Nebraska Trip

Kayden, Daddy and I just got back from Nebraska! It was Kayden's 3rd plane ride so far and he was a champ on the plane. Kayden and I flew out on May 7th in the morning and Daddy flew out on Friday May 9th-so Kayden and I were on our own on the way there. Kayden was the "good baby" on the plane and the baby right behind us cried most of the way. Every once in awhile Kayden would look back and they would play with e/os hands and she would stop, it was cute, almost like he was wondering what was wrong with her. I felt bad for the baby's mom but was happy Kayden was being good! We sat next to the window, had an empty seat and then there was a man at the aisle, it was so nice not having someone right next to us. After what felt like a long time I asked the man how much time we had left and he told me an hour and a half........I was SURE he was still on a different time zone or something! So although Kayden was great on the plane, it did take alot of energy to entertain him, alot of books, snacks and songs! When we arrived Grandpa was there to greet us at the baggage claim and I had to leave Kayden with him and run to potty.....Kayden was not happy about it and cried big tears, he did it again when we stopped for lunch at Jimmy John's and I ran out to get his highchair cover and left him with grandpa. He slept most of the 3 hour drive to Kearney which made the trip not so bad. But a 3 hour flight and a 3 hour drive is a long travel day for anyone, much less a 10 month old! When we got to grammie and gramps house he loved all the attention, the big doggies and being able to crawl-but he didn't want mommy to be out of his sight!

He did end up warming up to everyone, but mommy still usually needed to be in sight or gone long enough for him to not miss me anymore. He loved the guys this trip, much to the dismay of the girls! His Uncles were his favorites, along w/ grandpa and pretty much any other guy! If Auntie Janine had him he would hold his arms out to go to Uncle Dan, or if Dan wasn't close by he even decided he'd rather have the caterer hold him than Janine! I know.....she cried;-) I guess he was letting them all know that the only woman in his life for now is his mommy;-) The doggies were favorites as well. He started saying "goggie" for doggie and would look for the doggies as soon as we woke up and played with them until we went to bed. He loved pulling on them, standing up next to them, crawling under them, taking their toys, pretty much anything he could. And the dogs were great with him! Never once did we have to worry that he might be in a sticky situation with them. I think he might need a big doggie of his own.......

New foods were a big part of his trip! Everyone wanted to feed Mr. Kayden and they all wanted to give him foods his mommy had not decided he needed yet. Uncle Kurt gave him his first orange, Uncle Mark gave him some cracker with cheese in it, Uncle Ray let him dip his finger in the chocolate fountain and eat it (this was by far the most difficult for me to stomach!!!), Aunt Janine gave him a part of a cinnamon roll, Grandma gave him raisins and a tiny ice cream cone just his size and she tried to give him a dum dum sucker which I quickly said no way to (I had an organic sucker in my diaper bag from when I had a sore throat and let her give him a lick of that to satisfy her need to give him "crap"......I think that is everything, but as you can see it was a battle mommy wasn't winning. It felt like everytime I turned around they were feeding him something else! But he did okay with all of it and I guess I'm glad they listened when I said NO CAKE until his 1st birthday! They made sure to tell me what a stick in the mud I was several times a day. Maybe it is a good thing we live in Arizona and they all live up there, I think I'd have a soda drinking, cake eating 10 month old!

Kayden had to adjust to others bathing him, feeding him, rocking him to sleep, all things he is used to mommy and daddy doing but everyone else wanted to experience. Some went well-he didn't mind people feeding him, but bathing was a different story, Uncle Mark and Carrie did the first bath and he screamed the whole time. On Saturday we drove into town to meet Grandma and Grandpa Hingst for breakfast and to pick up daddy. We had a nice breakfast and then went to Target so they could spoil Kayden a bit before they drove back to Milford. Saturday night daddy, mommy, Uncle Mark and his girlfriend Carrie, and Uncle Ray went out for a bit and we got a call from Grammie and Auntie Martha saying we had to come home because Kayden refused to go to sleep w/o his mommy. I said Grandma could suffer for a bit since she is never around to babysit! When we arrived home Auntie Martha was cuddling with Kayden in bed and he did finally go to sleep for her but she said he wasn't too happy he didn't have any num nums before sleepy time. Monday night Grandma and Mark and Carrie all watched Kayden for Kyle and I so we could go out to dinner......Kyle thought it was great being able to eat dinner without tending to Kayden, I kind of missed my little man.

Sunday brought Mommy's first Mother's day and Erica's graduation from Kearney Catholic. Auntie Martha, Grammie & I went to Starbucks and then over to Janine's to help finalize the decor for the big party. We all went to Erica's graduation & then spent the day watching Erica "act like she was there" (Janine-you can't live that one down now;-). It was a great 1st Mother's day, being with Kayden all day and my mom and my Aunties and other family members. It's crazy though how old Erica graduating made me feel! Next summer will be my 10 year reunion and Erica just graduated. Going back to Kearney Catholic was so different because it was mostly new teachers and the kids were no longer little brothers and sisters of my classmates graduating, it was now a whole new crop of kiddos. So strange!

It was a great trip and so nice to be back in Nebraska in the springtime and see all the green grass and trees, tulips and daffodils;-) It made me really wish I had a big green backyard for Kayden to crawl in but I guess that is what he has his grandma and grandpa for because his mommy and daddy decided to live in the desert! Oh yeah & how could I forget Kayden got 4 more teeth while we were there!!! I had thought he was being antisocial but I think it was that he was in pain and wanted his mommy. On Saturday he decided he liked everyone a whole lot more, so at first I thought it was that Kyle was there and he had been worried about his daddy before but then he was laughing and I saw the 3 top teeth (a fourth is trying to come through) and another on the bottom had all popped through! He now has 6, almost 7 teeth!