Cute things A did

Now every time we fly out of San Diego, we are generally stocked with petit baguettes from Bread & Cie and some butter, if not cheese and fruit.

We got to the Portland airport. We go through security and get to our gate.

A looks at us and says, "I'm hungry. Bread, please."

Vacation

Whew.

I neglected to mention it, but we went to Oregon on va-cay for an extended week around Memorial Day. It was fabulous, and I mean fabulous.

First of all, Portland, I love you. I love your verdant gardens overflowing with azaleas and rhododendrons and ripe rose buds. I love your Craftsman-style houses. I love your friendly TSA airport employees and dual-flush toilets. I love your Ramona Quimby sculpture in Grant Park. I love your awe-inspiring City of Books, Powell's, and want to get a job there, although I assure you, I will lose money in the trade.

We stayed with the fabulous D/S/E/M/L family, where M is a cutie pie born three weeks before A, and I've got to say they are the most gracious hosts. I aspire to that level of hospitality. Huge gorgeous house with plenty of rooms for all, piles of books everywhere to read, and kidproof and toy-laden to boot.

Plus we have to say that M and A are so cute together. Really cute. They run around and play like puppies. They are freakishly adorable to the point where I can't quite stand it.

Then our fabu friends the Bumps came to town and (the fabulous D/S/E/M/L family hosted them unseen, I mean, come on, how many people actually open their houses to virtual strangers?) we all went off to the Oregon Coast for the weekend. We went to Lincoln City, and while it was colder than I had anticipated, it was great. We flew kites and looked at the water and cooked and played games. A took a four-hour nap one day and discovered an Elmo's World video, so that was pay dirt for him.

Then back to Portland, where our hosts had picked up another baby (since it's always good to have a spare) and hosted a BBQ and we all had a great time before we had to fly back.

I can safely say we could have spent another week in Oregon and I don't think any of us would have minded. A keeps asking about when we'll be going back to the "green house."

I love vacations where I come home and don't want to kill anyone.

I'm sure there are lots of stories of his cuteness but honestly I can't remember any right now.

We came home Wednesday and since then we've been digging out, C at work, me with lots of phone calls for all sorts of appointments and emails about writerly stuff. A is adjusting to having just boring old me to admire him instead of a crowd of adults, another toddler, and a pair of babies.

And yesterday it turns out another one of our birth class friends is going to come and visit on Monday. So I hope we'll be half as kind as the people who just hosted us.

the House of Mouse

We just got back from Walt Disney World, that altar to childhood and capitalism. A had a fabulous time. This is what he loved:

• Peter Pan's Flight
• It's a Small World
• The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
  
• El Gran Fiesta (the boat ride in Mexico)
• Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
• the Finding Nemo and Festival of the Lion King shows
• Flights of Wonder
  
• Stealing the chocolate coating off his mother's Mickey Ears ice cream novelties
• Dole Whip and ice cream
  
• Running around with his cousins
  
• Swimming in the pool, especially when his dad picked him and me up and tossed us up in the air together
  
• The little table that slid out from under the desk to eat breakfast on
• Sitting on bench seats to eat with us
  
• Feeding M&Ms to Pluto
• Fountains
• The talking trash can in Tomorrowland

And we loved watching him. There's nothing quite like watching your own kid enjoy something. I've always been a "suck the marrow out of the day" kind of girl at Disney, but this trip, I was more than happy to watch A take yet another trip around London and Neverland in a pirate ship because he was just thrilled to take it in.

Yes, they lost our luggage. But they found it. Yes, two-year-olds need naps and snacks. But they also notice the smallest things and have the biggest smiles.

Back from Portland

I must say, I love seeing the divine Miss M and her parents and sister, but I just can't stand the post-visit cold. This time it's a cough and a runny nose instead of severe intestinal distress, thank God, but we ran out last night to get a vaporizer since A was having trouble breathing for all the mucus. Poor boy.

