Trip to Nashville

A couple of weeks ago we headed to Nashville to visit Meghan and Michael. Meghan wanted some around-the-house help from my parents (painting, hanging pictures, cleaning, fixing things, etc) before the baby came and in preparation for a work BBQ and house warming party they were having. Chuck had to work, so just my parents, me, and Salem made the trip across the mountains to visit.

We spent the week working - mom, dad and I (mostly them) worked on the house projects while Meghan and Michael worked at their respective jobs. This is what we did on Saturday morning. Rested. Aren't Saturdays great? We got up late and then sat on the front porch and painted our toenails while watching the construction of new houses across the street. When we were done, we sat out there and enjoyed the weather. Meghan, Salem and Keely fell asleep. How cute!

While we were out there, Meghan asked if Salem had tried out her Bumbo seat that we're borrowing from Chuck's sister yet. She hadn't, mainly because I thought she wasn't big enough to use it yet. Turns out I was wrong! She enjoyed sitting up and watching us and looking around. She only likes it in small doeses - 15 minutes at a time or so - but that's the same with most things at this age. I think she looks so cute and like a big girl in it.

While we were there, Meghan was right at 30 weeks pregnant. Michael is definitely the proud papa-to-be!

Meghan got in plenty of practice by holding Salem whenever she wasn't nursing or having her diaper changed (sometimes by Meghan too!). As you can tell by the picture, Salem was pretty happy about it! Baby Boy Payne, on the other hand, kept kicking her - I think that he was letting her know she was in his space and that he's not going to take anything from her...even now before he's born! I can't wait to meet that little guy. I know he and Salem will have so much fun together through the years.

We also got to visit some with our friends Rick and Amanda and their daughter Anna. This is Anna and Salem meeting for the first time. Salem knows she's smaller than a lot of other babies, but I really wonder what she was thinking here...her face says something like "whoa, there's a giant next to me!" Anna is such a cutie, and although she was having a bit of a rough night with teething, she is such a sweet baby and we're thrilled for Rick and Amanda and their little family!

On Sunday we celebrated my dad's 56th birthday with ribs at Calhoun's. SO yummy! Salem was helping my dad pick out what he wanted.

My mom always seems to know the "sweet spot" and how to get Salem to sleep. Such the sweet baby!

On Sunday after lunch we headed back to the church building for a Baby Shower Tea that some of Meghan's friends were hosting. It was a really nice shower, with great food, great people, and great gifts. Salem was such a good baby during it, mostly eating and sleeping through the whole thing. She is really a very easy baby to be "out" with. Sometimes it's easier to be out of the house with her than to stay home!

We had a really full day on Sunday! We left right from the shower and headed to a church picnic Meghan's church was holding that afternoon. It was at someone's house in the middle of some rolling hills/mountains outside of Nashville - so beautiful! Being Nashville, of course there was live country music (one church member is a song writer for several country music stars), fried chicken and the fixings, and ice cream from Marble Slab! We all had a great time hanging out, listening to music, eating, and playing yard games like ladder ball. My dad even tried to get Salem to ride the ponies, but we decided she's a little to small for that still!

Oh - fun Salem story! So, as I said, Salem was either eating or asleep during the baby shower. We put her in the carseat after changing her diaper at the shower and she slept the entire way to the picnic. I knew we needed to change her diaper again before we got out of the car and walked to where everyone was for the picnic. Mom offered to do the duty since she was in the front seat. As I handed Salem up to mom, I realized we were dealing with a poopy diaper...a leaky one at that. So we got out the changing pad and were preparing to manage the leaky diaper...when mom realized that poop was not only leaking out the sides of the diaper, it was running up her back and had pooled in her shirt. Now I've dealt with my share of blow-out diapers in her short life, but this one takes the cake! It was everywhere! So, in the car, parked in the grass on an incline, with a limited number of wipes (we were running out!), we attempted to change this massive blow-out diaper without getting it all over everything. We got Salem stripped down, then mom held her out over the grass (see picture above), and I cleaned her off. Thankfully I've gotten used to carrying several outfits for her with me all the time, so clean clothes were not a problem. Fun times! I'm sure she'll just love hearing this story when she's older...but part of the reason for keeping this blog is to record all these funny moments so I will be able to remember them. Some day, after she's embarrassed by these stories, she'll think they're as hilarious as we do!