April Showers

April showers...bring May flowers. That could be true this spring. Oklahoma City is officially out of a drought with the 7th wettest month on record ever.

But that's not what this post is about...We have been busy with baby showers this April. We have several people in our lives expecting little ones of their own this May/June.

The first shower this month was for a dear friend/couple (B&C) at our church. I enjoy hosting showers, but it gives little opportunity to take pictures of the event. Plus having my baby boy in tow, gives even less opportunities to take pictures. But it was a fun time and even the babies seemed to enjoy themselves.

My cousin whose mom is my mother's twin sister, is due with her baby in May as well. She had a shower thrown by her college friend last weekend.

I did bring Blake to the shower and he is in most of the pictures that I took using my cousin's camera :) This was the only picture I managed to get on my phone.

My husband's cousin's wife is also expecting and I went to her shower on Saturday in Edmond.

 

At that shower they had each guest make a hair bow for the baby girl. They had a craft table set up with headbands, bows, flowers, etc. and hot glue. Every guest made a hair bow or band and hung it on a tree. A very cute idea that I had not seen before in person. (I may have seen it on Pinterest!)

Then the finale was our family triple baby shower which consisted of my sister and two cousins. My grandma has three daughters and they each have a daughter who is pregnant and due in May. It was decided at our family Christmas Eve party that a triple baby shower would be thrown for all of the mommies. Little did someone in the room know that they would turn up pregnant shortly after Christmas. Another one of our cousin's is pregnant and due in September. It has been a fun and exciting time in our family.

Pregnant sisters!

 Three pregnant cousins! (Picture "borrowed" from my Aunt's Facebook page).

My little man played and played and played...

....Until he had too much.

 That finishes up our April showers, but we have one more at church next week! Then we will have a break, at least until my other pregnant cousin's shower at the end of the summer.

Firsts in Florida

Our trip to Florida was a new adventure for our family of three. Our little man also had a few exciting things happen during our trip. The previous post documents Blake's first plane ride, which he did remarkably well with. Thank goodness! We also got to enjoy more first experiences with our little man.

We were in Orlando, FL after the OK/TX Spring Break, but unfortunately it was Spring Break in FL plus Easter weekend. Which, by the way, Good Friday/Easter is the busiest weekend for Disney World. No kidding. We were there for a cousin's wedding, so we could not help this unfortunate timing. So long story short. We didn't bother with going to Disney World and we went to Sea World instead. However, Sea World was quite a zoo anyway, I don't even want to know what the crowds were like at Walt Disney.

Here we are, Blake's first trip to Sea World.

 Lucky us, Sea World gives free admission to military and their dependants and Blake's admission would have been free anyway since he is under two years old. Well, now I understand why some places do not charge you for your child under a certain age. There were not many things that Mr. Blake was able to do inside the park except for watching the animals. In the "kid friendly" area of the park there were rides that he was not old enough to enjoy. But mommy found a slide and was able to give Blake his first ride on a slide. There he is chewing on his jacket sleeve. You can tell he is "thrilled". (Ha ha! I don't even think he knew what was going on).

 At our hotel we were able to let Blake have his first experience in a pool. I think he wasn't sure what to think about that either. We just stayed near the edge of the pool where he was able to sit up and splash. Please excuse my "mom swim suit".

We did get a small Disney experience. Our hotel was right by Lake Buena Vista and Downtown Disney was within walking distance. It is a nice area outside the theme parks with shopping and restaurants. It gave us something to do and was nice to walk around. Here are some photo opportunities we took in that area.

We really enjoy getting to do new things with our son. It has been fun watching him grow and become ready for all these new experiences.

We flew with a 7 month old. You should too!

Before our son was even born we knew we were invited to a cousin's wedding in Orlando Florida. It was not until the end of February when we had to make the final decision. Should we go? And how: drive or fly. We took the plunge, RSVP'd, and booked plane tickets. We were really going to do this.

Keeping in mind that our son is very active and not content to just sit around, I did my research. I read every article on Pinterest which gave advice and guidelines on taking an infant on an airplane.

After all of our research and efforts, I am proud to say that our airplane travels went very smoothly to and from Orlando. All of the advice from Pinterest left us overly prepared for the entire situation.

Security was a piece of cake, we were even more efficient and faster than some fellow travelers who were flying alone. I was able to wear our son in our Ergo baby carrier and I did not have to take it or him off to walk through the metal detector. They just had to swab my hands afterwards to "check" for bomb residue.

All the information I read recommended feeding your baby during take offs and landings. Great idea in theory and I understand feeding babies on demand, but can you really feed a baby on your demand? We found that a pacifier did the trick. So, if your baby doesn't take a pacifier very well then you better hope they will eat on your demand :)

On the way to Orlando, we had a connection in Houston. Our first flight was at 6 am and when we got to Houston, we had about an hour and a half to kill and Blake was perfectly happy playing on a blanket on the floor while we waited. On the way home we had a direct flight that left at 3pm. 

Here is daddy and Blake during the landing of the 6 am flight

 Mommy and Blake

Lucky for us, flying with our infant was not a traumatic experience. We were blessed with flights that were not entirely booked, which allowed us to have a row to ourselves each time. All of the flight attendants were very helpful and attentive to us. On the 3 hour flight home Blake started out taking a nap and then woke up and watched Elmo for most of the flight.

I know every child and family is different, but this worked really well for us. Blake enjoys new experiences and he also loved it when the flight attendants would come and talk to us and he would flash them his killer smile. What can I say? My son is already a ladies man.