We had a lovely time. We flew Southwest, which has eliminated their pre-boarding process for families with young children, and boy, were we beholden to the kindness of strangers in its wake. On the first flight, a woman gave up her posh second row seat for us, while a nice man put my bag in the overhead and another person kept A occupied while I attached the car seat. Wonderfully kind people.

Coming home, we got to do Southwest's new check-in procedure, which doesn't help much. You get a number when you check in and then you stand in a line that's been marked with these numbers. I checked in exactly 24 hours before our flight and I got number 19 on the first leg and 22 on the second leg. What the hell? Well, at the airport, I discovered that 1-15 are reserved for business class passengers. So the numbering for us plebeians "starts" at 16. Anyway, there wasn't hardly anyone in the 1-15 range on any of my flights, but everyone I talked to asked me why I wasn't pre-boarding and wasn't Southwest dumb for getting rid of pre-boarding for infants.

I know. You want to know about the baby. What did we do? We went for sushi, we played in playgrounds and parks, we met a Corgi named Freddie, we went to Powell's (sigh, Powell's), and we went to a book club meeting. We played in M's gorgeous huge house with all her toys. We ate good food and even sweet potato fries. So it was fabulous and great.

C's at work now (sigh). A really missed his dad and had a hard time getting back to sleep every night when he woke up and Dad wasn't there. Sad. He's pretty cranky and fussy now, and I must say, I'm getting to my last nerve. I didn't realize how much I need a break, even if it's just an hour of being in the next room.

So what do you do with a baby in Vegas?

Well, let's see. We drove to Vegas, which took about five hours, out of which A was unhappy for half an hour. I put my hand on him and he fell asleep.

We met up with C's work people at the hotel and ate. Then C wasn't due back until later, so we checked into our hotel, let the boy run around the room, and then headed over to the hotel for a tour of J&T's suite and to get my badge. C dropped A and I off at our hotel and he went to the Voodoo Lounge for the company shindig. A and I fell asleep. C crept in later and escaped death by not waking me up too much.

Day two, we dropped C off and picked up Miss Julie and went shoe shopping and fishing shopping. Did you know Zappos has an outlet in Vegas? It does, and I found it and the most darling pair of cute trendy sneakers, plus a pair of blue snakeskin heels. Plus we had excellent Memphis-style BBQ. We went to see The Big Announcement by the CEO and then C, A, and I had dinner and went to bed.

Day three, we had a long lazy morning. C, T, and I went and had BBQ again because it was just that good. Yum! I could eat another pulled pork sandwich right now. The sweet potato came with brown sugar butter sauce. I can't begin to tell you how good that is. Brown sugar and butter might be the best tasting thing in the world.

C went to his panels, A and I drove around Vegas for a nap, then we went to the pool (where some person tried to tell me that the pool was an adult-only pool like I was an idiot and I went all Willy Wonka inscrutable/loony on him), and then we went to watch C in his last panel, then went to the Grand Banquet and ditched after the wedding and costume contest.

Day four, we got up, had breakfast, and came home.

There's a huge difference between staying on the strip without a car and staying off the strip with a car and there's a huge difference in having your baby there and not. But we were not the only ones there with young 'uns.

I think A's favorite part was either trying to walk around in the hotel hallways or taking a bath in the hotel tub.

I took no pictures aside from ones of the hotel room, which is truly a shame.

Vegas with baby

Yes, we were those people in Vegas with a baby in the stroller.

Pizza's hot so I will say that we went to Vegas, had a good time, and didn't gamble or drink. Vegas with a baby is worlds apart from Vegas without a baby (at least, if you are a good parent--yes, I'm looking at you, people who line your kids up against the wall of the casino while you gamble).

More when pizza's not hot.

Viva Las Baby

I'm trying to pack but Mister Crankypants here is making it difficult. So I'm blogging and holding him in my lap.

He desperately needs a nap.

