Is this kid for real? Week 15

Sorry about the fuzzy iPhone pics but I am too wiped out for fancy official camera uploading. We had a HUGE milestone this past weekend when we flew with Annie to Miami for the weekend to hang with GB and Bigs. To say I was scared of Annie being "that baby" on the plane is an understatement. The schedule was ambitious, which added to my worry. We were slated for a 6:25 am departure on Saturday and then a return flight on Sunday night at 8:45, Miami time. For those of you doing the math, that's 15 minutes post bedtime, St. Louis time. Scary.

I culled all my traveling Mom resources and got lots of advice on how to handle the scene, and most of the info restated that you need to have a bottle (or at minimum a binkie) handy to ease the pressure on their ears during take-off and landing. All reinforced that it was a crap-shoot either way and to never get too comfortable. Just because they were good one time makes no guarantee that it will happen again. Excellent. I guess it's pretty obvious that a 3 month old's behavior isn't the most predictable or consistent....

....unless your 3 month old is Annie the Wonder Baby! She was an absolute dream. If you don't want to hear a Mom gloat, stop reading now. She charmed everyone in security, allowing us to bypass the HUGE line for those economy class lowlifes, she flirted with everyone as we waltzed down the aisle of the plane, reassuring them that she was no nightmare baby, and after having her morning bottle, slept most of the ride down there.

Sleeping...

...and eating/drinking. She's already got the hang of these Erwin vacations.



We were swooped up at the airport by Big D, who was promptly shown how to eat a hand sandwich.

Because GB had a touch of a stomach bug, Bigs got the bulk of the grandparenting duties for the trip. I think he enjoyed it a bit.

He even got to operate the fancy stroller. I gotta tell you, there are some fancy strollers down in Miami. I am thankful I fought the good fight with Manny from Totsy to get this thing.

We relaxed, got in a bit of pool time, Rick and I grabbed drinks while Annie was napping on Sunday, and we headed out Sunday night. This was the moment of truth. There were two ways this could go: 1) We would feed Annie her bottle upon takeoff, she would realize it's night time and fall asleep for the remainder of the flight...or 2) We could give her the bottle, she would be disoriented because we were on a plane with all the lights on (even though it was 8:30 at night) and not realize it was bed time and be up the whole time, which would not bode well for those surrounding row 34.

Tensions were high in the back of the plane, where they apparently decided to stash all infants and a slew of non-english speaking teens. I guess it's easier to ignore complaints when there's a language barrier. The flight was kicked off with a teething 7 month old wailing two rows ahead of us during the taxi-ing (how do you spell that?). This prompted some other infant behind us to get riled up and try to out-scream the teether. Not to be outdone, Annie started to get fussy, so in went the bottle since we were about to take off anyway. Or so I thought. I swear we drove around that tarmac for 25 minutes, and finished the bottle along the way. So now I am panicking because we have yet to takeoff, the bottle's finished, and I am convinced Annie's ear drums are going to explode upon takeoff, I am going to have to nurse her and these Dominican teens are all going to get a free peek at my business.

But then she fell asleep. And didn't wake up until the next morning (aside from a brief moment when her father thought it would be fun to race her stroller down a ramp in the airport). We didn't even have to swaddle her when we got home. Who says 3 month olds aren't predictable?