Happy December!

So yeah, the trip to Chicago was pretty good. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that it was like childbirth - the bad parts are already fading from my memory.

Getting out of Virginia was something of a comedy of errors, though.

We got all the bags and the baby into the car. I asked Matt, "Did you want to bring the itenerary?"

Matt said, "Yes." He went back into the house to get it. He tossed it in the back seat with my mom's Atkins diet book, which I've been meaning to look at, and we were on our way.

We got to Richmond airport and parked the car. Matt went to get the bags out of the trunk while I freed Penny from the carseat. All of a sudden, the air around me turned blue as Matt started cussing. "What?! What is it?"

"We forgot to bring jackets."

That's right. Going to Chicago - where snow over Thanksgiving week is hardly unusual - and because it had been a nice, comfy 65 or so when we left home, it hadn't occurred to either Matt or I to grab so much as a windbreaker. We had Penny's fleece jacket, at least.

Oh, well. It was too late to do anything about it - Richmond is almost an hour from our house. We hefted the bags and headed for the terminal. There were no shuttles or anything, so Matt was stuck carrying three fairly heavy bags, while I carried the baby and the two carry-on bags. Richmond airport isn't huge, so it was only about two city blocks from the car to the terminal building, but it was a long two city blocks.

We stood in line to get our boarding passes and then I asked, "Where did you put the itenerary?" - thinking he'd stuffed it and the book into one of the carry-on bags while I was wrestling Penny out of the carseat.

Matt took a deep breath. "It was in the back seat. You didn't get it?"

"No. I didn't see it."

Penny and I found a bench and waited while Matt walked back out to the parking lot.

We finally made it to our gate and put together a bottle for Penny, who by that time was informing everyone around us that we have Never Fed Her, Ever!

Eventually, they loaded us on the plane, and we gave Penny the dose of baby Tylenol that our pediatrician had recommended to help her cope with the pressure changes and popping ears. She fell asleep in about ten minutes - just about the time the captain came on the intercom to tell us that bad weather in Chicago was going to keep us grounded for about an hour. So we sat on the runway for an hour. Penny slept.

Finally, we were cleared to take off. We woke Penny up to give her a bottle - another trick to help babies cope with pressure changes - and she was fantastic. She looked all around and squirmed and was happy. No sweat.

About half an hour into the flight, though, her ears must have popped, because she started screaming and crying. That lasted for a good half-hour (possibly one of the longer half hours of my life) but finally, I got her to calm down, and by then she was so tired she fell asleep again, and she slept until we landed at O'Hare.

Matt's mom picked us up. Everyone was happy to see (and in many cases, meet) Penny, and we were happy to see our relatives. We'd been hoping to see more of Matt's family - we missed one uncle, both aunts, and all but one cousin - but Matt's mom was driving us around (since she had a carseat a friend had loaned her) so we couldn't really dictate too much of the schedule.

Penny with Aunt Rachael and Grandma Jill

Penny with Dad, Great-Grandma Brooks, and Grandpa "Toad" Brooks

Penny with Dad and Great-Grandpa "Grumps" Brooks

Anyway, Penny was fantastic for the trip. For the most part, she was happy and friendly. She did occasionally get kind of fussy, due mostly to overstimulation, I think. (I'd get pretty irritable, too, if several people were babbling at me non-stop at me all the time.) But she never completely lost her shit, she'd just get fussy and grumpy, and Matt or I would take her away and set her in the carseat for a bit, or feed her, and she'd zonk out to process everything.

There are more pictures up on my album, if you're interested.

I was dreading the trip home, and it seemed destined to be a rough one, as Penny fussed for most of the time we were in the airport, cranking and whining and refusing to take her bottle. Finally, Matt went to change her diaper, and she calmed down the instant he laid her on the changing table in the men's room. (The women's room was under renovation and the changing table was nowhere to be found, alas. I don't really always make Matt do the diapers.)

When he came back he said, "I think she just wants to lie down." He laid her across one of the waiting-area seats, and sure enough, she stopped fussing and started twisting around. (She's working on rolling over. She's not there yet, but she works at it very hard.)

Of course, we wouldn't be able to lay her down on the plane, so I was still nervous about it. There was one piece of luck - the flight wasn't full, so we got a whole row to ourselves. We marched onto the plane, and Penny got fussy again... I pulled the "Skymall" catalog out of the seat pocket. The front of it was bright red, background to a picture of a Mickey Mouse watch. I handed it to Matt to show her - she likes bright colors.

"If you're quiet for the whole trip," I said, only half-joking, "we'll buy you a Mickey Mouse watch."

About five minutes before takeoff, she fell asleep on Matt's arm.

She stayed asleep when he repositioned her to put on the headphones for the in-flight movie, which was extremely dumb, but a reasonable distraction. (I'm not complaining, but since when do they start showing movies on 2-hour flights?)

She stayed asleep while I alternated between watching the stupid movie and flipping through the catalog. (Mmm... Hammacher Schlemmer and The Sharper Image...)

She slept through some pretty heavy turbulence as we descended, and through the landing. So now I owe her a Mickey Mouse watch. Luckily, I probably have some time before I have to deliver on that promise.

She did wake up as we were taxiing to the gate hookup, realized she hadn't eaten a full meal in a good four hours, and started crying. So we whipped together a bottle and fed her while everyone else was getting off the plane. And then she was good while we collected our bags, trundled out to the car, and went home.

So all in all, it was a pretty darned good trip.

--Liz