Birthday PAR-TAY

What a big weekend!

Saturday, we prepared our bags and left the house at 12:30 to make the 2 hour, 15 minute trip to my parents.  We arrived just before Evan's 3 PM feed, which I set up, and we settled Evan in and visited with my parents for a couple of hours.  At 5 PM, Evan was playing happily on the floor, while I hovered anxiously, not wanting to leave for mine and Carl's date. 
I finally managed to tear myself away, after repeating instructions and advice that was most likely unnecessary, and Carl and I whisked ourselves away for our big night out on the town (i.e- going out to eat).

We checked into the hotel, then chose to drive the 30 minutes to the nearest "nice" restaurant .  We were delayed longer than I wanted, due to the first restaurant we went to serving me the wrong meal and Carl's shrimp tasting like it was dumped in a dirty lake just prior to serving it.  Since I didn't care to wait for my meal while Carl made an effort to even eat his, I took the opportunity to say, "Nah, we're leaving."

The second restaurant was better, but by the time we got our food and were halfway done, Carl and I were both wiggling in our seats, and the conversation centered solely on Evan and how he was doing.  Carl wolfed down his meal in record time, while I asked for a to-go box and the check, and then we high-tailed it back to my parent's home. 

All in all, we were back by 7:40, a whole 2 hours and 40 minutes after leaving.  It was fun, but I was pretty happy to be back with my boy.

After that, we spent a little more time with my parents, allowing Evan to nap, and then loaded him up to get him settled into the hotel room.  Surprisingly, he was quite happy to get a bath in an unfamiliar bathroom, get his breathing treatment, and settle into the hotel-provided crib.  It took him a little while to get to sleep, but after the late nap, and the excitement of the day, we expected it.

The next morning rolled around, and Evan slept great, only waking up once very briefly (5 minutes) around 3 AM.  We actually got to sleep in for once, until 7:50.  Woo-hoo!
We proceeded to arrange our morning, getting Evan ready, his breathing treatment and 1st feed of the day, getting dressed and doing his g-button cares.  We helped ourselves to the complimentary breakfast, packed, got ourselves ready, and loaded everything up in the car shortly before 10 AM, and headed once again to my parent's house. 
There, we allowed some time for Evan to get his mid-morning nap, before his party at 11, while we chatted. 

The party was such a great success!  I mean, it's a one-year-old's party, so it's not as exciting (or exhausting) as older kids', but it had some really great moments, and so many family members were there to meet and greet Evan, which warmed my heart.  He had some good times opening his gifts (and some bad), but he really was very good. 
Everyone did spectacular with their gifts, we really couldn't have asked for more, and I was so, so happy that so many people were there to celebrate Evan. 
It was good seeing family members, some of which I haven't seen in over a year. 

Finally, around 12:30, we loaded up the gifts and Evan, set his feed to start and started making our way back home.  As expected, even though Evan was sooooo worn out, he didn't fall asleep in the car.  He never does.  We got home at 3, set up his 3 o'clock feed, changed his diaper, put him in a comfy romper, and he promptly fell asleep on his mat within minutes. 
Whew. 
After taking an hour to relax, I ventured out to get groceries and run an errand or two, and came back with something easy for dinner. Carl had a lot of fun getting Evan's toys out and setting them up, and playing with them one by one. 

Once I clean the chaos that is our living room right now, I'll take some pictures of him playing with his new toys and post.  Also, we have some birthday party photos to share.  Soon.