Baby, I’m a Rockstar!
The only baby around and her mom...
In case you haven’t noticed, Jacksonville and the surrounding areas are filled with babies and young children. Oh and of course, there are pregnant ladies galore! This is an observation that I made when we first moved here four years ago and it hasn’t changed over time. I have obviously gotten accustomed to seeing these groups of little ones (whether they are in their mommy’s tummy or out), because I forgot that it isn’t normal in other parts of the country.
We recently traveled to the Asheville, NC area. We spent a lot of our time in Waynesville, which is just south of Asheville. During our time in that area, we saw very few babies. It was very obvious that there weren’t a large number of babies in the area, because Braylin was a rockstar. Everyone wanted to talk to her and about her, which is not something that I am used to living in the land of babies.
Rockstar or not, some of the places that we visited were not prepared for a baby. Being that I had never noticed the lack of baby necessities in other towns, I didn’t really have a game plan for the improvising that I would need to do. Fortunately, being a mom (and a Marine wife), it is quite easy to adapt and overcome despite the looks that you get from other people.
Not having a high chair, though inconvenient, wasn’t a huge problem. I just held Braylin or left her in her stroller depending on the amount of space in the particular restaurant. The bigger issue was the lack of changing tables. Luckily, it only presented a problem a couple of times. I tried to change her in the back seat of the truck, but her car seat was in the way and made it awkward, so I laid out a blanket and changed her on the tailgate of the truck. I got a few strange looks, but what can you do?
Have you ever been anywhere that babies were scarce? Was your baby quite popular? Did you have to improvise for baby necessities?
