Midwest Tour

Cupcake and I went on a road trip together.  Admittedly I was a little really apprehensive about doing this without the husband who stayed behind for work. This was no small road trip. We were in 4 different states over a week. Cupcake has made great progress in her carseat, but the furthest trip we had made on our own was about 30 minutes one-way and she did well. Our first leg of this trip was to visit my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and their beautiful girls. It was 280 miles and I could not believe how awesome Cupcake did. She had one, very tiny screaming episode. We stopped a few miles later, changed her diaper, go back in the car and she was asleep in 20 minutes. It was incredible. 

So, we spent two nights at this destinations. Met up with a college friend for about an hour, did lots of playing with our cousin's toys, tried to follow our 8 year old niece everywhere she went and when she would leave and re-enter a room, Cupcake would get all sorts of animated. So cute! It helps that my niece has lots of patience, lots of practice with her 17 month old sister and is just a fun kiddo. We had a yummy breakfast at a local bakery/cafe and did a little shopping. It was here that I discovered the reason Cupcake was probably having difficulty sleeping at night was her first molar had started to cut through and the 2nd one is not too far behind! 

Cute little cousins in their cute stripes. I'm loving my nieces crazy went to bed after a bath hair :)

Cupcake's new favorite person...

I may be biased, but they are some of my favorite little people.

 Our next destination was my former college town (4 hour drive). There is something strange about driving back to the town of my most carefree years where I sort of started to become an adult (I'm still working on that whole growing up thing). We stayed the night with one of my very best friends and her husband and adorable 19 month old son. They took us to a "fight the frost" event where an entire arena was filled with blow-up, bounce houses. Cupcake wasn't too sure what to make of it at first. After a little while, she started to get the hang of it. Pretty soon, she was cruising all over the place. She didn't quite get the hang of climbing so she could go down the slides (I think we will blame the short legs). 

The next day we took the kids to lunch with another couple of college friends. I always think I'm going to have all of this time to chat and catch up, but that never really works out when Cupcake is at the table... I don't think I'll even mention our little adventure leaving the restaurant. Suffice it to say, I'm a moron... the end. Luckily for me, my bff is an amazing photographer so she had a little photo shoot for Cupcake. I'm excited to see the photos (no rush!)

H wasn't unhappy, just not smiling in this pic. They are so cute having breakfast together in pajamas. I would not be unhappy if they are married in 25 years doing this very same thing together...

 

 

 

 Next, we headed to my hometown (1.5 hour drive) to spend a couple of days with my sister and parents. We got to spend a little time with both sets of grandparents. So, nice! Cupcake did lots of entertaining. It was pretty obvious that this was her 4th trip to stay at Nana and Grampa's house. She knew where everything was, immediately walked around like she owned the place and made a complete and utter mess of everything. We visited my Grandpa in his new assisted living apartment (super nice place). You should be jealous, because I have the CUTEST, SWEETEST Grandpa in the whole world (unless he is your Grandpa too...then you don't need to be jealous). We went to lunch with Nana and Auntie, we went to dinner with Grama and Grandpa V, but mostly we just hung out at with Nana at home.

Just relaxing in bed with my Grampa.

I asked Auntie to read every book I brought with me. Auntie really gets into story-telling...

Nana and I checked the mail together in the snow (taken through a window since this momma didn't want to go out).

I played with this door and the one behind me for quite some time. I was tall enough to reach the handle so that was especially exciting.

I can't quite get the hang of using my great-grandpa's magnifying glass.

I put on a little dance show for great-grandpa. He doubled over laughing when I was showing him how I could march up and down his hallway.

See, cutest grandpa ever, no? This big, burly guy pretty much melts at the sight of his youngest great-granddaughter. So, so sweet...

 We were going to make 1 more overnight stop after leaving my parent's house. However, while Cupcake was behaving fine during the day she struggled to sleep every.single.night of our trip. I was exhausted by this point. Even when it only takes 15 minutes to get her back to sleep, it takes me another hour to finally slip back into slumber. We were awake at 4am pretty much everyday, but usually I could get her back to sleep around 5:30 until 7. I was just feeling worn out, and the daddy kept talking about how he missed having his baby girl around. We are a couple that has done long distance (twice) before we were married, and we made it work, but we just plain ol' prefer to be together. It seemed like a week apart was really, really long. So, I kind of tested the waters, but Cupcake and I made the 10 hour (611 mile) trek back home in one day. She actually took TWO naps in her carseat. She only fussed a little bit when she was getting overtired. We made 4 stops total, and none of them were terribly long. I still am amazed at how well she did in the car (and grateful). Cupcake is still giving signs that her mouth/gums are sore, but just when I had elected her daddy to get up with her at night when she was in pain, she has slept 12 hours straight the last 2 nights. Go figure. 

Onto our next adventure!