Check out the full photo album at Feb + USA trip 2010.
We started off the month with a quick visit to Mudgee, but our main focus in February was the trip to Seattle. This was Jeremy's first aeroplane ride and a long trip anyway (14 hours from Sydney to LA is long enough for adults!). Our flights to LA and back (on V Australia) left in the evening and we had a seat with a bassinet for Jeremy. Both times Jeremy slept really well (basically like his normal nighttime sleep) even when there was turbulence (when you have to take the baby out of the basinet). However, Jeremy really did not like the connecting flight from LA to Seattle (on Alaskan Airlines). He did not have his own seat or bassinet and the plane just felt crowded. We had finally entered that elite group: Parents With the Screaming Child (PWSC).
In Seattle as well as visiting family and friends we also visited places like Mt Rainier (where Jeremy saw his first snow) and Snoqualmie Falls (where Ruby took this really great photo of Jeremy). However, I think the best thing is that Jeremy forged a bond between himself and his Lola and Lolo (Filipino for Grandma and Granddad). We also set up a webcam so that (via Skype) he can see more of Lola and Lolo in the future.
One of the great things about going to Seattle is indulging in their coffee. There is much more choice over there and the price is much cheaper than here! We enjoyed delicious coffees such as Intense dark chocolate mocha from Tully's, dark chocolate cherry mocha from Starbucks and caramel mocha from Dilettante cafe at the airport. If we had another couple of weeks, we'd probably would have sampled the lot of mochas from all the major Seattle coffee chains.
In Australia many of the shopping centres have dedicated parents rooms which makes life for us very easy as there is a place to change Jeremy and for Ruby to breast feed him. In general this was not the case in Seattle, at best they have a room with a toilet and a change table. Except at Westfield Southcenter where the parents room was excellent.
Jeremy's poo got a lot worse in that he more often than not would also dirty up his all clothes (we call these either number 3s or Poo-Splosions). All in all not very nice to change it the back of a car or in a toilet. The nappies (ok diapers in the USA) we bought in the US were so much thinner than the ones we get here (Pampers Baby Dry) and whilst they were great for soaking up wee, they might also have been the reason Poo-Splosions were so bad.
As Jeremy was just over 6 months old when we arrived back in Sydney we took him for his next immunisation (he was very good with not much crying) and started him on solids. First we tried rice cereal (which he really likes as you can see in the video below) and have since moved onto apple, banana, pumpkin and avocado. He is not too sure about these and has made some funny faces when given a spoonful or pushed the spoon away. The best way we have found get him to eat these is to mix them with the rice cereal. We are also reasonably sure he is getting the solids through as the Poo-Splosions seem to have been tamed...
Normally I include the videos in the same location as the photos (Google's Picasa). However, I was not very happy with the overall quality of the videos (Google converts them so they look very pixellated) so I am giving Vimeo a try as its quality looks very similar to the original movie.
Jeremy and Solids from Ben Blake on Vimeo.
The weekend after we came back from Seattle we took Jeremy to the wedding of our friends Michael and Emily (the first wedding Jeremy has been to). He behaved himself very well and despite there being a few mosquitos about he managed to not get bitten (I suspect they went after Ruby instead).
Jeremy is now using his rolling and stretching skills to explore our lounge and dining rooms. We are really not used to how quickly he can move and we really need to keep a closer eye on him as he is very keen to put everything in his mouth! I do not think it will be long before he starts crawling...