Today was his 12-month checkup. I asked a lot of questions about food, allergies and parenting. He's doing great. He's average in weight, height and head circumference (but in no other ways is he average!), 22 pounds, 29 and a half inches. The length surprised me; his car seat's limit for height is 30 inches so we'll be getting a car seat sooner than I thought. The pediatrician says he has a lot of words for a one-year-old.

He has a new trick where he runs over to a light socket, sees how close he can get to it before I say, "Danger!" then runs back to me, giggling. He also thinks sneezes are hysterically funny right now. Anyone sneezes and he looks delighted, like a large and beautiful butterfly just floated by. If it's a particularly good sneeze, he giggles.

He got the MMR vaccine today and he's running a low-grade fever, which the doctor told us to expect. He really didn't like these shots; he howled and turned so red I thought he'd had a reaction to the drugs at first. One of them apparently burns.

We've got a rental car to go to Vegas (since my car had a nervous breakdown the last time we were there) and we've got to pick it up this evening. I wonder what you do with a baby in Vegas. I'm packing swim togs and we'll spend a lot of time at the pool.

Vegas baby!

Oh, I completely spaced the biggest news. C has to go to Vegas for a work thing (I hesitate to call it a conference since it's more like a sci-fi con than any business conference type of event) and so we're going to go with him.

Yes, we're taking the baby to Vegas. We took him to Italy; we can take him anywhere. This will be just after A's first birthday. Vegas isn't my most favorite place in the universe but C is my most favorite person. A and I can take walks and spend time poolside.

Jet lag

Jet lag is just no fun for anyone. We'd been moving to increasingly later bedtimes until C came home last night and found A and I asleep on the couch together. He put A to bed and when I woke up, I went to bed too. Then we all got up at 3 or 4 this morning and drove aimlessly trying to put the boy to sleep.

So we're tired. But I found quizzes.

Your Birthdate

You're a dynamic, charismatic person who's possibly headed for fame. You tend to charm strangers easily. And you usually can get what you want from them. Verbally talented, you tend to persuade people with your speaking and writing. You are affectionate and loving, but it's hard for you to commit to any one relationship. Your strength: Your charm Your weakness: Your extreme manipulation tactics Your power color: Indigo Your power symbol: Four leaf clover Your power month: December

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Italy: an overview

I just started trying to write a trip report and it's just going to take too long. So I thought I'd write a brief summary of where we went and hope that would satisfy people for now.

Places we went:

• Florence - Duomo, the Duomo Museum, the Bapistry, the Accademia, Santa Croce, the Uffizi Gallery, the Ponte Vecchio, the Medici Chapels, the Straw Market, the Piazza dei Signorina, the Uffizi Loggia, and our own Piazza dei Annunziata.
• Vernazza in the Cinque Terre
  
• Pisa - the Field of Miracles, but we just looked at the outsides of the Leaning Tower and the Duomo before skedaddling. We didn't like Pisa.
  
• Tuscany: San Giminano, Siena, Monteriggiano, Pienza, Volterra. We went into the Duomos of most places.
• Rome: the Campo dei Fiori, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Piazza Novena, the Colosseum, the Forum, Palentine Hill, the Borghese Gallery, St. Peter's, and the Vatican Museum, including the Sistine Chapel.

Things we learned:

• Italians love babies. They passionately love babies. They shower babies with affection. A ate it up.
  
• Carrying your baby gets you special treatment. Places with ridiculous amounts of stairs sent us to the elevator; we were waved through security checkpoints and X-ray machines. I was tapped firmly on the shoulder at the Sistine Chapel and told to follow a security guard. I thought I was in trouble. He walked me over to a bench (most of the Sistine is standing room only aside from benches in one corner), unseated a man, and sat me down.
  
• Most Italians have not seen a baby carried in a wrap and so they're fascinated by it and thrilled to talk to the baby face-to-face. A now smiles when you say, "Ciao, bambino!" to him.
• Packing light is a wonderful thing. We had two carry-on sized bags and a day bag, plus the car seat. That was grand for traveling. I wore a shirt/skirt combo or a dress every day and that was fine.
  
