Home again. And again.

So we've been to Fayetteville and back in the last few days, and during the course of that short trip, I had a revelation. I now truly believe in my heart that the Honda Odyssey was created by God's own hand and delivered on this earth for the sole purpose of making my life easier. You know how my generation has a hard time fathoming how anyone survived before the internet and cellphones? Well, I now feel the same way about this vehicle. I've only had it for a couple of weeks now, and already, life "pre-Odyssey" is starting to fade into obscurity.

Alex, Murphy, and I spent most of the trip chillin', stretched out in the back, with an endless supply of snacks and space, watching the DVD player and relaxing to the max. On the way down, we enjoyed School of Rock and The Incredibles, and then attempted to watch Charlotte's Web, which Alex completely dismissed, claiming it was "baby-ish" and "sissy-fied".

We had scheduled Alex's doctor's appointment for Friday morning in the event that Sullivan Primm would make his grand appearance a few weeks early and we'd get to see him. And guess what? He showed up Monday night, spent a couple of days getting his baby lungs up to par, and was ready for us to visit by the time we got there Thursday afternoon. And we saw him and he was beautiful and Joy was beautiful and I got so caught up in just being there that I completely flaked out when it came to taking pictures. I didn't even pull out my camera. Ugh. But Joy has some pictures over on her blog and is sure to have plenty more, so please go see Sullivan and crew there, if you haven't already.

We had a little dinner while we were there at the hospital and left around 7:30pm and headed back to the hotel. We stayed at the Sleep Inn in Fayetteville, where all four of us had to share a room. I'm sure you're thinking, what's the big deal? The big deal is that my child is not one of those that would just fall asleep in a room with a bunch of people staring at him. He needs darkness and quiet and no distractions of any kind. When we stay in a suite, he can sleep in one room while we stay in the other, but this time, a suite was not an option and we had to improvise.

Yeah, the old mattress-wall strategy worked out great. There was a second double bed in the room that we were not using, so we thought we'd use it to create a room for A. I held my breath as we pulled the mattress off the bed, convinced we were gonna find something skanky hiding under there. But, thank God, nothing skanky to speak of. Anyway, I let Alex have some milk before bed, read him a book, and laid him into his pack 'n' play, which was tucked in between that mattress and the door to the hallway. And from that point on, we didn't hear a peep from him until 7:15am.

We got up and had a leisurely continental breakfast, killed some time in our room, then headed to Alex's appointment around 11:00. Alex got two shots and had his blood drawn. He was not thrilled about being held down, which I think he hates more than actually getting the shots. Before we left town, we had lunch with our friends Katie and Scott at Loafin' Joes. Alex was still pretty crabby, but lightened up once he had his milk. After lunch, we piled into the car in the pouring rain to start the trip back home, wondering when we'd have a chance to return to Fayetteville.

Turns out it was a lot sooner than we thought. By the time we had put about forty-five miles behind us, someone realized that he had accidentally left his cellphone on the table at Loafin' Joes. And since that someone would be starting work on Monday, he needed to have that cellphone immediately in case any important last minute calls came in from The Firm. I'll leave that someone unnamed, but I will say that it was not Alex. Or Murphy.

So, we turned around and drove the forty-five miles back to F'ville. Everyone was a little crabby about the whole ordeal, especially the someone that forgot his cellphone and was not happy about having lost almost three hours because of it. By the time we got gas and hit the road back to Dallas, A had missed his naptime, and let's just say, the rest of the trip was not a smooth - or quiet - one. Finally, about an hour before we got home, A fell asleep. I think it was almost 10pm when he finally passed out. I can't remember being so happy to get home. Then again, it could've been much worse. We could've had to make that trip in the Altima.