Happy Freaking New Year (or, the Great Barf-Off of 2009)

I knew he wasn't right.

He hadn't eaten for two days. He had a really bad night last night. Sobbing for Mama, crying out intermittently, clinging to me like I was his last hope. But ... no concrete evidence that would have allowed me to cancel our flight this morning. No fever, no vomiting, no diarrhea. Nada.

Until five minutes after we took off and he started throwing up.

Freshly digested milk.

On a tiny regional jet.

Joy.

Yep, he alternated barfing and sleeping for the entire three-hour flight. We were both covered in puke. And then I started sobbing uncontrollably when I realized I'd left all his DVDs at my parents' house (love those pregnancy hormones!). I felt bad for the people around us, but not as bad as I felt for Kiddle. He was miserable, poor thing. And I felt like such a loser of a mom for knowing something wasn't right and still getting on the plane.

But also perversely pleased that at least I wasn't going to have to get my couch and rugs cleaned again. Small blessings, right?

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays from Oklahoma!

We arrived late last night after an already busy week of celebrating.

Monday: Mr. P's family came over for dinner and to exchange gifts. Kiddle doesn't yet grasp the concept of Christmas, but he certainly got into the idea of opening presents.

Tuesday: Kiddle's Hanukkah party at preschool. Shockingly he actually tried a potato latke, even though he was mostly interested in sucking the applesauce off it.


Wednesday morning: Santa came a day early to our house. Kiddle came down the stairs and saw all his gifts laid out: "Wow. Wow. Wow." Too cute. He also thought getting gifts out of his stocking was pretty cool. One item was a tiny Slinky in a box. He pulled it out and said, "Oooh, a box. A box." It's the simple things at that age, isn't it?


Wednesday afternoon: I finally packed and we headed out to brave the crowds at Newark airport. And it was a total disaster, as expected. We totally thought we were in the clear for our 3:00 flight -- unlike everyone else in the terminal, snicker, snicker -- until they announced at 2:15 that our plane hadn't yet left Halifax. Um, you didn't know that a little earlier? We finally got out of there sometime after 7:00. Six hours in an ultra-crowded airport with a two-year-old? So much Christmas cheer.

Needless to say we were thrilled to finally get here. We had our traditional white-trash Christmas morning breakfast of monkey bread, bacon wraps and sausage balls -- yum! And Kiddle and Cooper opened one million more presents. It's hard to say, but I think his favourite gift might just be his Cars Mack truck/race car launcher. Pretty cool.

Trains, Boats and Helicoptors

My parents were just here for another visit (they had free tickets on American as a result of being caught up in the MD-80 fiasco in April) and Kiddle continued his love affair with Ahdah. It's not that he doesn't like his dad or my mom, but for whatever reason my dad is the only person Kiddle will hang out with and not even notice I'm not around. I can't explain it, but I'm not going to fight it.

We had a great visit with them. They're so laid back and don't expect to be entertained. But I was feeling a bit guilty that we haven't done anything really fun the last few times they were here, so we went into the city on Tuesday to see the new Waterfalls public art exhibit. And it was beautiful, interesting and a bit of a let-down all at the same time. We did a half hour Circle Line tour which took you right by each waterfall, but really the best view was from the end of the South Street Seaport where you could see all four structures at one time.

Transportation was the theme of the day. Kiddle was fascinated and a little scared with each new encounter. First was the train ride into the city. I should add here that he doesn't like things that move (shocking, I know, since he's typically a daredevil baby). Last time he rode the little train at the zoo he cried the whole time, and has refused to get on it since then. He even freaks out if you put money in the little truck/car/horse ride-ons at the mall. He'd been on the subway as a baby but this was his first ride as a conscious-of-his-surroundings toddler. And, just as I expected, he wasn't thrilled. Fairly upset, wouldn't get out of my lap. But by the time we got into the city he'd calmed down and realized that trains are ok.

At the seaport, he stood at the railing of the dock saying, "Boat. Boat. Boat." At least until the line started moving to board ... then he was not interested in being a passenger. Of course, once we got underway he decided boats were the coolest thing ever and spent most of the trip running around madly. He had better sea legs than the rest of us (definitely inherited from his dad's side of the family). The river was filled with barges and police boats and speedboats and helicopters and sailboats and trucks and buses crossing the bridges. It was transportation overload and he was in heaven.

