a few weeks ago, we took a birthday trip to Texas for baby dude’s birthday (which I just realized I never blogged about–it was lovely and low-key. maybe i’ll post photos sometime….) to visit his birthfamily and my Texas relatives. Although the travel itself was exhausting (despite practically zero delays and no luggage problems, there’s just something about the airports that puts us all a bit on the edge. I did manage to pack a pretty good stash of toys, books and snacks (yogurt melts were a big hit!) that successfully entertained baby dude for all except the longest of the four legs of air travel and honestly, when you’re on a plane whose air vents aren’t working and the lady sitting in the seat in front of you is not in a particularly good mood (especially after you (the baby) accidentally whap her in the head which would have put ME (the mama) in a bad mood if I were in her place) and you’re really sleepy but not used to having to be squished up in daddy’s arms…. well, it wasn’t pretty and we were all glad to finally arrive at that particular airport.) where was I? Oh yes.

Although the travel itself was exhausting, and certain parts of visiting Baby Dude’s birthfamily were a bit awkward (the boyfriend who kept calling me “Ma’am” (because he couldn’t remember my name) and who kept expressing admiring amazement that anyone could “take in someone else’s kid”), all in all, I think we’re all so very thankful we were able to have this time together. We spent a lot of time outdoors since the temperature was in the 70’s and we’d been missing the feel of warm breezes in our hair and we had lots of fun swinging at some local parks and we ate some fantastic breakfast tacos every morning. Seriously fantastic. Baby Dude could put away most of the fillings of an adult-sized egg and bean taco by himself.

At the end of our time with Baby Dude’s birthmother, she said, “Wow. This is the first time that I haven’t felt super sad when you guys are leaving. I just feel happy that you were able to be here and that we were able to visit together!” We are so happy too. 🙂