Hot Times at Delfest!

We finally made it to Delfest, the bluegrass festival, this year in Cumberland, MD.  We've been meaning to go to this particular festival since it's so close to home (only 2.5 hours) and we could bail if we needed to.  Luckily, our good friends Sue and Evan had their VIP-ness in effect and were all set up by the time we got there:

Evan got jealous of Carter's habitat and decided to usurp.  Carter wasn't pleased.  

But the music: Sierra Hull & Highway 111 and The Infamous Stringdusters on Friday night.  During the Stringdusters set (which was shaping up to be excellent), it started raining buckets and everyone had to take cover, so we headed back to camp:

Carter and Dad enjoying the canopy after the soaking mess.

Carter got a little scared during the thunderstorm, but as soon as it stopped raining, he was happy as pie.  Speaking of pie - the strawberry pesto pizza we had from Pie for the People was delicious.  After Carter went to bed and we dug trenches sufficient to keep our campsite dry, I went back to the festival to see the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Del McCoury trade up tunes then Old Crow rocked the "late night."  Or as late as I was willing to hang anyway.  I came back to find Carter and Mimi snuggling and asleep in the tent with the freight trains rumbling by about 50 feet from our camp.  There were a couple of times when he woke up during the night: the drunk folks coming back after the headline act at midnight, then again when the drunk folks came back after the "late night" set at 3am, and then again when our (very nice, but childless) neighbors decided they needed to solve the world's problems at 4:30.  We decided that next year we will arrive early enough to make it into "Family Camp" where it's quiet at night and louder early in the morning - live and learn.

Saturday brought sunny heat and more happy music: Trampled by Turtles, among others.  We hung out for a while at the concert arena, but Carter started getting sorta fussy and hot.  I ended up going back to camp to try to cool him off, but he never could get comfortable or take a nap, so the situation escalated a little bit.  

Attempts to cool the kid.

It was about this time that we decided between the heat and rough night's sleep that Carter was going to implode if we stayed another night, so we went back for one final act: Railroad Earth.

They were awesome and Carter rallied for another hour or two - mostly because Mom finally took him to the middle of the mud puddle for some dancing.  

All Done

But then, as we feared, he lost it.  We beat feet back to camp, rounded up the mules and rode into (away from) the sunset.  We were planning on staying one more day, but it was just too hot for the little guy.  There were plenty of other babies at the festival, and I guess we should have asked some other parents about coping strategies, but we decided it was best to just leave before we passed the point of enjoying ourselves.  I think next year will be a little easier since his thermoregulatory mechanisms will have had a chance to mature and he'll be able to communicate his needs a little better...  All in all, we had a good time with good friends, good music and good food.  We'll go back next year with a little more parenting experience (and possibly an air conditioned RV!).

Congratulations Aunt Jenn!

Carter has been helping his Aunt with some of the finer points of statistics all semester. 

Aunt Jenn graduated from Goucher College last weekend and Carter was happy to see that at least some of his answers must have been right.  He even got to share in the celebration.

There were quick cuddles with Great Grammy...

And giggles with Gram...

And showing off the new eating skills...

Carter has some new foods under his belt this week.  He's a fan of baked plantains, and avocado, and gumming cantaloupe slices to death.   Apple sauce is still the favorite, but he's getting the hang of newer, more textured foods all the time.   

Next weekend we're off to Cumberland, MD where we'll see what he thinks about 36 hours of bluegrass...

Carter's Latest Trick

I hadn't fed Carter a bottle in a while, these days I'm mostly on spoon duty, and the little guy surprised me on Wednesday afternoon.  He was acting like he wanted it, so I just handed the bottle to him and he did the rest.  I just had to recline him a little, towards the end, so he could get the last few drops.  

Way to go big guy!

Past few weeks...

No big changes going on over the last few weeks - hence the blog silence.  Carter got to go to his first Sheep and Wool festival where he got to see sheepdog demonstrations, smell some livestock, and nurse among thousands of his closest friends.  He especially liked the funnel cake (after I metabolized it a little for him).  The day was rounded out by an evening spent with Pontus and Saga.  We seem to be getting better about being more adventurous and getting Carter out of the house for more and more of the day.  We did, however, pay the price later that night because the little guy didn't quite get his scheduled naps for the day and had a restless overnight.

This weekend we got the rest of the garden into the ground and harvested the first of the spinach.  Carter thinks he likes spinach and picked up a handful, immediately trying to stuff it all into his mouth.   Our great friends Allison and Sarah visited on Saturday and we all went out for crabs (forgot to take pictures - poo!).  Carter does not like crabs, although he does seem to like Guinness.  As you can tell, he's getting very mouthy and trying out lots of new foods: green beans (meh), applesauce (yums), pineapple (yums), peas, turnips, sweet potato and pears are all part of his diet now.

Last night, Carter got the giggles while we were sitting down to dinner.  The video was too cute not to share.

Also, a few days ago we thought it might be fun to see what he does with a cup, so we gave him a little water to sip on:

You can't quite see in the video, but he kept bringing the cup to his cheek while looking at Brian - the classic "drinking problem"!  And then he'd get some water in his mouth, look up at me, and let it all run down his throat.  Not bad for his first try, I think.  :)

Coming soon: Aunt Jenn's graduation, DelFest, and maybe some pool action!

Camping with Carter

Since we're going to DelFest in a few weeks, we wanted to have a go at sleeping in the outdoors before we drop a couple hundee on festival tickets...  We wanted a very short drive and easy camping for our first family camp, so we chose Cunningham Falls State Park - only about 1.5 hour drive and full service campground.  We packed up Friday night and set out Saturday after second breakfast.  It was an easy drive out there, but the first campground we tried was pretty packed in and a lot of the spots were full - which we didn't expect at all since it is still a little chilly (Maryland folk tend to prefer hot weather for outdoor activities).  So our second try, we went to a smaller campground that was a little less busy and found a spot not too near our neighbors in case there was inconsolable crying to be done in the middle of the night.

We snacked a little bit and got on the trail:

And went UP for a couple of hours (Brian was a great pack mule for Carter!) to, uh, summit Bob's Hill at a whopping 1765 feet.  Carter's first ascent!  You folks that live in the west can stop laughing now - we work with what we have.

Upon returning to camp we realized we forgot the coffee (!) and the squeeze butter (!!) at home, so we made a quick trip (5 min drive into Thurmont, MD) before Carter could relax and play in his baby cave:

There wasn't TOO much fussing, but there was a lot of distraction, so eating was a bit of a challenge.  We gave him some banana before dinner which he seemed to like, but then he spit up a TON after that, so I think we're implementing a banana embargo until his guts mature a little more.  After his last meal for the day, we put him in his down snowsuit (no hood) and put him down in the baby cave inside our tent and after he got over being in the new environment, little dude didn't make a peep until 6:20!  Sweet!


Sunday morning was a quick breakfast and camp breakdown:

Then we got in the car and headed home with sweet dreams of marshmallows dancing in our heads: