What a Trooper

You'll have to bear with me as I try to get the last week (and 50+ pictures) into coherent posts. It may take more than one. First of all, these pictures are from Thursday, the day before we left for Denver. The day we found out that Mr. Aaron had a nasty ear infection. The day that I had to watch him get two horrible shots. He looks like he held up alright, doesn't he? Seriously, I think he was the happiest sick boy on the planet. He was fussier than normal, but that wasn't bad because he's usually not fussy at all. And we were given clearance to fly and an arsenal of 'just in case' medication which we did not need. This next picture is also from Thursday. It is all of the stuff (except for the infant seat) that we had packed for our two day trip to Denver. Seriously. I was so embarrassed. I had to call my cousin to make sure he had a big enough car. I'm not kidding.This is poor Aaron in the Tyler airport wondering if his parents are taking him away for months based on all the stuff they've packed. This is also at 5am. He's already holding up like a charm. In my defense I would like to point out that we didn't take anything that we did not use except for two footed sleepers (it wasn't nearly as cold in Denver as I had imagined). He actually went through every single outfit we brought and we could have used another sleep sack since he pooped on both of the ones we took. Pooping will probably come up later in this post. We had to buy more wipes while we were out there. This is Aaron after arriving at the Denver airport. You will notice that he is no longer in the cute Monkey outfit he left Tyler in. See pooping comment above.Our flights were outstanding. You have no idea how much we prayed over them, but it all paid off. Aaron was a fabulous traveler. We had two ascents and two descents. He only cried on the first descent and the last ascent and total crying time was well under a minute. The rest of the time he slept. He didn't even wake up when we landed in Denver. He was such a trooper. We were so proud of him.When we got to Ben and Casey's Aaron took a good nap and actually went down with no problem. That's never happened when he was not at home and it didn't happen every time we put him down, but it happened some and we were so blessed. We had brought out his blanket and sound soother and tried to make his bed as much like home as possible. That helped, I think. Again, there were a couple of naps where he screamed like he was being tortured and he did miss a nap, but overall he did very well, I think (Ben and Casey may say differently). In fact, one morning he slept until 8am which is way later than he's ever slept. Once we got him down, he slept very, very well in Colorado. That's also somewhat unusual for him so we were thrilled.

After the nap, we headed out to Gardens in Littleton. That's where these two pictures were taken. The one above is one of my favorites from the whole trip. Casey was so good about helping Aaron experience new things. He loves to be outside and Casey did an awesome job of getting him outside and letting him touch and taste nature. This is his first night in Littleton. He's got on his Ohio State onesie and Ben is letting him explore. Both Ben and Casey were just SO great with Aaron and he was instantly comfortable with them. He's not always great with new people, but he warmed right up to them. And if they had any issues with the fact that he acted exactly like a five month old (sometimes sweet, sometimes boring, sometimes nerveracking) they didn't show it. We just absolutely adored being there with them. I can't imagine a better first trip for Aaron. On Day Two, we headed out to Aaron's first festival! I think this picture is awesome. Aaron just stared the whole time, taking it all in!

That evening we went to Uncle David and Aunt Cindy's. I don't have any pictures from that, but we had such a nice time. And Aaron was SO good. I was glad he went to sleep easily there and we were all able to enjoy a relaxing dinner. My uncle bought a Pack and Play before we got there and Aaron was able to use it at Ben and Casey's and we took it to my aunt and uncle's, as well. It was a really nice one with a bassinet and a changing table and music. It was very similar to what Aaron has at home and I think that helped.

Day Three started with a relaxing morning outside. The weather in Denver was AWESOME and Ben and Casey have an amazing backyard. This is their huge hammock.Aaron just did so well any time we were outside. We know he loves the outdoors, but it has been hard to have him out as it has been so hot in Texas. Jory decided on this morning that it would be okay to move to Colorado. You'd better not tell Aaron's Texas grandparents, though.

In the afternoon, Aaron played with Nellie, one of Ben and Casey's dogs. Nellie was very good with Aaron. She did lick him a lot, but Aaron didn't mind. Aaron tried to ride her, but Nellie actually did mind that. This next picture is not very good, but it is the only one I have of Aaron's first visit to an aquarium. It was fun for us, but he was pretty worn down by the end. We went to dinner afterwards and Aaron made it through half before he decided he was done. He didn't Melt, but he was fussy. It had been a long trip, though, with SO many new things to see and experience. I was shocked that he wasn't Melting from over-stimulation constantly. Overall, I think he did great and Jory and I had such a wonderful time. I just can't tell you how much we enjoyed this vacation!!!The next day we were up at 3:30am and headed to the airport. Aaron did not cry on any of the ascents or descents this time and slept almost the entire trip. We did have two meltdowns, though. One was as we were getting on the first flight. He was hungry and there just wasn't a way for me to feed him until we got on the plane. And we were seated at the very back of the plane, so we are trying to make our way to our seats and you must know how long that can take and Aaron was losing it. Loudly. At 5:30 in the morning. I know these poor people were thinking very un-Christian thoughts about us.

The second meltdown was also on that flight. As we were landing, Aaron had a massive poop. His third of the day (remember that it is still very early and see pooping comment at the beginning of this post). We'll, when we landed we weren't able to taxi to our gate, so we are just sitting and we are not allowed to take off our seat belts. We were RIGHT by the bathroom, but they had it blocked and wouldn't let me use it. There was no way to change that diaper in our seats. And Aaron really wanted it changed. So he screamed. For fifteen minutes. Until we were at our gate and kindly allowed to use the restroom. I have to tell you that the second his dry diaper was on he was quiet. When we came out he was all smiles and trying so hard to make everyone around us smile back. They really didn't like him, though.