Off to Grandma's house I go

I have the most amazingly independent grandmother. At the age of 93 she lives alone at her home of over 50 years in Evansville, Indiana. She drives herself, does her own grocery shopping, gardens, knits, and goes to her "job" a few times a week... aka goes to the casino boat and plays slots.

About a month ago Grandma had a blood vessel rupture in her only good eye. This has left her blind except for limited Peripheral vision. The hope is that within 90 days the blood will dry up and that her eyesight will return but there is no guarantee and a real possibility that her eyesight might never return.

When I heard this news I instantly knew that I needed to get over to Indiana and fast. It was so extremely important to me that she meet Gibson while she can still see just a little and while I knew that she wouldn't fully be able to see him and that she could mainly just see shadows and shapes I figured that is better than nothing.

So... when my parents mentioned that they also wanted to visit I went along and took both Hunter and Gibson with me. While it was hard to be away from Matt for 5 days and EXTREMELY hard to have these two kiddos alone in a hotel room...

The craziness of the night was all made worth it each day when I would head over to Grandma's! Seeing her interact with both of the kids was priceless and having Gibson meet his Great-Grandma meant the world to me..

What a special photo to have! Grandma was even the first family member that I told, last summer, that we were going to be expecting our third child! Here we are the day I told her...

When she found out the news she was so surprised and excited for Matt and me. She knew that it would be a lot of work though... after all she raised three boys of her own while teaching. 

But I know that I am able to handle any and all of the obstacles that may come my way in a large part because of the example that she has provided me. She has always been such a rock in all aspects in her life... as a professional,  a wife, mother, grandma, and GREAT-Grandmother. She is just an amazing and strong-willed woman and I know that no matter what the outcome with her eye that she will remain positive. She will just need to turn to those around her for support, which is hard for such an independent person!

Prayers are appreciated for a speedy recovery!

Packing the Diaper Bag for the Plane

I am a stressed out mommy! After working all day through our Govt "Snow Day" I came home to a little girl that was telling some lies (and sticking to them), and a HUGE to do list for our upcoming trip to Colorado! Let's just say that mommy was so stress that when Hunter went down for his afternoon nap I was taking a bath and drinking a glass of wine at 4:15!

After the dust settled in our house It was time to start packing... My priority was getting Hunter all set for his first plane ride!!! Most important bag that we are taking on the trip is this sucker...

This is our unisex diaper bag that we use for Hunter. It is a SKIP HOP Deluxe Messenger bag and it was purchased from BuyBuyBaby. We wanted a bag that would be easy to carry, could attach to our stroller easily and that Matt would feel comfortable carrying.

We have it in the lime green color!

Now to pack this sucker...

We are going to be in CO for a WEEK and I've read tons of blog postings about travel and cloth diapers and after much consideration we have decided that we will use disposables while we are out of town.

I'm not even sure about which disposable diapers are best and we already had this pack of Pampers that someone had given us... so that is what we are going with. At least for the flight....

You see we didn't want to take up valuable luggage space with diapers so we are going to purchase them in CO. In the diaper bag I have 10... and if we go through 10 in one flight we have a HUGE problem... but I figured better to have too many!

For our diapering needs we are going with our usual Seventh Generation amazing products. We love their wipes and diaper cream and use them on a daily basis. In fact while in CO I plan to buy some Seventh Generation diapers. 

I also packed two large Ziploc bags to hold soiled items...

 

Changing mat is also a necessity. 

As are some extra clothes... in case we have an accident. Three changes of cloths is also probably a little unnecessary but what can I say... it all fit in the bag and I would rather be prepared!

I love these GAP footies

 

Plus they fold up small... 

 

A burp cloth is also a necessity for any spitting up or drooling... This is a burp cloth that I made!

 

And while I will be breastfeeding Hunter on the flight during take off and landing I figured that we should also have some snacks... 

He loves these yummys... Green puff, fruit smoothie, and yogurt bites.

 

To maximize diaper bag space a few of the green puffs were placed in a plastic bag and all were placed in a larger Ziploc bag... 

Next I added everything to the bag...

I love that this bag holds so much!!! 

Another essential... some Motrin for Mommy and Daddy (just in case) went in an outer pocket. 

 

Also Little man will need a hat! We got this great Obermyer hat at our local ski store.

 

So those are all of our necessities... now for the fun stuff to keep him occupied! These are a few of our favorite toys that will be making the trip with us... Of course he had to have a little Fisher Price plane! 

And for on flight I bought this FlyeBaby seat... Full review to come when I try it out... 

Wish us luck!!! Traveling with three bags, Skis, boot bags, Baby pack and play and more!!!