Flying solo

It's a quiet night on Creighton St. Mission accomplished (for now).

Erin's away giving a talk in the frozen north, which leaves me and the B on our own for 3 sleeps. Our friend Jenny taught us to count the days until something happens in those terms, and having a baby makes that particular unit of measure very concrete.

I have to admit, I was a bit nervous about this. Erin's had to do several stretches like this while I've traveled this year and I had to make some trips while Blaise was still inpatient, too. This is the first time Erin's been anywhere without us along in...well, a while. We worked out that the last time Erin flew alone was a trip she took to England just under two years ago, and then we realized that Blaise was actually a stow-away on that trip. Sneaky, this one...very sneaky.

Anyway, back to the nerves...definitely there at first, but having hung out together for two days, we're doing just fine. The weather in Boston is beautiful all of a sudden, so we've been strolling around town in our ultra-light umbrella stroller, hitting all the nicest toy stores and coffee shops, and we met our friend Margaret this morning for breakfast (eggs and bacon for me, "The Margaret" for Margaret (she made it up and Zoe's Diner respects her choices), and dry wheat toast for Blaise). In between all the walks, we've been having a lot of fun tearing up her room and putting it back together. Blaise has some ability to put Duplo blocks together now, and we also learned yesterday that her shoes squeak when you stomp in them. This is actually the best idea EVER for the parents of a child who are trying to coax their kid to do more stepping. Blaise thinks the squeaking is hilarious, and once she worked out that she could do it herself, bouncing and stomping became her new hobby.

Other things we've learned:

1) The iPod "SimpleDraw" app is a great way to keep your 14-month old chilled out for a bit.

2) What's better than a playground ball? A BIG playground ball.

3) What's better than a BIG playground ball? Almost nothing.

4) Cheese is good, but Dad's cheese is much better.

5) Dad's laptop has a pretty cool "Photobooth" application that is robust to baby attacks (see below)

Tomorrow, Mom returns, but first Blaise and Dad head out for one last night on the town! I wish I could say we were done with travel for a while, but I suspect we're not quite done yet. At the very least, I'm headed to Baltimore in a few days to give a talk at ICIS (International Conference on Infant Studies) about some of my other-race research with 9-month olds. Besides that, we have to wait and see...me and/or Erin may have to make some more side trips to exotic locales to talk about our work. For now, the baby sleeps, the cat has stopped caterwauling, and it's time for a book.