Time sure keeps ticking by. How is it February already?!

2021 is off and running.

The new year brought such calamity in our country. Riots by extremist supporters of (former) President Trump on Capitol Hill. Swearing in of (current) President Joe Biden. The ongoing pandemic. Sometimes it really feels like it’ll never end.

It’s been a tough start, but we just have to keep moving forward and hopefully things will start looking brighter soon.

January didn’t bring a whole lot in the adventuring department. At least, not for this mama. It was a very big month for Little Man.

He took on his first cross country road trip to see my parents and meet his aunt for our “Christmas” holidays.  It was a tough ride and took us longer than planned.

We thought we’d rent an SUV so we would have more room for such a long drive. That was our first snag. Right after we picked it up, the maintenance light came on. The Mister didn’t feel comfortable driving 700+ miles one way with the light on. As is our #WaidLuck, the rental company didn’t have a different vehicle. So we had to pile into the Charger with the dogs and got on the road way too late in the day.

Luckily, we made it in one piece and apart from a very cranky boy, it was an uneventful drive.

Little Man got spoiled with all his presents and finally met his other aunt.

He was also blessed to meet my Grammys and Gramps (bonus grandparents – my mom’s aunt and uncle). We wore our masks and stayed 6 feet apart. They have been quarantining since last March.

It was a great visit, but it broke my heart that Gramps couldn’t hold Little Man. He’s a lot like my mom in the baby whispering department and he was always awesome with me growing up.  We used to have the best visits as kids on their farm.

Little Man also got to experience a major first: snow! We got snowed in by a 10″ storm the day we were supposed to leave.

We spent our extra time just enjoying our company.

It’s really a lot more difficult to be so far away from family now that Little Man is here. I really want him to be able to grow up with a strong bond with his grandparents/aunts like I had. Lots of fond memories. Hopefully as he gets older, the trips won’t be so rough.

We all battled a little cold/sinus thing at the end of the month. No fevers or other symptoms, just sneezing and clear runny noses.  That was a bit of a blessing as it kept Little Man sleeping on the ride home.

We made it back just in time to take his Valentine’s photos and his cold didn’t interfere.

When we got home, #WaidLuck struck again. We had a friend checking on the cats while we were away. We got word that the two indoor cats had decided our couch was a great litter box (they’ve never done that before!).

I’m currently hunting our protection plan paperwork because despite our best efforts, it’s still not 100% stain-free.

Other than that, we have just spent the last week trying to get back to our normal routine.

I finally got the Christmas tree/decor down and packed up and have started working on our taxes. Little Man is working on cutting his top teeth, with one already broken through. He’s also this close to crawling. So busy!

It always seems to take so long to get back to normal after being away. Maybe by March I’ll be more organized. Ha!

February is already a week in. 2021 is off and running. It’ll be interesting to see how things continue. We plan to make the best of it.

Until then,

Cheers!

–A. xoxo