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Atlanta

Last week we took a short trip to Atlanta.

It was my first time on an airplane with Aidan, and I hadn't been looking forward to it. Aidan's currently going through a stage where he likes to scream, especially if he's made to do anything he doesn't want to do, and I was dreading trying to entertain him for the three hour flight.

It actually turned out to be a lot easier than I was expecting. On the way out we were seated at a bulkhead, and the third seat in our row was unoccupied. That gave Aidan a lot more space to play in, and he only felt the need to race up and down the aisle a couple of times.

We met Mandy's parents in Atlanta, who flew in from a hardware trade show in Florida just an hour after our plane touched down. Together we took a cab to our hotel, a self-catering suite near the Lenox Square mall (better suited to a toddler than a regular hotel room).

We were only in Atlanta for three days, which really wasn't long enough. We spent two days shopping in and around the mall, and the other day visiting the Georgia aquarium. In addition, we managed to squeeze in breakfast with an old schoolfriend of mine whom I hadn't seen in years. I picked up an Apple TV in the Apple Store and a bunch of video games in Target, which I was amazed to discover had a better selection of PC games than the mall's specialist video game store.

Travelling with Aidan may have been easier than I was expecting, but the days were actually harder than I had anticipated. With so many new things to take in, Aidan was often tired and crabby in the afternoon and early evenings, even on those days when he did nap in his stroller. Dealing with that could get a little stressful.

On the flight back, we couldn't get the bulkhead. However, as soon as the plane took off, Aidan rolled over and fell asleep in my lap for an hour, which was a huge bonus. In addition, this time we were travelling with Mandy's parents, so we were able to share the burden of entertaining Aidan with them too.

All in all, it was a welcome break from Bermuda. Nevertheless, I'm still not keen to do much travelling with Aidan until he's a little older.

You can see more pictures from our trip here.

Older

Celebrated my 36th birthday on Saturday. So I'm now officially closer to 40 than to 30. Awesome.

The highlight of the day was Mandy's present to me: a long weekend in New York in April. Highlights of the trip will include a night at the opera (to see La Boheme at the Met) and a night on Broadway (to see David Hyde-Pierce of Frasier fame in the show Curtains). Since I've never been to Broadway and haven't seen a full-scale opera in years, I'm really looking forward to it. Since Aidan isn't particularly excited about theatre or opera just yet, however, he'll be staying with granny.

In the evening we went to Bistro J for dinner - the first time either of us had been there. We really enjoyed it. It's a small, cosy place, with the (admittedly limited) menu chalked up on a board on the wall. The food was good and the service was friendly; we'll definitely be going back.

The last hurrah

WEEK

16

Last week, Mandy and I went to Las Vegas. With the baby now due in less than six months, it will probably be our last adult holiday together for some time. As a bastion of adult entertainment, Sin City seemed like a particularly appropriate place to go.

Rejoicing in our child-free status, we stayed at the Bellagio (only children of guests allowed on the premises), marvelled at the bountiful number of bare breasts bouncing up and down at Jubilee!, and pushed way too many $20 bills into video poker machines in smoke-filled casinos.

Actually, the smoke was the one thing that made Vegas a less-than-ideal destination for a pregnant mother-to-be. We couldn’t get away from it. It seemed as if every smoker in the rest of the United States had fled the bans in their home states and taken refuge in the city. The place has the most permissive attitude to smoking I’ve encountered anywhere in the US. You can smoke pretty much everywhere – in the casinos, the restaurants, the restrooms and the public areas of the hotels – and it’s a right that’s enthusiastically exercised. Perhaps when they’re thinking of the theme for one of the hotels now under construction someone might consider “smoke-free” a suitable choice.

No trip to the US would be complete without spending a day (or preferably longer) in the mall. Although Mandy’s expanding waistline spared me from the usual treks around Gap and Banana Republic, maternity stores were on the to-do list instead. Bermuda only has a couple of such stores, and the selection apparently isn’t that great.

Mandy’s first maternity shopping experience came courtesy of A Pea In The Pod in the Fashion Show Mall. She was practically jumping up and down with excitement when we first stumbled across it, but her enthusiasm waned when she saw the prices. Who could afford to pay almost $200 for a pair of jeans that would get less than 6 months wear? Fortunately, she was able to quench her maternity clothing thirst with a couple of sale items, at least until we found a branch of the more reasonable Motherhood Maternity later in the week.

The most shocking items I saw in the maternity stores were the nursing bras and maternity knickers. I didn’t realise women needed maternity underwear too. The prospect of Mandy eschewing Victoria’s Secret for these frighteningly voluminous garments was almost too much to bear.

Maternity clothes weren’t the only baby-related products we went shopping for. We took the opportunity to stop at a Pottery Barn Kids to look at a dresser-cum-changing table that we’d seen online (bearing in mind Rita and Liz’s advice that a standalone changing table is a waste of money for the amount of use it will get). We were glad we did – Pottery Barn’s dresser looked cheap and didn’t seem particularly well put together. We’ll have to find something else.

These shopping expeditions weren’t the only reminders of Mandy’s physical condition. She almost passed out one morning while queuing in the buffet line for breakfast (although the buffet alone did provide most of her Rita and Liz-mandated 12 servings of fruit and veg for the day). One afternoon, while walking back to our hotel from Caesar’s Palace, a look of shock crossed her face as she told me that her belly had suddenly changed shape. She could feel the skin stretching with it.

Since the bump first appeared I’ve become much more nervous when Mandy’s doing anything where she might slip and fall. This irritates her immensely. While scrambling down a rocky slope in the Valley of Fire she violently resisted my attempts to hold her hand, even though she’s perfectly happy to hold it when we’re walking down the street. “I’m not an invalid,” she grumbled.

Of course, she’s perfectly happy to use her pregnancy as an excuse just after she’s dropped another particularly unpleasant fart.