave and I felt like we each gained 20 pounds in 3 days!!
Ryan with her great-great uncle, Jim, and great-great aunt Alana
We woke Ryan up early to open her Easter gifts before church
She looks thrilled...
Reading her Easter card
Great-grandma Judy reading me my bedtime book
Me and my Papa
Here Papa, I will help you read the paper
Monday morning, we packed it all up again and headed on to Iowa. There was lots of flooding, and the Mississippi river spilled over into fields the entire trip up. It rained the whole way. There was literally nothing, and I mean NOTHING, along our route. I think that we were lucky that the road was even paved....it was past lunch time and we desperately needed gas. I had to pull out the GPS to see if there would be anywhere to stop in the next 40 miles before our gas ran out. We stumbled upon a lonely truck stop with a Denny's attached to it. I don't know if I had ever eaten at a Denny's before....
Ryan had some applesauce for lunch and then we walked around the gas station for a while to try to wear her out a little. After we got back in the car, Ryan was a little fussy. After we got down the road a ways, she was absolutely miserable and unconsolable. I told Dave to find a place to pull over for a while as I lifted her out of her seat to hold her....AND.......there was POOP all up the back of her onesie!!! "FORGET IT!! PULL OVER NOW!! PULL OVER NOW!! EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY!!" I screamed. Dave let out an "OH MY!" as he looked back to see what was the matter.
We pulled off on a side road and stopped on the shoulder to take care of things. I had to dig in the back of the car into the mountain of luggage to find Ryan a clean pair of clothes - I usually keep a set in her diaper bag, but for some reason, there was not a change in there when I really needed it! Dave laid Ryan out in the back seat, and poopy diapers, clothes and wipes went flying out the door behind him as he tried to clean her up while I dug for clothes. After I found a change for her, I took over the diaper duty and Dave started bagging the trail of trash and splattered clothes we left in our wake. Needless to say, Ryan was not a happy camper after this little episode (we call it a "Poop Monster") so we had to let her stand in daddy's lap and pretend to drive for about a half hour.
After that debacle, it was pretty smooth sailing to Iowa. (By the way - we were in Iowa because Dave's company's headquarters is there, and he had to attend a 4 day long training class, which just happened to be held in our hotel!)
We had a good time in Iowa. It was cold and rainy the entire trip (except for the day we were leaving, which was gorgeous, of course). Dave had to get up early each morning to get ready to go to his class. We had breakfast with him one morning, and we got to have lunch with him twice. Other than that, Ryan and I just spent our days riding around checking out the area. It was really nice there. Zero traffic, even at rush hour. The people are phenomenal! Everyone is so nice. There are a lot of really nice parks, trails, attractions, kids museums, neat places to shop, historical districts, and beautiful scenery! It is just as green as you could possibly ever imagine, and there are endless barns and old farm houses popping up out of the flat-as-a-pancake fields.
When Dave got out of class each night, we would all get some dinner and then ride around together for a while. Then it was back to the hotel for Ryan's bath and bedtime. Ryan started "cruising" while we were in Iowa. She pulled herself up on the edge of the couch and held on as she walked about 5 steps. What a big girl!!
We left Iowa Friday around 1 p.m. Dave had a half day of class, and I spent the morning packing between sneaking in a little bit of the Royal Wedding here and there. Ryan slept pretty much the entire way back to Illinois. We stopped and walked around a Wal-Mart for a while to get her out of her seat and let her stretch and then we went to a Mexican restaurant to feed her her dinner before getting back on the road. Ryan slept all the way to Illinois after that.
We spent one more day in Illinois before packing it all up once again and heading back to Georgia. (did I mention how LONG it took to pack everything up each time? At LEAST 2 hours, usually more) Ryan was good the whole way home. We did the 2 hour stop at Cracker Barrel again, but other than that, she slept most of the way. She woke up about 45 minutes from the house, and I had to climb in the back seat with her and entertain her.
Now that we are back, it feels almost odd...I became so used to living out of storage bins and making due with what I had that I forgot how to live out of our own house. Ryan has been cutting a tooth, and she is also adjusting to life in the same place each day...she has been a tad difficult. I know that I have not had a lot of patience with her either, so that only makes matters worse. Plus, I'm pretty sure she misses the full attention of adoring grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and Adam Schlag. ;)
Here are some photos from our time in Illinois...
Making cole slaw for the fish fry
Papa frying fish
Papa took us out to the coal miners monument...Old Ben 21 was his mine
His name is on one of the brick (Harvey Lee Conner)
Sitting in Uncle Greg's spot with Aunt Sheila
Hello Adam Schlag
Knife trade
Cousin Lanie
Cousin Leah
getting up close and personal with Uncle Greg
I love beards, and yours is a really nice one...
Great-great Aunt Delores
Other than all of the traveling, Ryan has been SO busy. Just this month, she has learned to clap her hands when you say "CLAP!!", she is starting to wave hello, she has started crawling and pulling up all by herself, she says "MAMA" but only when she really feels like it, and she can go from laying down to sitting up all by herself. She says "ba" most of the time. We don't really figure that she is trying to say a word, it is just the only sound she really knows how to make and she fascinates herself with it.
For Mother's Day, Dave, Ryan, Grimm, Tonka and I went to the park and had a great walk that afternoon. Ryan, Grimm, and Tonka got me tickets to see Alison Krauss at the Fox Theater in August. Ryan has some little toy stuffed flowers that she "gave" to me, instead of spending the money on real flowers (I am trying to save every dime possible right now!) Dave gave me the first season of Parks and Rec on DVD (my favorite show). We have been watching episodes at night after Ryan goes to bed.
Well, that is all I am going to write for now. Hopefully I will be able to write more soon :)
~robbi
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