2.27.16 - Traveling home

Dad plays with Clara before we get ready to go.

Dad drove Clara and me to the airport. I'm glad he did because it's about an hour and a half drive and it gave us a chance to visit one-on-one without much distraction. And he was in a pretty good mood and our conversation was interesting and pleasant and maybe even important. We talked about the problem of evil and politics and some of our family dynamics. I got to tell him some stuff I've wanted to talk about for awhile but just hadn't had the opportunity. It was really nice, actually. Plus he had picked up some Kangaroo Coffee before we got on the highway, which was a good pick me up since I hadn't gotten great sleep last night. Clara slept the entire drive too.

Holding my hand while she sleeps.

The flight home went fine too. Traveling with a baby is still a lot more work than not, but Clara is such a good kid. Chill throughout all of security and waiting at the gate. And even though she didn't end up falling asleep on the plane, it wasn't that hard to keep her busy with bits of different kinds of food, her 100 word book, wrappers, magazines, a bottle of ibuprofen (basically a rattle to her), just any new object really. I also held her while she half stood on the chair arm and peeked at the guy behind us, and it gave me a chance to kind of take a "break." Whenever the seat belt light was off I'd stand with her so she could see more, or I'd walk her up and down the aisle to keep her entertained.

The 100 Word book was especially cute. Recently she's started pointing at the pictures and saying "ba! ba ba ba! ba!" like she's reading the book herself. But today was the first time she grabbed my pointer finger and used it to point at the different pictures. So I'd say the word of whatever picture she pointed at, and that seemed to make her really happy. Figuring things out...

Laughing at her image in the selfie camera.

Mom-daughter airplane selfie.

She fell asleep during landing and stayed asleep until we got to Jack. I love the arrivals section of airports even if no one is waiting for me specifically. You see so many eager smiling faces and so much delight and hugs. It's very sweet. In this case, though, Jack was waiting for us, and he couldn't wait to hold sleeping Clara, which was also sweet.

And it was nice to be home. The weather was great--we drove home with the windows down. It's nice to be in my tiny car again instead of the big Highlander. It's nice to feel like this is home, and the highways are familiar and everything is familiar. And Jack had straightened up the whole apartment before picking us up, which makes the homecoming that much more comfortable. AND he had leftover pizza from a nursing meeting he went to yesterday, bonus.

Back in her own crib.