Have Baby...Will Travel...

We are just returning from our very first "vacation" with Little Dude. I say vacation loosely as we didn't go to Disney or the Bahamas, we went to visit family in DH's hometown. We usually go a few times a year, that's where my parents live now as well. We don't consider it a vacation as it's usually a lot of work juggling all the relatives. Nonetheless it was still a trip. The day we left we joked as we arrived at the airport two hours early, that in the five years we've been married we hadn't ever been to the airport that early for a flight. We knew we needed extra time because of the baby. We actually managed to get all of the things we needed for the trip in carry-ons. We bought a seat for the baby so we actually had allowance for three carry-on bags. We managed to do it all with only two. It was a shorter trip so I think that helped. I wore Little Dude in a carrier which freed my hands to help with our things and he actually slept all the way through security. After we got through security and arrived at the gate we found out the flight was delayed two hours. As time went on the flight kept getting later and later. Little Dude did very well in the airport, it helped that there were many new sights and many new people to keep him engaged. In the end we sat in the airport from 9:30am to 3pm. I was terrified that we used up all of his good behavior sitting in the airport and that the plane was going to be a major meltdown moment. Turned out I had no reason to be afraid. He did awesome!! Nearly everyone on the flight commented on their way off the plane just how well he did, even after sitting in the airport for nearly 6 hours. Our visit went well. Little Dude slept even better away from home than he does at home!! He met lots of family and everyone just loves him of course. Our return flight was on time and he even slept for a while on that flight. Again he did awesome!! Overall it was a little more work traveling with a baby but not as much as I expected.

During the trip Little Dude turned 3 months!! This has been the most incredible three months of my life for sure. It's amazing how much he has changed. On the trip we met DH's cousins' new baby, she was only five days old at the time. Holding her I could hardly remember when LD was that small!! He was actually even smaller than she is, but it seemed impossible to believe!! LD's gotten such a personality now. Everyday he has new "words" and sounds that he shares with us. He and I have started watching Baby Signing Time and he loves it(gotta admit I do too)!! Babies can learn to sign long before they're ready to talk. We wanted to give him a chance to communicate with us effectively as early as possible. He lights up whenever DH or I enter the room now. He always has smiles for us. I still stare at him sometimes and have to reach out to touch him to verify that he's really here. He's just too perfect. I'll leave you with a photo of him on our flight home.