The Big Trip, Part 5

I have to say that Robert is the man. During this trip, he displayed such awesome leadership skills. He is not, by nature, particularly patient or pastoral, and he will be the first one to tell you that. Nonetheless, he was sympathetic and considerate to the whole group for the duration of the trip, and was quite flexible. He did all of this while in extreme amounts of pain from his heel spurs and from an injury he sustained while walking through the market, not to mention a major sleep deficit. I was amazed at how well he handled the whole thing.

The day after the market, I can’t remember exactly what we did. I think it was mostly getting the lay of the city, and time in prayer. The following day, the girls had a chill-out day with grandma in the hotel room (a nice break from the sensory overload they were experiencing) while Robert & I shot a video with his new Canon 7D camera. As we were getting ready to find a good location, we decided to test the sound equipment first. Turns out, that was a good idea, because one part of the equipment was totally dead. Once again, Robert is the man. He figured out that the problem was some corrosion on one of the parts, so he took a Q-Tip and some Diet Coke and fixed it right up, MacGuyver-style. Amazing.

I was in front of the camera for this one. We shot my part relatively easily. Of course, I had to do a number of takes, but it went pretty smoothly. An older gentleman did come up to us at one point and caution us not to film any women walking from the back (we were shooting on the street). This is a big no-no in their culture, so we were careful. Later, we met up with our friend, Jeremy, who was also in the country, and he shot his part. Afterward, we had lunch with him, Jared and Blake. Good times and good conversation. The plan was for Robert to be in front of the camera for the third part, but that didn’t work out, so I ended up speaking that part instead on the last day we were there. I think it turned out pretty well, even if it did end up being quite heavily edited.

Things get a little fuzzy at this point about what happened on which day, but I believe the following day was the one when we went to the city to the North of where we were based—the City By The Sea. It is a lovely place, and we were there to see some friends of ours who live there. We only got to stay for the afternoon, but I think this was the highlight of the trip for most of the group. When we got there after a two-hour train ride, the husband met us at the station and brought us to a coffee shop. We were joined not long after by his wife. They both seemed exhausted, a bit discouraged, and as if meeting with us was something they were doing out of obligation. We all headed back to their apartment, where their nanny was with their two young sons (pretty close in age to K & J). She quickly made an exit, and there we all were. The time that followed was amazing. They talked about their life there, the struggles, the spiritual growth, the great moments and the not-so-great ones. They honestly and vulnerably shared their hearts, and all that they’re learning. The kids napped and played together, and we ate some delicious food. Well, our group ate. They were on a week-long fast, but they graciously let us eat in front of them. We felt terrible, but they were totally OK with it. We were also able to bring them a taste of home in the form of green chiles and enchilada sauce, since they were craving enchiladas and can’t get that sort of thing there. I think it was nice for them that they didn’t have to be in full hospitality mode while we were there. We told them not to worry about serving us—we just wanted to hang out with them. Grandma even did the dishes for them! In addition, we were able to leave an unexpected gift for them. They were blessed, and we were, too. We left feeling encouraged, and it was clear that they were encouraged by us, too. After the train ride back, we all piled into one large cab together back to the hotel. David had to sit in Tim’s lap up front. They thought they were suffering. We told them that, last time we were there, EVERY cab ride was like that, so they should be thankful.

I think it was the next day when we went to the major landmark in the region. This is probably the most touristy spot in the country. It doesn’t give you a true sense of the culture or the people there at all, because everyone there is trying to take advantage of you and make money off of you. People will accost you to buy this or do that, and they can be quite insistent. Robert has an awesome strategy. When someone approaches him (it would be a man, as women and men don’t interact much there), he smiles, perhaps puts his arm around the other guy’s shoulders, and says something like, “I have a special deal for you, my friend. Today only, I will be your friend for 100 [currency]. Tomorrow it will cost you 200, but today, it is 100.” They usually don’t quite know what to do with themselves. They either walk away, or laugh and quit bothering us. We were able to get in and out without too many problems. It was, however, quite windy, which made it tough. Jillian was a trooper, and Katherine was very excited that she had stepped in camel poop. She still talks about that occasionally. Robert didn’t get to take the pictures he wanted to get, but he was pretty cool about it. God had other plans, and he went with it. He’s getting good at this whole surrendering thing. :)

Our last day there was pretty low-key. We did some prayer walking, some last-minute shopping, etc. Robert tried to shoot the last part of the video with himself (with David and Tim assisting), and it didn’t work out, so I did it instead (as I mentioned before). As we got ready to leave in the evening (our flight out was after midnight), that’s when things got interesting.

