One week: Two trips, two colds, one bottle, three pizzas, and a very large rice krispie treat.

Last week I took my first trip without e-baby. It was two nights in suburban Philadelphia, which is quite a bit more boring than urban Philadelphia, but probably less violent. So I guess that's good. I was feeling the beginnings of a sore throat on Sunday night, and I hoped that by the time I got home I wouldn't be contagious anymore and that maybe e-baby wouldn't catch it.

SNG's parents came up to help him out and since they live in The Land Of Crappy Malls (their mall is likely to carry more double-wide trailers and fishing boots than Abercrombie sweaters) they took advantage of the day care to get some Christmas shopping done, and in the evenings there were 3 pairs of hands to feed, change, and snuggle with the SmallAndFuzzy one. She probably felt as though this was ALMOST the level of luxury to which she should become accustomed.

Meanwhile, in suburban Philly, I slept about 5 hours a night (oh cruel insomnia! oh terrible sore throat!) and every evening had SNG put the phone up to ebaby's mouth so I could hear those panting and grunting noises that I love so much. I came home Tuesday night, and SNG was waiting for me with e-baby in the car seat. As I came down the terminal hallway I saw her face light up and she smiled big for me. I think she knew that I was in need of some major baby therapy, and she stayed really cheerful all evening.

On Thursday, SNG, e-baby and I flew together (!) to New York. We got pictures of her first cab ride and her first hotel room and she even got a security badge at the regional office. So cute! Thursday night we had dinner with my cousin Cosmopolitan at a pizza joint owned by Mario Bataly (OH it was SO good). I always love seeing her when I can. She's the first person from my dad's family to meet e-baby in person and of course e turned on the charm. She smiled and cooed and then gracefully fell asleep so that the grown-ups could chat in peace over pizza, cheese, veggies, and a nice bottle of wine.

*side note: I really wish I could see my cousins more often. Every time I spend time with them I am reminded how much I like them. My mom's family always gets together at Easter, but the southern Louisiana family reunions have sort of died out. We need to get that going again. Cousins' weekends? Different city every year?

On Friday SNG and e-baby wandered around Manhattan and met some of our friends in the NY office (again, full-on charm) and then we hit LaGuardia for our:

5:30pm flight home.

The pilot for our plane was scheduled to arrive at LaGuardia at:

8pm.

Do the math on that one. It's OK, I'll wait.

Luckily the snack bar in the C-gate area is transcendent and I found a rice krispie block that was about 1/8 cubic foot. It was gone before we left the ground.

I was too optimistic to hope that e-baby would be spared by terrible sore throat and cold. By Saturday she was snot-logged and now she's a pathetic, whimpering mucous fountain. Poor little e-baby.