Derby Party

We went up to Kingsport yesterday for a Derby Party that our friends throw every year. Carter did much better than we had anticipated, making us less scared to travel more.

We left the house around 1:30 pm having fed him immediately before leaving. He was really pleasant for most of the 2 hour drive to our friends' house. I sat in the backseat with him but didn't have to do too much entertaining and was able to talk to Brian most of the time without having to yell over the normal screaming Carter often does in the car. He took a 30 minute nap after about an hour in the car and woke up only a little fussy from it (I'm sure he was bored and tired of his carseat at this point).


Carter was great at the party. He got to play with another baby (Caitlin), who is 9 months old, but not much bigger than Carter. Caitlin can sit by herself and I helped Carter sit and they played with the same toys and grabbed at each other. It was the first time Carter has really gotten to play with another baby.

Carter eventually took a 30 minute nap cradled in Brian's arms while he sat and watched the post-race coverage. I was surprised he slept so soundly through all the noise.

We left close to 7:30 pm. We put Carter in his pajamas and fed him a bottle as we started heading back to Knoxville. I gave him his paci after he finished the bottle and he passed out. I was able to crawl up to the front seat and Brian and I were able to talk the whole way home without waking up Carter. When we got home, I brought Carter up to his room in his carseat and then took him out and transferred him to his crib. He squirmed around and fussed a little for about 5 minutes but then went to sleep until 4:30 am when he woke up wanting to eat.

I was really nervous about how everything would go since we've always been home at Carter's bedtime before but everything went awesome. And we had a great time seeing a lot of old friends in Kingsport and introducing them to Carter. Thanks Kevin and Leslie for throwing another great party!

We also drove by my old apartment in Kingsport while we were up there. I lived in the fifth unit (of 6) from the street in the all brick building in the middle of the picture.


I was really lucky to find this condo. It had 2 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, and a really deep 1-car garage and was about $550/month. It made living by myself in Kingsport while Brian lived in Knoxville more bearable.