our adventure to north carolina.

i thought that driving to North Carolina by myself with Audrey would be a breeze. i was so wrong.

-- let me preface by saying that the trip was so worth it, i met my godson for the first time and spend four whole days with my best friend in the entire world.

well, the first challenge occurred about 2 hours into the trip. that large pumpkin swirl iced coffee i chugged at 7 am? i thought i would be fine to zip to Augusta with no pit stops. coffee makes me happy! happy happy! and alert, and optimistic that this trip wouldn't be a long, endless time warp of my day. needless to say, Audrey i had to make 2 stops before Augusta and i realized as i was pulling into the first gas station i could find that i had no one to hold my curious toddler while i used the ladies room and i had no patience at that point in time to get the stroller out and haul it into a tiny bathroom. holding a squirmy one-year-old whilst peeing and then trying to get my jeans back up and buttoned was an....experience. i sanitized the crap out of both of us when we got back to the car. *shudder*

i left at 7 am, planning to get to Augusta at about 10, which is when Audrey normally wakes up. between the many unplanned bathroom breaks (curse you, delicious pumpkin swirl iced coffee) and hitting school traffic in Bacon (not a typo) County, i ended up pulling over at a rest stop and sitting with Audrey in the back seat while she drank her milk and ate a Nutrigrain bar for breakfast.

SIDE NOTE: we are completely off bottles!!!! it was about a two week process but baby A is bottle free! we also cut out her bedtime cup of milk and had great success. she gets 10 oz. organic whole milk in the morning with her breakfast, 5 oz. water at lunch and about 3-4 oz. throughout the day, and 7 oz. milk with dinner. she gets dinner at about 7-7:30 and is in bed by 8:30 every night. she is still putting herself to sleep and sleeping 8:30-10 even without that last cup of milk for comfort, hooray!

we arrived at Nanny's in Augusta a little after 11, where i changed Audrey out of her jammies and let her run around for a little bit. Nanny fed us both lunch and we chatted and played with Audrey for a couple hours. we were back on the road again at 1:15, and Audrey fell asleep instantly. things were going great until we hit traffic in Charlotte (surprise, surprise). then, everything fell apart. it was about 3 and Audrey woke up as soon as we slowed to a stop. she was not happy. not happy AT ALL. there i was creeping along in mostly standstill traffic, with a screaming child in my backseat for an hour and a half. i wanted to cry. i tried all of my tricks. but i can only play peek-a-boo in the backseat mirror so many times, right? as soon as we started moving, i found the nearest rest area and let Audrey run around in the grass for a few minutes, gave her a little snack and located all of the pacis she had thrown around the backseat in her fit of rage.

we pulled into Laura's house in Greensboro at about 6:30 and i was never so thankful to get out of that car! I can't tell you how many times throughout the trip that i longed for the days when Audrey was a sleepy, blissful little traveler. after letting the babies meet for the first time (so sweet), i fed Audrey dinner, let her run around for a little while, and put her to bed (in Evan's pack and play). then, it was time for me to have a little snuggle with sweet baby Evan..

hello world, i'm super cute!

omgaaaahh the sweetest!

we had fun making faces at each other :)

Laura and i stayed up late catching up and dishing on all things mommy. can i just say how AMAZING it is that my best friend is now in the super awesome mom's club with me? it's so great! we've been best friends for over 8 years, have been co-workers, roommates, and everything in between. now, we're also moms!

the next morning while Laura took a shower, i held down the fort with a 5 week old and a 1 year old. remember that one time i had baby fever? yeah, well..it's gone now. for good! everything started out fine, Audrey was naturally curious about Evan and wanted to help rock him a little.

hmm, what is it?

oh, hello baby Evan!

ooooo, wants to touch the baby!

she said "uh oh" and ran away when Evan started getting fussy

so, Evan was a little fussy after Audrey got all up close and personal. i forgot that he doesn't like it when people mess with him too much, especially his head, and Audrey wanted to pat his head and attempted to pull his hair a few times. so that went south quickly. Audrey runs away, Evan is crying. "Audrey where are you?" *crash* "Hold on Evan, i'll be right back." "Audrey??" Audrey has gotten into one of the drawers in the changing table and dumped the contents out. Evan is starting to full on cry in the other room. I grab Audrey and go back out to the living room. Set Audrey down, pick Evan up and pat his back (he has lots and lots of gas, poor baby!), block Audrey from running back into Evan's nursery to re-dump the drawer, find some toys for her to play with, play defense to keep her from playing with Evan's hair again, keep trying to soothe Evan (Audrey never had bad gas so this is all new to me), Audrey starts crying now because she wants in the nursery so she can get into things, Evan is crying harder now and just as i'm about to start crying too, Laura pops out of the bathroom, takes Evan from me and i breathe a sigh of relief. Laura and i laugh as i tell her that i'm never ever having another child ever again.

we took the kiddos to do a little shopping and to the Greensboro Arboretum, which was my favorite part. when Will and i lived by campus, we used to take walks from our house to the arboretum a lot. it's such a gorgeous place! while we were there, i took a few sweet mama baby pictures of Laura and Evan :) oh, and a course a few of Audrey. she loved running around and checking everything out.

on our way!

 

i realized shortly before i left that Audrey didn't have a warm jacket to wear when were were "up north" (as Will refers to it). Mom Pat and Pop weren't sure what to get Audrey for her birthday, so i picked out her present from them and it's one of my most absolute favorite things EVER. behold, the pink fleecy baby bear jacket:

most favorite!

no more pictures mama!

it was so nice to just be back in Greensboro. i didn't realize how much i would miss it! Audrey and i wandered around the taj-ma-teeter (the biggest Harris Teeter ever) and i was in grocery store heaven. don't get me wrong, Kroger rocks and the Piggly Wiggly has been known to carry a few of my most favorite dinner delicacies but no grocery experience will ever top shopping at Harris Teeter. i actually text Will when i was there and bragged to him about being at the taj-ma-teeter. he was jealous.

Laura and i also had a mom's night in where we both treated ourselves to a bottle of wine and watched Magic Mike. it was a memorable night. i'll never forget it. Audrey slept through the whole thing (as expected) and Evan was a happy, sleepy little boy so his mommy and godmommy got to giggle a lot and enjoy themselves.....oh, and get lost in Channing Tatum's abs :)

the trip back wasn't so sucky. i left at 8:40 am and breezed through Charlotte at 9:50 am without any problems. by now, i was a pro at restroom breaks and Audrey was happy and i enjoyed her chatting with me instead of her screaming at me this time. we got home at 4:30, both took a bath, and were refreshed and excited to see Will when he got home from work. whew, WHAT AN ADVENTURE! :)