Two weeks ago we packed up our cowboy boots and headed to see friends in Nashville. They have a 3 month old, and The Boys hadn't met each other yet so we figured it was time. We also took my mom and my sister with us since they'd never been before. The Boy did great on the 5 hour drive and was generally pleasant except for a few tired crying spells. It rained a good part of the weekend, which took The Husband and I down memory lane since we were in Nashville for the great flood of 2010.
Here are some of our highlights:
Meeting his new friend.
Eating breakfast at Monell's
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The Husband: Man, that fried chicken is so good. I gave up fried food for lent and I broke it on that.
Monell's Waitress: So what happens now?
Me: He's going to hell.
Waitress: You know God understands about fried chicken. I think he'll forgive you if it's fried chicken.
The Husband: Really? Then I might come back tomorrow.
Waitress: God understands one day, but he draws the line at two.
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| The Boy on stage at The Ryman |
The Boy's highlight was definitely staying in the hotel, especially since it meant he slept with us. The first night we were there he cried for a few minutes but didn't have any problems sleeping in his pack n play by himself. The second night he went to bed just fine but around midnight he was up and ready to play. The Husband gave him a bottle, and I heard him saying "Son, you smell like a frickin clove of garlic." Obviously our plan to give him lots of guacamole to fatten him up had a down side. After his bottle The Husband laid him back down but he didn't want to go back to sleep. Letting him cry himself to sleep at 8:30 is one thing, but I didn't feel that it was fair to the other hotel guests to let him cry at midnight. Into bed with us he went.
Now this is a rare treat for The Boy, and he was thrilled to be co-sleeping. He laughed. We told him goodnight. He laughed. We shushed him. He laughed. We closed our eyes and he poked at them. He crawled over to the Husband and pulled up onto his knees, ready to play. We laid him back down, he laughed. He tried to pry my mouth open. I laughed, which of course made him laugh. What fun we were having on our road trip! I tackled him in a bear hug and brought him down on the bed in a tight hold so he couldn't move. He laughed, then fussed when he couldn't squirm away, then eventually gave up and relaxed. Aha! At last we could sleep.
You should know that The Husband has restless leg syndrome that he refuses to go to a doctor about because "it doesn't bother him." Of course not, he doesn't have to sleep beside himself. He rubs his feet together like a cricket, then alternately twitches in his sleep. It's like sleeping with a bag of microwave popcorn. Pop. Pop. Pop. And he can sleep through anything, even a baby in the bed.
The baby slept just fine once he finally got over the excitement of being in the grown up bed. He fell asleep in between and parallel to us, but like a shadow on a sun dial, gradually turned as the sun came up. He also routinely spread his arms and legs like a snow angel, effectively clearing us out of his way. At some point there were tiny feet pushing in my back, and tiny hands pushing on The Husband's back making us into a human H. This kid was clearly trying to drive a wedge between us. We were left clinging to the respective edges of the KING bed while the 14 pound person in the middle had an obnoxiously serene look on his angelic, sleeping face. I surrounded The Boy with pillows, both to contain his limbs and to keep him from waking up and crawling away.
It may be difficult to believe, but I had a hard time sleeping. It was hot in our room but I couldn't get up to adjust the heat and risk waking up the munchkin. I tossed and turned, rotating like a taquito in a gas station warming tray. Pop, pop. The Husband was twitching again. Push push, whack. The Boy must've been dreaming about windmills the way his arms were rotating around. I turned over again, trying to get comfortable on my 6 square inches of mattress but I wondered if my skin was melting off onto the sheets because of the heat.
We eventually all drifted off the sleep. The Boy awoke in the morning, elated at the reminder that he'd slept in our bed. I smelled garlic, and I told the Husband I was mysteriously craving gas station food.
