Maddox in Nashville, TN

Hello from Nashville!! Maddox and I left early Thursday morning and headed south for Nashville, TN with Grandma Berg, or Grammy as she prefers to be called, as our 'chaperon'. We made it all the way down the state of Illinois on Thursday to Metropolis, where Superman is from, spent the night and then got up Friday morning and drove the rest of the way into Nashville. Maddox has been a trooper only really giving us minor trouble with refusing to sleep in the car and not being extremely good about taking her regular naps...but, hey if that's all the 'trouble' she is going to give us then we'll take it. We brought lots of her toys including her BUMBO chair and her standy up Exersaucer. We even got to use the Exersaucer at a rest stop in IL and it has been a lifesaver in the hotel room. She is really sleeping well in the pack-n-play at night, despite the funny hotel noises and wakes up with a smile on her face. She has found her tongue since we've been on the trip.....sticking it out at us and using it to make these funny bubble sounds producing lots of spit which she thinks is rather funny!! I try to make sure she doesn't have a mouth full of baby food when she decides to do it. She is sitting up so well now and loves to stand up still. No signs of crawling just yet but soon, I think...she is getting very interested in anything she can get her hands on, and if she wants it, she finds a way to get to it. You can barely turn your back on her now. She has stuff in her mouth before you can blink...literally! She has really taken a liken to sleeping on her stomach, face down!! She loves to have her eyes covered and I think she has found this is the best way to do the trick. However, I always fix that soon after she has fallen asleep....flip back over to the back. 'Maddox, you can't sleep with your face in the mattress'!! I ran the 1/2 marathon this AM with my running buddies. Despite catching the flu/cold on Thursday AM I survived. Grammy stayed in the hotel room and took care of Maddox. Luckily I had prepared her for a long morning shift with a couple of bottles, cereal and apples. It took me 2 hours to run the 13 miles and then another 2 hours just to get out of the parking lot!! UGH! But, we survived and we've been having fun catching up with our running buddies, including Sara and her new little one Connor from Atlanta who is 11 months. Maddox doesn't have much to do with Connor, just looks at him every now and then. Not taking too much interest, reaching out to try to steal his bib, touching his arm etc. Connor takes just a second or two to look at Maddox sort of like 'hmmmm.....who are you' before he tears off into one of his toys. Connor is almost walking and weighs 25 pounds and is MUCH more mobile than Maddox! Soon Maddox! We are only half way done with our little 5 state excursion. Tomorrow ( Sunday) we go to Muphysboro, IL to see some old family friends, Rosie and Brent, and then on to St. Louis to see Aunt Diane graduate with her Masters in Curriculum. We'll finally arrive back in the QCities on Wednesday. PHEW....what a trip!! I"ll write more when we're back home and upload all the great pictures then. Take care y'all!! Bye Bye from Nashville.