To Lynchburg and Beyond, My Pumpkin

My little V, Grandmary and I took a trip to Lynchburg this afternoon. As usual, the little pumpkin was a complete trooper. He took good naps both directions!

We got there only to find out that Sentara has now banned everyone under the age of 18 because of H1N1. So we waited outside and talked to the social worker who let us know what window we could bring little V to so that Louise could see him.

So what's funny is that the window sill was probably 6-7 feet off the ground, so Mom and I took a bench out of the lobby, dragged it under the windowsill, and then I scrambled up onto the windowsill all Mission Impossible/McGyver style, then Mom handed little V up to me and we stood in the windowsill. It was fantastic. Eric would have been horrified.


I have to say, I don't have an accurate perspective on this, but could this little pumpkin be any cuter?

I Heart Daddy and I Do Not Like Airplanes

Hmmm. Mommy keeps saying he's in Seattle. Where is that? Do you think it is somewhere further away than Huff's house? Somewhere further away than Williamsburg?

Oh, yes. Now I remember. You have to ride on a plane for eight hours to get there. Harrumph. Come home soon Daddy. Mommy and I are NOT doing that again without you any time soon.

Vake and Al's Excellent Adventure

I preface this post by telling you that, try as I might, I'm not all that good at taking pictures at events- I get wrapped up in the moment and wind up missing something.

As you all know, Vake and I went to visit E and his family in Seattle this weekend- I left after work on Thursday. I will tell you that traveling with a baby alone is about roughly 3.8 times more difficult than traveling alone.

To kick things off, my stroller and I set off some super TSA alarms, so both the stroller and I had to go into a special room to be specially searched- and Vake was S-T-A-R-V-I-N-G. So the TSA guy wound up feeding him. V didn't seem to care but the TSA guy was definitely ready to see the hind end of us.

We loaded up in Richmond, no problem. Vake was a total rockstar for the Richmond to Charlotte leg of the trip. So much so that I cockily called Anne on the phone and said, "We're rocking it out. No worries. I don't know why people say traveling with a baby is so hard. He's doing so well." Here is a backwards pic of naive, naive me and Vake.

Somehow, I totally managed to miss the "sleep window" for little V and he SCREAMED for four of the five hours that it took us to get to Seattle. It was like a scene from a movie. He also took in almost 72 ounces worth of fluid. It was unbelievable. As you can imagine, I wasn't happy and he wasn't happy. I was pretty happy to do the baby handoff to Eric when we landed. This picture shows how he looked and how I am sure I looked and I know I felt.

But once we got our Seattle legs, we had a great time. We walked around the city and went to the zoo. Vake and Eric got some good quality time together.

This is Vake's favorite new way to nap. Upside down in his stroller.

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was getting to see friends and family. This is where it becomes obvious that I am not a multitasker: that is, I cannot take pictures of friends and family while hanging out with them. Oh well. At least I got this cute one of Brad and Emily.

Here's little V on his way to some of our fun-filled activities. This was the carseat that came with the rental car.

And if the first plane ride wasn't enough excitement, little Vake rode in a supermarket cart for the first time. Pretty cute. What's even cuter is the reason this happened. Daddy "couldn' t carry beer and the baby at the same time."

Grandma Sue's retirement party was at a beautiful park overlooking a river- so fun. It was a cool day. I was comfortable in a sweater and FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A YEAR non-maternity jeans. I cannot tell you how happy it made me to be wearing a pair of jeans without a panel for a belly.

On the trip back from Seattle, Vake was like a new baby. No crying. He took two good naps. All the people on the plane LOVED him.

And then, when he got tired, I just put him down on the seat next to me and he was out like a light.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

What's not to love about John Denver (and what's REALLY not to love about John Denver and Kermit the Frog (and by the way, Vake and I are currently really into the 35 years of Sesame Street CD and the Muppets Retrospective CD- poor Dennis who is staying with us probably has bleeding ears from It's Not Easy Bein' Green and Rubber Ducky))???

Anyway, in the immortal words of JD, Vake and I are flying to Seattle today. I am extremely apprehensive about this trip, mostly the Charlotte to Seattle leg, because if Vake decides he's not happy, we're pretty much stuck.

There's an upside and a downside to this travel. The upside is that we are flying first class because we were supposed to go with Eric. I am optimistic that the chances that we will be treated like human beings and the flight attendants will be nice to Vake are about 50-75%. The downside, we were supposed to go with Eric. That's the hard part. He had to change his flight plans because of work.

And his work is sometimes tough for a couple of reasons. First, although I LOVE, emphasis on the word love, my job, it is sometimes frustrating to realize that I am no longer the jetsetting lawyer I used to be. I sometimes miss civil practice. Second, the tradeoff for me having this extremely nice life with a job that I love, a house that I love, a family that I love is that Eric works all the time to provide it for us. And I am so grateful but there are times when I just wish he was home. It's the age-old work life balance.

Anyway, send all your positive karma to me this afternoon that Vake is true to his peppy, sweet little form and sails through 3,000 miles of air travel the way he's sailed through everything else so far.