Happy 7th Monthiversary, Peter!

So we had an appointment to get portraits taken for Peter with his cousins Ethan, Elana, and George Saturday afternoon in Madison, and people in the area will know “ah, winter storm day.” We knew the slop was heading our way so we drove out to Madison Friday night. Peter must have known what was up and got excited, because half-way through the drive west he got uppity in his car seat and wanted to bust out and play. It must have been his way of saying “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?...” because he wouldn’t calm down until we got there, and nothing calmed him down except for a little stop on the way at a gas station, where we took him out of his seat. Fortunately we only had to go to Madison and not Minneapolis. What ever happened to the Peter who napped quietly in his seat the weekend before on the drive to Chicago? Oy.

When he did get to Madison he got to play with Ethan and Elana (as much as Elana can play these days) and also his Aunt Sarah, who joined us for dinner. She got quite the work-out with him jumping up and down for her for about an hour in her arms. She had to fly out to Dubai the next day, so I guess he worked her over for a couple weeks’ worth of dancing. The good part for us with all his activity in the evening is that he wound up sleeping 8 hours straight, only waking up at 6:00 the next morning. Nice.

The photo session went well. Peter lit up for the photographer, and we got a bunch of naked baby pictures, which is pretty remarkable considering he tends to get shy when we change his diaper in public. No shyness here, that’s for sure. There was an attempt to get some pictures of all four cousins (clothed!) at one time, but the results were mixed. It seemed like with that many little kids for the photographer that it would have been easier juggling 4 globs of container-less jello. Fortunately there were no splats, but for the most part in the group photos Peter looks confused.

We drove Peter home Sunday afternoon after the storm was pretty much over, and this time he slept for us. It’s got to be the wireless power of the presence, or presence-to-be, of his cousins. Technically, it doesn’t bode well for the future. We’ll just have to never tell him about family visits.