Barrett's First Fourth of July

Last weekend, Grant & I packed up ourselves, two dogs, and one baby for our first trip up I-35 since before Barrett was born. At just shy of 4 weeks old, we decided to take the little man on his first roadtrip to Sug and G-Dad's house (my parents) in DFW. I felt pretty overwhelmed with the amount of STUFF that accompanied our little nine-pounder so I started packing four days before we even left. By the time we hit the road, Grant was driving and had Tex as his co-pilot. I was in the backseat with Maggie and Barrett. In the bed, we had a stroller and a huge tupperware carton full of baby necessities, dog goodies, and bags for Mom & Dad. G-Dad laughed when he saw our haul...I'm sure we looked like we were coming to visit for the month instead of the weekend.

Barrett did amazingly well as our newest little traveler. He loves to look around when he's in the truck, but can't fight off sleep for long. He slept almost the entire way to DFW. We stopped long enough to change a poopy diaper and found that the truck's middle console serves as the perfect on-the-road changing table.

We spent most of the weekend passing Barrett from one proud family member to the next and showed him off to some of Grant's buddies who were beating down the door to see Tiny Q. Anthony, one of Grant's best friends, walked in the house and straight over to Barrett. Immediately upon holding him, I heard Tony whisper, "I love you!" and then I watched him sink very slowly into a rocking chair as he made goo-goo eyes at the first baby in their group of friends. That goes down as one of the sweetest early-Barrett moments.

Grant and I did, at one point, decide to venture out with Barrett to a restaurant in Fort Worth. His aunt and uncle were celebrating their 20th anniversary and we wanted to be part of such a big celebration. Barrett did not. We were there no more than 5 minutes and I was already whisking a screaming Barrett away to feed him (note that I'd fed him right before going in). After coming back to the table with a baby who was in a bad mood from having milk come out of his nose, Grant took him outside to try to calm him down. While I tried to visit with Grant's family, I slugged a much-needed coffee and noticed that Grant had been in the middle of slugging some much-needed wine. Our night was not going the way we envisioned. After trying to bring a still-unhappy Barrett back into the restaurant, taking him back out to the truck to change his diaper, and trying once more to visit at the table while Bear screamed his protest, his defeated parents loaded up and headed home. If I had a picture of the inside of that truck as we left the restaurant, it would show two zombie-like, sweaty parents (it was hot inside and outside of the restaurant and scrambling around with an angry baby left us both soaked) and a howling Barrett stuffed in his car-seat, much to his dismay. Lesson learned. We'll keep the kid home until he's 10.

Here are some happier Barrett moments from the trip...