Air travel, and an Atlanta visit

I am hereby apologizing via this blog to any parents I have ever glared at or looked at funny while their kid was screaming or wiggling uncontrollably or acting like anything but a perfect angel on an airplane. Lesson learned: it is very difficult to control a child while that child is sitting on your lap for 2 hours and not allowed to stand (other than on your thighs) or crawl or play with noisy toys. Charlie was a VERY good boy on the flight still I could feel the annoyance eminating from the man sitting next to us on the flight home.

We left for Atlanta on Friday morning (note to self: when traveling with a child, do not travel during the busy travel times like Friday nights and Sunday nights) and had a window seat on a row of 3, with no one in the middle seat. Hooray! The man sitting on the aisle was nice enough, although he promptly put his bag under the middle seat so he could stretch his legs and I was stuck straddling a large bag of food/toys/diapers/books/distractions and my purse. He had an I-Pod and a Blackberry which he kept surrepticiously checking even after the flight attendants told him it was time to turn it off (that’s another story) so at least he was occupied and could drown us out. And when Charlie wanted to change his sitting position 11 times in a minute and a half and temporarily lost control of his arm which he flailed into the middle seat, it wasn’t such a big deal because at least the guy had some distance. When we landed, he was even gracious enough to tell me what an adorable boy I have and what a well-behaved traveller he was. Score! Not so much for the flight home…

Of course, we were flying out late Sunday afternoon, because I wanted to get as much time as possible with my family, and of course, the plane was full. It was actually over-sold – no chance of an extra empty seat. If I wasn’t employed, I would have happily volunteered us to stay another night in Atlanta and given up our seat. Of course, if I wasn’t employed, I wouldn’t be flying back on a Sunday night anyway, but I digress. Charlie and I waddled our way up the aisle to our lovely window seat in Row 29, Charlie crying the whole way because he could see his water cup in my bag but couldn’t reach it and I couldn’t hold him and my two bags and reach to get his water cup. And the people in front of me were annoyingly slow at getting their bags in the overhead bins, so the fussing was prolonged, until I finally hoisted him over my shoulder far enough that he could reach over my back and just grab it himself. Happy baby! Meanwhile, I knew everyone we were passing was heaving sighs of relief that we weren’t sitting in their row.
As I approached Row 29, I started to get a bad feeling, b/c I could see a tall man sitting in a middle seat next to an empty one that I figured was mine. I was right, it was mine. Boo. The man was broad-shouldered and tall, and visibly annoyed at having to sit in the middle seat next to a child. It wasn’t any picnic for me either, mister, but what can you do? Luckily Charlie was tired and I was praying he would just fall asleep. Of course not. He was wiggly and eager to play once we were seated. During the 90 minute flight, I did the following: read “Is that my nose?” and “Mirror Me” approximately 50 times each in a very soft voice, held the books open so that he could flip back and forth through the pages, dug the books out of the deep crevice between my chair and the wall, fed him dozens of cheerios and graham crackers, let him feed me cheerios, ran his trucks up and down his body, let him stand on my lap to stare at the people behind us, tried as hard as I could to keep him from whacking the man next to me (only failed once), sang “O Holy Night” and “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” (thanks Nana) over and over again, pointed out the planes on the runway again and again, let him open and close the window shade innumerable times, tried to keep him from pulling my glasses off my face, tried to move him into a more comfortable position… whew! I was TIRED when we arrived in DC.

Charlie's not feeling so hot now - maybe he picked something up on the crowded plane. He's been running a fever since yesterday evening, when Pamela called to tell me he felt hot and the thermometer read 103. That was an under-the-arm temp, though, which means he was actually 104. Sounded scary to me, but the doctor on call said it's not unusual for babies to have such high temps, and we should give him Tylenol and watch him carefully. He slept terribly last night - we were up and down every hour all night long - and he still had a fever this morning, so I worked from home and took him to the doctor. He was tested for step and flu, both of which were negative, so now we're just continuing with the Tylenol and monitoring him and hoping it passes soon.

On the brighter side, he's walking! Both last night and today, he took a series of steps without holding onto anything or anyone. He loves to push off furniture and stand up for as long as he can - and now he can really hold that stand for quite a while. It's so cute to see his little face get so excited by his accomplishments. I'm really proud of him, and so happy to see how proud of himself he is. I love that boy!

We had such a good time on our trip to Atlanta. I got to spend Friday with my friend Molly and her beautiful baby girl Julia. I also got to see several old friends in Atlanta, which was so fun. It was funny to see Charlie and Ann together. They still aren't exactly playing with each other, but they played next to each other, and really amused each other. During one nap, Katie and I heard Charlie giggling and giggling, so we peeked in Ann's room, and caught Ann standing up in her crib, making her stuffed Curious George dance for Charlie. Hysterical!

We had so much fun that I didn't take as many pictures as I should have. Here are a few from the trip:

Bath babies!


Headed on an adventure


Visiting with our great friend Jessica, in her beautiful home design store that she let our kids wreak havoc in:


Post-slumber party, still in jammies:

Who, us?

Charlie loves his sippy cup.

Snack time!

Enjoying a book together:

Playing horsey with Uncle Brent:

Playing with Ann's cash register. Ann wasn't sure she wanted Charlie to play with it, so she kept sliding between him and the toy and straddling or sitting on him so he couldn't reach it. So funny. She has such spunk and a great sense of humor - I miss her already!

The kids wore each other out!

Thanks so much to my family and friends in Atlanta - we had a great trip, and can't wait to come back!