life in my cookie jar: Growing Graham: 6 Weeks

[I know, this is late... I'm playing catch-up again!]

May 18th, 2012

6 Weeks Old

"Got tickets to this gun show?"

He's getting so much more interactive. He's starting to smile now!

At church recently Bob was holding him because he was getting fussy. During the Sacrament, while everyone was quiet and being reverent, Graham decided to fill up his diaper in a really loud way. It must have been a huge relief, because immediately after that, he looked up and gave Bob the sweetest toothless half-grin I've ever seen.

He's been making good use of tummy time every day, because he's now wiggling around more. He holds his head and chest up nearly the whole time and looks at everything around him. He also pulls his legs up and pushes his backside up in the air, which makes me think he may start crawling sooner than later, which, as proud as I am of him, I'm really not looking forward to following him around for the first day or two and baby-proofing everything.

He loves to stand up. With help, of course. But he likes to stand, and he looks so tall when he does!

He also took his first airplane ride!

He did so well! Bob was with me for the flight there, so that was a breeze. Plus it was early in the morning, when he's usually in his best mood anyway. The flight home was trickier because I was by myself and he's in his least pleasant mood in the evenings, but even then he was still pretty good. The first leg of the flight was fine, but as we landed for the layover, he started getting hungry. By the time I made it off the airplane and got the car seat and the stroller and secured Graham in there and got my checked carry-on suitcase and the diaper bag all situated, I had to use the bathroom SO bad and he was in all-out crying mode. There were no big handicapped stalls in that airport bathroom. The handicapped stalls were maybe 5 inches wider than the regular stalls. So I took a deep breath, pushed the stroller in, sideways stepped in next to it, wedged my suitcase in with what space there was left, and barely managed to close the stall door. The stroller was pushed all the way up against the toilet and there was nowhere else for it to go, so using the bathroom in that scenario gave me a greater appreciation for actual handicapped stalls that are the size of two regular bathroom stalls. I finally stumbled out of the stall, washed my hands, and tried to find the baby changing table because it had been nearly three hours since I had a chance to change his diaper (between driving for an hour and a half, returning the rental car, taking the shuttle to the airport, printing my boarding passes, going through security, getting to my oh-so distant gate and barely boarding my plane in time plus the turbulence on that flight, I didn't have a chance to give the poor kid a fresh diaper until then). I saw door with a sign on it saying "Nursery." I open it, and it's a room no bigger than the bathroom stall I was just in, with a counter and a changing table. What's the point of having a counter in such a tiny room if there's a changing table built in next to it?? Anyway, I finally made it out of the bathroom, all the while Graham was wailing as loud as he could. I made it to my gate, found a seat, and fed Graham. I looked at my ticket and remembered that it said my seat would be assigned at the gate. They would be boarding any second and having a lap-baby requires specific seating on as small of a plane as this was. Halfway through feeding Graham I stopped, put myself back together, and once again situated all of my carry-on items so I could take them all with me to the desk by the gate to get my seat assigned. I ended up being last on the plane because they had overbooked it and were scrambling to find me a seat. By the time I got on, Graham was beside himself because he was so hungry, and I could just feel the tension from the people sitting around me because nobody likes a crying baby, especially on an airplane. I quickly sat down and got to settling him down so he would eat. He was fine the rest of the way, and I was so glad to see Bob. I don't think I'll fly solo with a kid again if I can help it.