The Out-of-Towners

This is Leo:

Leo is 5 and 1/2 months old and I can say without any hint of sarcasm that he is the light (and love) of my life. He's generally a very good boy and only gets fussy when something legit is bothering him. But even with his pristine record of decent behavior, I am still scared out of my mind about traveling with him. 

We are due to visit friends about three hours away for the 4th of July. It will be Leo's first overnight trip and I have myself totally worked up about what could go wrong. At the top of this list is "Leo has a soul-crushing  (we're talking my soul here, not his) meltdown." It should probably be something like, "Leo contracts the swine flu/SARS/ebola" but I feel like I could handle a medical emergency. There are, after all, hospitals in Massachusetts. But the emotional stuff, the stuff that isn't physically obvious and that he can't tell us about in words yet...that's what has me in a panic. Especially when there are other people (not my immediate family) around. Because a screaming baby obviously equals a bad mommy who can't figure out how to meet her child's needs.

Now I know my friends would NEVER judge me if Leo freaked and spent four hours yelling his little heart out. They'd probably politely ask us to leave, but they would never judge me. (that last part is not true either - in fact, they're so sweet that they would probably leave and give us the deed to the house if things got really bad)

Wish us luck.