Deborah Armstrong

Vegas, Baby!

Deborah's Diary

Travelling with a baby to Vegas – easy as a walk in the park or a a trek up Mount Everest with one hi-tech stroller, one Super Mom armed with passport and signed permission form from daddy, and two strong Sherpas to pull four suitcases behind them. Getting there is easy. A smiling baby opens so many doors for you at the airport. You get moved to the head of the line at security. You get to board the plane first. There’s no waiting. Although, I must admit I was surprised that the flight attendants didn’t give us a few minutes to get the car seat strapped into place before the rest of the passengers boarded. We were a bit rushed. Take note West Jet.

Mom knew all the tricks for flying – new toys, banana flavoured pablum biscuits that taste like paste, favourite soother or soo soo as Mom calls it, and the ever popular breast for nursing. Our beautiful bouncing seven month old  visited and gave her best gurgles and smiles to strangers (mostly good looking young men). The four and one half hours literally flew by.

Then the real work began. I didn’t realize how much had changed about looking after babies in twenty-two years. Babies no longer get to taste real food until they are at least one year old – no cracker to gum to death, no milk, nothing that tastes like real food. Baby food, formula or mother’s milk were all our little mite could eat. No blankets when sleeping either – in case of SIDS. Baby now sleeps in a baby’s sleeping bag at night. I was surprised that I still knew how to change a diaper. Diapers have improved. The waist band has velcro – no more ripping apart a diaper to check on wetness. Wipes haven’t changed and neither has the baby’s cream to prevent diaper rash. I guess there’s not much that can change when dealing with poop.

And we did deal with poop. Baby hadn’t pooped in days. Mommy was fixated with baby’s lack of bowel movements. She was singing songs to baby to get her to poop. We fed baby lots of pureed fruit to get the movement going. Then Mom left us for the day to go to work. That’s when the poop hit the proverbial fan. And she pooped and she pooped. Sherpa Two didn’t handle diapers or crying baby, only happy baby. Sherpa One got diaper detail and bottle detail. Sherpa One showed Sherpa Two how it’s done.

We really couldn’t do Vegas with a baby in tow, but we still had fun. We cruised the strip with our hi-tech stroller and walked through various casinos: Caesar’s, The Mirage, The Flamingo, Paris, The Venetian – the list goes on.There was no stopping to gamble.  No underage gamblers allowed. We saw the casinos at warp speed as we pushed our hi tech stroller sometimes sans baby as one of us often volunteered to carry baby and show her off. We were in awe, Super Mom and I, as we watched Sherpa Two walk through the crowd holding baby in her arms. Both beauties were catching many a passers’ by eye as they cut their way through the crowd. Both were smiling and looking so relaxed as they made their way through the crowd. They owned that sidewalk.

Our schedule worked on baby time. Eating, sleeping, play time and work time were all controlled by this little   one. Super Mom would apologize for the constant change in plans, but her apologies were unnecessary. Who could blame baby for not wanting to miss out on all the action. We were in Vegas, baby!

To be continued…

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