Nora finally got to meet my Aunt Barb and Uncle Paul. It was a great trip! They are fantastic hosts. The only sad part was that the trip was a short one.

It worked out so well that we were able to go at all. Josh had business meetings in Mountain View, which is about an hour and a half away from Carmel, home of Aunt Barb and Uncle Paul. They were available to spend the time with us, so he booked a ticket for me and away we went!

The flight out there was amazing. The flight attendant managed to find us our own row on a full flight! After landing, we got our rental car and car seat, dropped Josh off at his office, and drove down to Carmel.

And then Nora finally got to meet Aunt Barb and Uncle Paul! She loved them right away and started giving them her flirty, squinched up face grins. She also loved exploring their kitchen as we ate lunch. (So many drawers! And cabinets!)

After lunch we went for a walk in downtown Carmel. There were so many doggies. And birds. Aunt Barb and I went from shop to shop and were always able to find Uncle Paul and Nora by listening for the cry of “Hey! Dog gee!” Uncle Paul was very kind and pushed Nora’s stroller while she exclaimed over all the dogs. She also liked to touch the potted flowers. (And maybe even snatched a few during drive-by flower pickings.) She was totally comfortable and didn’t even care that I kept walking away. Instant trust and love for Uncle Paul.

The next day we went to this amazing park (the wildlife kind) where you can look over cliffs and see seals. We even got to see a mother with her baby seal! It was so adorable. The baby swam right next to the mom and sometimes they touched noses like they were kissing! We named them “Mommy” and “Nora.”

Next up — the Dennis the Menace Park. Um. Wow. I really wish every kid could go to a park like this one. It was huge with these gigantic bridges and swings and climbing equipment. Nora loved it when Uncle Paul carried her across the wobbly bridge. Then Mommy took her down the long, bumpy slide.

And Nora’s world came crashing down. She absolutely lost it. She sobbed and wailed and let the tears flow.

So we took her to the swings where she cheered up and loved every minute of it.

Then I thought, “Let’s go to the baby slides. So she doesn’t have a fear of all slides.”

Too late. I held her on my lap and tried going down the 3 ft slide with her, and she was still hysterical. Aunt Barb and Uncle Paul even tried to hold her while she watched me go down the slide. (“Look at me, Nora! Whee!! This is so fun!!!”) Nope. Forget it. It was all too horrible for words.

Back to the swings. Because you can’t leave a park sad.

After she recovered, we headed back to the house. It was time to pack up and leave to drive back to Mountain View. It was sad to leave Nora’s new friends.

Then we went to pick up Josh from work. Uncle Kemble was there so we could all go to dinner. We went to In N Out, because we were in CA and you have to go at least once. (Them’s the rules.) Kemble was making Nora giggle pretty hard, which was impressive given how exhausted she was.

Time for bed. This promised to be interesting because we haven’t attempted to sleep in the same room with Nora since she was an infant. We put her pack n play next to our bed, turned out the light, and hoped she’d go to sleep. Sure enough, I heard the sound I thought I would hear; little hands struggling to find a grip on nylon netting. I saw one hand, then the other, grasp the rail. Finally, a little head popped up and there was Nora, ready to play the “You’re Pretending to Sleep and I’m Going to Get You” Game. She was giggling as she repeatedly tapped my head.

After trying to lay her back down a few times, we decided to try co-sleeping for the first time ever. First she just wanted to play with our noses and hair. Then she would sit up and flop onto one of us. Only to sit up again and flop down on the other one. And there were spontaneous bursts of giggles as she continued to attempt the Wake Up Mommy and Daddy Game.

Back to the pack n play, only this time we moved it as far from our bed as we could. She must have been totally wiped out because she didn’t even make a peep. (I was expecting some major protests.) A few hours later, we were waking up to get on another airplane and back to Seattle we flew.

