a good day

What a great day for the Gardner family! We didn't do much but everything went better than I could've hoped for. I decided that I would take Abby shopping today for her birthday dress and then go to Party City for some supplies for her party in a couple weeks. I was thinking of leaving Trey home with Jerry and pumping a bottle for him but lately Trey has decided that drinking out of a bottle isn't as much fun as a meal directly from mom. So we decided to make it a family outing instead (but took the bottle along anyway). My mother-in-law called as we were getting dressed and ready and wanted to come over for a little bit. She's been gone to California for 2 weeks and hadn't seen the kids so I knew she'd really like to see them. Abby was thrilled when Grandma showed up (especially since she brought PRESENTS for us all!) and Grandma was amazed at how big Trey had grown. Needless to say we didn't get going as early as we had hoped and left the house near Abby's naptime. I thought she would be cranky all afternoon and Trey hasn't been thrilled being in a car seat so I was sure he'd be in a foul mood too. We went to the bank drive-thru with Trey screaming in the backseat (he won't take a pacifier at all) and he finally settled down as we pulled into the Target parking lot. Abby was a little crabby at first but then she got to pick out some fun things; stickers, notepads, clothes, and all was well again. Trey did okay through the store but he was getting hungry. Jerry tried feeding him a little from the bottle but it took a lot of work to get an ounce down. Then we walked over to Party City and Abby wanted to take everything home. We got lots of Cars birthday stuff, I can't wait until the big day! Trey was still fussy but not screaming.

We were all hungry at this point and decided Denny's would be a good place to go. Abby loves pancakes, french toast and all things breakfasty. She got some "dip" (syrup) and was a happy camper. We've never taken Trey to a restaurant because he's so miserable being in his carseat and won't be soothed by anything other than "eating boobies" as Abby calls it. So I was nervous about how he would do...for no reason, he did FABULOUS!! He was pretty quiet and content through the whole meal, and I managed to get him to eat 2 more ounces from the bottle. What a relief.

On our way home we stopped by the in-laws and visited for a few hours. All of Abby's uncles showed up, she just loves playing with them. Grandma got to hold Trey, giving me a nice break! We got home, I fed him, bathed Abby, got her in jammies, read a couple of books and she was off to bed. Now I need to get Trey to sleep, hopefully before 11 as has been the hour the last few nights! At least now I feel more comfortable going out for an extended period of time with the whole family.