We ended up leaving much later than planned, so we stopped for lunch in Lindale at a Chinese buffet restaurant. As usual, Liam was a hit with the waitresses and people sitting next to us. He loves attention and isn't shy (still don't know where he got that from). The waitresses stopped to chat with him every time they walked by!
Liam did great in the car, but started screaming when we got off I-20 in Minden. He cried almost until we got to Homer. He was tired and hungry. Of course he fell asleep ten minutes before we pulled into my grandparent's driveway. But he woke up happy, and we visited with my grandparents and he ate some food! After that, we went to my parent's house and visited a little while before we met up with my grandparents for dinner in Homer.
As I've mentioned before, Liam likes to stare at people, especially girls. But now it seems he has started trying to "talk" to them to get their attention! He did this with the waitress at Homer Seafood and Pizza (you can get either!). He kept turning around in his high chair, since she was behind him, and smiled at her at said "Hey!" Sometimes he said, "Good!," which is his favorite word to say. So yeah, it's fun to watch, and this time Liam had a big audience (my family) to entertain. The waitress was smiling, so hopefully she was ok with it!
After dinner, Will, Liam, and I walked to my high school since my grandparents live very close to it. We even went on the football field since all the gates were wide open. Even if they hadn't been open, they wouldn't have been locked. It had been a long time since I had been on the field. Liam was not impressed, of course! After our walk, it was bedtime for Liam, but he was not ready! He wanted to play some more and spend time with his great grandparents. He was flashing lots of smiles and being cute! He just wanted to stay up, and he was really wound up, so I didn't fight him on it and let him stay up until I knew he was truly ready for bed.
Saturday was a very busy day. We set out for Ruston, and I sat in the back giving Liam a bottle while Will was driving. We've done this many times before and never had any problems. But this was Liam's first time on a trip in his convertible car seat which makes him sit up higher and he can see out of the back glass. I'm not sure why, but something about drinking the bottle while going down the road didn't sit well with Liam. Once he had finished almost the whole bottle, he promptly projectile vomited it and all of his previously eaten breakfast all over himself, the carseat, and yes, on me as well. I yelled at Will to pull over, but the side of the highway wasn't the best place. Thankfully we were nearly to Athens and pulled into the (there's only one) convenience store parking lot. I had put a towel in the trunk for the trip, so I grabbed that and a full Nalgene water bottle and started cleaning it off of me just enough so I could function to take care of the rest of it. I got Liam out of the seat (poor guy), and Will helped me and got his clothes off of him and cleaned him off. I cleaned up the puddles in the carseat and on the back seat (thankful for leather seats in that moment), and then cleaned myself off some more.
We were headed to Ruston to have his one year pictures taken. Thankfully, I had been smart enough to not put him in his picture shirt, but he had been wearing the jeans he would have his pictures taken in. So I cleaned them off really well, and we put them on the front dashboard to dry. By some miracle, I had brought a pair of shorts as well (I know it's bad, but I pretty much never carry extra baby clothes with me). We put him in his picture shirt and the shorts, I dried the carseat as best I could, put him back in it, and we continued to Ruston. All in all, we handled the situation very well, I thought. We didn't freak out; we just dealt with it. I didn't have any extra clothes, so I smelled kind of like peach pumpkin pie baby food that had been part of his breakfast for the rest of the day... and it was a long day!
In Ruston, Will stayed at his parents' house to visit with them, I changed Liam back into his jeans which were still damp, and the two of us headed to Lincoln Parish Park where my friend Jamie took Liam's one year pictures. We were a little late, but it all worked out fine. As usual, Liam was Mr. Serious for the camera, but we managed to get some smiles out of him. I thought the shoot went really well, and it didn't take very long either. After that, I gave Liam another bottle since I knew he was hungry. Thankfully, I think he was only carsick, because he was perfectly fine the rest of the trip. Once we were finished at the park, we went to visit our friends the Kilpatricks. We had a nice visit with them, and Liam had fun getting into all their stuff, so the wrangling of him wore me out! We then met up with Will and his parents for lunch. By then, I think my clothes were mostly dry and so were Liam's pants! We ate at a new fast food place in town, Teriyaki Grill.
Unfortunately for Liam, there weren't any girls to stare at, but he did occasionally try to get the attention of the woman behind the counter. At some point, a guy came in and got an order to go. He sat at the table next to us while waiting for it. He was great with Liam, and Liam had fun hamming it up with him. I think he even gave him five! The restaurant was right next to Eskamoes (frozen custard), so I decided I wanted to get some since it had been years since I'd had any. We were just going to drive through, but then we saw that Jamie (the photographer), her husband Brian, and their three boys were sitting outside there! So we got to hang out with them for awhile, which was neat because none of us live in Ruston anymore!
At this point, we were all worn out, but it was time to head to my parent's house for Liam's birthday party. Thankfully, Liam slept on the way there. My mom chose a jungle animal theme for the party and had decorations, a cake, and a shirt she made for Liam that all matched the theme. It was very cute! Liam's parents (that's us), both sets of grandparents, great-grandparents, and aunt and uncle were there for his party! We had dinner first (Liam ate some beans and cornbread), and then Liam got to open presents! Once again, he had zero interest in actually opening the gifts, so Will and I did that for him. He liked playing with his new toys, though! He got a lot of great gifts. His family loves him so much! Then it was cake time! We put the whole cake in front of Liam and he promptly stuck his fingers in it. He had a look of concern on his face. I don't really think it registered to him that he could eat it! He never put his icing and cake-covered fingers anywhere near his mouth. I gave him a little bite of icing and and he mad a yucky face and coughed a little bit! So I didn't try to get him to eat anymore of the cake. Once we took the cake away, he just smeared the icing on the tray. The rest of us enjoyed the cake!
Liam had a great time at his party. He does love attention, and he had a lot of it there. He enjoyed carrying a ball around and walking from room to room. He enjoyed playing with the balloons. He is a very busy one year old.
When we got back to my grandparent's house, Liam got his first kitchen sink bath. He needed it, for sure! Then he did some more lap-walking around their house, and then I put him to bed. He was worn out, and slept through the night!
After Liam went to bed, we watched some TV with my grandparents. We watched a couple of episodes of "Duck Dynasty," which is a reality show based in West Monroe, LA about a family who has made millions making duck calls. It was seriously scripted, but it's very funny! I enjoyed it, though, and I like that it shows some places I'm familiar with, like I-20 between Ruston and WM! It does not take much to amuse me, apparently.
The next morning, we loaded up the car and headed back to Texas, stopping for lunch in Bossier City. All in all, it was a great trip! And the car got great gas mileage for a change. It was the Camry's last trip to Louisiana, as we will be replacing it this month! We won't have leather seats anymore, so now I'm paranoid about needing something to cover the seat in case Liam decides to make a mess again!
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| Go Pels! |
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