The Big Trip, Part 4

Our first full day in-country was spent in an Arabic language class. Anyone who knows me well will confirm that I am the sort of person who is big on being prepared. The arsenal of stuff I had with me to placate/entertain/distract/mollify the girls while we were in transit was impressive, and worked pretty well. For some reason unbeknownst to me, I neglected to bring any of that with us when we went to this language class. Perhaps the cumulative lack of sleep I was already experiencing took its toll. I don't know, man, but that was a serious blunder on my part. As we kicked off the class, both girls got tired & antsy and started making noise. Our poor instructor, who was really quite awesome, got a little flustered and stopped talking. My general reaction was, "Don't mind us, we'll get this under control in a minute, just carry on." That wasn't how she was rolling, though. I get it. When you're teaching language, the students really need to be able to hear the pronunciation, which is hard when there are screaming kids present. So, here I am, trying desperately to calm the girls down, and everyone is staring at me. AWESOME. We did manage to get some quiet, however, and I think everyone learned something, or at least had a good refresher.

We went out to lunch and our instructor plied Katherine with lots of sweets. This was a recurring theme--everyone there wanted to give Katherine candy. The girls were reasonably well-behaved during the afternoon session, especially considering that Katherine didn't get a nap and was running on limited sleep--also a recurring theme for the trip--and was basically not eating or drinking much of anything but snack food and juice (not her usual fare), with an additional influx of sugar. I was more distracted than everyone else, what with caring for two small children while still trying to listen & learn, but I still managed to learn some stuff, so that was cool. Afterward, I had a very encouraging discussion with our instructor about why we were covering our heads, and she expressed gratitude, telling me how much everyone appreciated the respect we were showing to their culture, and what a great face this put on Americans. Hijabs, FTW!

The next day, we went to the very large tourist market there, which is always an experience. Katherine was tired & clingy, as was Jillian, but we made it out alive. We stopped at a restaurant there and had the best. chicken. ever. We did, however, have a tussle with a couple of really courageous cats to ensure we got to eat it unmolested. Our friend Tim had made the fateful decision to give up meat for Lent, so he went with the felafel, which included lettuce. Bad move. Actually, though, when he was predictably laid out the next day, God really spoke to him the whole day, so it was good in the midst of pain. As He does.

My favorite story from that day was David's experience. I had told everyone that we had really good luck fending off agressive vendors last time by speaking in a language other than English. We had a hotel employee accost us on the street, and our friend, Eric, responded in Italian. The dude actually threw his hands up and stepped aside to let us pass. It was fantastic. Apparently, the dudes in the market are a lot more savvy. David was being rather forcefully pitched by some guy selling...I don't know, scarves or something. He decided to respond in Japanese, in which he is fluent. The guy immediately starts talking back in Japanese. FAIL. Turns out, a lot of these guys speak several languages. David subsequently observed them watching who was coming down the corridor and calling out to them in various languages, including English, Mandarin, Japanese, and perhaps a few others. Crazy. Good for them, though, I guess. I'm sure they have families to feed, and the more tools they have in their toolbox, the more effectively they can sell trinkets to tourists, right? We got to start practicing a little Arabic this day, too. My new favorite phrase was, "Shukran, enna mish machtag da," which basically means, "Thank you, I don't need it."

