Trains, Planes & Automobiles

We've been here for over a week now, and are pretty much over jet lag. Noah's even decided to drop his 4 am feeding, which is wonderful! He's now sleeping from about 6 pm to about 7/8 am. Love it!! Benjamin has gone from waking up at 5:30 am to waking around 6:30 or 7. Not as good as his usual 8 am, but we're getting there.

Noah got his first taste of coffee a few days ago. He's angling for more in this picture.

My sister-in-law, Christine, invited us along to the Creation Station at the Museum of Transportation yesterday. It's a play room for kids with a lot of trains and other toys, and Benjamin had a great time playing there with his cousin Alex. Noah had a good time too.

Before going back home we stopped by the car section of the museum which wasn't open the last time we went, three years ago.

Upstairs there are some displays that explain how cars work - here, Christine is helping Benjamin steer the car to stay on the road. Alex is turning the handle that turns the road.

And Alex came over today to play with Benjamin. As you can see, they are both enjoying cousin time.


We've been doing some shopping, some visiting, and are leaving for Oklahoma for Thanksgiving with the extended family on Monday.

Jet lagged

We left the house at 9:45 am Thursday, French time. (That's 2:45 am Wednesday night Central time.) We arrived in St Louis around 12 am Thursday night local time. That's a long trip, especially with two little monsters in tow.

Our flight over was much nicer than last year's, though. Noah did scream and cry for a bit but not nearly as much as Benjamin did last year. AND - extra bonus - Frederic's bosses managed to get us upgraded, so we traveled in style and as we were in the last row of business class, we had our own little section all to ourselves!

Benjamin watched TV for most of the flight, but didn't sleep a wink.

Noah slept for about a total of an hour during the nine and a half hour flight. Most of the time he did NOT look like this:

and it took Frederic the entire 9 1/2 hours to finish watching one in-flight movie. He's just lucky that now the planes have video on demand so he could pause it instead of trying to catch the parts he missed each time the movie replayed!

My mom picked us up when we arrived in Chicago and we drove to St Louis. Both boys slept in the car almost immediately and for almost the entire car ride. Unfortunately, Noah did not sleep until 4 am after that so I didn't get any sleep at all until last night.

Both boys were raring to go bright and early yesterday despite their lack of sleep (more effects of jet lag, yay) and are having a great time playing with all the fun toys at Grandma and Grandad's house - many of them relics from my and my brothers' childhood.

Big Boy Bed - Check!

One more thing crossed off our to-do-before-the-trip-home list. Frederic took down Benjamin's crib yesterday and installed a baby gate at the top of the stairs so if he decides to get up and wander around in the middle of the night or tomorrow morning, he'll at least be contained on one level. I am afraid I am going to miss him being contained in his bed, though! Lately when I have gone in to get him up in the morning at 8, I've found him in his crib reading or looking at alphabet cards. Is it a pipe dream to hope he'll continue that habit in this bed?

We moved his bed to where his crib used to be. The bedspread was a freebie with some order or other. It is brown on one side and brown and pink on the other. I asked him if he wanted brown or pink, and he chose pink, so that's what he got!

Here he is, thinking about going to sleep. He picked out a Christmas crafts book to read tonight even though I told him it wasn't a story book. He refused to have his loveys in bed with him initially, but when Frederic went up to check on him later, he asked for them.

Here he is around 10:30 pm, when I went to bed. He even stayed under the covers!

But he did indeed get up on his own this morning - Frederic found him standing at the gate at the top of the stairs, saying, "Ready to get out!" like he used to do in his crib. Oh yes, I am going to miss the days of his being stuck in his crib!

Almost big enough to play with!

Benjamin is finding that as Noah gets older, he's almost big enough to play with. In the last couple of days, he has been reading books to him. (See how well Noah is sitting up?)

And playing with cars with him.

Oh, and playing with trash together, let's not forget that one.

Noah likes to play with - uh, eat - Benjamin's toys.

Can you see his red eyes? Poor little guy caught the cold and cough that Benjamin got first. Not to worry, we're taking him to the doctor before our trip home. I'm not sure there is much you can give a not quite 8-month-old, but at least we'll make sure he doesn't have an ear infection or anything before we get on the plane.