• Those mesh packing cubes that seem like an incredible waste of money are fabulous. Everyone had a cube for their clothes: me, C, A. When you're going from town to town pretty regularly, it keeps you organized and makes the repacking easier. We had some other things in ordinary Ziplock plastic bags, and they were too slippery to make for good packing.
• At some point, you have to stop swabbing everything your baby touches with an antibacterial wipe.
  

It was amazing to have a baby with us in Italy. In the US, I often feel like I'm apologizing for having my baby with me unless it is a patently kid-friendly place, like the Zoo. He yells or squeals in a restaurant and we've got him out of the room quickly.

In Italy, it was like everyone was related to us. Everyone (with one exception in the entire country) was thrilled to see him. He yelled in museums and churches and people still cooed and called him beautiful, asked about his weight, his teething. In Italy, they expected babies to be babies and didn't care when he made noise. It was amazing how much that added to my enjoyment of life. I'm not suggesting the US goes baby-crazy, but it was certainly a refreshing two weeks.

Bellisimo piccolino!

We are home and currently suffering from sleeplessness. This is what happens when you go across nine time zones.

Everything was fabulous; Italians love, love, love babies and they loved, loved, loved A. I felt like royalty: crowds parted, people cooed and waved, people on buses hopped up like they'd been stuck with pins to give me and A a seat, guards ushered us to private elevators and seats in every museum we went to.

I've gone from thinking you must be crazy to take a baby to Italy to thinking you absolutely must take a baby to Italy to experience Italy at its best. Trip report will follow once I've downloaded pictures; my 4 gig card was insufficient and we had to buy another gig for Rome.

Packing packing packing

I am pleased to report that we are mostly (90%) packed for Italy and we don't leave until Wednesday morning. The luggage count still stands at two carry-on bags and a small backpack, plus car seat. Please compare to the luggage count for Christmas to be awed by the improvement in our mad packing skills.

Saturday I had a pedicure, then we ran around doing last-minute trip stuff, like getting a couple new toys for A for the plane and getting a self-stuffing jacket for C.

Easter was low-key with J&T but surprisingly good: ham, mashed potatoes, broiled pineapple with brown sugar. Sunday morning, A woke us up horribly: pulling on hair, crying, yelling. Then he waved at us for the first time. That kid knows how to ladle out a little sugar with his crankiness to keep us from BBQ-ing him.

Today's plan: swim class and last-minute errands like getting a key made for the pet sitter, picking up minor things, and stopping our mail service. If we can just finish our taxes before we leave the country, we'll be set.

Whirlwind tours

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana. We had a whirlwind visit to CO last week to the lovely Casa de Bump. I must say, visiting friends or family makes me remember that people's homes can be beautiful places. This is not an ideal we're chasing here in the rental. We didn't do much of anything (aside from an art show--it's amazing when poof, one of your friends is an artist and a good one to boot) but we had a grand time. Colorado is cold compared to SD right now. It was just a day trip but so nice and felt so much longer than that, really.

How did our boy do? He's a champ. We had four flights (SD to Vegas, Vegas to Denver with no change in planes, then Denver to Vegas with a plane change). A cried from the time he was buckled into the seat until the plane began moving on the first flight and didn't wake up until Denver. The second set of flights was more harried, but that was not A's fault.

We met those people: mom who looked like Barbie in her skin-tight Lucky brand jeans and blue suede and shearling knee-high boots, dad who was dragged along against his will and spent most of the time playing with his phone, and their two screaming children, maybe six and ten (?), a girl and a boy. Mom left the boy in the gift shop by himself, the girl ran around taking off her shirt, and dad claimed "he couldn't watch both the bags and her [the girl]." These children did not look 5 and under, but they pre-boarded and sat right behind us.

So the girl is screaming for most of the flight, the boy is yelling about how he wants to sit next to a window and sit next to mom, and dad is pretending he doesn't know them. Mom is delaying the flight by getting the girl her Garfield book during taxiing. There was so much movement and noise from between the seats behind us (which A is facing in his car seat) that he didn't sleep until I threw a blanket over our seats to hide the horrible family. Then he slept the whole way.