The Big Trip, Part 3

Once we de-planed onto the tarmac and took the bus to the terminal (with much help from the team in lugging masses of kid gear, and no help from the double stroller, which went with the rest of the luggage to baggage claim), it was smooth sailing through customs and baggage claim. We made a phone call to our hotel to have their airport shuttle pick us up, and they told us it would be 30 minutes (translation in local time: at least an hour). By then, it was, like, 8:30pm, and that’s rush hour around there. So, we waited in the lobby. And waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, Tim made another call to the hotel. According to them, there was just too much traffic, so they weren’t coming. Of course not, right? Thankfully, since we had been there before, Robert knew where to get transportation without getting totally ripped off with major tourist-price mark-ups. We managed to get a small bus, maybe 1.5 or 2 hours after we landed, and we were off. We were prepared and had decent info to give the driver to help him get there, and even spoke a little Arabic to help us communicate. He still ended up calling them to get directions, but at least we had the phone number and it wasn’t the middle of the night.

Finally, we got there, except, not quite. The street the hotel is on is a side street that you can’t get at from the parallel main street. After circling around the block and not being able to get on the right series of side streets, our driver decided that he would back up to get to the hotel. We convinced him to try circling once more, but the result was the same. So, we conceded that backing up might be the best option, after all. Now, we’re not talking a short back up, here. It was at least 200 yards, maybe more, in rush hour. Insane. The thing about driving there is that just about anything goes. There are really no lanes, and even if there were, everyone would just ignore them. Our driving backward apparently didn’t really faze anyone else, because there was no more honking than usual (which is to say, there was a lot of honking on both our part and everyone else’s). It was a very surreal moment for our first major experience there. Thankfully, we made it to the hotel in one piece, and didn’t even hit anyone. Our driver got a good tip.

Up the old, rickety elevator we went to the 6th floor to check in. After much discussion back and forth with Robert and the people at the front desk, it was determined that, in spite of what we had understood, we did NOT have a reservation. The travel agency had only emailed them to check pricing, but hadn’t actually booked us there. GREAT. But, God is good, and they had enough rooms for our whole team. Talk about an exercise in trusting Him! He always provides. By this time, we were starving, so we had them order us in some food. I put the girls to bed in their travel tents, ate a few bites, and then crashed. It was late at that point, and we had to get up in the morning.

Many details of the nights there are a little fuzzy at this point, but I think the nighttime waking for the girls started on the first night and pretty much continued through the entire trip. Katherine spent some time in my bed (there were 2 full-size beds, so Robert & I each took one). There was crying, and talking, and nursing, and bottles, and a lot of wakefulness. When you’re all in one room, if one kid is awake, everyone is pretty much awake. Not sleeping at night = cranky kids and parents. This would play out throughout the trip, and I’ll get to that in the next post.

A side note about nursing in public

This doesn't have to do with a specific part of the trip, but this challenge was interwoven throughout the whole thing, and reaches beyond just the travel portion of my life. Nursing in public is a hot-button issue, particularly in Western culture where breasts are such a sexualized thing. The whole thing just seems to make the vast majority of people uncomfortable. We think of boobs as sexual objects, so even when they're being used for their primarily designed, utilitarian purpose, everyone gets all scandalized. I get it. In our society, looking at boobs is kind-of a no-no (although a LOT of people do it, obviously, what with the current porn pandemic we've got going on), and it must be quite a temptation when one gets whipped out (indecent exposure!), even if it's mostly covered by a baby head. Because of this, I use a nursing cover out of respect for those around me.

During this trip, Jillian was almost 9 months old. She has been Squirmy McKickengrab her whole life, and that has only intensified as she has grown. The bigger and stronger she gets, the more effective her squirming, grabbing, kicking and climbing get. She's also quite particular and opinionated, especially with regard to body positioning, both in general and while nursing. Add to that a propensity for easy distraction (at its greatest while nursing), and you're asking for trouble when trying to nurse in public with a nursing cover. I think my sense of modesty has progressively decreased as I've nursed, but I do still try to be mindful of those around me. My general feeling is that I'll do my best to stay covered, but if someone gets a flash by accident, whatever. They shouldn't be looking, anyway, and if they are, well, it's just a boob. Probably nothing they haven't seen before. Jillian makes it quite difficult because she's not a fan of the nursing cover, and she can easily pull it off. She thinks it's it's a hilarious game, and invariably laughs once she's uncovered. It's highly frustrating for me, and I've had a few times when I've been tempted to just let her nurse uncovered, but without much of anything really showing. One such a time was on our flight to SLC. I was all the way in the back of the plane, and nobody was really looking. There was a guy across the aisle in the row in front of us who, according to Robert, was trying to sneak a peek, although I didn't catch him. Robert was a little mortified, especially because this trip had such an overall focus on modesty, so our mindset was to show less skin than ever, and certainly not something so taboo. But, sometimes you have to do what you have to do to get a baby to eat.

