Barnabas Monkeypants

Henry and I returned Sunday night from a quick trip east to see my brother and his lovely girlfriend, Andrea. That’s right, without Raphe. It was an adventure!

I’d been talking to Henry all week about how we were going to get on a plane Friday morning to fly to New York to get him ready for the trip. These chats were almost as much for my benefit as for Henry’s, because I was  feeling pretty nervous about traveling with him by myself. And, as it turns out, my worry was in some ways justified.

Let me note here that for each flight, I checked one suitcase and then proceeded through the airport with Henry in an umbrella stroller (which I steered with one hand), his diaper bag attached to the stroller (and a small insulated food bag attached to the diaper bag), and carrying his car seat with my other hand. My plan was to gatecheck the stroller and the car seat if there was no open seat for the car seat. I imagine I looked somewhat pathetic carrying all that gear, although my goal was to look coolly confident. Blessedly, Henry was extremely cooperative going through security each way and despite my attempts at cool confidence, several other travelers were kind enough to ask me if there was anything they could hold or anything they could do to help. The biggest hassle of going through security was having to dismantle my carefully balanced mountain of crap and then put it back together while fighting my irritation with the TSA agent who insisted I take Henry’s shoes off. Sure, it would’ve been easier if Raphe was there to help, but it wasn’t unmanageable.

Henry and I were in the last boarding group, so we waited until almost everyone was on the plane before making our way down the jetway. I had to repeat the same dismantling of stuff when we boarded the plane, but once I shed the stroller and the car seat, I had only Henry and the diaper bag to carry on. I got settled in my seat with Henry on my lap without too much trouble, and we took off without so much as a whine from the little man (I kept insisting he drink milk from a straw cup and he obliged). However, once in the air, Henry was a complete handful. I had hoped he would sleep through the flight, but that was not to be. The toys and books I brought entertained him for about 20 minutes and then I had another hour during which I tried to keep him from leaping out of my lap, kicking the seat in front of us, and emitting high-pitched screeches. I tried to feed him some muffin but he kept spitting bites of food in his hands to examine it and then mashing the slobbery goo into his pants, my pants, and the seat back. When I gave him the straw cup to wash it down, a geyser of milk shot out because of the pressure change and soaked us both. Good times.

The actual act of traveling aside, the trip was great. Jay and Andrea were terrific hosts. Because Henry still takes two 2-hour naps a day, our routine was pretty much the same as at home: get up at 6 (well, 7 Eastern time), eat breakfast, nap 8-10, take walk/go to park/play, eat second breakfast, nap 12-2, eat lunch, take walk/go to park/play, go out to dinner. Well, we don’t go out to dinner much at home, but all that restaurant food is what made this trip more like a vacation.

Henry was absolutely smitten with Jay, and the way he looked at my brother was just heartbreakingly cute. True to form, our little ladies’ man also did lots of flirting with Andrea, and he just loved Andrea’s cat, Poob. Poob did not return the love and spent most of our visit hiding because he was terrified of the screechy and unsteady toddler that kept charging at him. Unlike our own felines, Poob was unwilling to indulge Henry’s desire to pet him. Oh well.

Late Saturday afternoon, we were lucky enough to get in some play time in McCarren Park with Henry’s honorary aunt, Jodi, and her sister, Dara. Henry seems to love them both as much as I do. There was lots of running and climbing and sliding and (Henry’s favorite) investigating of the wheels of every stroller within toddling distance. We had a great dinner with them that evening, too.

This post is rambling off into rambly-land, so I’m just going to say, the trip was over too fast and we miss everyone already. Now I’ll stop babbling and post some pictures. Without further ado:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 8:55 pm and is filed under Barnabas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.