Ian's Roadtrip

Ian and I are on a road trip. So far, it's been much better than expected -- we didn't spend any time driving with a screaming little boy in the car. The only real travel problem was one night in DC in which Ian absolutely refused to sleep in his Pack n' Play after we arrived in the middle of the night, and ended up sleeping in a chair with me, strapped into his baby carrier so he couldn't wake up and fall down the stairs in the morning . . .

Friday night we left Durham with Greg, his friend An, and Ian in the car, with all our stuff. Around 1am we arrived in Washington DC, where we stayed with a generous friend of Greg's (thanks Molly) in a cool downtown neighborhood. Ian and I enjoyed a morning with my friend and former roommate Anneke and her 5 month old daughter Sasha exploring the National Zoo. We left An in Washington to catch a train home to Iowa and continued on our journey to Binghamton, where we arrived Saturday night. Here Greg and Ian are enjoying the beautiful Sunday morning on Great-Grandma's front porch:

And here Great-grandma is inspecting her sleeping great-grandson (when we return to Binghamton on the way home we'll get some better photos of the two of them):

I continue to be very thankful that Ian is able to have his great-grandmother in his life, especially since there was a point last summer in which we thought we might not make it in time for them to meet. Grandma seems to be doing well, though, and we hope to have many more visits with her. She loves babies and had a grand time with Ian at breakfast, where he entertained her with his eating antics, and his propensity to giggle at every little thing (this made GGrandma laugh so much that we were afraid she might choke on her pancake).

From Binghamton, we headed to Ithaca to visit with Hermit Thrush (dear friend and provider of much of Ian's current wardrobe). Hermit Thrush has had the honor of being accepted to Cornell vet school and just relocated from sunny, bustling California to less-sunny, slightly less than metropolitan Ithaca. We were glad that our trip was timed well to share the familiarity of old friends with her just as she is getting used to a totally new place. She enthusiastically accompanied me to a local winery where we did a wine tasting (something I always wanted to do when Doug and I lived in Ithaca, but never got to). It was great fun, and we took this photo off the back porch of the winery:

From Ithaca we made the last leg of our journey to Syracuse. I have to say that I was glad to see the real clock time converge on the GPS ETA as we reached the familiar streets of west Syracuse. Here Ian was greeted by half of his grandparents. They have been enjoying (I hope) giving Mommy some much needed extra hours of sleep in the mornings, and seeing how much Ianite has grown up since they last saw him. He is acquiring new skills by the day, which I will endeavor to document by video later this week. Of course, one of his main activities is eating. I brought his high chair with us, since it is hard to feed him without us. Grandma and Grandpa set up a little table just for him in the kitchen (wisely choosing a location without carpeting anywhere in sight):

In this house, life is at least as much outdoors as indoors, and Ian enjoyed eating a fruit and yogurt smoothie out in the yard (notice the beautiful pottery he's eating from -- it is ubiquitous around here, thanks to Uncle Greg):

For Uncle Greg, life is almost all outdoors, with only brief forays into the house. He is sleeping in his tent in the yard (yes, I know this is very strange, but that's why we call him Crazy Uncle Greg). Here Ian is visiting his uncle in his natural habitat:

With the unfamiliarity of travelling to new places and breaking his routine, and the discomfort of battling a nasty cold, Ian has been nursing more frequently than normal on this trip (it seems to be his way of dealing with the little traumas that plague his life, like having his favorite piece of neon green paper taken from him just as he is succeeding in swallowing it). Here he is contemplating whether Uncle Greg might be able to provide any milk:

The adventures of Ian up and down the East Coast, to be continued . . . .