I was determined not to let this trip derail my nursing relationship with Jillian, since the last time we did this, it was the end of nursing with Katherine. She was almost a year old at that point, and had been fighting me on nursing for a couple of months prior to the trip. So, it wasn't the end of the world. But I didn't want to end nursing this early with Jillian. I am proud to say that I was successful in that endeavor, but not without a lot of work. There were several times when I had to abort an attempt to nurse in public (including one time when we were in country and Jillian was being totally uncooperative in the middle of a crowded McDonald's).

So, in summary, nursing in public is complicated, and I wish people weren't so puritanical about something that God designed to be a natural, biological, utilitarian, non-sexual function. Not gonna happen, though, so I'll just soldier on.

The Big Trip, Part 2

The morning of the day we left was actually relatively normal, except for all the last minute pre-travel stuff. Jillian even got a morning nap. When Super Shuttle came to pick us up, we loaded our ridiculous amounts of baggage in and off we went. Things at the airport went relatively smoothly, as much as they can when you're taking ridiculous amounts of baggage and two small children and everything that goes with them through security. The short flight to SLC was pretty uneventful, but it was a little bit late. As you may recall, our turnaround time between flights was less than 45 minutes. We found out that our departure flight to Charles de Gaulle was also running a little late, so that took some pressure off. Once we landed, most of the team made a mad dash for the next gate. Our family waited until most of the people were off the plane, since we had so much to carry and would have to wait for a gate-checked stroller anyway. Thankfully, our departure gate was across the hall and a few gates down, so it was a quick jaunt. There was no pre-boarding, alas, but we made it on without much problem at all. Whew!

The overseas flight was long, of course, but it actually went pretty well, even with small children. There were frustrating moments and not a lot of sleep for anyone, and Katherine's diaper leaked at one point (thankfully, it was only pee), and we weren't all sitting quite together (Jillian & I were, at times, in front of or behind Robert, Katherine & Grandma), but hey, we made it and didn't really get the stink-eye from other passengers, so I call that a win. Once in Paris, we had to make our way to another terminal by bus. At some point just prior to that excursion, I realized that my cell phone was somewhere on the plane, and there was no going back. Bummer, but c'est la vie. We later had it shut off so as not to incur crazy charges from anyone who might try to use in in Europe.

Once we found our gate, the ladies went to the bathroom put on their head coverings. (Side note: I try to abide by local modesty rules when traveling, so if the majority of women cover their skin and hair where I am, I cover it, too. Not only does it show respect for the local culture, but it helps avoid an awful lot of harassment. I adjust my wardrobe before the flight into the country, so as to be dressed properly when I arrive.) I know there are a lot of Muslim women in France, and we saw a few, but it's still strange to walk around with a hijab on in a non-Muslim country, especially when you are clearly a Whitey McWhiterton. We got a few looks, to be sure. It's strange--once I put the covering on, I feel like I'm part of a club or something. It's almost like going into character. I'm still me, but my perception of my environment changes, and my perception of how others are perceiving me changes. Whether or not my perception is accurate is another story. Hard to say.

