B.A.B.E. Week 18: 8 days/ 2 weeks of vacation

On the plane to Panama.

I am writing this blog on a plane from Atlanta to Panama.  Wilson and I are currently on vacation.  He is taking the last of his paternity leave and I am readjusting to life as a working mom by taking vacation a month after coming back from maternity leave.  Taking vacation so soon has been a little awkward and stressful to take vacation so soon.  But the timing made sense because we had a family event in Maine and a wedding in Maryland.  And then of course, Wilson added on Panama for good measure (smile).

Elle has been a champ through all of this movement.  She even celebrated her 4-month birthday last Saturday with lobster in Maine for brunch and Argentinian barbeque for dinner at the Maryland wedding.  Throughout all of this, she has charmed family and friends.   And has probably been held by 40 loved ones at this point – great aunts, great uncles, long-time friends, etc. 

 Elle is also continuing to roll over but not as fast or as regular as her mom expects.  Her rolls are sort of a slow motion meander to get out of doing tummy time.   Tummy time is not her favorite but some of her favorite things include:  super soft stuffed animals like the cow below named Cobb, the rattle in the picture above with a rattle on one side and soft fabric on the other, and of course her pacifier.  Her skills with her pacifier are really starting to develop -- she is not only guiding it into her mouth more often (with the help of mom or a great aunt) but she also has taken it out so she can suck on the rattle...

Elle also really likes blankets.  Specifically and strangely, she loves to fall asleep with a blanket on her face.  I know that sounds weird and dangerous with SIDS but Wilson and I watch her like hawks when she has the blanket on her face.   And it seems to be strangely calming to her when she is winding down for naps.   We definitely do not allow her this blankie routine at night.  We are still swaddling her with nothing in her bassinet or travel crib.   Not sure when she will graduate from the swaddle to a sleep sack and a crib…

Speaking of cribs...Elle has been sleeping in her Phil &Ted’s port-a-crib during this trip, which we love.  It is lightweight, easy to assemble (after you get the hang of it), and best of all it fits in our lightweight suitcase.  We keep hitting 46 lbs on the flight scales despite the changing composition of the suitcase so we are happy to not have to deal with overweight fees.   Especially good since we have traveled on both United and Delta this trip and have had very different experiences.

United has been the pits, which isn’t surprising since I have had issues with them in the past.   For this trip, United has been the very underwhelming because they are child-unfriendly compared to Delta, Southwest and Jetblue.   First, unlike the other 3 airlines, they do not give any preferential boarding treatment to folks traveling with small children.  I don’t mind this one as much as the second kid-unfriendly policy. 

The second unfriendly policy is, unlike Delta, Southwest, and Jetblue, they do not extend an extra courtesy to lap children.  The courtesy that I refer to is how parents can ask to bring on the lap child’s carseat if there are vacant seats on the plane.  I understand that if I am bringing a lap child I have obviously not bought a ticket.  But I think that if there are empty seats on the plane (for example on this flight there are dozens of empty seats), it is nice to allow the infant a carseat on the plane…and am so happy that Delta extended us that courtesy for this flight to Panama – allowing me to type this blogpost.  Yes!

Wedding in Maryland