Grabbing the sun...

Wow, it’s been a rather long few days… hence the missing blog posts, which will make this one rather long… you’ve been warned. Landrick, Sam and I traveled to Cincinnati and Oxford, Ohio this past Saturday and did not return home till late Tuesday night.
We started by having a wonderful visit with my grandparents (Landrick’s Great Grandparents) on Saturday. Landrick traveled fairly well on the way up, sleeping most of the way; however, once we arrived and he had a little lunch he got a little sleepy and was not such a happy camper when we went out to eat. (Maybe he just wanted to eat some ‘grown-up’ food too!) Although he slept a little on the ride back to Nonnie and Pawpaw’s he was still a bit cranky for the duration of the visit… he was also a little gassy, which did not help the matter. BUT all-in-all he did really well and had a great time visiting… it’s such a joy to be able to see my son with his great grandparents. I know just how lucky he is (and I am) to be able to have such an experience. We are truly blessed.

On Sunday we traveled to Oxford, OH to visit Miami University – which I completely fell in love with. I’m telling you, if you’ve never visited that campus and town, I definitely recommend it. It is absolutely beautiful! Sam was gracious enough to come with me to watch Landrick while I attended meetings on campus with my fellow Presidential Leadership Academy class… this also still allowed me to nurse the little man without fear of messing up my milk supply… so very thankful. We decided to try having Landrick sleep in the middle of the second Queen bed in the room… since he’d not yet started rolling over or really moving much in his sleep we thought it would be okay. I still placed a pillow barrier of sorts around him so there would be no risk of falling off the bed. He actually slept really well… so well in fact that on Sunday night he slept (for the first time) for 7.5 hours straight!!! I almost could not believe it…. Wow. (He did not repeat this new found sleeping pattern on Monday night though… but that’s okay.) He was full of new tricks on Sunday, as he also tried to drink some water through the straw in my cup… he probably would have been successful accept I’d already drank all of it myself!
We left Oxford on Tuesday afternoon and were able to have another short visit with Nonnie and Pawpaw before returning home. It was a treat to get to see them twice in one week! We ate lunch and visited a bit before hitting the road for home.
Landrick must have had such a good time visiting with Pawpaw and Nonnie, touring Miami’s campus in the stroller with Daddy and going on various other adventures with Sam that he simply did not want to leave because he cried just about all the way home on Tuesday evening. Now granted he is not a very good ‘evening’ traveler (which we were previously aware of) but he’s never cried for such a long time. We stopped 3 times, getting him out twice (and feeding once)…. But as soon as his little bottom hit that seat the crying began again… I can’t say that I blame him though, as it’s probably rather lonely in the backseat.
When he finally did stop crying the sun was low on the horizon and hitting the sides of his car seat… as I watched him in the ‘baby mirror’ he kept trying to grab the sunlight, almost as if it were a physical intety resting atop the fabric of his seat rather than simply a beam of color shining just beneth his reach… something about that made my heart full… the innocence of a child is wonderful. Everything is new to them… every moment is a moment of learning something new, soaking it in…. just like trying to grab the rays of the sun.