We flew to Wisconsin last Sunday to visit Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Dominic over Christmas. Ben is flying home the day after Christmas for work, and Michael and I are leaving on the 8th, I think.
Michael did alright on the plane and fell asleep, until we started descending. He woke up after a mere half-hour of sleep and was inconsolable. I tried to nurse him to help his ears pop, but he refused and screamed the whole way down.
Ben and I went to The Cornerhouse for our anniversary dinner last night, which was fitting since it was the restaurant where Ben's parents generously treated all of us to dinner the night before our wedding. I've gotten something different every time I've been to The Cornerhouse and have never been disappointed (filet mignon, chopped steak, and last night, escargot and veal marsala). Ben went with his perennial favorite, prime rib, medium doneness.
The exceptional part of the dinner was that we left Michael alone for two and a half hours, possibly the longest he's been without either of us. We left while he was strapped in his booster seat for dinner, and I guess he was fine for awhile until he realized I wasn't home. He apparently would cry until he'd round a corner or walk over to the bottom of the stairs and look up, where he expected to see me, then he'd cry when I didn't appear. When we came home, he had been screaming for awhile.
Michael has gotten especially clingy the last few weeks. We went to a couple of "Mom" events the third week of December, places with other little children, and he hid behind me for a significant chunk of the meetings, something he hadn't done previously. He doesn't particularly like when anyone else is holding him, even if that "anyone" is a friendly and familiar face, like Daddy or his grandparents.
He is getting into everything these days. He loves paper and cardboard, but will settle for anything that might fit into his mouth, or that he thinks he can fit into his mouth. I'm appalled at some of the things he tries to eat. I've found paint chips and my hair in his diaper. And yet, he doesn't want to eat things actually meant for digestion.
He really gathered steam, learning to walk, the Friday before his birthday. We were packing everything into the car that night to visit Humble, and while we left him to roam the living room he discovered that walking freed up his hands so he could hold things (specifically, a paper bag) and be mobile at the same time, unlike crawling. He hasn't really gone back to crawling since then. Now I let him walk around when we go shopping, or at parks or on sidewalks. I let him walk from the airport gate all the way to the security exit (he made quite an entrance for Grandma, who was waiting for us). Women are always commenting on his cute he is walking around, and they often reminisce about their own children or grandchildren learning to walk.
