Melders in Nashville!

Douglas has been in Nashville before, but for the rest of our little family, this is a first! We came down as a quick family getaway for a few days. Yesterday was our 9th anniversary and we spent the day as normal until about 3pm when the boys and I picked Doug up in Wexford for our 9+ hour drive to Nashville. Ah, the romance in a long car drive with two kids! Definitely not our standard idea of an anniversary date. But we figured the cost of traveling with tired boys was worth the payment of a few days with good friends that we rarely get to see.


Koen did really well in the car, but he is unbelievable! He never slept and we didn't get to our friend's house until almost 2am our time!!! For a kid that usually sleeps 12 hours a night, I just couldn't believe he stayed up the whole time.


Tavin, on the other hand, got a few catnaps and then slept most of the time once it was dark. For about an hour in the middle of the nighttime journey I found him just sucking his thumb staring at Koen. So good!

We all slept in the same room last night and it was a great setup! Tavin slept in a walk-in closet in a crib. Koen was on an air mattress on the floor next to us in a queen bed. Koen went right to sleep as did Tavin. I heard some noise around 7am and figured it was our friends on the floors below, but no, it was Koen taking care of business in the bathroom all by himself. I had told him about that on the car ride, that we would have our own bathroom, but I didn't think he would really take advantage of it. So cute! I saw him stumbling out of it, adjusting his pajama pants. He crawled silently back into bed and went back to sleep. I had to wake him up at 9:30am! Tavin woke up around 8am which was perfect and way better than what I had anticipated. Yay!
(Above) Tavin at breakfast. It's hard to get a picture without fingers in his mouth these days. He is teething so much! This week his top left tooth is cutting through!

Today has been great with our friends, Molly and Chris and their kids, Amelia and Sadie. Koen and Amelia are about a year and a half apart in age, but they are playing really well with each other. Sadie and Tavin have "played" a little together, which is mostly making sure that Sadie doesn't fall on top of him or something.
Tavin took a great morning nap and then we all went to lunch together for pizza.
This is the only way that Tavin sits in the stroller. No matter how often I sit him up, he gets himself wedged back down with his feet sticking straight up in the air. So funny! He had a good lunch, although I can just tell he wants to enjoy the food we get too. No pizza for him yet though!

Koen does not look that good when pretending to smile with his eyes and multi-tasking with his mouth to keep eating!

The boys and Sadie are all taking afternoon naps now. I'm feeling my eyes get heavy from the late night last night, but it is so nice to be away from my list of to-do's at home and just get a little work done and relax on the couch.