Seven Quick Takes Friday, Vol. II

Travel edition

I

It has been a crazy week of preparing for our first real trip with Little Bear. Worrying, and packing, and worrying, and cleaning, and worrying... I don't think I've ever dreaded getting on an airplane this much before. We're spending 15 hours on planes and in airports today, with another two to three hours on the road after we land. And this is just the first day! St. Christopher, pray for us!

II

If anyone has any tips for traveling (flying or road trips) with a baby, I'd love to hear them! How to keep him happy in a small space for hours on end, how to convince him to sleep in strange places, what to do if he has a diaper explosion while the "fasten seatbelts" light is on, how to prevent overstimulation when he will be bombarded with many new faces and voices and strange people wanting to hold him, how to respond if, while one of us is holding him up in the air, he throws up and gets the guy in the seat behind us in the face...

III

I need to stop coming up with new ideas of what could go wrong. But seriously, how would you apologize to that guy?

IV

Alaska Airlines has a special program called Club 49 for Alaska residents, which offers great benefits. Up to 50% discounts on last-minute flights, exclusive sales, and most valuable just now, two free checked bags on all flights into or out of Alaska! I have been so grateful to not have to worry about baggage costs on top of everything else as I've been packing: it would be even more stressful if I was trying to pack everything into our carry-ons and had to decide how little we could possibly get by with rather than packing what I think we will need.

V

I'm looking forward to enjoying a bit of the beautiful, extended autumn back East. Winter is fast approaching here -- we have woken up to heavy frost on the lawn and windshield every morning for a while now, and it's lasting as late as noon or 1 pm. This past Sunday, we drove through some snow flurries on our way to Mass. Too soon!

VI

Little Bear's hair comes down past his earlobes; I've been holding off, but I may just give in and cut it before his grandparents see him looking like a ragamuffin. I'd always heard to wait until the baby is at least one for their first haircut, but I can't see us waiting nine more months! Matt didn't seem to appreciate my observation the other day that the baby has Spock sideburns... :-)

VII

Hopefully I'll have a chance to post at least once or twice next week, but no promises... I'm anticipating an even more hectic week than this has been.

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