The Felix Helix

A very jet-lagged/sleep-deprived Felix couldn't be dragged from this one without a nice big tantrum.

Greetings from England! We made it. Just. Really, we can't complain. Traveling cross-Atlantic with two small children is not easy - even when they're both about as good as can be. There's just SO MUCH STUFF. Two kids, suitcases, two car seats, stroller frame, diaper bag... and we were actually traveling much lighter than we would have had we not had a lot of borrowed baby gear waiting for us. Besides feeling like a pack mule, our flight from New York to London was pretty seamless. Both boys were complimented by fellow passengers on their good behavior. Not too shabby! Leto enjoyed the white noise and slept pretty much the whole flight. Felix was a tiny bit obsessed with the seatback televisions and watched the same episode of Jake and the Pirates about 4 times with no sound. Eventually he fell asleep... and then he fell off the seat. Without waking up, he slid off the front of the seat until just his head and shoulders were on the seat. Eventually, his head and shoulders followed and he barely woke up enough to get hauled back up. Even the rather stern woman next to him cracked a smile at that one. And, perhaps more importantly, despite Felix's declarations that he would not be flying on the plane because it was "too high" or the ominous and slightly worrying "going to shoot it down" statements, our plane took off and landed with no issues at all.

Unfortunately, when Felix decides to share, Leto is more bewildered than anything else.

When using public transportation in New York, strollers are kind of... a humungous pain in the rear. With Felix, we used the Baby Bjorn a lot, and eventually switched to an Ergo when the Bjorn bothered my back. This time around, I've gotten into wraps - basically long pieces of fabric wrapped in often complicated-looking ways to strap Leto to me. It's a bit more versatile than a regular "structured" carrier, and I think it looks pretty cool. Another huge plus is that the wraps cover up hideous nursing clothes, but that's a whole different post... Anyway - here are some cute pictures of Leto all wrapped up, and a little plug for a great babywearing webstore/info resource!

In the brief moments between feedings (Leto is... huge. He's hovering around 95th percentile in both length and weight) Leto has started smiling. Fun!

We all went to a birthday picnic for Zoe in the park last weekend. About 4 seconds after we got there, we appreciated the need for lo-jac systems in children's shoes, as Felix snuck off and bolted across the field.... yay. Felix spent the rest of the afternoon being chased around as he interrupted game after game of frisbee, football, soccer - basically anything he could get in the way of, he did. Zack took some (unsurprisingly) good pictures, which I've stolen to post here.

For the reasonable rate of 2 M&Ms (or Smarties) per hour, Felix will provide childcare services for infants. He will come to your house, appropriately dressed in nothing but a t-shirt, underpants, and a giant cheesy grin. Felix believes that when a baby cries, it's important to provide a train and not one, but two "night-nights." If all else fails, Felix is happy to use your infant's head as a train track. The train treatment has questionable efficacy. He's also available for naptime.

This is why Leto doesn't sleep in his crib yet. He was fussy, so I thought maybe a change of scenery would help... It is so cute?