Anyway, not long before we got on the plane Jillian was getting super over-tired and fussy. I put her in the sling and she was out in no time. Unfortunately, that didn't last long, because she woke up as we were boarding. As we sat on the plane waiting to depart, I was doing my best to placate her and get her back to sleep, but she was getting more and more worked up between periods of calm. To top it off, the flight attendant informed me that I couldn't have her in the car seat for take-off, but would have to abide by European rules and use the baby seat belt, which attaches to my lap belt. At first, I was distraught, because the only thing that was making Jillian happy was to be facing me, over my shoulder and/or snuggled against my stomach. But then, we figured maybe we could just fasten the belt around her while she was backward, and that worked out pretty well. Both of us fell asleep not long after take-off (mommy was over-tired, too!), and I woke up just in time for the in-flight meal. Jillian, mercifully, did NOT wake up. So, I ate the whole meal somewhat reclined with a baby asleep on my belly. Tricky, but possible. I had been concerned that this last leg of the trip would be a nightmare, but it actually turned out pretty well. The flight attendants were really nice and helpful, the food was good, and they even had little toy packs for Katherine and Jillian. Hooray for Air France! I had wondered if I would be treated poorly because of my hijab (that actually happened last time we left NEA on a KLM flight), but everyone was really great. We reached our destination mostly without incident, and de-planed with help from the team, who were awesome and carried some of our bags. Unfortunately, when you de-plane at our destination airport, it's on the tarmac, and you have to take a bus to the terminal. Actually, the unfortunate part is that strollers go with the rest of the baggage, so instead of using my double stroller to lug Jillian in her car seat, Katherine's car seat, and any other bags we could fit on there, we had to lug it all by hand. Urgh. But, we made it there, through customs, through baggage claim and into the lobby without too much trouble. The girls were even in reasonable spirits, if tired. Now, all we have to do is get to our hotel. At this point, it was evening time, so we were all ready to get some dinner, get settled in and crash. Is that how it happened? Of course not.

I'll save that story for the next post.

The Big Trip, Part 1

I'm going to post about our recent overseas adventure in parts, or it's never going to get done. Here we go!

The day before the trip, I was in full-on packing mode, and Robert got a call from his mom, who was going to be traveling with us. She had tried to check in for the flight early, and apparently our flight to JFK had been cancelled due to bad weather. Had anyone informed us of this? No. So, we could have shown up at the airport at 4:20am for nothing. Thank God she checked! So, I first got on the horn with the travel agency to see what the deal was, and they had no idea what I was talking about. Then, they checked their system and, sure enough, CANCELLED. Great. Fantastic. They gave me another flight option (not the one we ended up getting, incidentally), but said I'd have to call Delta. I probably called Delta 50 times before I got through to someone. Apparently, they're very busy over there. When I finally talked to someone, he was very helpful, but our only flight option (instead of our original JFK-NEA two-flight option) was SLC-Paris-NEA with a connection time of less that 45 minutes in SLC with 8 adults, 2 children with carseats, and lots of carry-on luggage. It really was the only option, so we booked it. Scary, but necessary if we wanted to get to our destination on the same day, albeit a few hours later. The best part was that, instead of our flight being at 6:20am, it was now at 1:25pm. So much better from a kid schedule standpoint. It was a blessing in disguise! Next up: the travel day.

Bemidji Or Bust, 2009

Ahhh, travel with small children. You never know how it’s going to go down, do you? I had never done it with more than one until the weekend before last, and it was an experience. Our flight left at 9:00am on Friday. We had hoped to be at the airport by 7:00am. While that did technically happen, it wasn’t quite as planned. Robert dropped me and the girls off at the departures curb a little after 7:00, and we got all of our bags, carseats and stroller into the lobby. Then, we waited for him to go and park the car in long-term parking and take the bus back. By the time he got back, we were pushing 8:00, and still had to check in. By the time we checked our bags, got our boarding passes, went through security (where we had to take a sleeping Jillian out of the carseat and put that and the stroller through the x-ray, AND take Katherine’s shoes off), we made it to the gate just in time to gate check the stroller and carseat and pre-board. Whew! The problem? Neither Robert nor I had eaten anything. At least Katherine had munched on a granola bar while we were waiting on daddy to park the car. Oh, and Katherine had nothing to drink because we hadn’t had time to buy anything before boarding. Awesome. Thankfully, the flight attendant was able to quickly get us a bottle of water, and we had at least stopped to get cash, enabling us to buy overpriced airplane food.

