Mr. Giggle-Britches

Laughing babies are great entertainment!

My how time flies - 5 months old!

Laughing. Jabbering. Eating solid food. Rolling over. Sitting up. Bouncing. Just starting to figure out that he might be able to crawl, if he can just get those little knees pushed under him. And no telling what he's thinking!

Happy 5th Month, Liam!

Little Pun'kin Meets the Big Apple

What to do when you want to see all of New York City with GrandBoy in tow, but the temperature outside is 100+? Baby safety and comfort are priorities #1 and #2, of course, so among the three of us (Ma, Pa, GrandMary) we had to come up with a few workable options to keep the little one calm, cool, and collected.

• Stroller hood blocking sun. Check.
• Hat for Babe. Check.
• Baby sunscreen (applied every 30 seconds or so). Check.
• Burp cloth soaked in cold water + witch hazel (to wrap around Babe's neck, wipe him down, or cover his legs. Check.
• Spritz bottle filled with cold water to spray him down. Check.
• Pulling into any available heavily air-conditioned establishment every 20 minutes. Check.

OK. So that plan of attack worked pretty well, actually. The only thing that had us stumped for a while was the spritz bottle. We went into 7-8 stores - Duane Reade, Walgreens, KMart (yes, there's a KMart at Astor Place in NYC), beauty supply shops - to no avail. Finally found one at the Duane Reade on 6th Avenue (Ave of the Americas to you turistas) around 44th. Who'd a' thunk? Must've been a run on spritz bottles in the heat, but we're glad we had it as we traveled about.

And Liam survived the whole thing very well, mainly by power-napping and power-eating. Which is the way most people handle New York City, by the way. He survived the subways and buses. He survived Midtown, Times Square, Union Square, Chinatown, SoHo, Lower Manhattan, Little Italy, and my digs in Spanish Harlem.

As his GrandMary and NYC Tour Guide, I declare GrandBoy's first trip to New York City a whopping success. I hope the next time he comes the weather will be a little more temperate so that we can stroll through Central Park and walk the Brooklyn Bridge. But this was a good start.

And he was the cutest Little Pun'kin that the Big Apple had ever seen.

Baby Hits the Beach

GrandBoy's first experience with toes in salt water was not the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans or the Gulf of Mexico. Nope. It was Long Island Sound at Hammonassett Beach State Park.  After the long road trip from Atlanta to Connecticut for a family wedding over the 4th of July weekend, babe and his parents felt a day at the beach was in order. GrandMary and assorted other family members tagged along.

The biggest concern was making sure Liam was well-protected from the sun. He wore a tiny UV-protected wet suit instead of a little bathing suit, and his head and neck was covered with a version of the old Foreign Legion cap - this one in red, white, and blue. We made sure his wrap-around sunglasses were in place when he was in the bright sun and applied sunscreen every few minutes. He took his nap under a beach umbrella. The sun didn't have a chance!

Though the day was warm and breezy, the water was brrrrr-cold, so he didn't get (or want) much chance to play in the surf. He took it all in stride, holding court in someone's lap while the grown ups sunned themselves or quaffed a few beach beers.

There are more beaches in his future, I'm sure, but this is his first. I'm not sure what he experienced about the event. I am sure that he didn't get sunburned.

Full Heart, Aching Arms

Those of you with small children know the feeling: heart full of love for the precious child asleep in your arms and the almost-unbearable aching numbness of the arm holding the child. A pillow, armrest, or "boppy" takes some of the weight, but even with cushioning, sooner or later a throbbing, slightly electrical charge will start working its way up from your elbow to shoulder to neck.

Awwww. But the baby is so sweet nestled in the crook of my arm! Maybe if I shift this way. Nope. Move the babe's head that way. Definitely, no. Flex my wrist and roll my shoulders? Sigh. No.

And you find yourself wondering just how long an arm can stay in one position supporting the child's weight before all circulation is cut off and the arm falls off. Will a 90-minute deep tissue massage of your shoulder and neck relieve the ache? A long soak in Epsom Salts? A fistful of pain relievers?

Still, the little sugar dumpling is just too adorable to put down. So what if I'm sore for a day or two and have to live on Aleve for the next week. Who wants to miss the Sleeping Baby Show? Most times, you can just chuck the kid in the crib or whatever sleep apparatus is available. Other times, there's either nowhere to put the little darling down or any major shift will disturb the sleep.

These pictures were taken as GrandBoy slept in my arms during an outing to the beach in Connecticut. We were out of the sun, under an umbrella, but I was in a camp chair with soft armrests (no pillow or other support). My arm almost detached and rolled off into the sand, but look how cute he is! Well, in the battle of pain vs. cute, cute wins every time.

And I still have my arm.

Baby's First Road Trip

How would carseat-hating 4-month-old GrandBoy cope with an extended road trip from Georgia to Connecticut? That was the question gnawing at Daughter and Son-in-Law in the weeks leading up to the July journey. Well, thanks to an animated fish (and, I suspect, a GrandBoy who somehow understood deep down that he was stuck, for better or worse), the question has been answered most positively. All that needless worrying.

The drive was made in one fell swoop, in large part because Liam snoozed for long stretches, the theory being that as long as Baby was asleep or occupied - with no hysterical, nerve-splitting crying - push on while the going was good. When he wasn't sleeping the miles away, he was otherwise in the magical visual spell of "Finding Nemo." He rejected "Toy Story," "101 Dalmations," and "Lady and the Tramp." Nemo, however, captivated him - the colors, the motion, the sounds. And his daddy was grateful there were no mind-numbing musical numbers to get stuck in the driver's head. So, little Nemo saves the day, as well as Mama and Daddy's nerves.

Funny how even a tiny child can be visually enthralled for long stretches of time. Wonder what Liam was thinking as he watched Nemo? Did the underwater animation soothe and relax, or was there more to it?

Well, no matter. The point is, GrandBoy is now officially a Traveling Man. And until he's old enough to face forward and watch the world whiz by (which his GrandMary hopes he'll do instead of watching videos on the move), we're more than glad to have a little fish as a travel companion.