Back from CT
We left really early on Thursday morning and got to CT at about 7:30pm. Mac's cousin picked us up and took us to Mac's Aunt and Uncle's house. His grandma also lives there, so Ansel got to meet his great grandma Curto. That was pretty sweet. Her heritage is Sicilian and she would tell Ansel, "che Bella! Bella! Bella!"
Here is Ansel after we got him settled in for takeoff on the flight out of SD. I love this smile!
He really did pretty well on the planes. I brought a couple of bottles of expressed milk to feed him while he was buckled in, which seemed to help keep him calm and fed. It wasn't as successful on the last leg of the trip home, though. He cried pretty loud for maybe 30 minutes (?) and wouldn't take a bottle (I think the milk was spoiled by then) and didn't take the pacifier right away. A woman got up from her seat to come tell us why he was crying and to recommend what we were already doing. Lady, take a hike. Anyway.
Friday we spent with Mac's family. His mom and her boyfriend drove down and there were some visitors to the house and Ansel really got doted over and handed all around. That night we went down to Mac's cousin Kelly's house in his grandma's car (wow is it hard getting a baby in and out of a two door!). Kelly's husband has a beach cottage on Long Island Sound and we made a stop there to visit with some of her extended family, so we walked Ansel out to the beach in the moonlight (he was asleep in one of the women's arms though, so he really didn't see any of it).
Saturday we went to Gabe's wedding, which was really nice. It was held in his bride's parent's backyard which was full of moss and backed by the woods. Mac caught up with some of his highschool friends and we passed Ansel around to any of them who wanted to hold him.
After the wedding we drove back to Mac's Aunt's house and tried to get some sleep before our flight home yesterday. For me, that meant less than 2 hours. Our flight took off at 6:00am. Ow.
By the time we got back into our car at the airport in SD to head for home, I was pretty messed up. My body hurt from exhaustion, my back was in knots, and I was really worried about Ansel because he looked miserable and his little mouth was all dried up. I had a little breakdown which escalated when we got home. I was so paranoid about having had to change him in all of those airport bathrooms and airplanes where there is really no way to keep all of the germs off. We took a nap last night and my little guy took forever to wake up. He was all droopy and his head was flopping forward. His nose sounded stuffed up and I just felt like he was coming down with something horrible. He even did this weird head tremor at one point while he was on my lap.
But he's okay. He is congested, but he's eating well and smiling and talking to us and trying to stand on his legs. So I'm feeling better, but what a scare!