Jillian did quite well on the flight. Katherine actually did pretty well, too. We were close to a tantrum a couple of times, and had to keep reminding her not to kick the seat in front of her, but with the help of a portable DVD player, a couple of Nick Jr. magazines and some fun snacks, we made it work. We even had an assist from the parents behind us who were also travelling with a toddler. Since he had finally fallen asleep, they shared one of his toys with K toward the end of the flight.

Once we got off the plane, diapers needed to be changed and Jillian needed to eat. Once the cleanup was complete, we found a place to sit in front of an in-airport toy store. While I fed Jillian, Robert bought Katherine a toy for being such a good girl on the plane. She ended up with a funny-looking Diego doll, and daddy bought a toy similar to the one she had played with on the plane as a possible distraction for the flight home. It was immediately hidden in the diaper bag. With all that done, it was on to the rental car. We had to take the train to the other terminal, and K thought that was pretty cool. Once everything was jammed into the car (a Chevy Impala that I’m guessing had never had a carseat installed, judging by the insane tightness of the LATCH system in there), we were off. We only got a few miles away from the airport when we decided it was time for lunch. It was rush hour, anyway, so a little extra time wouldn’t hurt. We stopped at Burger King for a bit, and then it was off again. We didn’t even make it out of Minneapolis until around 5:00pm (we still ended up dealing with rush hour, even after our stop).

It didn’t take long for me to end up in the back seat with the girls. All the way out of the city Jillian kept getting fussy after continually spitting out her pacifier and I kept unbuckling my seatbelt (illegal alert!) and turning around to re-binkify her. It finally became a pain enough that I just decided to get back there. Squishy and uncomfortable, but practical. Eventually, she got tired and passed out. I gave Katherine her binkies and tried to get her to take a nap. It worked a little. Sort-of.

Our second pit stop came near St. Cloud at McDonald’s. I fed Jillian & changed her diaper, and Daddy & Katherine had ice cream. Don’t worry, mommy got to have a cone when Jillian was all done. J Katherine got to do a lot of running around on the grass. After it was all over and we were on our way again, I tried again with Katherine and the napping. It worked a little. Sort-of.

The rest of the ride was spent placating one girl or the other. We had to stop and change Jillian’s diaper once, and that was awful. We pulled over on the side of the road by a forest and I got her out and put her on the front seat. I had to do this with the passenger-side door open. I can’t even begin to describe the swarm of mosquitoes that was present and hovering around that door. Miraculously, nobody got bitten, even after we quickly discovered a stowaway made after we were on our way again. I handily dispatched it with a baby wipe, and came away with only a serious case of the heebie-jeebies. Have I mentioned how much I loathe mosquitoes? Because, for reals? HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE.

The portable DVD player got some more use on the car ride, but not as much as I thought it would. The Diego doll was a hit for sure, though, and the Nick Jr. magazines went over pretty well, too. I got to read the story about Toot & Puddle several times, and cannot repeat the name of the town in which they reside without behaving like I’m about 12 years old. Seriously, who would put a name like that into a children’s story?!

When we finally made it to Bemidji, we were greeted by Grandma and Auntie Christa in the hotel parking lot. They immediately took charge of Katherine, and proceeded to get her riled up with grapes and a soccer ball. After we got everything into the room, Robert went and got dinner from the Pita Pit across the street (Katherine hardly ate any, of course). We hung out with the family (Auntie Jenn & Uncle Jeremy were already crashed out upstairs) until we were all totally exhausted, and then there was a mass exit from our room. We tried to keep Katherine’s nighttime routine similar to what she was used to, but I think the whole day had just been so off-kilter that she had a tough time.

