Weekend at Camp Carolina

Preface - it is MUCH easier to now call Grandma, Grandpa & Auntie Leanne's Camp Carolina from here on out, I'm a lazy typer & that's a lot of typing :)

We ended up leaving earlier than I expected & were out the door at 2:06pm. Then we sat in HORRIBLE traffic & rain for the next three hours & that's how long it took us to get to Richmond. Usually it's a two hour drive to Richmond, then 20 minutes to 85, then two hours to Camp Carolina. This time we arrived at 8:20 when we should have gotten there at 6:30ish. A big BOO HISS to that.

With that being said, Liam did fantastically in the car. He didnt sleep for as long as we both would have preferred but Daddy kept him busy with books, laughing & a Baby Einstein on the laptop thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately, he did have a HUGE accident after drinking his bottle but we think he got a little carsick since we were still in stop & go traffic. I happen to be looking in the rear view at the exact moment he puked the entire contents of the newly digested bottle all over himself. Thankfully, we were at a rest stop exit & I quickly got off to take care of the boy. Well, Daddy took care of cleaning him up, I just drove or at that point sat in the front seat and felt bad for him.

Liam had a tad bit of "stranger anxiety" when we finally made it to Camp Carolina (is it possible that I am such a lazy typer that Camp Carolina might just become CC?) and saw everyone. It had been three months since Auntie had seen him but just a month since Grandma & Grandpa had visited so it just took a little clinging to Mommy before he warmed up and wanted someone else to hold him. We got him feed and in his jammies and down for the night he went. He slept pretty well that night, only waking at 4:30 or so and of course we just snuggled him into bed with us...

Saturday, St. Patrick's Day, we had some errands to run, hair to be cut, cakes to pick up, coffee & cheesecake to be found & book shopping/browsing to do. Liam was a REAL little trooper through it all - not once really fussing & he took a nap in his stroller in the reclined position at B&N. It was cold so we were not able to go on any walks :( But it was nice to be out of the house and have 3 other people ready & willing to take care of Liam if need be!

We had fantastic corned beef & cabbage - that according to Matias he looks forward to every year & started to get our drink on. I'll leave the rest of that story for my non-bebe blog though as it gets somewhat "adult" in nature ;) Liam stayed up with us to have his First St. Patrick's Day dinner and he was really funny at the table! He sat between Daddy & me in his bumbo seat on a regular chair but would only sit still/behave if he was playing with limes. And by playing with limes, I mean, dropping them on the floor as soon as you hand them to him.

Mommy was supposed to drive home the next evening but the events from the evning before had her on the couch in the fetal position for most of the day. I was lucky to go get my car inspected! It was Auntie's birthday (not going to tell you which one but it IS a DMB song...) so we were planning on an early dinner out so Liam could come too & not be butting up against his bedtime & cake at home. He was REALLY well behaved at the restaurant once we finally put him in the high chair and out of his bumbo - for some reason that went more smoothly. He had a bottle while we ate our dinners, played with some toys & checked out the basketball games in the bar with Daddy. No meltdowns or loud protesting screams! He stayed up for cake at home & attempted to nose-dive into the cake before we even got Happy Birthday to You out! Then it was night-night time for the Liam Fellow & we decided to stay over another night & drive home in the morning so Matias could work a 1/2 day from home...

Sunday, Liam was pretty much in the hands of Grandma & Auntie :) He played with his mixing bowls, took a nap with Auntie on the floor, etc., etc., etc. Sadly, I cannot REALLY tell you everything they did cause I was in that fetal position I mentioned earlier...

We had a great time hanging out with everyone & celebrating birthdays & St. Patrick's Day at Camp Carolina :) Liam did really well on the drive home too, but again only slept for about 45 minutes - this time the drive was only the regular 4 hours and change - so it didnt make that much difference. We came home, feed him, ruffled the cats fur, took him around to show him that he was Home & that everything was still here, and then got him down for a nap.

It was a THREE HOUR NAP. Thankfully! I got to rest on the couch and then I had the energy I needed for Mothering the rest of the day :) One of the good things about driving at night is that you can get to your destination, get settled, probably nurse him & go to sleep for hours...driving during daylight (sounds like a good name for a horror movie about infants who hate their car seats...) you still have to be Mommy & Daddy when you get "there" for god knows how many more hours & traveling can wear one out - especially if it takes over 6 hours for a normally 4 1/2 hour trip! But Liam is a Liam Fellow so I really do not have anything to complain about - minus that whole car sick incident.

My mom got some really great pictures that I will hopefully get copies of next week when they are here (or is it the week after that?) ((goddamn there are FIVE weekends in March...)) and I will share with y'all. He got a neat little "piano" that my mom had stashed from when Kyle was a babe - still in its packaging! Liam was having a ball playing with that & Auntie actually let him play the REAL piano with her :) He got some REALLY cool nesting blocks also & was getting the hang of them, but was also really enjoying checking out all the pictures on them! Grandma & Grandpa got him some REALLY cute books too! And we are adding to our Pooh collection too! Liam TRULY loves books. More so than any other toys he has! YAY!! That makes Mommy & Daddy both thrilled. As an aside - he will dig for his books in his toy baskets and throw his "toys" aside to get to them :) The only difficult thing is rotating new books in - he's got his Favorites and has a tough time cycling new ones in...just takes some diligence from Mommy though!

and ALSO, before I forget...Liam TOTALLY copies his Grandma's coughcough. He's been doing that for a while, around Thanksgiving, but he STILL does it & it's just the cutest little fake cough you ever will hear! And for some reason he went STRAIGHT for Auntie's glasses while NEVER having touched Grandpa's...I think it's because my dad has those invisible frames while my sister actually has the "frames"...

OH and ALSO, this was the funniest thing to happen all weekend - Auntie was holding Liam, Grandma was in front of them (facing them) and I was behind Grandma...he reached out to Grandma, she reached to take him AND THEN HE PUSHED HER ASIDE TO GET TO ME! HA!

My little boy. Mommy loves you too :) But dont be a stinker to the counselors at Camp Carolina!