An Introduction to the Mountains

At almost 7 weeks of age, we decided it was about time for a change of scenery and an intro trip to our second home in the white mountains. So, the Saturday before last, we packed up the car (and I mean packed to the brim) and headed to NH. But, not before a little visit from some relatives.....

In converting our guest room to the nursery, we found that we no longer had room for a piece of family furniture that my parents had brought up to me when I bought my first condo 7 years ago. The piece had originally belonged to my father's grandparents. So, in the effort of keeping it in the family, he sent an email to some of his cousins in May to see if they would be interested in taking the chifferobe. As luck would have it, they were excited to take it and announced they would be driving up in August to get it. Some things (very few) just work out easy....man it's cool when that happens!

So, early that Saturday afternoon, my Dad's cousins, Shirley and Jerry Anne (as well as their husbands Bobby and Vic) arrived from driving up from Dallas and Missouri (wow!) to get their "Mammaw's" chifferobe. In the short time they were here, they met Dylan, quickly proceeded to help spoil him, took a tour of the house, had a nice visit and loaded up the furniture piece and left. It was pretty cool to have relatives "drop by"...that rarely happens since 99.9% of my kinfolk live about 2000 plus miles away!

After they left, we headed off for NH. It's about 2 hours from our house and this would be the longest car trip Dylan had been on. It was a bad omen when he started screaming just before getting on the highway, but a few moments with the binky in his mouth, he fell asleep and stayed that way until after we had gotten the car unpacked at our condo.

That night, Mike fed Dylan his first bottle! I was a bit surprised at the mixed emotions I felt over this little act. Until that moment, I had been solely responsible for his food. While I thought that I felt a wee bit imprisoned by that, I didn't really like to not have the control when he drank from the bottle. Strange the things that affect me now that I'm a mom. I never would have thought drinking from a bottle would be a big deal!

Daddy Feeding Dylan His First Bottle

Apparently, babies can make their preferences pretty early on and "they" recommend having them try a bottle no later than 3-4 weeks or the baby might prefer not to take it. We long missed our window on that. However, Dylan didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, he took the bottle a little TOO well! It was like pouring water down a drain...my baby sucked it down! The next day, we took a little trip to Walmart in the next town over to buy a slower flow bottle.

Dylan Sucking It Down

With our car packed to the brim with tons of baby crap, you would think we had everything we could have possibly needed. Of course, though, we forgot the carrier that would have allowed us to take him on a little hike. Ugh! So, Mike came up with a plan B of taking Dylan in his stroller on the bike trail they have through Franconia Notch. We started out at The Basin and walked up to the Lafayette Campground and back. As you can see from the pics below, Dylan thoroughly enjoyed it by sleeping peacefully for the entire walk.

Other than our walk through Franconia Notch, we spent our days there as we normally do at home, taking care of and hanging out with Dylan, and also squeezed in a couple of rounds of tennis. It was a great first trip there and the first of many for our little baby.