We're back!

Our nanny took that picture of Jack right before we left for Springfield on Tuesday. We had a great trip, though I unfortunately forgot to charge my camera batteries before we left, so all I have to show for our time in Springfield are a couple pictures of Jack in our hotel room.

I couldn't believe how good Jack was on our trip. He was an absolute angel on the drive to and from SpringfieldHe napped a little in the car each way, but was awake and entertained himself most of the time. His carseat is still rear-facing, so I was shocked he was able to keep himself occupied for so long. He had just a brief 5-minute bout of crying on each of the drives, but that was all.

He behaved wonderfully at the conference as well. He slept reasonably well both nights at the hotel. Several of my coworkers were there, so he had lots of "aunties" doting on him the entire time. He also got showered with attention from people we didn't know; he was constantly getting compliments on how cute and well-behaved he was.

During most of the sessions, I was able to find some space on the floor to spread a blanket and let him crawl around and play with toys. That way he was happy and quiet, and he wasn't disrupting the sessions at all. I just felt a little bad that most of the people around us weren't paying as much attention to the speakers as they should, since they were watching and laughing at Jack.

There were a couple other babies at the conference too (of course Jack was the cutest). In one of our sessions, we happened to sit near a 7-month old girl and her mother. When I put Jack on the floor, he took off and made a beeline for the little girl. He tried a couple times to throw a ball to her. When Jack saw that she was obviously more interested in putting the ball in her mouth than tossing it back, he gave up and inspected all of her cool toys. While they were "playing" together, I think a good quarter of the audience was more occupied with watching the babies than listening to the lecture!

Finally, here are the pictures I took. Jack really liked the big window in our hotel room.