Fairly Symmetrical

(The title of the entry comes from a set of clothing Ollie has; it's pretty apropos considering this trip, our upcoming trip to Williamsburg, the trip to New Orleans after that, and possibly a trip to Baltimore in October.)

I have to admit, I was a little trepidatious about taking a four-month-old on a six-hour plane trip. He's got his schedule, and lately he's gotten to the point where he's interested enough in things that unless the room is dark and quiet, he has a lot of trouble falling asleep, but he still needs a nap every three-four hours or he gets pretty unhappy.

The trip started out the way they always do: our flight from Austin to Houston was delayed long enough that it would have been faster to drive to Houston and start there. Still, Ollie took a bit of a nap before we got on the plane and he didn't seem to mind the ear pressure as we ascended, which was a nice surprise. And of course on a plane there's always people to look at, talk to, make faces at, etc, so that helped. But overall Ollie was an angel; even though we had to detour around a storm in northern Texas, which meant we didn't land in Louisville until after 9 PM (our time), and he was clearly exhausted, he was obviously trying very hard to be happy and cheerful and friendly. There was very little crying. He's such a great baby and a hard worker. Of course, he slept terribly that first night; he slept maybe an hour, and then he was basically awake until 4 AM (mostly with Jenny; I'm a bad husband) and then slept until maybe 8.

Yesterday was better though, he got more regular naps, which always helps. We went out to my parents' house and he met my dad, my brothers, and my maternal grandmother. He really seemed to enjoy it, smiles all around except for a brief tired/fussy period in the middle. As expected, my dad managed to make him laugh as we were getting ready to leave because it was close to bedtime and he was fussy/tired. :) He went to bed readily enough, but traveling seems to have thrown him a bit (or maybe he was still tired from Tuesday); he woke up every 2 hours. Still, it's better than nothing and I can live with that schedule for a while if necessary. :)

Anyway, I just wanted to record for the world that my baby is a world-class traveler and incredibly outgoing, and I'm really proud of him. :)