Grandma's House

We finally made it down to visit my grandmother & introduce her to her first great-grandchild. It was also our first substantial road trip with Benjamin (and practice for the much longer drive up north in a few months). While the trip went pretty well, we are all still recovering. Here's our little angel at the beginning of the trip on Friday afternoon. With a stop or two, the trip took about six hours. Benjamin took a few naps and was fairly happy the rest of the time, as long as he was being entertained. I can't count the number of times he "read" Goodnight Moon. I discovered that there are not so many restrooms with changing stations, and that it's probably just as easy to change diapers in the car. We got to the hotel on Friday night and had a typical night's sleep.
Grandma's condo wasn't very far away, but we couldn't get there fast enough to please Nana on Saturday morning. The weather was surprisingly warm, but we got to stay inside with the AC. This was also Aunt Janie's first time meeting Benjamin.
Many presents were bestowed on Benjamin, which shouldn't be a shock. This cloth book about dinosaurs is from Nana, and Benjamin ended up "reading" it many, many times on the return trip.


AIRPLANE!! This game really tickled Benjamin's funny bone.
Nana's very animated way of playing really captivated Benjamin. It really amused the rest of us, too.
That little wrist ornament is a rattle, one of the presents from Aunt Janie. By the way, if you're ever in her neck of the woods, invite yourself to Aunt Janie's for dinner. She cooked us a fantastic meal of turkey with cranberries, wild rice, and some delicious sweet potato soup. So yummy.
Saying goodbye... For a minute there, I wasn't sure Nana was going to let the little guy leave.

Other than coming unwrapped from being swaddled, we had another decent night of sleep on Saturday. We got out of the hotel exactly at checkout time, and that was with us rushing. As soon as Benjamin felt that car seat under him, he screamed bloody murder. It took a good hour to really get him calm. The rest of the trip back was better, but not as smooth as the first stretch - he figured out these car rides are not so much fun. Plus there was a lot of traffic in Florida, and then there were massive delays in Georgia apparently due to what they called "construction" (nothing actually being accomplished, but barrels for miles). Benjamin is still a bit out of sorts - he wouldn't take a proper nap yesterday, and today he slept for hours with bouts of crying in between. All in all, it was worth it to see family, and it has given us ideas of how we can prepare for the trip to Pennsylvania this summer.

P.S. Uncle Joe was a dork and didn't visit us all at Grandma's because he was WATCHING GOLF ON TV. Lame, Uncle Joe. Lame.