Maxwell and I had quite a big adventure last weekend.  Even though I’m still on maternity leave, I decided to attend a conference for work in Dallas.  My mom (because she’s a saint) agreed to tag along to keep Maxwell in the hotel while I went off and acted like a grown-up for 2 days.  Considering all of the stuff a little baby needs for a full weekend (stroller, bouncy seat, bassinet, etc.) we debated back and forth a lot about how to actually get to Dallas.  We finally came up with a good plan…my mom flew to Birmingham on Wednesday, we loaded up the car with all the baby essentials and she drove the 10 hours to Dallas on Thursday (did I mention she’s a saint?).  I then got up early Friday morning and took a direct flight to Dallas with Maxwell.  It was great because I could literally get on the plane with only the baby and my diaper bag.

I was very nervous about the flight but Maxwell did great.  He slept the whole way down and was a happy little camper when we arrived in Dallas.

Here we are getting onto Maxwell’s first plane ride! (the nice Southwest folks let Robert come to the gate with me)

They say everything is bigger in Texas and that includes Maxwell’s screams and cries.  It was quite a long weekend as he simply did NOT want to sleep in the hotel room.  He woke up several times Friday night and I think he literally only slept for an hour at a time on Saturday night.  This was not helped by the fact that a car alarm kept going off in front of the hotel every single hour from midnight to 6am on Saturday…and it was parked right in front of our 3rd floor window.

HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK!

That darn alarm would honk 75 times every single time it went off…I counted.  My mom and I had planned to stick around Dallas on Sunday so I could see some friends and we could do some shopping but, at 4am on Sunday morning, we made the executive decision to get back to Alabama.  I called Southwest and booked a 7:30am flight and we loaded up the car so my mom could hit the road after dropping me off at the airport (again, she’s a saint).  Maxwell did great on the flight back and I had never been so happy to be home in my life!  Thankfully he slept MUCH better Sunday night when he was back in his own bed.

Snoozing on the flight home…

Bummed we didn’t get to see these great friends in Dallas…

But very happy to be home…

I’m glad we made the trip so I know that I can handle a plane ride with my little guy.  We’re looking forward to our next flying adventure at Christmas!

Happy day after Halloween!  Maxwell had a great first Halloween and got all dressed up as a cute little monkey…or maybe I should say a chunky monkey!  I bought this costume a few weeks ago and he’s definitely grown quite a bit since then!  I put it on him last week to see if it would fit.  We got it on but the hood was a liiiitle tight!  He was clearly very excited about this monkey business…

Luckily the costume still fit this past weekend for Halloween!  Unfortunately, Maxwell seemed just as excited about it as he was the week before…

But, he perked up a bit when I picked him up…

and then Dad got to show off Maxwell’s cute little monkey tail…

Hope you all had a great Halloween with lots of treats and no tricks!

Thanks to so many of you for commenting yesterday!  I LOVE comments!!  I agree that they both look good either way but think I like #1 in color and #2 in black and white best.  Think I might order some prints!

Up until now, Maxwell really hasn’t shown an interest in toys.  He’d much rather just look at the lights or the ceiling fan.  However, this past week he started to at least notice some of the toys in front of him, such as these on his vibrating seat, and reach out for them…

It’s so fun to see him interacting more and more each day!

Maxwell officially turned 6 weeks old on Monday.  All of the books say that 6 weeks is when you will start to get “social smiles” out of your baby…meaning they will smile in reaction to you.  Maxwell is right on schedule because he’s been one smiley little guy for Robert and me!  I imagine it’s pretty funny to see the silly faces we make and sing-songy words we use to get him to grin.  But his sweet little smile makes all the silly faces and sleepless nights completely worth it.  I tried to capture it on camera but all I could get was this little tight-lipped grin…

By the way, how cute is this outfit?!  and this baby?!!  🙂

I sure do love him…

Another person I love?  My grandmother, Susu.  In celebration of her birthday tomorrow, I think I’m going to surprise her with a little visit…today!!  Susu – we’ll be knocking on your door in just a few hours!  surprise!!