The Car (and photo catch up)

Edie runs hot and cold with the car. Most of the time she loves the car and falls asleep quickly and easily with the motion and noise, but one out of every 5 trips or so she totally loses it. Sometimes it's because she's hungry and doesn't want to wait the five minutes it will take us to get to our destination and be fed. I'm always telling her that I won't starve her, but it's funny how babies don't seem to really get that, right? My Mom group is in Madison Park and I have to drive through the Arboretum to get there and back. I can't tell you how many times I've had to pull over into one of the many parking lots sprinkled throughout the park and feed the E before we can go on our way. Other times, her car flip outs seem to be totally unexplained; she's recently fed, changed and napped and rejects food and pacifier when offered. Those car trips are SUPER fun.

On Saturday I got a bee in my bonnet about having a "family outing" and convinced Jeff we should go to the Ballard Market and stroll the shops and stands with Edie in the Ergo. Well. We got about five minutes from the house and Edie royally wigged out. We pulled over and I got her out of the car seat and walked the block with her to calm her down. I finally soothed her, frantically hooked her back up into the car seat and Jeff put the peddle to the metal. The calm only lasted a few more minutes and then we repeated the whole scenario. Finally, we looked at each other and decided to throw in the towel and u-turn it for home. Of course as soon as we made the turn, she totally fell asleep. Jeff u-turned it again back in the direction of Ballard. We finally got there and.... guess what? I'm totally retarded because the Ballard Market is on SUNDAYS!!! At that point we were both spent and just turned around and went home with our sleeping baby.

So you can imagine our trepidation while strapping her in the next morning (yesterday) for our first big car trip to Bellingham. But this time we planned ahead a little better. We gave Edie a bath right before we left. She loooves bath time, but usually exhausts herself with a few minutes of hard crying when we pull her out and then falls asleep hard. And it worked! She slept like an angel the first hour and sucked on her pacifier the last 30 minutes. We left her at Grandma and Grandpa B's house (my parents) for some bonding time and hit up the Bagelry for lunch just the two of us. An hour or two later, we swooped back in, picked up Edie (who we were told behaved swimmingly) and then met up with the Culver clan (aunt and uncle, great Aunt and Grandparents) for a visit. Again, Edie continued her angelic behavior and - gasp - even slept the whole way back to Seattle! So I would deem our first big day trip a total success.

And now that you've read my super boring story, I will reward you with many photos.

Can you tell what I'm doing in this picture? I'm using my Hooter Hider! The Hooter Hider is an excellent invention - it's a privacy blanket for breastfeeding in public! I used it at my parents and at my sister-in-laws yesterday. It has a great adjustable strap that goes around the neck and then there's a hoop-like thing at the top that allows you to peek down at your babe and make sure you've got a good latch (and to check if she's just napping instead of eating, as Edie has a tendency to do). Anyways, it worked beautifully and fits easily in the diaper bag (very light weight material). So while this looks like it's just a picture of me, Edie is actually hiding under there enjoying a snack.

Aunt Kathleen with Edie and her cat Sage, who like Maurice, refused to give up his lap spot.

Grandma and Grandpa Culver:Great Aunt Wendy
And since we were apparently a little eager to have lunch by ourselves yesterday, we didn't take any pictures of Edie with Grandma and Grandpa Bruton (although I have no doubt that they documented the visit themselves with about 1000 photos). In fairness, I'm posting this picture of them from their first meeting with Edie:

Jeff likes to come up with creative ways for Edie to spend her "tummy time". The other day I came upstairs to find this:
Some pictures of her marathon nap on Friday night (notice it starts out light and gets dark):



And one more from another nap. I love this outfit but every time I put her in it, she pees all over it, so maybe I'm not getting the hint.