Eli Visits Grammy and Pop's House

Eli sitting up in his crib like a big boy. He is ready to go visit his grandparents!

We left our house around 12 o'clock. Eli had just finished a full bottle and was sound asleep in Zue-Zue's arms; of course, as luck would have it, he woke up as soon as he was strapped into his car seat. Fun times! We didn't really worry too much because we knew he was extremely tired and would probably go to sleep once we got on the road. Sure enough, by the time we were 15 minutes out of town, Eli was snoozing big time! We were so happy! I pulled out a magazine, Josh turned up the tunes, and we cruised down the road happy to have a sleeping baby on his first big road trip. We thought, "Traveling is such a breeze!"Then the baby decided to wake up and cry, cry, cry, and cry some more. Nothing I did would soothe him. After about 10 minutes of non-stop crying, we finally pulled into a gas station, unbuckled him, and let him get some fresh air to calm him down. After some fresh air, a game of peek-a-boo with Daddy, and a diaper change, we were off again! This time we made it about 45 minutes down the road before Eli decided to let us know he wasn't happy with being confined in his carseat. Once again, I did my best to calm him down, entertain him, make him laugh, do anything but cry! Nothing I did worked. So, what were two frazzled parents to do? Turn up the radio, of course! Marc Broussard to the rescue! Obviously, Eli has good taste in music like his parents because Marc didn't even get through the first song before Eli had calmed down and was relaxed again. Thank you, thank you, thank you! He took a long nap this time and didn't wake up again until we were right outside of Shreveport. He woke up exactly when he needed to be fed (I am still amazed how babies do this!) so we pulled into Academy so Josh could shop for some golf balls and so I could feed Eli. I wanted to go ahead and give him his bottle before we made it to my parent's house because I knew there would be too many new things to look at there. Josh came back, we loaded Eli into his car seat one more time, and traveled the rest of the way in peace with a quiet, sleeping baby :)

Josh saw this and asked if I was packing for the end of the world.
I told him I'd rather have too much, than too little!
We've decided that if we have another kid, we're trading the Pilot in for a Suburban :)

Such a sweet, innocent face. He can't wait to see his grandparents again!

Eli woke up as soon as we pulled into my parent's driveway, kind of hard not to, since the neighbor's German Shepherd barked at us the whole way down the drive. I guess she was part of the welcoming committee that was so excited we were finally there. We pulled around to the front yard (Mom and Dad live in the country, so driving in your yard is quite common around here) so we could avoid the entourage of dogs and cats that couldn't wait to sniff their newest toy. Mom and Dad were SO excited to see Eli..........and us, too, I guess, but mostly the baby :) Eli immediately tunred on the charm and started giving lots of smiles and laughs to both of them. He was so happy to see his Grammy, Pop, and Uncle Caleb again!

After settling in, Eli was introduced to the doggies-Sophie Jane, Annabelle Rose, and Maximus Kane. They were so intrigued with this new "toy" that their sissy had brought them. They couldn't wait to sniff him. I was a little hesitant about them getting too close, mainly because I was scared they might try to find Eli's squeaker like all their other toys have :) Grammy and Pop came to the rescue though and put up a puppy gate to separate the living room from the kitchen/dining room area. The puppies got an all access pass to Eli, and Eli got to play, roll, and scoot around as much as he wanted. Now, the puppies aren't used to being puppies. Around Mom and Dad's house, they're just like children; in fact, Mom and Dad refer to them as their "fur kids." They are as gentle as can be and love to love on people, so they were a little confused when they realized that they couldn't love on Eli. Sophie decided to let everyone know she wasn't happy and started to bark when Dad was talking to Eli. Eli must have thought that Dad was doing the barking, because he started belly laughing every time he heard Sophie bark. It was so HILARIOUS!



Eli also gots lots of play time with his Uncle Caleb Friday afternoon and it was decided that he LOVES his Uncle Caleb. Caleb started making funny faces and noises and he had Eli laughing just about as much as Sophie did.

Eli and Uncle Caleb

All that excitement made my little man hungry, so he settled down for a dinner of cereal and peas. Who wants leftovers? :) Pop went and got my old highchair and Eli got to eat in it. He tested my feeding skills because he was much more interested in the looking at the puppies on the other side of the gate than eating his peas and cereal. He finally finished his dinner, played a little more, took his bath, had his night time bottle, and went to sleep. He was EXHAUSTED and he was going to have an even busier day Saturday, so he needed his beauty rest :)

Eli with his pea stained mouth.

Smiling at Pop with rice cereal in his mouth

It was such a busy day, but such a fun day as well. It's times like these that I wish we all lived closer together, so we could do things like this more often. I am so happy that we were able to make this trip.