On descent, the flight attendants say to C and me, "How old is your baby?" Seven months. "I haven't heard a peep out of him the whole flight." No, he's a good traveler. "I bet you guys are thinking, 'Never, never, never." This was a flat-out reference to the horrible family behind us. I said that saying 'Never' is the best way to ensure that's what you get, and they laughed, but they complimented us again on how super A is.

A slept through descent, disembarking, and the whole next flight. Our connection in Vegas was cut short because the plane arrived early, which meant I left a sleeping A and all our bags in the watch of a woman in a wheelchair and her family while I went sprinting to Burger King to get C so we could board the plane. C and I decided we really need to have a plane with seat assignments; it wasn't bad with a baby to pre-board (bulkhead 3 out of 4 flights) but it just wigs us out to find seats on the plane. But they certainly load those planes quickly.

Anyway, this trip was a good test of our travel abilities and new gear:

• Travel crib - okay, but we need to spend more time getting A comfy in it. Quite light and inflates quickly.
• New backpack-converting carry-on bag - great! C had nothing but good things to say about the design of the bag and pronounced it "well-engineered," which is high praise. We need to figure out how to pack a soft-sided bag again.
• Vacuum-packing bags that suck all the air out of your clothes and compress them - very cool, although they seemed to do the best with Polarfleece.
• 3 ounce bag rule - Fine except for contact lens solution, which stupid manufacturers aren't making in 3 ounce sizes I've seen yet. Nobody made me throw out my (gasp) 4 ounce bottle on the way back, however.
• Freebie tote bag - still not great for much other than our swim class bag. We need a different lightweight tote.
  

Baby passport pictures...

...are the cutest thing in the universe. Really.

Traveling, Christmas, and New Years

ETA: This is a really funky picture I inadvertently took of the reflection of my IL's living room while trying to take a picture of the snow. It's surprisingly interesting, at least to me.

Howdy folks. I have been sick with a head cold ever since we got back from CO. The night we got back, we went to bed at 8; the next night, I was groggy all day and went to bed at 5PM and didn't get up until 5AM the next day. I'm still not at my finest, but I can blog. We made all our flights with no problems other than ordinary, moderate (half-hour or so) delays, so we have no horror stories of DIA.

A is a good traveler, or so we think without any means of comparison. The people in our shuttle van to the airport wanted to cry when they saw us coming with our gazillion bags of stuff and a baby. A was fine in the airport (even when some of the TSA people in SD were unfriendly and rude), getting his usual amount of admiring glances from those seeing baby strapped onto C with the Bjorn. I would personally like to thank the woman who put her baby through the X-ray machine for now making it a requirement that all car seats are turned over with cushion face-down on the disgusting conveyor belt, even when you can brandish the baby at the TSA authorities and say, "There's no baby in the seat. See?"

A was fine on the plane. We had a moment of panic when we had to strap him in before the plane started moving and he began screaming. But once the plane started moving--a minute later, although it felt like an hour to us--he settled down and was asleep for take-off. I had to wake him up to feed him half an hour before descent, then he laughed the whole way down.

Our rental car was there as promised. The Hertz Gold Club #1 service where they let you off the bus first and you walk to your car, bypassing the counter and the line inside, is fabulous. When you come back, they scan your license plate, send you to the front of the line, and greet you by name. Lovely, especially with the boy and his stuff in fresh snow and slush.

It feels like we didn't get to spend enough time visiting (I'm looking at you, Mr. and Mrs. Bump) and that we need another week off to recover from traveling. But many people who hadn't met A got to meet A, which is good, and he got lots of quality time with his grandparents, which is great. Fun fact: if the grandparents are keeping the same hours as the baby, you can hand the baby off to the grandparents for early-morning quality time while you go back to sleep until your internal body clock says the kid needs fed or until you actually get enough sleep. I haven't seen C that well-rested in months. Five months, to be exact.

