Mom, Dad, Thomas and I just got back from visiting Matthew in Newark for the weekend. It was Thomas' first airplane ride! And it was Mom and Dad's first time to New York. Matthew was a great host, leading us around the subways and streets of Manhattan and even driving us to and from the hotel in Newark. What a memorable trip! I'm really glad we went because not only was it a great time, it also gave me an idea of what it is like to travel with a baby. Thank goodness Mom and Dad were there, otherwise I might never have left Orlando! Who knew that travelling with a baby would be so anxiety-ridden? Perhaps it's just my natural state showing up again, but there's a lot of things to manage! When and where to do naps, feedings, crying on the airplane, takeoffs, landings, security, holding the baby and finding a place to feed and diaper the baby! Having said that, it was a memorable trip: we went up Rockefeller Center
to see the whole of Manhattan sprawled out before us, browsed a fabulous selection of Japanese books, CDs and movies and ate bento lunch at the Japanese bookstore Kinokuniya, and rode the ferry to see the stately Statue of Liberty as all the immigrants would have seen her (minus all the skyscrapers). And we rode a lot of trains and subways and walked a lot of streets, incidentally seeing Radio City Music Hall, Times Square, the offices of the Wall Street Journal, Brooklyn Bridge, World Trade Center site, Broadway, Bryant Park, the church George Washington attended after his inauguration, Rockefeller Plaza, home of NBC, . . . . And so many yummy-looking places to eat.
Thomas took it all like a trooper, sleeping for most of each flight, taking naps in his stroller when he got too tired, eating when he got too hungry, accepting the jostling of being carried up and down stairs in his stroller (dang those New York subway systems/restaurants) without complaint, and only crying when it just became just too much (alarms in the subway, pressure in the ears on descent in the last flight for example). The thing he did strenuously object to was the pureed pears that we tried to feed him in hopes it would get his little digestive system flowing again. What faces he made! And how much conversation and thought were put into his digestive system! It's funny what a big deal poo becomes when you are a parent. But it's ok now -- he's made up for all those clean days on our first day home, thank goodness.
So all in all, a successful trip. Everyone had fun, and now we can all get some sleep. Yay. And plan the next big thing: Mom and Dad moving back to Wisconsin on Monday. Boo.
Sad news. Mom and Dad have returned to Wisconsin to get their house ready to sell. They have made it back safely, sleeping two nights on the road. It has been a few days already, but it still doesn't feel like they've really gone! We have a plan to visit each other monthly, and the first one will be in the first half of June when Matthew is flying. Right now, though, we are lucky to each have houseguests to keep our minds busy: Mom and Dad are being visited by Utaka, and Matthew and I are being visited by Anne and Lloyd from New Zealand! Yay! Thomas loves his Auntie Anne and Uncle Lloyd, giving them lots of smiles and generally being enchanted by whatever they say or do.
As for Thomas, he is getting very wiggly. Putting him down on the diaper-changing table without a toy to keep him occupied is a sure way to instigate a wrestling match to keep him tummy-side up. And when he is on his tummy, he is starting to move very slowly (albeit backwards), and turn himself 360 degrees. We've seen him get up onto hands and knees a couple of times, just for a moment. He is an expert at rolling from front to back, and back to front. He is also pretty stable when placed in a sitting position, and can hold that position for a long time. Another thing he has started to do is put his hands on my shoulders and lean his head on my chest, and when I put my arms around him, his hands will wrap around my neck. I think he's seeking comfort from his mommy! He does it when he's getting tired during playtime, but he also does it when I pull him to sitting after a diaper change so that I can pick him up. My heart melts!
And Thomas has expanded his eating repertoire to rice cereal, pears, sweet potato, and today raw applesauce. He doesn't make a lot of faces at the pears these days, but today when we fed him applesauce we saw the screwed-up faces and the wide mouth with tongue poking out very often. So cute!