That night was………….not fun. Jillian slept OK (if noisily, as usual), seeing as how she was inches from my face, just like she likes it. Katherine, however, had a terrible time getting to sleep, and woke up several times just howling and howling and howling. Usually, she’s very good about telling us what’s wrong if she wakes up crying (she’s hot or cold, she’s lost her binkies, she wants a drink of water, etc.), but she was so hysterical that she just couldn’t articulate what was the matter. We’re still not sure what her deal was, but she had done this a couple of times during the previous week, too. SWEET FANCY MOSES, can that kid scream. I’m amazed that Jillian did so well throughout that ordeal, but again with the whole right-up-in-my-face-breathing-my-air thing. Desperate times call for desperate measures, yo. Kudos to Robert for taking point on Katherine. He did a really great job with her.

The next day we were totally wiped, but surprisingly chipper. We slept in late (by Bemidji time, anyway, since we were trying to stay on our AZ schedule, which meant staying up late and sleeping late), but were up in time to catch the tail-end of the free hotel breakfast and get ourselves together before heading to Great-Grandma’s party. It was great to see the family, and Katherine had lots of fun mingling with her cousins, singing Happy Birthday to Great-Grandma and playing in the woods with daddy & mommy & Auntie Christa. Jillian got passed around like a hot potato and finally ended up snoozing in the sling. Lots of pictures were taken. When it was all over, we went back to the hotel and crashed in a mass family nap. When we woke up, it was time to go to dinner at Uncle Steve and Aunt Vicki’s house. Again, Katherine got to run around with her cousins, and Jillian got passed around like a hot potato. Food was eaten. Small-person crankiness was displayed. Time-outs were assigned. Books were read. Toys were shared. And then it was time to go back to the hotel and crash. This night was mercifully quieter than the last.

Sunday was pretty chill. Again, we slept in, but got up in time for breakfast. Daddy took Katherine down to swim with the family in the hotel pool while I took care of Jillian, and we eventually joined them in time to see Katherine experience the insanely powerful jets in the hot tub. Homegirl likes the bubbles! Then, it was off to lunch with Great-Grandma at Applebee’s. Food was eaten. Tantrums were averted. Toddler discipline was discussed with Auntie Jenn. After that, there was a quick swing by Paul Bunyan & Babe for a family picture before heading off to the lake. A princess fishing pole was used. Worms were examined. “Chew weeds” were discovered. Camouflage and a pink raicoat were worn. Hills were run down. Good times. Then, it was back to the hotel for family naptime, followed by dinner at Perkins. I decided that breakfast for dinner sounded pretty tasty, and that I would share it with Katherine. Now, K has had pancakes before and enjoyed them. She really went for the bacon this evening, and mostly ignored the scrambled eggs, which she usually devours. When I offered her a piece of pancake with blueberry syrup, she was not interested. We KNEW she would like it if she tried it, but she was not budging, even though we told her to eat it. This is where the discussion of toddler discipline came up again. We knew this was a battle we could win, so we took it on. We made her eat a piece, despite her screams of protest (have I mentioned that, SWEET FANCY MOSES, that kid can scream?). Her response, after the bite was eaten? “I want some more.” Of COURSE you do. Geez, kid, can’t you just trust mommy & daddy when they tell you that you’ll like something?

That night was, unfortunately, a repeat of Friday night, except with the addition of a very fussy Jillian, and a much earlier wake-up time. One of the biggest problems with travel like this is that you’re all in the same room at night. No good opportunity to let baby work her lungs a little without disturbing big sister, which means that mommy & baby end up in the bathroom trying to mitigate the noise a little while, rocking, bouncing, and substituting Mylicon for Gripe Water. This, after big sister has bawled and bawled and bawled for no discernible reason and with no acceptance of comfort (have I mentioned that, SWEET FANCY MOSES, that kid can scream?), and finally dropped off to tentative sleep, probably out of sheer exhaustion. By the time everyone got to sleep it was late, and minimal sleep was going to be had.

