5 Months Old - Vegas, Baby!

Oh boy was last week an adventure... family trip to Las Vegas for my chorus competition at the MGM Grand Arena!

This was Dargan's second flight, but first cross-country flight, and overall he did SO well. We flew out on Monday (the 5th) afternoon, connected through Houston after a couple of hours' delay, and finally made it to Vegas around 8:30pm local time.

Watching the planes during our delay. So well-behaved in the United Club!

Tuesday morning, Scott and I got to do a mountain bike ride while my parents watched Dargan. It was so beautiful and such a different environment than our usual Greenville/NC mountains!

That evening we went to dinner at Hofbrauhaus - great German food and beer!

Wednesday morning we did a short family hike up a steep mountain side.

The next day and a half were a whirlwind while I prepared and competed in my competition. I won't go through all the details, but we placed 22nd out of the 34 best choruses in the world. Not bad for our first trip to the International stage!

Thursday night we walked around on the Strip and saw the fountains at the Bellagio...

...and Friday we went hiking in Fletcher Canyon and then hit up Big Dog Brewing.

Hiking naps!

Big ponderosa pines!

Straws are fun!

On Saturday, we ran a 5k (cross Nevada off of the "Run a Race in all 50 States" list!) where Scott placed first overall and Dargan & I took 2nd place in the Female 30-39 division. :)

I like racing!

Afterwards we went to "Old Vegas", saw Fremont Street, and got denied at a few breweries - apparently most things are legal in Vegas except going to a bar with an infant. Boooo. :(

That night we went to dinner at Firefly, which was delicious, but D was super fussy and I had to wear him for the entire meal so we could eat in peace.

"Please stay asleep!"

The next morning was an earrrrly one - woke up at 4am to get to the airport for our flight home. Dargan and I napped in the United club before our flight.

And a day late... but we got a good photo on the flight:

I have to say, Dargan is a GREAT traveler on airplanes! We get on, hang out til he's hungry, he nurses, and then falls asleep for most of the flight. Such a great flyer! Plus, we like hanging out in the Clubs at the airports...

And now we're home, at last.... hoping to get back to better sleeping schedules now that we're back in a familiar place. D did not sleep well at ALL in Vegas. I think we all missed our normal routines!

Some other photos from the weekend before we went to Vegas...

Being a crazy little bouncer!

So sleepy Friday night we fell asleep in the middle of eating.

Saturday morning, snuggling (nomming) with Mr. Bun Bun!

Cooler temps and rainy on Saturday = Daddy says I look like a shipyard worker!

Floor tummy time with Dad!

Little grins on Sunday morning.

Face nomming shark attack! 

Ready for church on Sunday!

Done with bath time in our shark robe 

Monday morning, refusing to nap.

Little Bear Cub

Oops I'm a little behind... need to rewind. The past weekend was a fun but busy one!

Saturday I had chorus coaching all day, so Dargan and Scott spent the day together. They ran errands, did some trail work with the local mountain bike club, and then went to a gathering of the local Gator club to watch the UF/Tennessee game. Dargan wore his Gator jersey and Scott is now convinced that he's good luck because the Gators won!

Go Gators!

Dargan slept well again Saturday night and woke up in a happy mood.

Grinning in my elephant footie jams

Funny faces!

Sunday was an excellent fun day - Scott and I got to go mountain biking at DuPont! We headed up there with Dale and Robin pretty early in the morning. Scott took them on a loop while D & I hung out in the picnic shelter.

Smiley :)

Little bear cub!

Mom & baby selfies

It was pretty rainy and drizzly, but not cold - turned out to be great for biking, and the trails weren't even that muddy! After they returned, Robin and Dale watched D while Scott and I took a loop - great fun! Felt like the "old days" ;) Dargan was well-behaved for his babysitters, and was very intrigued by the trees on the short walk back up the trail to the cars.

After the ride, Scott, D, and I went to Oskar Blues Brewery to have lunch, buy a new keg, and of course enjoy some tasty beverages. Dargan wasn't all that impressed, but he at least was calm.

Sunday night he didn't sleep all that great, and Mondays are always hectic. Tuesday I felt crummy at work so I stayed home on Wednesday. Worst part was I couldn't take any decongestants because they dry up milk supply! Thankfully after a good number of naps I felt better by Wednesday afternoon, and Dargan slept well on Wednesday night. We actually had a great evening - calm, happy, playful, and went to bed decently well. I started "bedtime" around 7:45 after he and I ate our dinners together (spaghetti for me, rice cereal for Dargan) and he was in his crib by 8:45. He slept for a little over an hour, woke up and ate some more, then was down until 2:30. Woke up, ate, back down until I heard him talking/singing to himself around 5:15am. Hoping we'll get back to the solid nights of sleep soon!

"Aren't my baby jeans the CUTEST?"

Bouncing, Sleeping, and Eating

We've had a pretty good week so far, especially since we slept through the night the past TWO nights in a row!

Tuesday morning we had an example of why we've now installed mesh crib bumpers:

Feet through the bars!

Such a sweet sleepy boy.

When we picked him up from daycare on Tuesday night, we both noted that he looked a little pale and his eyes were red around the edges. He felt a bit feverish, so we kept a close eye on him throughout the evening and gave him Tylenol at night. I also wore him in the wrap most of the evening - Dr. Butcher has told us in the past that he gets antibodies from us, so keeping him close and especially nursing him will help with sharing and he can fight illness better.

Not feeling well :(

He didn't sleep all that well Tuesday night, but seemed to feel much better in the morning so we sent him on to daycare. Ms. Sandy said she'd keep a close watch on him, and she checked his temp throughout the day. Thankfully whatever it was seemed to have passed!

Wednesday night we had some more yummy cereal - he's now getting a serving twice per day, once at daycare for his morning meal, and once at dinner time. He's getting really good at eating with the spoon!

He was pretty wide awake Wednesday night, so we plopped him in his jumperoo for a bit. Boy, he has figured out how to make that thing rock 'n' roll! Really seems to enjoy it, too.

Unfortunately, that kind of wound him up a bit too late in the evening, so he was still kicking around all crazy-like while we were changing into his PJs.

He finally calmed after some books and nursing, and we got him to bed around 10:30. He slept until 5!

Last night (Thursday night) after dinner we went to Swamp Rabbit Brewery. He fell asleep in the car on the way there (7pm) and slept like a rock the entire 2 hours we were there. I thought, "Oh great, he's going to wake up and not want to sleep when we get home."

Boy was I wrong!

We got home, he woke up but was calm while he got his PJs on, and then nursed for about 10 mins before falling fast asleep. Into the crib he went (around 9:45) and didn't make a single peep all night! I even had to wake him up at 5:45 - he wasn't about to wake up himself. Wow!

Really hoping this is a pattern we're settling into... might try out some earlier bedtimes and see how that goes.