On My Own

Richard is gone for the week, so I'm on my own. He'll be gone a total of 5 days, which is the longest he's ever been away from Noah. Earlier today, he told me that he might come home a day early if he can, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. 2 days down, and it hasn't been TOO bad. While I really miss Richard being around, it's been fun having Noah keep me company so that I'm not lonely.

In reflecting how much our family travels, I thought I'd put together some of Noah's travel stats for you:

• By the time Noah was 6 months old, he had spent 45 hours on an airplane.
• Noah has taken the following forms of transportation: car, van, bus, boat, subway, train, and plane...all multiple times.
  
• Noah has slept in at least 17 different places.
• Noah has been to 11 different states/provinces.
• As of today (11 1/2 months old), Noah has flown 18 times.

While I wish our lives didn't demand this much traveling, looking at the months ahead, there's no signs of us slowing down. At least Noah has learned how to cope through all the chaos and transitions...and he's trained us as well. We've had some good flights and some not-so-good flights...but we survived them all.

Here are some pictures from November of how Noah (ideally) handles himself on a plane:


We're so thankful when we manage to get an empty seat next to us so that we can all get our own space!


When it's nap time and Noah starts getting tired, we lay him down on an empty seat or in my lap. He'll fuss, whine, then hopefully soothe himself by sucking his thumb (and daddy often makes a very soothing "shhhshhhhshhhhh" noise :)). This is the part when I get super nervous, wondering whether he'll be so overtired that he'll scream in protest (which has happened) or whether his whimper will quietly fade as he falls asleep.


Here's what we hope for! He usually takes a shortened nap, which catches up to him later, but some sleep is better than no sleep! This is when I manage to take a quick nap as well, watch some of the in-flight movie, or eat the airplane meal. :) He's such a great little traveler, though I can't wait until he can carry his own luggage!