On the Road: Installment Six

Robin and I have been enjoying our stay in Madison so much that we decided to extend it a bit. We'll be heading out tomorrow and have decided we're not even going to attempt the one-shot trip we made on our way to Minnesota. Neither of us have the energy, and we don't want to push our luck with cross-country travel and Lydia.

Lydia has been a real trooper this entire trip. There have been tons of new faces and lots of outings--quite the contrast to the routine we'd established in Austin that involved mostly just Robin and me and maybe one outing a day. She has let us know a few times that she is "done" and overwhelmed, but even that has usually been easily remedied with quiet time and a nap. I had no idea how different it would be trying to manage a visit home with a baby. Visiting Minnesota has always presented a challenging schedule for Robin and I, as we want to visit as many friends and family as possible and so many of our loved ones are in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area, and this time it was significantly more difficult to see the people we hoped to see while making sure we didn't push Lydia too hard. (We definitely failed at the not-pushing-Lydia-too-hard thing a couple of times, resulting in a Lydia Meltdown.) My heartfelt apologies to those we didn't get to see. :(

On the Lydia front, we have a bit of news. 1.) We are fairly sure Lydia has begun teething. She is drooling like mad and constantly chewing on her fingers (or anything else she can get in her mouth.) Not sucking. CHEWING. We made a Target run to invest in a teether we can put in the refrigerator and some teething tablets. 2.) Lydia is officially the loudest baby I have met. To say she has discovered her voice would be an understatement. Because Lydia is our first, we assumed all babies scream the way she does, but we learned that screaming is one of her skills. We have yet to hear a baby scream at the volume she does. She has also learned how to shriek. Do not confuse this with crying or whining. Shrieking is generally an excited or expressive sound, but my lord is it loud. In the same vein, we are fairly sure our days of eating out with a peaceful, sleeping baby are over. We will have to transition to eating out with an alert, excited baby and learn how to entertain her!

Wish us luck tomorrow as we pack up and venture back south!