We just got back last night from a week long trip to Charlotte and Savannah. I’ve been in recovery mode all day.

Traveling with a 14 month old is hard. Traveling with a 14 month old who has an NG tube, can’t sit in a restaurant high chair, and generally isn’t into entertaining himself is exhausting. When we got home from vacation last night, I really wanted to kiss our swing, excersaucer, Bumbo seat, and every other baby contraption that I swear I will never take for granted ever again!

The Highs:

• Meeting Grayson’s three new second cousins who were born since we were last in Charlotte. Gotta love a house full of babies!

G with 2 of his new cousins, Anna Merritt and Caroline

•  Visiting with my grandparents, and seeing them love on Grayson.

G was so calm and sweet in Grandaddy’s lap

• Savannah- seeing where my little sis goes to school, the shopping, the parks, the architecture, the food (yummy Paula Deen Thanksgiving dinner!).

My little turkey

• Grayson being serenaded in a square by this guy…and I SO wish I had videoed when he finished singing and blessed Grayson and told us he would be praying for him and that he’s going to “be ok”.

•  Family. My parents who so generously took us all on this trip. My brothers and sister and sisters in law I don’t get to see enough. My own little family of 3. It was nice to be all together.

•  Airport Security. We had to go through it 3 times, and yes, we survived, but what a pain. The first time, we didn’t disconnect G’s tube, so he had to have a pat-down in the stroller. The second time, we disconnected him and put everything through the scanner. They searched every single item in our bag- feeding bags, formula, syringes, medication, extra supplies. Somehow we left missing a bag of syringes- grr. The third trip was the worst. Not only was every item searched, but the woman tested each bottle of medication (including Tylenol). Then (and please someone smarter than me explain the logic of this) when I asked if G’s feeding bag of formula was going to be tested, she said, “No, I don’t want to open it but I have to do a pat-down on you instead.” Umm…ok. (Because my master plan of putting explosives in a feeding bag and using a baby as a decoy surely will be foiled by patting me down instead of testing the formula.) Anyway, I have now officially been violated by TSA. Yes, they patted me down everywhere. Several times.

•  The Savannah hospital emergency room. Yes, we had to go get the tube put back in. We tried to do it ourselves, but as I pushed the thing down his nose, it didn’t go into G’s stomach, but came out his mouth instead. Awful. I wanted to throw up. The fact that all these doctors think that I can do this at home is just a joke. Not going to happen. Anyway, off the the ER we went- again. And let’s just say I am now very thankful to live in a city with world class hospitals, because, yes, there is a difference. A huge difference.
•  Confused, tired baby. Baby who didn’t have his bed, his toys, his equipment. Baby who wanted to be held constantly, and who cried and cried when he wasn’t the absolute center of attention (and even sometimes when he was).

So, I’m glad we got the chance to be with family, and to explore a new city. But, I’m done travelling forever for a long time. If anyone wants to see us, they can come to us!