Kai's first road trip

(I have things to say about my grandmother, but I am not ready to deal with them yet. Later.)

Something that kind of got lost in the shuffle was that this was Kai's first road trip. And I think he dealt with it beautifully. Certainly better than Anya on her first trip.

He was quite the hugabug, as you can see.

He slept the whole way up, only waking when we stopped. His appetite was amazing; I'd brought pouch foods for convenience, though he'd never had them and isn't that big of a solids eater, because he tends to get jealous if we're eating and he's not. Kiddo chowed down; he went through almost everything I brought! Which is good, because without my usual galactagogue ritual, I was a little low on milk.

Where's my plate?

He also dealt well with being fawned over and held by strangers. He can be a little shy, but so long as I stayed close, he went to whoever wanted to hold him. Nor did he cry during the funeral; he started babbling just as the preacher started talking, but that was just to let me know he wanted to go upstairs to nurse and nap.

It was kind of a common theme.

After the funeral, we took the kids to the park; it was a beautiful fall day. Anya got to run some of her wiggles off, Mom caught up with an old friend, and I got to introduce Kai to one of my favorite places to play as a kid.

He's not sure about the merry-go-round.

I thought the hotel room would be an issue, with its lack of babyproofing, Netflix, and a bathtub, but he seemed to enjoy the stay.

He really enjoyed bathing in the sink!

He didn't think much of the couch, apparently; he spit up on that thing three times in the first half-hour we were there. Luckily, it doesn't appear to have caused lasting damage.

Dear Hampton Inn: There is something about your couch that makes my son puke. My apologies. It looks like a perfectly nice couch to me.

— Nicole (@nmb74) October 20, 2015

The only part of the trip that was unpleasant for him, in fact, was the drive home; he was having teething pains and wanted to be held, which of course was not possible. But even then, the fussing was not unbearable; he would cry softly for a bit, then nod off until the next stop.

Obviously he enjoyed the stops themselves.

 R remarked when we got home that it had been a really good trip. And it was. The circumstances were not ideal, but we had a nice visit, great weather, good food, and a lot of fun. Not bad at all for Kai's first trip. I hope the rest of them go this well!