Traveling

I was pretty much gone every weekend from March through April: Chicago, LA, Philadelphia, DC. Here Ian is at the Siggraph planning meeting in LA (photo courtesy of Hugues - who did an amazing job of catching his grin and two teeth). The little guy travels really well, and people have been very helpful. It's a bit of a struggle to get a suitcase, car seat, baby, and me onto the plane. We've upgraded to the reversible car seat for Ian, and got Isabella a new car seat. Works great for the plane, but getting Ian in and out of that tiny car is a bit challenging.

Ian has left a trail of debris behind him - food everywhere. The folks in the various hotels have been very understanding about cleaning up after him... and he's been a big hit with most of the people at the meetings (and the hotel staff - at least one place doesn't get that many babies because *everyone* on the hotel staff knew him by the time we left). We've had pretty good luck with babysitters; I especially liked the woman in Chicago who just seemed so happy to be looking after a baby.

Ian actually slept through the night (once!) in LA - we were outside at night eating dinner and the combination of fresh air and food did him in.

Saw Nina and kids in Philly - had a lovely morning going for a walk outside in the fresh air. Ian was quite happy to be pushed along in the stroller by Nina's little boy, who almost couldn't reach the handle bars.

We've continued swimming lessons, but now we take them with Kaitlyn and Molly often comes along after the lessons. So lessons have gone from "mommy, I don't want to!" to great excitement - Kaitlyn and Isabella have sooo much more fun with the two of them in the class than she had by herself. They both can "swim" with backpacks or fishie rings (Kaitlyn has a matching one fishie ring now).