Venturing Out

Feeling like we needed to get out for a day, we decided at the last minute (the night before), that while the weather was still decent, that we’d go to the Pittsburgh Zoo on Monday.

It was a nice day, upper 50s and sunny. The zoo was not very crowded, and due to the more comfortable weather, some of the animals were more visible than when we were there during the heat of the summer.

It was also a chance to get out with Ethan and Sarah, the newest member of our family. We stopped at Panera Bread on the way to the zoo to have lunch with Trish, Joleen’s longtime friend from college. It was our first experience in a restaurant as a family of four.

It’s funny how those kinds of firsts are so memorable. After we brought Ethan home, it took us three weeks to go out for the first time. Making that first experience at Backyard Burgers even more memorable — but something we only partially wrote about at the time — was that Joleen had taken Ethan into the restroom for a diaper change. Ethan hated diaper changes in unfamiliar public places, and he screamed rather loudly.

The part we didn’t share was that moments later, as we were eating our lunch, I noticed a police car parked outside with an officer looking toward the restaurant (we were seated next to the window). A few minutes later, it was parked elsewhere, but still looking toward the restaurant. I think the police car eventually went through the drive-through, but the whole thing seemed odd. At the time, I wondered if one of the workers had called the police (or maybe I was just paranoid!).

Fortunately, Monday’s experience at Panera Bread was a pretty uneventful. 🙂

Well, I recently (prematurely) said that Sarah was handling the car seat well so far, although I acknowledged that she hadn’t been in it much. She handled the two-hour trip to Pittsburgh pretty well (sleep helps), but after sleeping half of the trip home, she cried for the last hour of the trip home (which we thought Ethan handled very well, by the way).

Sarah was quite happy once we got home, but we probably should have introduced her to the car seat by taking shorter trips. The first 3.5 trip home from Dulles International Airport didn’t really count since it was her nighttime and she slept the whole trip home.

Our understanding is that Sarah has been accustomed to being held a lot, and being strapped into a car seat, one that is rear-facing (according to state law), is not exactly conducive to accommodating the kind of response she’s accustomed to.

Part of our getting to know each other is learning the communication signals. We learned on the way home that Sarah, who was able to cry for an entire hour without much of any break, is very persistent! 🙂

Anyway, it was a nice day away (minus the last hour).

1 thought on “Venturing Out”

  1. Beautiful pictures! I loved meeting Sarah and having a chance to see all of you. Such a treat to be part of your first venture out!!! Take care. Hope to see you again soon. Love, Trish

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