First plane trip and a weekend in Fredericton

On Friday, Sept. 7, Austin boarded his very first plane for a weekend trip with mom and dad to Fredericton. The two-hour flight went off without a hitch and Austin was too busy exploring his new surroundings and giving high-fives to some of the other passengers to complain about being in a closed space. He even sat on our laps (since we didn’t buy him a seat) and played with some of the new toys we bought him (there’s nothing wrong with a little bribery every now and then).

The weekend was a lot of fun. The purpose of the trip was a wedding on the Saturday night, which gave us pretty much the whole weekend to ourselves. The Friday night was spent at the rehearsal dinner – a barbecue at a nearby farmhouse – where Austin charmed everyone. On Saturday, the three of us ventured out into the heat (it was 30C+ that day) for a walk to the Fredericton Market – a very popular spot – then came back in time for nap (which is a little awkward when the three of us are sharing a room, but manageable because we both ended up falling asleep as well.)

At 6 p.m. a sitter came to watch Austin, who barely noticed us leave the room because he was too busy showing her his trucks!

The wedding was really nice, an evening ceremony followed by a garden cocktail party, and we had a lot of fun. It’s nice every now and then to get out and be an adult – even if you turn back into a pumpkin at midnight.

Sunday was much of the same, but this day came with an early morning wakeup call from Austin (6:30 a.m., following a wake up and a playtime from midnight to 1 a.m. -- another downside of sharing a room) and a trip to a 24-hour diner for breakfast. After that, we went for a long walk along the river – which was really pretty and made for some nice picture taking.

Our flight home left at 9 p.m., which wasn’t the ideal time because Austin’s bedtime is around 8:30. Meaning, by the time we boarded the plane, he was exhausted. Unfortunately, it made for a long flight home, as Austin refused to sleep, and had a complete meltdown scream-a-thon every time we forced him to sit on one of our laps (which is a must during take off and landing). Thankfully, the plane wasn’t full, so we spread out during the flight, giving him his own seat to sit in. Next time we fly with him, I definitely think we’ll try to avoid the flight that leaves after bedtime!That’s all the news from the three of us for now. My last few updates have been about our summertime adventures – and there have been a lot of them – so here’s a quick Austin update:
· At his last doctor’s appointment, it became obvious why he has outgrown all his clothes; he now stands 33 inches tall and weighs about 29 pounds.
· He runs almost everywhere which makes me wonder some days if he’s forgotten how to walk.
· Although most conversations with him consist of completely unidentifiable phrases, he has a few very distinct words – most notably shoes, car, hello, cat and dog. And he does associate each of those words with the correct item (or meaning).

And finally, I’ll admit it…he needs a haircut.