Then the return trip on the train was a totally different story: he ran onto the train like he was a seasoned commuter and sat himself down in his own seat with a smug little smile on his face. Such a big boy!

I Slept In Until 10:30!!

Last weekend was heaven. Know why?

Because I was away for three whole days ... BY MYSELF. Well, not really by myself because I was with other people. But none of those other people was a three-foot-tall tornado named Kiddle.

I went to Orlando with some friends and had a good old-fashioned girls' weekend. I got a mani/pedi, had dinner without once saying "use your inside voice, please," saw the "Sex and the City" movie (even though I've seen all of one and a half episodes of the show). But mostly we relaxed by my friend's pool and read and chatted. It was great to not be responsible for anyone other than myself for only the second time in two years.

But I missed Kiddle terribly. He's so funny and interesting right now, it just killed me not to know what was going on with him every second of the day. He and Mr. P spent a couple of days upstate with Mr. P's brother and girlfriend -- a great distraction from the fact I wasn't around, plus Kiddle follows his uncle around like a puppy.

It was a good separation for both of us: I got some great downtime and Kiddle has been much more inclusive of Mr. P this week. Well, until last night ... but more on that later.

Baltimore and beyond ...

For our family, a road trip most often means driving to the airport.

However, this weekend I needed to head to the D.C. area for a friend's baby shower, so we decided to make a family trip out of it. We packed up the car and hit the road at 12:15 -- perfectly coordinated with Kiddle's nap time. Or so we thought. Three hours later, a mere hour before we arrived in Baltimore, he finally fell asleep. Fortunately the yelling and crying during those three hours were minimal.

We stayed with Mr. P's college roommate. He's got a serious bachelor pad near the Inner Harbor. Now, I don't feel like I've done a ton of child-proofing, but I must have kept future children in mind as I furnished our house, because I was caught off guard a bit by how truly un-child-proof this place was. Nothing horribly dangerous, just sooo much stuff for Kiddle to get his grubby little hands on. And did I mention the full bar's worth of liquor bottles on glass shelves in the living room? That was a horror show waiting to happen. We just tried to stay out of the house as much as possible.

Friday night we went down to the east side of the Inner Harbor for dinner. We ate at a wonderful restaurant called Lebanese Taverna which is owned by friends of Mr. P's old roommate. Very beneficial because they at least acted like our whirling dervish of a child was charming, not annoying.

On Saturday we headed to Virginia. Mr. P and Kiddle dropped me off at the baby shower (at a lovely restaurant right on the river) and went to visit another friend from college who recently moved with his family to Arlington from Connecticut. They have a three-year-old boy, a six-month-old girl, and all the toys that go along with that, so Kiddle had a fantastic time. So much so that we went back to their house for dinner after they picked me up from the shower.

Sleep was definitely the challenge of the trip. Friday night we finally got him down at 11:00. Saturday night was an improvement ... 10:15. He was utterly exhausted both nights, but just couldn't give in to go to sleep in his pack-n-play. Which, by the way, he was about two seconds away from climbing out of. If only I had a picture of him balanced across the corner! He just couldn't figure out where to put his hands so he could swing his legs down without tumbling out. I'm really hoping he doesn't apply those skills to his crib. I can't imagine how many hundreds of times a night he'd get out of bed if we were forced to take the side off now.

Anyway, our plan for Sunday was to take Kiddle to the Baltimore Aquarium (he loves aquariums), have lunch with our friend, then hit the road in time for Kiddle's nap. But life with a two-year-old doesn't always (ever?) go as planned. We made it to the aquarium, but he was so tuckered out from the previous two days that he completely lost interest after the first couple of tanks. All he wanted to do was leave. I doubt anyone has ever gone through that aquarium as quickly as we did. It was like speed dating for tourists. We did at least get a couple of EEEE-EEEEs out of him when he saw the dolphins right at the end.

Note the dark circles under his lifeless eyes and the pacifier gripped tightly between his lips. Such enthusiasm for this wonderful family outing.

We finally got out of there, threw our stuff in the car and hit the road. Lunch was the drive-thru at Taco Bell. He fell asleep before we got out of Baltimore. As they say, the best laid plans ...

Note to self: plan the toddler-focused activities earlier in the trip. But no complaints. Really. It was a great weekend. I can't wait to go back and do all the fun Washington D.C. things ... when he's a bit older.