Five Things I Learned While Traveling with My Baby

My husband, "Buhba," and I went on a business trip to Omaha, Nebraska, and below are five things I learned while traveling with my baby.

#1- Carrying a baby through an airport or having a baby at a business conference is just like carrying around a large neon sign with the words "Please stare at me" on it. 

Not that this is necessarily negative attention. I know that it's just because my kid is so cute, (no, I'm not modest NOR biased!) but it still makes me self-conscious. It's all I could do not to stop at every mirror or window and check for food in my teeth, or see if my hair is doing something weird. Some people act like they've never seen a baby before!

#2- There are no boundaries when it comes to babies and strangers.

The lack of boundaries I'm referring to is on the strangers' ends. I can't even count the number of people who just walked right up to Buhba and started pinching his cheeks, holding his hands, or putting their face right up in his. Again, I tried not to mind too much, because I know that there's just something about babies that makes just about everyone all gooey :) But, because I'm a little bit of a germ-a-phob, I was half-tempted to hold out a bottle of Purell, and make them use it before proceeding to touch the baby. The straw that broke the camel's back was when my husband was checking in to the hotel and a guy with a beer came up and started grabbing my baby's foot, and playing with his toy, and rubbing his head. A little too friendly for my taste. Hey, Mr. How would you like it if I just came up and grabbed your beer bottle without asking?

 

#3- If your baby is well-behaved in public, it reflects well on you.

I guess I never processed this before I was a mommy, but I got to see it first hand this weekend. Buhba was awesome on the plane, and nearly perfect at the conference that we went to. He usually is pretty mild, and used to spending a few hours with me at the office, so I didn't think too much of it. But, it took me by surprise when several people came up to us afterwards and told us how calm and mild-mannered Buhba was, and how they didn't even hear him during the conference. They continued on to say that it must be because we're "awesome parents." I wasn't about to argue with strangers and to tell them the real reason: that Buhba is just a really good baby :) I saw the flip side of this scenario when a poor couple with twins sat in front of us on the plane, and their babies were having a hard time, and screaming and crying most of the trip. I could see several people roll their eyes, and turn away from them. I felt like pinching Buhba just to have a distraction for the poor family!

#4- A tired, overstimulated baby = 2am and 5am scream fests.

Just to assure people that my kid isn't perfect, I added this one. While we were in Omaha, we did a little bit of walking around the city, when we weren't at the conference. Add to that a flight, sitting for long periods of time, a lot of new sights/people and long days, and we had one overstimulated boy! Buhba was so exhausted at nights that he fell right asleep. I knew that this could go one of two ways. Either he'd be so tired he'd sleep right through the night, or because his sleep schedule was so outta wack, he'd scream all night long. Unfortunately, I was right on the latter. 

#5 - Athletes/Celebrities are no intimidation when it comes to a mommy on a mission!

When we got on the plane to fly to Omaha, I looked up to see Deron Williams of the Utah Jazz boarding. I'm not a huge Jazz fan, but all I could think about was how cool it would be for my baby to have some kind of autograph or something for when he was older. So, when we got to baggage claim, I took Buhba, and walked up to Deron who was innocently waiting, and listening to his iPod. He had no idea what he was in for. I tapped him on the shoulder, and he pulled out his earphones, looking a little irritated. "Hi," I said. "Can I take a picture of you?" "Huh?" he said, looking a little more irritated. (I think that at this point, the average person would have walked away, but not me!) "Could I take a picture of you holding my baby?" Silence. He just starred at me. I think he thought that if he didn't say anything I'd go away. Nope. I just stood there with Buhba and smiled. He looked at me and finally said, "I don't like babies." To which I responded, "Even really cute ones like mine?!" Finally, he cracked a smile and agreed to the picture. So I handed him my most prized possession, and grabbed my phone and started snapping away. I got two good ones. He ended up being really nice, I'm sure that he just wanted to get away from crazy people like me, but I was on a mission! Mission accomplished!