she said

While Graham was enjoying the coference and spending time with our friends in Chicago, Eden and I were enjoying our time at CC and Granddaddy's. As luck would have it, Eden's Aunt Whitney was also there for the weekend because of a few wedding parties for her friend Amanda.

Of course, as any parent might expect, while Eden's fever spiked to nearly 105 as soon as we returned from the MEA clinic the night before Graham left for Chicago, that was the last of it. She did not have a fever at all on the day we were supposed to have left for Chicago or any day after that.

Still, it was better that she got to rest and recover before we took on her first flying experience.

Over the weekend, Eden was spoiled to death by all the attention. She spent time giggling as Aunt Whitney tickled her, walking outside to get the paper each morning with her Granddaddy, and searching out the ducks with her CC. She also thought it was quite funny to walk up to the laptop while her Aunt Whitney was using it, put her fingers just on the edge of the laptop, look up at everyone and shake her head no since she knew she wasn't supposed to touch it. Seemed like she was testing the limits, even at 14 months.

We (Eden's Granddaddy, Eden, and myself) also got to take my Grandmama out to lunch on Saturday to Fresh Market for some yummy vegetables. This time instead of just waving at everyone, Eden wanted to walk around after she was done eating and stop at each table to say hello. She sure does get lots of attention, and I'll be the first to admit that it's fun to see everyone's reaction to her and her reaction to them.

Overall, the four days without Graham were relaxing though I really missed him and was super bummed that Eden and I weren't doing all of the things I had envisioned us doing in Chicago.

Despite the nice weekend, I woke up Monday morning thinking

"How did this happen?!!" with my stomach in knots. My body was acting like I was having my dissertation prospectus defense that day and all we were doing was catching a flight to Indy. But, I just had never planned for Eden's first time flying to be with just me. How was I going to get through security with a baby, taking off her shoes and jacket and mine, pulling out all her extra "liquids" of milk and yogurt, folding up the stroller to go through the xray machine all while holding her in my arms? What if she started screaming on the plane? I'll admit I was very nervous.

Later I found out that my mom and dad just couldn't believe no one would help me as they watched me get through the security check holding Eden in one arm and getting everything else ready with the other. Thankfully, a family friend and her husband and 10 month old daughter happened to be on our flight sitting in front of us, so they provided some entertainment for Eden. And, a wonderfully kind gentleman who was also on the flight grabbed the stroller in its carry bag at the gate and took it down the flight of stairs to the plane for me - all without me even having to ask.

On the longer of our two flights, I walked the aisle of the plane to keep Eden occupied. You might guess what she did - waved at everyone that would make eye contact with her as we went. At one point, she extended her arm to "shake hands" with the person on the aisle as we went by three or four rows. I thought, "Eww, probably not the best idea to have her touch these strangers and germs b-u-t she's happy." So, I just let it go. At that point, I heard a man lean over to the person next to him and say,

"Bet she's going to grow up to be a politician." Too funny.

At the start of our second flight in the middle of the afternoon when Eden still had not had a nap for the day, she started to arch her back and scream while desperately wanting to get down out of my lap. We had just started the taxi for take-off and I just didn't know what I'd do if she screamed for the whole take-off. So, I did the first thing that popped in my mind. I leaned down and whispered in Eden's ear,

"Eden, look, that man across from us is looking at you."

She immediately stopped and looked over wide-eyed at the couple sitting across the aisle from us. I kept going, "Look, everybody is being so quiet and sitting down because we are going up in the air. See, everybody up there is being so quiet." Thankfully, we were sitting in an aisle seat so she could look up and down as she started to take in all the people around us.

Now I know this is not the best strategy, and yes I feel weird about telling her that some man was looking at her (I won't be using this same exact tactic again). But, it was the first thing I thought of, and it worked.

She calmed down enough to take her bottle and after leaning on my chest for a bit while I hummed to her she fell asleep. She hasn't slept on my chest in ages; it was a sweet, sweet experience.

By the time we made it to Indy, we were both incredibly relieved to see Graham waiting on us. Here's the only shot I was able to get that day (thank you Graham for being the photographer) since I was preoccupied with actually catching both of our flights and getting through the experience alive ..

Despite the craziness of the day, it was just the beginning of our fun trip to Indiana ...