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Adventures in baby-wrestling

To all passengers on the flight this morning, my apologies. The baby that
was screaming was mine. He was not crying because he was hurting, he was
crying because I wouldn't let him get down and crawl around up and down the
aisle while we were going through turbulence.

Holding Luke anywhere is becoming more and more like the greased pig contests
I have read about. I get a good grip, and he wriggles and squirms until he
gets free, or I get a better grip, or I get so fed up with wrestling with him
I put him down. Upon reaching the ground, often he will cry to have me pick
him up again. Mostly, however, he makes a beeline for the most dangerous
object in the room: the hard corners, the outlets, the markers, the knives and
forks, and so on.

We did have some toys for him to chew on in the airplane. However, the best
toys were clearly 1) the card telling us that we could pay 3 dollars for a
candy bar, 2) the wrapper from his sister's fruit leather, and 3) the plastic
beverage cup. When they came around and asked if we wanted something to drink,
I wanted orange juice but something made me say water. It's a good thing,
because as I took the water into my hand, Luke's hand reached out and went
into the water.

Of course, the best toys for babies are other people. Luke flirted shamelessly with our seatmate, the people behind us, the people in front of us, the flight attendants... My favorite was when he stood up on my lap facing the rear of the plane and popped up and down to play peek-a-boo with the people behind us.

The trip went well, especially considering that we left the house at 4:15 AM
eastern time (2:15 mountain time) and got to Telluride after 3 pm mountain
time. My favorite scene from the trip was Eleanor in the shopping cart,
asleep with her head on the lettuce. I used to watch the other parents
enviously, as they walked their sleeping children in their strollers. Not only
wouldn't Eleanor sleep in the stroller, she wouldn't even sit in the stroller,
she had to push. I think this was the first time she had fallen asleep during
the day for about 3 years.

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