Jack is such a happy baby. He's so easy, rolls with the punches, doesn't demand much of a schedule...I mean, he's just great!
But....what will he be like on the airplane? In a different house, sleeping in a different bed? In a totally different environment for 72 hours? Oy.
Jeff's brother and sister in law moved to Baltimore about 9 months ago. His brother got a great job in the financial world (I would be specific, but really, unless you're a teacher, I don't truly understand what you do...), they bought a house, and settled in for a few years. They're great travelers and have been in to see Jack 3 or 4 times since he's been born, but we hadn't made the super important visit up to see them and their new digs!
Jack's 6 months old now, so we decided it was time to test the flying waters. Other parents with babies have gone before us, now it was our turn.
I did 13 loads of laundry, took 5 days to pack, and did 3 hours of research on flying with an infant (you'd be amazed at the amount of sites dedicated to this topic...), and horded advice from other frequent flyer parents.
We took in all of the travel tips and planned ahead and thankfully, Andy and Alison had some friends they could borrow the all important pack and play from and Alison stocked up on baby cereal and fruits and veggies. Two most important things taken care of, right? Where to sleep and what to eat! That was a huge relief!
Friday afternoon, my mom deposited us at the airport with my mega big suitcase (it's lime green polka-dotted, in case you need a visual), Jeff's smaller and more tame blue roller, the stroller, car seat, diaper bag and my purse. Oh, and Jack!
Getting through the ridiculous AA check in and security at DFW was probably the craziest part of the whole trip. Long story short? Well, there were more than a few people in the terminal hoping...really trying to get a casual glance at our tickets...that their seats were faaaaaaaaaaaaar away from ours! And I couldn't blame them.
One relatively new thing about Jack is he will...not...go....to....sleep unless he's in his bed. He just won't do it. He fights it like no body's business. There's too much going on to sleep! He wants to see it all!! So, in the terminal waiting, he was tired....but wouldn't have any of this so called sleep. So he was a little fussy. Really, not too fussy, I promise, but just not extremely happy. And wouldn't go to sleep, no matter what tricks we pulled!! You can see him peeking out of the blanket...
The flight idols were with us, and even thought we'd been ticketed with seats not next to each other, the attendant changed them so that we not only had seats together but behind one of the flight attendant stations, so we would have a little extra room. Sweet! The flight was 3 hours, Jack slept 20 minutes. Every time someone walked by, he had to watch them. I swear. He would be about to drift off to sleep, someone would walk by, and it was all over. He was never crazy, just awake and not overly happy about it. So, fast forward, we made it to Baltimore, flight was good, Andy was there to pick us up and load in all of our junk (although that was quite a feat) and soon we were parked in front of their adorable 1940's New England home!
We had such a good time. It rained pretty much the whole time we were there, but that didn't really matter! It was wonderful to spend time with them and for Jack to get to know his aunt and uncle.
We ventured out on Saturday for a driving tour of Baltimore and a pretty cool visit to Andy's work place.
And Sunday we braved the drizzle to walk around the quaint town of Annapolis.
My cousin went to the Naval Academy, and although I'd only been there once before, I feel like I have a little connection to Annapolis...imagining how my midshipman cousin wrecked havoc in that sweet little town. :)
We dined in both nights (by dinner time, Jack was pretty much down for the count!) and had some delicious sea food. It was just a wonderful visit! Jeff and I loved just hanging out with Andy and Alison and laughing really hard at how crazy the boys were when they were younger...Jeff with his Wonder Woman costume and Andy with his hatred of sock seams and t shirt tags. Oh, how did their mother do it?
Before we knew it, it was Monday morning and we were heading back to the airport. Jack was soooooooooooooo tired from the weekend festivities (and the fighting of the sleep through out all of our activities) he fell asleep on the flight back. Over all, he was a trooper. He fought sleeping pretty much everywhere we went, but wasn't too mad about it!! He slept great each night, and wasn't high maintenance at all! I must say, I was a proud mamma.
It's always nice to be home, but it was so nice to get away!
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