Nora had such a GREAT time with her (great?) Aunt Barb and Uncle Paul. They took wonderful care of us! They had toys for her, her favorite foods ready to go, and lots and lots of love and attention.

Thanks Aunt Barb and Uncle Paul! We’d love to have you visit Seattle anytime!!

For the first time in….I’d guess 20 years, neither Josh nor I could stay awake until midnight. But we still had quite the New Year’s Eve day.

It started when we woke up around 5 am. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, which was nice and relaxing. Nora was doing just fine, crawling around on the floor at the gate. I know, I know, I can’t believe I was okay with it either. But it really is true.

Poor Nora’s had a bit of a cold and I think she was just worn out from all the festivities, but we were hopeful she’d do okay on the plane. (It was a morning flight after all- yippee!) I didn’t realize how exhausted she was. Just after take off, she burrowed herself between my arm and sweater and passed out in seconds. Josh and I stared at each other with hope. (This so did not happen on the last flight back to Seattle.) She slept for 40 minutes! It was a New Year’s Eve miracle!

After she woke up, I thought, “Great, she got a nap time in. She probably won’t fall asleep the rest of the flight.” Oh, me of little faith. My girl took another quick nap about an hour later. Then, in the middle of flipping through one of her books, she just leaned back onto me and closed her eyes. And took her third nap- she slept for an entire hour! I even got to sleep.

So yay for another good flight! She did get a little fussy towards the last hour, but not enough to draw too much attention. Oh, and I should mention that on both this flight and the one into Atlanta, we recognized a flight attendant from our Oh-No-We-Are-The-Parents-of-The-Screaming-Baby-on-the-Plane flight. And both said, “Oh yes, I do remember you guys.” They were nice about it, but still. Oh dears.

Thanks so much for everyone who prayed for our trip. We really appreciate it and are so thankful that the last two flights went so much better. Praise the Lord for the small things that make such a difference.

We landed around 11 am Seattle time. It was the weirdest feeling to drive home from the airport feeling like we had so much of the day ahead. Our day had started 7 hours ago. We woke up in Marietta and were in our Kirkland apartment by lunch time. (Local time, anyway.) The wonders of modern travel. I mean, we crossed the country in one morning. It took the pioneers on the Oregon Trail, what, six months to do that?

Nora was downright giddy when we walked down the hallway to our door. Remy wasn’t there; he was still at our AWESOME FRIENDS, THE SMITHS’ (YOU GUYS ARE WAY TOO GOOD TO US!!) house. So while there was no Remy to greet us, guess what was waiting for our arrival? The saddest, Charlie Brownest tree you ever did see. Aww…

And guess what else was waiting for us? Lots and lots of Christmas cards! Most people were still sending them out when we left. Opening them felt like a 2nd Christmas. I love this tradition. The Christmas cards will be displayed for awhile. The tree has got to go before it just keels over.

Then we had an afternoon that we didn’t really know how to fill. We ended up ordering pizza, getting some things unpacked, waiting on said pizza, catching up on Tivoed shows and taking turns holding Nora who was just about done.

Okay, fine, the truth is that I bent over to pick up my bag when I was standing next to the opened door of the taxi while I was holding Nora and when I stood back up, I didn’t realize how close the door was and she bumped her head and it was all my fault and she’d been doing so well and suddenly she was a train wreck and I felt sick about it. I admit it.
So while she was probably just tired and recovering from the busy day, she was pitiful, cranky, and not at all herself. I spent the afternoon reassuring myself that there was very little chance she had a concussion.

Josh went to pick up Remy around 5. When he made his grand entrance, Nora was absolutely thrilled. Her eyes lit up and she was so happy, she couldn’t do anything but sit, stare, and yell with pure delight. If we’d known she would be so excited, we would have documented it.

Nora was ready for bed around 6. Josh made it until about 6:15. He didn’t even make it to a bed, he just slept on the couch. I caught up on some Glee episodes- reruns I hadn’t seen yet, yay – and read until I could no longer form coherent thoughts. I fell asleep around 10.

