Food, Flowers, and a Fat Baby

Bret and I (with grandparents in tow) headed down for our third annual trip to Madison, Indiana for the amazing Madison in Bloom fesitval. Madison is a quaint river town (Ohio River) which boasts hundreds of Civil War era homes and a bustling and large main street complete with antique stores and ice cream shops. The "in bloom" part of the weekend includes trapsing through these homes' gardens and oogling the landscapeing prowess of their retiree owners.

Here's a cute candy shop along the downtown street. Bret was customer numero uno.


However, this year with baby Grant and a scorcher for the record books, Madison in Bloom could have been easily called "Sweaty baby with diareaha day." Grant's bowel system was not happy which lead to diaper change after diaper change, more often than not on the backseat of our new van. To top things off, we decided to carry Grant in a backpack carrier to make maneuvering through the gardens easier. I made it about 4 blocks with the backpack; Bret, fortunately, had more fortitude and made it the rest of the trip. Unfortunately, thanks to the heat, Baby Grant was one sweaty, stinky and soiled mess.



This year's gardens left a lot to be desired, but the day, gardens or not, made for a great late spring tradition. This Christmas, we will head down there for a candlelight tour of the insides of the homes. So, Madison is quickly becoming a biannual destination for us.

Part of why carrying Grant was so tricky is because he's a bit of a pork chop. His four month doctor's visit was last Friday, and Grant weighed in at 19.5 lbs. I checked out our dear friends, The Long family, to see what Grant's buddy Kaya weighed, and I found that her nine month report had her weighing in at under 16 lbs. What can I say? Our baby likes his food. He has already outgrown his bucket car seat, so this weekend included finding a new throne for the boy wonder.

Memorial Day weekend is super busy, complete with a wedding, a graduation party and family from California. As long as Grant keeps the same shorts on for longer than 5 minutes, we'll be tickled.