The Wright Family: Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez

Ok, I am coming off about 5o% of my usual sleep from our weekend trip to New Orleans (more on that later) and trying to catch up on my posting since Blair is less than a week away from being five months. Lots of changes around here, folks.

Let's see... Blair is still teething with no teeth to report. I have felt like their arrival is imminent for weeks, so what do I know? Poor thing is miserable and keeps her sleeping patterns erratic and somewhat unpredictable. Despite all of that, she is still very good tempered and so incredibly sweet. Her face lights up when I start counting to ten or start singing "The Wheels on the Bus." She just smiles and moves her mouth like she wants to sing and count too. Something else that she does now is "kiss" us. She'll cup your face in her hands and put her open mouth to our mouth or cheeks. She also sucks on her fingers a lot and will even try and slip a couple of fingers in her mouth while feeding. That is a hurdle we are looking forward to crossing.

Blair's night time sleeping is changing every 2 or 3 days but seems to be set with a mid morning nap. She will sleep for a few hours then wake up, eat lunch (2 jars) and play before I come to pick her up. If she naps in the afternoon, she might nap for almost an hour, she'll wake up and we'll feed her dinner (1 1/2 jars and cereal), bathe her and put her back to bed with a bottle. Speaking of bath time, boy are we struggling these days. We moved her out of the infant recliner because all she was doing was sitting up from it and we figured it was more dangerous. We bought this little skirt thing that has these four bumpers (filled with microbeads) and it is supposed to help her float in the water and practice sitting up. Unfornately that's not really working either, so we are desparate for some other solution. She still cannot sit up on her own, though I don't think it will be long!

Last week before our family trip to New Orleans, I took Blair to her four month check-up (we are two weeks behind because I forgot about how doctor's offices are busy right before school starts back). Lesson learned! Blair weighed 17 lbs, 7 ounces (96%), 27.25" long (99%), and was in the 90% for head circumference. My healthy girl! :) She is so stinking cute and gets more personality, physically changes every day and becomes more fun by the minute. Take today for instance. She started rolling from her back to her stomach. And did it over and over. In fact, I put her down for an afternoon nap (rocking her asleep and putting her on her back in the crib) and by the time I grabbed the bottle and headed for the door, she had already rolled over onto her tummy. After a few attempts to get comfortable, she napped just like that. That's a big deal around here.

Ok, so where was I? Dr. Kavin's visit. Right. She had two shots and we were on our way with little tears. Poor Bear.

On Friday, we left with my family (except Dad who was in Norway on business) for New Orleans to celebrate my little brother's 21st birthday. We have been planning this trip for a year, so it was a long time coming. We made a stop at LSU to visit Mike the Tiger and get some new gear. The drive to the hotel was only about an hour or hour and a half away. We checked into our hotel and stayed on the 43rd floor of the Sheraton with the most amazing river views down Canal. Gorgeous!

That night for dinner we ate at Pat O's and had their yummy hurricanes. It was very hot so we took Blair back to the hotel to cool down and so Mimi could babysit. All of the kids were taking Conner out on Bourbon to celebrate his birthday. We had a blast walking down the street and going into some of the bars. We all had a very good time and the "spirits" of New Orleans were definitely with us. ;)

Saturday we took Blair to the Audobon Aquarium to see all of the fish, penguins, sea horses, sharks - everything! Blair loved it and really loved looking at all of the little kids that were running around. After the aquarium, we went back to the hotel to cool down. It was terribly hot and we spent the majority of the afternoons in our room to keep cool. My dad flew in on Saturday afternoon and we took my parents to dinner at the Acme Oyster House. It was awesome! Travis had been wanting me to try their chargrilled oyster for months and months now. They were very good! Made with parmesan cheese, garlic and butter (I think). Not bad at all. Their food was excellent (especially the jambalaya) and everyone there was fawning over Blair. She is usually a pretty big hit where ever we go. People were in awe of her stroller fans- in fact I couldn't honestly tell you how many people commented on them and asked me about them all weekend. I had originally only purchased one, but later went back and got a second one. For $17 a piece, it was worth getting another one. Selling those in touristy cities = GOLD MINE.

Travis stayed in with Blair on Saturday night so I could meet my family out for some shopping and milling about Bourbon street. On Sunday, we were up nice and early to eat breakfast at Cafe du Monde and do some shopping in the Farmer's Market. We were back in the hotel by noon because it had gotten SO HOT. We spent the afternoon napping in the dark room, playing, and being silly. We did a family dinner at Hard Rock Cafe as Conner's official birthday dinner, but not before some pre-gaming with Patron shots and listening to this little Jeopardy like game Dad created for Conner from different funny sayings and happenings throughout Conner's life. My Dad is always so creative when making meaningful gifts for us.

We left early this morning to come back to Houston. Blair has been sleeping horribly while in New Orleans and is up around 6 or 7am every morning. Plus we figured if we got back early enough, we could get Raleigh from the kennel. We realized that Blair is not a long trip kinda gal. Any more than 4 hours and she was not a happy camper.

We had such a fun weekend celebrating Conner's birthday and spending some great family time together. What a fun trip to let B experience her first vacation. The bar is set high!

Here are some pictures from Blair's 19-20th week and our trip!

Petting on Raleigh (she is always reaching out to touch him)