A Mother's Perspective

It was obvious to me over this past weekend that I’m clearly over the awkwardness of breast-feeding in public. I realized this as I was sitting in the San Francisco airport breast-feeding Jingle while talking to a man who was sitting across from me. One might have thought this should be awkward but, when faced with a crying baby in an airport, or, breast-feeding while talking to a male stranger, I’ll take the latter. Also, I have discovered that little girls love to come over to see Jingle when he is crying. On this day, there were two little girls, ages 3 and 5, who were SO interested in Jingle… “why is he crying? Why is he eating? Why does he play with that? Why why why why whywhy….” So that, again, talking to this male stranger versus answering this never ending stream of questions while trying to make Jingle happy (and wanting to question back – WHERE IS YOUR MOTHER??) was still the better option. This man commented to me later that he thought all 3 children were mine at first. And who wouldn’t since they were spending more time with me than their own mom. The littlest one had a particular fascination with Jingle’s head and kept rubbing it like a bowling ball. At first it was cute (he didn’t mind) but then I watched her go back to her mom, drink some Sprite, get it on her hands, and then come back again to rub Jingle’s head. I watched her go away again, play with something dirty, then come back for a third time to rub his head (while I was breast-feeding). This was finally when I had had enough and called over to the mother who was busy talking on her cell phone..”um.. excuse me… can you please…?” while pointing down to her sticky-fingered child .

That was the beginning of my first trip alone with Jingle. And in all honesty – that was the most difficult time I had. He was so well-behaved most of the time, I realize more and more how lucky I have it. (Sadly, Mr. Mingle had to stay home for Evil Hamlet’s opening weekend. They can’t exactly put on Evil “Hamlet” without Hamlet.)

We went up to Oregon for a friend’s wedding and to see JD and JP in Salem. The first night we stayed in a house on the coast with a couple of Jackasses (you know who you are) and relaxed from our trip up. Jingle was asleep by 7:00 (which is usual) but he was extra tired the first night since his nap schedule was completely messed up earlier that day. The next day I drove him over to Salem (2 hours each way) because he was staying with JP and JD that night while my friends and I went to the wedding on the coast. It was the first night he spent without either of his parents there but I wasn’t worried for him because he was with two loving parents who have a 14 month child of their own. I was more worried about the parents who (did I mention?) have a 14 month child of their own… Although Jingle sleeps through the night now at home, I wasn’t sure if he would do so if he was in a strange place. Sure enough… he did not. I got up early on Sunday morning to drive back to Salem and when I walked into the house, Jingle was happily playing in the exersaucer, while JD, JP and little P all looked up at me with sleepy eyes, “you made it.” We all spent the rest of Sunday doing as little as possible, and I was so happy to take a 2-hour nap with Jingle that afternoon. (A BIG thank you to JD & JP for taking such good care of our little one!)

We flew home from Oregon yesterday and it became clear to me that Jingle is a little bit of a ham. Gee – where did he get that from?? He was smiling at everyone. He had one of the flight attendants completely wrapped around his little finger because every time she would pass by he would beam up at her. She even moved the man who was originally supposed to sit next to me so that we could have 2 seats to ourselves. I never get that kind of treatment when I’m traveling alone! While in the airport he had a table full of male airport workers completely in awe. I was feeding him a bottle while feeding myself a chicken sandwich and he chose that time to be… well... perfect. I felt like Super Mom being able to eat and feed simultaneously while not spilling anything (or dropping him). Then he’d look over at the men and smile. I had my back slightly to them, but I could hear the instant they caught site of Jingle because their conversation changed from talking about aerospace stuff to grandkids. Then they started talking about his smile. Finally when I got up to leave I turned towards them and waived Jingle’s little hand and said goodbye just to see how many grown men I could get to respond in the same cutesy way to say bye to the baby. Half the table.

The entire trip was a good experience for the both of us. I got to spend some time with friends and also be away from Jingle knowing he was in good hands. He and I got to bond some more which has been hard since I went back to work. And I learned he is a good traveler. Now. We’ll see what happens next week when we fly to Minneapolis for a two-night trip!

Mrs. Mingle and Jingle

My Smiley Little Ham