We spent 10 days in Kansas at my parents house in Kansas. It was very laid back as Kansas has a way of slowing everything down. Dexter did great on the red-eye flight out to Kansas. He slept pretty much the whole way and only woke up once to eat after about a 6 hour stretch of sleep. When he woke up, that single time, we were about half an hour from landing in Dallas. After he ate, I was putting him back into the carseat and he opened his eyes enough to realize he was somewhere completely different. He decided to not sleep the remainder of that flight and just looked around, quietly amazed. After we landed, I changed him and he went back to sleep for the flight to Wichita. He did so well traveling, I was very proud of him.
He met his 83 year old great grandmother, his only great grandparent still with us. We had lunch with her and then we went on our doomed shopping trip and then drove the 2.5 hours to get to my parents house. Dexter hardly fussed the entire way.
My oldest brother, his wife and son drove out from Manhattan, Kansas early to beat a snowstorm that was supposed to be blizzard-like. That storm just dusted the scenery with a nice layer of snow that made it feel very Christmas-like and didn't really impede travel much at all. Dexter met both his uncles, aunt and his only cousin on my side of the family. He didn't mind being held by all the different people and was all smiles and laughing at all the new people.
We exchanged gifts on Sunday evening after our Christmas dinner of prime rib and ham. Dexter really liked the small fiber-optic Christmas tree and grabbed the lights so hard he even moved the tree at one point. Dexter got some bsome cute clothes and a few toys to keep him occupied in the months to come.
As we were opening gifts, Dexter had a minor accident that scared the bejeezus out me and Mike. My mom was grabbing a gift and Dexter fell off her lap and did a face plant on the floor. There was a thick rug there, but he still screamed bloody murder for 10-15 minutes and he got a big knot on his forehead. Mike and I were so scared something was wrong because the only way I could get him to calm down was to nurse him. When he was calmed down, he was really sleepy, but we didn't know that it was just drowsiness. I thought he was losing consciousness, so I splashed a little cold water on him to keep him awake. He was a little dazed for a while, but he was soon himself again. The knot went away overnight and he didn't have even the slightest mark from it. It was his first accident, which is always the worst. The feeling of helplessness is the absolute worst and my mom felt so bad about it. It made us super nervous whenever anybody held him for a few days.
Dexter also had Christmas with my mother's 2 sisters, sister's husband and their grandson. I guess that would make them Dexter's great aunts, great uncle and second cousin. He didn't get any gifts, but he entertained everyone.
On Christmas day, Dexter met Mr. Cobra's side of the family. It was a big family gathering and Dexter met most of his aunts and uncles. It would take up half this blog posting to name all the relatives he got to meet that day. We enjoyed a chocolate fountain and opened gifts in Mike's sister's new house. Dexter had a couple naps and was happy all day long. He even got a little stuffed bear with a hat on it which he adores. While we were there, Mr. Cobra and I got addicted to a little remote controlled helicopter that Dexter's cousin was playing with. We later went and bought a couple of them. I destroyed mine within hours. It reminded me that even though baby girls have cuter clothes, boys have better toys. When Dexter grows up we'll have to buy 3 of everything so Mike and I can have our own to play with.
The rest of the vacation was spent shuttling back and forth to Walmart. I'm kidding of course, but it felt like that. Mike and I are used to getting out a lot, so we got a bit stir crazy at times and went to the mall and to Walmart a few times (almost everyday) to get out and about. We watched way too many home improvement shows and ate way too much. Dexter started teething again, so he started waking up at night again and several times got so fussy that I had to give him Tylenol. He even chewed on a Ziploc bag with crushed ice in it. His top 2 middle teeth should be breaking through his gums any day now.
The flight home went fine and Dexter got a little fussy for about half an hour total. That's not bad for 7 hours of flight time. We kept him on California time, so he was going to bed at 11 pm in Kansas. He konked out at his regular bedtime on the flight home and luckily stayed asleep until I pried him out of the carseat to lay him in the crib. That was good because I had a chance to put his pajamas on him and change his diaper. He stayed awake for about an hour and a half. We spent the first few hours of New Years Day playing with him and feeling glad to be home.