Early the next morning, we got up and packed all of our stuff, jamming things into the suitcases as best we could. Understandably, Robert was pretty cranky, but only had one serious outward moment of frustration while trying to get the stroller into the already crammed trunk of the car. Good thing it’s sturdy! You get what you pay for, y’all. I ended up riding in the backseat for the vast majority of the drive to Minneapolis in order to keep peace in the car. Both girls slept quite a bit for the first part of the car ride, and that was a blessing. We made a pit stop in St. Cloud again, where daddy bought mommy some coffee, and couldn’t resist buying Katherine not one, but TWO Wild Things monsters in Barnes & Noble while I fed Jillian in the car. Diapers were changed, and then K promptly pooped. Good thing we were going across the street to Target. Diapers were changed again, and then we bought K some new shoes, as the ones she was wearing were a wee bit too small with her socks on and were hurting her feet (the back of her heel is still healing even now).

Finally, it was off to the airport. We made it within a reasonable time, thank God, because seriously? If you are ever running late at the Minneapolis airport and have to return a car and then get to the Lindburgh Terminal? FORGET IT. We had to walk foreeeeeeeeeeeever through the parking garage, and then take a bunch of different elevators to an outdoor platform where we waited at least 5 minutes for a light rail to take us to another spot where we had to take several more elevators to the spot where we waited for the train between the terminals (two train rides for Katherine!). THEN, we still had to check in, check our baggage (one bag was 7 pounds overweight and the guy at the counter mercifully checked it without charging us—God is good!). This was all before we even got to the whole security ordeal, which actually went pretty smoothly, considering. We made it to the gate with time to spare for lunch. The lady at the counter was completely unsympathetic to the fact that our seats were NOT ALL TOGETHER, and wouldn’t even give us the tags to fill out for gate checking the car seat and stroller. Bah. The other gate agent, when Robert finally talked to her, was like, “Uhhhh, we could have given you those gate check tags at any time.” Yeah. It all worked out in the end, though, and we made it onto the plane in one piece, and even in reasonable spirits.

The plane ride was amazingly uneventful. Katherine slept a little, we barely had to use the DVD player, and we didn’t even have to pull out the emergency back-up toy. Jillian did fantastically, once again. By the time we de-planed, though, she decided it was time to eat (despite being totally disinterested in eating while we descended and landed). So, we took some time for that while daddy & K got a treat. By the time we got down to get our luggage, it had already been taken to the office, so Robert had to retrieve it. Then, it was wait, wait, wait again by the luggage carousels while daddy went to get the car after waiting waaaaaaaaay too long in the heat for the long-term parking bus. It was so good to finally be home. On the way home, we stopped at Fresh & Easy to get some salad for dinner. It tasted phenomenal after so much fast food and whatnot over the weekend. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of leaving the opened raspberry dressing packet sitting upright in the salad bowl on the table. After dinner, we turned on the TV for a few minutes before beginning K’s bedtime routine. Suddenly, I noticed that Katherine was just a little toooooo quiet behind us. Anyone can see where this is going. A precocious toddler covered in bright pink vinaigrette. Clothes were quickly stripped off and soaked in OxiClean. Pictures were, alas, not taken. A bath was given, and K was put to bed. Jillian was bedded not too long thereafter, and essentially slept through the night. God is good!

As of this writing, Katherine’s clothes are stain-free, including the light pink t-shirt (after two OxiClean treatments and washings). Unbelievable!

So, there you have it. A difficult trip with regard to sleep, but otherwise not too bad. The travel portion was actually considerably better than I thought it would be. The family all got along and Great-Grandma finally got to see her granddaughters. We survived.

The end.

Katherine's new diaper bag!

We're preparing to take a 2-week trip overseas in May, and I decided to get Katherine another diaper bag for the journey. The one I have is gorgeous (silk, hand-made in China and brought back for me by a friend), but a bit flashy for travel (and a little smaller than I'd like--plus, the fabric's not the most easily cleanable). So, I made the trek to Babies 'R' Us yesterday and ended up with this. I'm pretty excited! Even Daddy won't mind carrying it. Can't wait to pack it up and try it out!

On a side note, traveling with babies is really complicated, yo. They require a lot of advanced preparation and forethought as far as gear goes. I also bought a sling and a travel bed for her, just to name a couple of things. Whew! She's worth it, though. I mean, look at her!