exit, pursued by bear

hi, I'm cute!

Charlie turned three months yesterday! Where does the time go? I can hardly believe it. Last night I had all of these dreams where my baby boy was suddenly all grown up and wanted none of my snuggles! ::sniff:: I hope he stays little (and snuggly) for just a bit longer ;o)

This past weekend we had the talented Jodi Schlosser snap a few pics of our Mister Man. I cannot stop looking at them! They are all wonderful and Charlie looks so cute.

Just had to share! More here.

darling!

darling little earrings from Betsey Johnson:

{Piperlime, $25}

(P.S. there's a ring, too.)

have baby, will travel. (part 1)

So, as I mentioned in my earlier post, just before Charlie's two month birthday, I had to take him on his first transatlantic voyage.

Perhaps in an attempt to distract myself from the reason for the trip (the death of my grandmother), I spent countless hours online, researching tips/tricks/best practices/etc. for making the journey easier on everyone.

Since the advice that I found online proved (mostly) valuable, I thought I'd pay it forward a little bit and share my own international baby travel experiences. But I think a lot of these tips will be applicable for non-international long-haul journeys, and even other short jaunts by land, air or sea.

First, some background: while I do breastfeed my son, he is not exclusively breastfed (EBF), since my supply is not 100% due to breast reduction surgery that I had several years ago, so with regards to feeding - I will be discussing formula and breast milk. And while I do also cloth diaper my son and I HAVE read about people who did this on international flights and while staying abroad, there was no way that I was going to undertake that during this particular trip. So we went with disposable.

Now that we have those guilty confessions over with, let's begin, shall we?

Preparing for Departure:

1. Passport

Even before Charlie was born, I had started to look into this process, because my Nana had been sick for some time and it became clear that I might have to travel to England sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, things progressed much faster than we anticipated, so we were outside the passport issuance window (i.e. I needed to get that passport ASAP).

Which meant (another!) trip to one of regional passport agency offices. If you're in St. Louis, like me, the closest one is in Chicago. Sadly, I already knew this, having previously made a similar trip up to Chicago the day we were supposed to leave for our honeymoon ... I'll leave that story for another day.

I won't bore you too much with all of the mundane details of how to apply for a passport for your child the NORMAL way, but I will remind you of a few important details that apply to both the normal and the crazy (i.e. last minute trips to regional passport agencies) way:

• You will need a passport photo. This sounds like a "duh." reminder, but remember, you need to take into consideration the age of your child. Call the place where you're planning on getting your passport photos done ahead of time and make sure they can accommodate INFANT (if applicable) passport photos. (Be sure to enunciate, so they don't think you're asking if they take INSTANT passport photos ... ).

For some reason, it actually did occur to me ahead of time that my local copy shop would probably not know how to deal with taking a passport photos of children, so I called an area camera store (who also takes passport photos) and asked if they could help me. They actually DON'T take infant passport photos, but they referred me to another place that does (STL folks: American Passport & Visa - Interestingly, I had almost the EXACT same experience as the first negative reviewer on that page, including the referral, but I guess I'm not as cranky about it? I don't know. Yes it is smoky and weird in there - they fix clocks as well, I think? - and yes, they brought out a stool for my child to sit on and pose for his photo. But it's not like they were thinking he was just going to sit there on his own and say "cheese!" - they had me hold his head from behind and they managed to get a perfectly acceptable photo of my not-even two month old son. Plus, they guarantee their photos will be accepted by the passport application authorities, which ... wouldn't have been much help to us if it had been rejected once we got to the passport agency, since the guarantee basically means that they'll retake the photo free of charge, but I still found it oddly comforting.)

I didn't want to take a photo of Charlie myself (there's a lot of tips online on the DIY route), because I had read that a lot of infant passport applications get rejected, primarily because of issues with the photo itself (not meeting specifications). So I wanted to have this done by a professional. I do think, however, that it would probably be easier to take an infant photo by putting said child on his or her back and taking a photo from above. I'm not sure why this approach wasn't used where I went but, whatever. And please note I said that they took an "acceptable" photo, because clearly this one does nothing to capture the cuteness that is Charlie:

{Apologies for the blurriness, it was a camera phone picture of the passport photo itself}

My husband thinks this photo is HILARIOUSLY awful. I actually think it's sort of oddly cute. The collar of his shirt is all askew from my (unseen) hand gripping his neck in order to hold him up. 

• Minors (under the age of 16) need to apply IN PERSON for a passport and both parents need to be present. When you fill out the passport application, there's a section where BOTH parents have to sign, in person, in front of a representative from the passport authority. If you're applying the normal way, you can just do this at a participating post office - but both parents have to be there to sign - you don't just mail in the application. If one parent has sole custody, there is a lot of extra paperwork and documentation that you need to provide, establishing that you have the other parent's consent to apply for a passport and essentially permission to leave the country with said child. If you're going to a regional passport agency, you both have to show up, with babe in arms (or you also have to come armed with paperwork establishing why the other parent isn't present). 

And with that, I've completely exhausted myself, and probably you as well ... more soon!

nuggety.

nuggety

English; adjective

nuggety (comparative more nuggety, superlative most nuggety)

1. having the characteristics of a nugget
2. see illustration

a much-needed, welcome distraction.

Hi, I'm Charlie of the blurry hand:

Here's his "official" two month photo, which was taken about five days early (does that make up for the fact that his one month photo was about a week late?). He is, again, Charlie of the blurry hand ... I clearly need to do some speed setting adjustments on my camera:

Here's the picture I took on his actual two month birthday - this one was taken in England. Yes, Charlie is now officially a world traveler - a passport holder and everything ;o)

Charlie and I traveled to England to attend my grandmother's funeral. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to survive a transatlantic journey, without my husband, in addition to the death of my darling Nana, but we managed. Charlie was an absolute gem - I cannot tell you how proud I was of him. 

Cute babies heal all wounds, he was such a blessing to us all, during a very difficult time.

I'm still in the process of getting my head above water, after an emotional roller coaster of a summer, but I'm determined to recommit to this blog - especially since I'll be returning to work next week.

I spent a lot of time online, prior to our departure, trying to gather as much advice as possible re: international travel with an infant - so I'm anxious to share what I learned in order to sort of pay it forward, since much of the advice I read was invaluable. So look for that soon.