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.