The Halpern Home: St. Louis Saga: Part 1 of 3

The first weekend in October, we traveled to St. Louis for the first time as a family of three. In other words, it was Ryder's first trip to St. Louis. We left on Thursday evening and planned to return on Sunday evening. Blake's mom and dad had planned an open-house style, meet-and-greet party for Ryder since none of their friends had met him yet. We were all very excited about the big weekend, especially the party which was destined to be quite a bash. What should be a simple blog post about the weekend festivities, must now be split into a three-part chronicle of epic proportions.

Part 1: The Party

The flight to St. Louis on Thursday evening was decent. Blake rates Ryder's behavior as a "C," but I'd give him a "C+". It was better than the hellish flight home from Florida several months ago (see previous blog post for a recount of that picnic), but it was by no means a walk in the park. We knew it would be risky to take a flight after Ryder's bed time, but we also knew that any flight time would be risky, no matter what time of day, so we just went with it. Ryder didn't sleep a wink and was a bit fussy, antsy and even spastic at times, but he didn't have any major screaming meltdowns. We made it to Blake's childhood home without significant incident, and Ryder went right to sleep, like a little angel, in his pack-n-play. We enjoyed the day on Friday, which included lunch with Blake's cousin and his new wife (who we hadn't met). My parents arrived in St. Louis that day (they didn't want to miss out on Ryder's meet-and-greet party the following day). It was an uneventful day filled with quality time with family. On Friday night, Randi and Larry graciously offered to stay home with the sleeping baby so that Blake and I could go out with some of Blake's friends. We had a great time having a grown-up night out. We enjoyed the grub and some adult beverages but especially enjoyed the company of the Schweizers (whose son is a few months younger than Ryder) and the Klenofskys (who are expecting twins in 2013). Poor Sara K. had to excuse herself early due to hellish, all-day pregnancy sickness, but otherwise, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

On Saturday, everyone woke up early to get ready for the big party. Randi expected somewhere in the vicinity of 75 guests at the party, which was scheduled between 11-2pm (in hopes that the party would fall between Ryder's morning and afternoon nap). Randi and Chuck had planned a beautiful, over-the-top celebration. A huge cupcake stand was filled with adorably decorated mini-cupcakes, iced in blues, greens and yellows. A caterer set up a delicious lunch spread, including tuna salad, a grilled chicken salad, pasta salad, fruit, bagels, etc. The caterer and his servers stayed to serve drinks and tend to the party guests. Naturally, Randi made sure that every detail was perfect. There were beautiful flower displays and adorable baby-themed decorations. My in-laws certainly know how to host a spectacular event. Ryder looked adorable in his big-boy outfit (pictures to follow, of course), and guests started to arrive promptly at 11am.

The party itself went swimmingly. Randi and Chuck's friends are so sweet, fun and generous. They (quite unnecessarily) showered Ryder with gifts. Ryder was pretty much a rock star. Despite having a decent morning nap, he became very sleepy within the first hour, but despite his obvious exhaustion, he let me tote him around to meet all of the guests without so much as a gripe. By 12pm he had his head permanently rested on my shoulder, paci glued to his mouth and heavy eyelids. Nonetheless, he "marched" on. It was fun to see Randi and Chuck's friends, most of whom I hadn't seen since my wedding day. Several of Blake's friends came as well, many of them bringing their own babies along. At some point, guilt started to nag at me because I knew that Ryder was desperate for a nap. At around 1:15p.m., I gave in and put Ryder down for a nap upstairs. I felt badly that a few guests would still come by and wouldn't get to meet him, but I simply couldn't force the sleepy little babe to stay up any longer. I returned downstairs to the party, sans the guest of honor, and continued to visit with all of the wonderful St. Louis folk. It was nothing but peaches and cream until approximately 1:30p.m. My dad found me and said that Blake had text-messaged him and asked that he tell me to please bring him a cup of hot coffee upstairs right away. It was a very strange message. I figured that Blake texted my dad since he knew that I was not carrying my phone around with me, but the fact that he was demanding coffee upstairs at the tail end of the party was quite odd. I had noticed that I hadn't seen Blake for a little while, but I had assumed he was merely in another room or perhaps in the restroom.

Stay tuned for blog post "Part 2 of 3" to find out why Blake demanded coffee upstairs while the party was still ongoing. For now, enjoy some pictures from Ryder's party (and the remainder of the St. Louis weekend):