baby's first road trip

During the summer of 2012 I hit it off with the mom of one of the kids who attended my work's summer camp. Our kids ended up in swimming lessons at the same time at the Y for 12 weeks running this past spring, so we spent a lot of time chatting on the bleachers outside the pool. Their family moved to Indianapolis in May and she insisted that we needed to come up and visit once they were settled. We took the boys the last weekend of September and it was so much fun. It was baby Elliott's first real road trip and he rocked it. We had a four-hour drive each way, and he slept all but thirty minutes each time. He slept well in the strange pack and play in the strange room in the strange house and was chipper and cheerful during our day trips out. All the ponies are now on order for him, so I hope no one else needs any. Unfortunately I didn't get many good pictures of him…since he's still not mobile he spent most of the time in the double stroller or in the Beco attached to me. Nico was awesome, too -- patient and pleasant in the car, well-mannered and polite at our friends' house, friendly to their six- and three-year-old kids.

On Saturday, we spent pretty much the whole day at the zoo. It was really big and really nice and the weather was nearly perfect. Elliott pondered life from the front seat:

Then later he rode along for a nap on the go:

Nico asked to feed the budgerigars in the walk-through aviary and then he actually did it. Trying new things is kind of a big deal for him so this was very exciting for me and MB.

We went back to feed them again later and he got spooked when a greedy one got a little too aggressive and hopped onto his hand, but I'm just so glad that he did it at all. I'm keenly aware these days that Nico is finally at an age where some of the experiences he has might find their way into his long-term memory, so every time something fairly awesome happens I feel like success baby. Also, fattest budgie of all! Hee!

Nico's favorite part of the day was reportedly the dolphin show, which was pretty neat. He kept asking why we couldn't swim in the pool. He was also very interested any time an animal had a big ball or toy in its cage.

Cheetah race:

Oh, just sitting up in a high chair at dinner…no big deal!

Playing with pizza dough:

We went to the children's museum on Sunday, reportedly the largest and best in the world. Unfortunately Nico was exceedingly tired from the day before and we didn't last long. It was really great and we barely scratched the surface of what they had to offer. We spent most of our time in the new, awesome playscape for kids ages 0 - 5. We tried to breeze through the dinosaur exhibit but there was a big docent presentation going on that we knew Nico wouldn't sit still for, so we ended up pointing at some skeletons and then going to to the cafeteria for lunch. One of my favorite moments of the day took place there, as I was carrying the lunch tray across the room with Elliott in the Beco. I had the tray held up as high as I could reach, but he had spotted it and was determined to grab it. So imagine me walking with a baby strapped to me, holding a tray out at arms' length, and the baby stretching his arm up as high as he can, swatting tater tots off the tray one by one. It was fairly hilarious. Luckily one of the employees saw us and took pity and carried the tray the rest of the way for me. I'm already thinking about taking the kids back to Indy, and next time I want to go the the children's museum for our first day / all day adventure.

Nico really hit it off with our friends' little daughter…here they are killing me with cute on the way into the museum:

Water clock:

This real Indy car is parked right in front of the elevators on the playscape level…when Nico saw it he absolutely lit up. It pretty much blew his mind that he was allowed to sit in it.