We also finally got to meet our niece, who is absolutely adorable. Our nephew was expecting A to be almost-three, but they did seem to hit it off.

A is now demanding attention, but I'll just note the one baby-worthy thing on animals, since we've had a lot of animal contact. Niles the fluffy white cat was so glad to see us back that he tolerated A grabbing a handful of fur. He's now allowing me to move A's hand over his head and back. Even cautious Jake has succumbed to being petted by A (while guided by me). They seem okay with him, even when A wriggled quick and grabbed Jake's ear tightly in his little fist. Those ears are pretty tempting. Yesterday at Trader Joe's, we met a Bernese Mountain Dog who loves babies. This dog immediately turned his attention from all the other people and sniffed at A, licked my hand, sat directly in front of A and stared peacefully at him. Sweet puppy!

All I want for Christmas...

..is a maid and a massage therapist, so the therapist can whisper, "Lulu is cleaning the house," as he rubs the tension out of my shoulders.

We had Christmas and it was super. We are now home again. Jake is happy; Niles is pouting. Would write more but A is apparently hungry.

Leaving on a jet plane

Or so we freaking hope.

We had a lovely dinner with J & T and J's 'rents last night, an indulgence since we're going to be in CO when T makes pierogies for Christmas. They were delicious (and so was the ham). We got home around 10PM.

A slept (mostly) while C and I packed. It took us until 2AM to pack every thing. A woke up at 5:25 on the nose to eat, so I fed him and gather the last essentials we'd forgotten in our midnight stupor (infant Tylenol, wipes) that still need to go in the suitcase. This is all the crap we'll be lugging along:

• One huge-ass suitcase big enough for the entire damn family to climb in. Checked.
• One Pack-N-Play, with sheets. Checked.
• One matching bag with books, food (cookies!), second-string back-ups for A and my other nursing bra, since you just can't go buy a huge-ass nursing bra at the 7-11. Carry-on.
• One duffle containing winter gear: boots, hats, scarves, etc. Carry-on due to essential nature of winter gear coupled with lack of desire to wear Bean boots in SD airport.
• One diaper bag, filled to the freaking brim with diapers and A's first-string back-up outfits. Carry-on.
• One purse, filled with all the liquids that I can't replace easily in case I am separated from my checked luggage. Carry-on.
• One freaking huge car seat, with base, to be lugged on the plane. Carry-on.
• Coats for all. Not taking the full-length wool. Carry-on.
• Baby Bjorn and Peanut Shell baby carriers for baby portability. Carry-on.

We're sleep-deprived, but we're traveling. I MUST shower. Have a merry Christmas if I don't catch you until after the merriment.

Moving, Part Deux

The Boy and I left our cozy little place at dawn this morning to pick up a Penske truck to drive to Chula Vista and pick up all the stuff from our storage container. (I must be more pregnant looking because a woman in the office made a point of telling me where their bathroom was. No, I did not ask or do the pee-pee dance to prompt the advice.) Everything went smoothly; the contents were undamaged in transit and our notoriously irksome neighbor did not show his loathsome mug for the 15 minutes the truck was parked in our outrageously difficult driveway. (His car was parked on the street in the cul-de-sac anyway, we knew.)

We dropped off the truck and the nice manager of the local Penske not only added my AAA discount after we'd signed the contract, but he gave us half off the daily rate since we'd only had the truck out for a couple hours. It was the fastest move ever, and the people at Penske are super, so if you need a truck rental, go with them.

We dragged the box spring upstairs and put it on our IKEA bedframe, at which point we laughed and laughed because the bed is now ridiculously high. Then I drove like a maniac to my orthodontist, who told me I'm two visits away from being braces-free, glory be. Now I'm home and all I have to do is work and clean and figure out when to go shopping before we go to birth class tonight (#4, the Coach's role) so that we can get to sleep at a decent hour before my in-laws show up tomorrow morning.