Seeking compromise between homebody and traveler

There's a saying about all good things must come to an end. I think that last night might very well have been the end of the fusspot and my traveling days as a team of two. I am pretty sure that we will be sticking closer to home for the next couple of months, at least until May. Or to be more precise, we will not be planning any trips alone in the upcoming months. JD and I are still considering a little jaunt to Europe (with fusspot, of course) pre-bargain baby and a visit to City Y down South, but those ought to be together.

For the record, since the fusspot was 6 months old JD, the fusspot and I have been on exactly one flight together. That 15 month period includes 3 trips to Europe, 1 trip to India, visiting every Northern capital in Europe (Copenhagen, Brussels, London, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Berlin), 3 family visits including flights, plus a few other assorted countries along the way.

For those of you who live in NYC you might have noticed it rained last night. What you might not have realized is that all of the area airports were closed. Basically, a recipe for disaster. The ingredients:

- 2-3 hour delay sitting on the tarmac to keep our spot in line to get back to NYC
- a hungry mother who did not have enough of the right snacks
- a scheduled 7 pm departure, right before the fusspot's bedtime
- a missing JD. I took the 7 pm flight because we were supposed to be on our romantic getaway this weekend post-Rosh Hashanah. Instead JD was called back to NYC for work and left me and the fusspot visiting the grandparents alone post-holidays. We did squeeze in one night alone (and slept till 11 am!) but escaping to a hotel less than 10 minutes from your mother's house is not exactly the indulgent weekend I'd hoped for ...
- a teething (all 4 incisors), tired, snotty baby

And yet ...
- the fusspot cried for less than a minute during our 2 hour captivity followed by hour and a half flight followed by cab home
- we were loaded with snacks and the fusspot consumed about half a bag of pirate's booty, 2 granola bars, a diet bar (whoops. I do wonder what 40 grams of protein which happened to taste like cardboard in one bar did to her stomach), 3 graham crackers and a box of raisins despite a hearty dinner pre-flight
- the flight was only minimally turbulent
- the skies cleared and we had the most incredible view of Manhattan as we landed. And for the first time ever the fusspot sat bolt upright on my lap and looked out the window and talked and talked and talked about the lights

- So basically the only major downsides were that she did not fall asleep until 11:30 pm and that she bit me about 10 times on the flight

And really, how many people can calmly take a 21 month old on a rain-delayed-sitting-on-the-tarmac mostly-grumpy-businessmen-flight and receive nothing but compliments on her behavior. So all in all I see it as a fine high point to end our travels as a duo and also a good warning of what a nightmare it could have been.

And after all, by May the fusspot may very well be talking, walking for much of the day, and even entertaining herself for a few minutes at a time on a flight. And I am certainly not one to be intimidated by lugging along a sweet, sleepy newborn. So this is by no means the end of our travels, but I do indeed predict a long hiatus where we will stick to train-accessible locations on the Northeast corridor.