A Big Trip...

Can I just tell you about the craziness of this trip? I swear, this kid..this..this booger... has been nothing but a bump on a log for the past 5 months! Despite the sweat & tears, the sleepless nights..no teeth, no movement, no eating, NOTTA. We arrive at MeMa & Papa's doorstep and BAM! he becomes super baby!?! Hits like all his milestones at once! What? I'm not good enough to enjoy the fruits of MY labor? Am I not the mother who risked life and limb (well maybe life, the limb was already bad..) for this guy? Did I not deserve to regale everyone with tales of his progress? NO? No. This was to be taken away from me. Instead, the scheming little booger just bided his time and formulated his plans. So, what all could have happened you wonder? Let me just fill you in on all his accomplishments and bevy of 'firsts'...

This was Riker's first flight experience. I know, shocking considering his dad's job, but we decided to ease him into these things. Riker spent a LOT of time on airplanes during this trip and he was an ANGEL! "Thank you Lord!", is all I can say. He was great!! At one point on the way home we were stuck in the airplane at the wrong airport for over an hour without air. On top of that it ended up being about a 20 hour flying day for us. It was miserable, but Riker never made a peep! Since he is a Binky Boy, he never had a problem with his ears either. Overall, this was a wonderful experience for him!


Riker was happy to be flying! He LOVES to watch out the window...
Riker patiently and intently listened to the airline attendant
and followed all her rules & requests!

Next, RJ was scheduled to get his 6 month pictures taken at Kiddie Kandids. Well, i just couldn't take his 'wispies' anymore (not to mention Jill's constant comments about how long his hair was...)! His hair was so long and people were asking me if he was a girl. So, after a long inner soul searching I decided it was time. Time to whack off the baby hair. Can you believe it? The kid is only 5 months old and I have to trim his hair already? Geez. I enlisted the aid of my mother who has hair cutting experience after being married to my father for...oh..ummm...how old am I?....33 years?! We sat as a family in the living room and tried to figure out how in the world to trim the hair of a squirming baby! It was down and dirty, but we got the job done. I should warn you, though, this video will be NOT be up to the standards you have come to expect from my previous films. Erik did it. (For a man who has such an important and complicated job, he sure has trouble with the little things...)

At this point in the trip, Riker was killing me. Yes, killing me. How is that possible you ask? Simple really. He was eating constantly. CONSTANTLY! My boobs would retract in horror at the merest glimpse of my son. This kid was insatiable. What was I supposed to do?? The only thing to be done was to begin introducing real food so that someday he would give my boobs a break. So i mashed up a real banana (unfortunately my mother did not have organic bananas on hand, so yes he was chemically tainted..but only for a short time) and mashed it and mashed it some more. It was practically liquid. That's what the books said to do. We sat with him at the table during dinner and I prepared to introduce Riker to "real" food. I gingerly and cautiously approached him with a teensy weensy bit of banana liquid on my finger...also a book suggestion. (again I caution you, Erik was filming and was not happy about it!)

Well, that went SO well I quickly determined that this baby was way ahead of the game and offered him some banana on a spoon.....

Not only was he way ahead of the game, he was just way ahead of his mommy! This kid took to eating like a duck takes to water. There was no trial and error...no faces. He just started eating as if his very little life depended on it. He began eating entire jars of baby food and having a complete nursing at the same sitting! He will eat an entire banana on his own! He has enjoyed all-natural and organic Banana, sweet potato, apple, carrot, rice(whole single grain brown of course :), and avocado. I was not prepared for this kid to start eating like this. I thought this would happen around a year old. Nope. Now. So here i was, away from home, scrambling like an egg to get spoons and food and bibs and everything else I needed. I think he just likes to keep me on my toes...

So we spent quite a bit of time at Mema and Papa's place. While Riker kept trying he just couldn't figure out how to roll over from his back to his front successfully. I told my mom, just you wait, as soon as we get to his Grandma & Grandpa Patchens he will do it. Sure enough, just to be contrary this kid rolled over (finally) the minute we arrived at Erik's folks place. Funny. On top of that, the little booger would not roll over when I was around. Only for Erik or others. Not mommy. Not mommy? What? Aren't I his favorite person in the WORLD? Should not he roll over for me and no one else!?! Oh well. He wouldn't do it, I had to hear about it from Erik. So finally, about 2 weeks after he started I finally caught him doing it and got it on film.... FYI: I risked life and limb (ok, not the limb) to get this footage! This kid won't be made a mockery and refuses to cooperate for film!

Another aspect of the eating (i was to read) was the introduction of water when a kiddo begins any kind of solids. Great, I wasn't prepared for that either.

Fortunately, Grandma & Grandpa Patchen came home with a couple sippy cups for Riker to try out for his first time. Of course, Riker can have anything he wants when he is at Grandma & Grandpa Patchens.... In the end, Rikers favorite sippy cup has turned out to be a Nuby, cuz he can 'chew' as opposed to 'suck'. This kid is lazy. He is also cute, so i think ill keep him.

While at Grandma & Grandpa's Riker experienced his first (post utero) Fourth of July! Yippy. I, of course, came prepared with his trusty ear muffs and one well worn binky. The binky relaxes him you know, as to the earmuffs...hey, I'm in the business! I work with people who did NOT protect their hearing, thus mommy is a little protective of his. He had a great time and Aunt Cynthia made him totally comfortable. (In fact, Aunt Cynthia put him to sleep every time she came in contact with him. Sadly, Aunt Cynthia refused to come and live with us...)

At this point, Riker got big for his britches and decided to heck with the sippy cups. He wanted to use a big cup. So, one morning at the 'Blue Plate' Mema let Riker have his way...again...and let him try drinking water from her cup. He actually did pretty well, but now thinks he is past the sippy cup stage. I beg to differ.

Riker's first vacation was wonderful! He had a great time and already misses his Mema, Papa, Grandma, Grandpa, Great-Grandma, and Aunt! Hopefully he will get to see them all again real soon. We might have to go back, just so he will pop a tooth!