Catching Up

Parenthood is wonderful, and so is Aiden. But neither leave as much time to keep up with blogging, so expect updates at a slower pace for some time.

We spent the rest of our time in San Antonio getting used to being parents in general. Lucky for us, Aiden is a very patient baby. He's also a great eater and a decent sleeper, so we were able to quickly get the hang of things and then make the most of our time together.

Even with getting used to Aiden's schedule and requirements, we were able to get out and about quite a bit and enjoyed a lot of what San Antonio had to offer. Of course, to do this, we had to overcome Stephanie's fear of the Shamu poster on the elevator door. Since it was floor to ceiling it looked very much as though Shamu's tank was inside the elevator. Stephanie felt strongly that Shamu was looking at her and refused to look back. I tried really hard to get her to face Shamu, but she just wouldn't do it.

The weather was terribly hot - over 100 degrees every day - with high humidity so for Aiden's sake (and ours) we limited ourselves to outings first thing in the morning or in the late evening. We particularly enjoyed our journeys along the river walk. Our hotel was located right downtown, so it was convenient to walk. We put Aiden in his carrier and then just strolled along.

It was a little cooler along the river under the trees, but still pretty hot. After awhile, Aiden reached his limit and we got some takeout to bring back to the hotel.

On another day, we toured the Spanish missions, the oldest of which date back almost 400 years. They were built to help Spanish missionaries convert the indigenous populations. The Alamo is the most famous of these, but we saved that for another day and went to the other four: Concepcion, San Juan, San Jose, and La Espada.

Near the La Espada mission, we also got to see some of the famous aqueducts that were built over 300 years ago and still irrigate some of the surrounding farmland today.

It was hot out, so at some places we took turns staying in the car with Aiden, but we got a few pictures of him at some of the big attractions in his home town.

On our last day, we went to San Fernando Cathedral, the oldest in the United States (over 300 years),

And then to see the Alamo itself.

Everything was accessible from the River Walk, so we made a nice morning of it. We certainly don't keep the pace we usually do now that we have Aiden, but it's nice to know that, even at the age of 5 weeks, we're able to get out and do things we enjoy. Hopefully by starting at a young age, Aiden will grow up to enjoy our sightseeing as well.

So our time in San Antonio came to an end. This left us with our biggest adventure yet - flying halfway across the country with a newborn! Luckily, people at the San Antonio airport were very nice. They even let us take our luggage cart all the way to the gate.

So while we moved much slower than normal, it went without a hitch. Stephanie had thought to call the TSA to ask about what we could bring on the plane and that turned out to be very useful. When we were in line for the security screening, a woman in front of us kept telling us we needed to throw away the water we brought with us.

Now, this was not a woman who worked for the TSA, just another passenger. I guess she meant well, but it was a little annoying that after Stephanie told her she had already spoken with the TSA, the woman kept telling us to get rid of the water. We let her go through ahead of us to get rid of her and the TSA agents at the checkpoint gave us no issues about the water.

That left the flight itself, and believe it or not, Aiden slept the entire time. It was wonderful and the other passengers were so impressed. There was another baby on the flight who cried a bit, and I have to say, we felt a little superior.

Since we arrived in DC, we've been hopping around going to doctors appointments and introducing Aiden to his wide base of family and friends. Everyone is so thrilled to meet him and he seems to like being passed around, or doesn't mind at least. His pediatrician says he's fine and healthy and we're having a great time with him.

We'll mostly be doing the same from now until I go back for a short stint in Tajikistan in August, but I'll still try to provide an occasional update.

Suddenly A Dad

A lot's happened in the last few days, but I guess that's the way it is with new babies. On Tuesday morning, the hospital told us that he was doing so well that they wanted to release him soon. Before that, they wanted us to spend about 48 hours in a private room in the hospital with him. This way we could take care of him, but have the nurses nearby in case we had questions. This was just as well since we were starting to have doubts about going back to the Ronald McDonald House with him.

On Monday night, we were at the hospital late with Aiden and when we got back, we practically had to step over a man who was passed out on the lawn. This sort of confirmed our initial impression of the neighborhood. While the people at the Ronald McDonald House were perfectly nice and the place was clean, we just wanted a little bit more comfort when we brought Aiden home. So we left the hospital Tuesday afternoon to get all of our things and checked out.

However, as I was loading the car I noticed that there were ants swarming all over the back of the passenger seat. In fact, they were swarming out of the passenger seat. Of course, that wouldn't do for transporting our son, so I helped Stephanie get set up in our room and called Avis. The guy on the phone was very pleasant and apologetic and told me to take the car back right away. It was none too soon as the ants started biting my back as I was driving to the rental location.

Unfortunately, the folks at the actual rental place were not nearly as accommodating. They didn't even apologize. Then they gave me a smaller car, even after I explained we were here to adopt, and then watched as I lugged all of our belongings across the parking lot to the new car. I'm good at packing so I got everything to fit, but I was sweaty and more than a little ticked off by the time I was done. I think it was the indifference more than anything that will make me think twice before renting with Avis again.

So, after wasting an hour and a half, I was back with my family and we settled in for our stay at the hospital. Then I discovered that my workout clothes (which I had hung up to dry in the shower, had been thrown away by the lady who set up our room. Given that I was only allowed 1 suitcase on the flight here, I had limited space for gym clothes so this loss wasn't particularly convenient. But Aiden has a way of calming me down when I hold him, so I was soon over it. I probably need new gym clothes anyway.

Staying in the hospital was kind of nice. We had our privacy and could bring food up when we wanted. Best of all, we got to spend as much time with Aiden as we wanted. One food place we particularly came to like was the Taco Garage. It was just across the street from the hospital and had great food and fast service. One of the waitresses took a liking to us and would let us make any changes we wanted to anything on the menu when we ordered.

While in the hospital, we got to meet with all kinds of specialists who taught us how to care for Aiden, how to do CPR on an infant, and even helped us install our car seat correctly. We were both really impressed. The nurses and specialists seemed to take a genuine interest in Aiden, and one of them even knitted him an afghan.

So yesterday when it was time to bring Aiden home (home to the hotel), we had a lot of people who wanted to say goodbye. It was nice to see how well they cared for him and exciting to finally have him all to ourselves. We spent last night and today getting used to life as parents and it suits us well. Maybe it's the excitement, but we haven't found the late night feedings too exhausting so far.

Today we took Aiden on his first outing, going to the adoption agency to see the folks there and then to Babies R Us for some more necessities. He loves his car seat and falls asleep as soon as we put him in it, so we think he'll be a good traveler. Today he also got his first bath with us and seemed to enjoy that too. In short, things couldn't be better. We're looking forward to a little family vacation here in San Antonio before heading back to the east coast.