However. I was awake at the stroke of midnight. I probably could have slept through the nearby fireworks, but Remy could not. It turns out that along with my phone’s low battery warning, Remy is terrified of the sound of small, planned explosions. He paced nervously around the bed and breathed on my face until I woke up to reassure him. So I did get to hear fireworks and the clock said it was exactly midnight. I didn’t miss New Year’s after all.

Hope you all had a great New Year’s celebration! Or at least that you were awake for it. =)

It’s been a week since we flew back home. We are now recovered enough from that flight to talk about it. It was that bad. But first, the good news!

Nora had an amazing flight out to Atlanta. It was the best flight I think we could have had. We got to sit in first class! It. Was. Awesome.

And a long story that I’ll try to condense down. Josh wanted to cash in our frequent flyer miles for a ticket and it worked out that we could only use it for a first class seat. Josh figured we could send me and Nora up there and he could convince one of the coach fliers to trade seats with me.

I found my first class seat and it was already time to taxi and for take off, so I made small talk with the man who turned out to be incredibly kind and sweet to Nora. He called her a future beauty queen and complimented her hand eye coordination. (I took his word for it.)

The moment the seat belt sign was off, he told me that he wanted to switch seats with Josh so we could sit together. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He packed up his stuff- including a Bible- and went to find Josh. We wrote a note to him to let him know how much we appreciated his kindness. His whole attitude was so humble and he was such a servant.

So we both got to sit in huge, comfortable seats with plenty of leg room. The flight attendants are so attentive up there. And you have leg AND feet rests! It’s incredible. Nora got to watch cartoons on her own little tv. Granted, she was distracted after 5 seconds, but still. Cool stuff.

We landed in Atlanta so relaxed. Nora did great! She slept about half the time and played with her toys the rest of the time. She was tired, but it was easy enough to find ways to keep her occupied.

We had a great, great week in Atlanta/Florida. We’ll have to post pictures from the trip soon. It was so much fun!

Then it was time to fly home. It was a night flight, leaving at 9:30 pm. First we had to drive over 6 hours from Florida to the airport. Nora barely napped in the car at all. I repeat- she barely napped at all. That meant there were two possible outcomes- she’d pass out on the plan from exhaustion or she’d be too exhausted to sleep at all and scream for hours.

Guess which one it was?
It was awful. Nora, who is almost always a very laid back baby, was screaming like a banshee before the plane had even reached cruising altitude. We couldn’t get up, so we just had to try to distract her. It didn’t work.

Finally, the seatbelt sign clicked off and we jumped up to walk with her. For the next hour, Josh and I took turns keeping her just calm enough that she was whimpering with only occasional screaming. But she was getting more and more exhausted until she hit a breaking point where she was simply inconsolable. That’s when Josh hid in the lavatory.

An hour later, I went and traded with him. Horrified that he had been in a lavatory, but at the same time, glad that something worked to muffle her cries. But I wasn’t going in there.

After trying to keep her quiet in the tiny flight attendants’ area, I gave in and also went to sit on the toilet in the airplane lavatory.

Now. Those of you who know about my….germ and general nastiness aversion, you’ll appreciate the things I did. Things that would NEVER be in the realm of acceptable in the ‘real world.’ But this was survival. Not only did I sit on the toilet lid- ew- but I actually rested my head against the wall. Against. The. Nasty. Tiny. Bathroom. Wall. Something about that small space did calm Nora down so it was worth it. I suppose. But yuck. On a normal trip to that room, I try to avoid touching anything. This trip, when the scratchy airplane blanket (that I also avoid on the average flight) fell off Nora and touched the toilet, I just picked it up and wrapped it right back around her. Earlier, I was standing right near the airplane door, where every single person on the last flight walked out and every single person on this flight walked in. And I dropped the pacifier. The one object that offered a few breaks from the screams. I dropped it. And picked it right back up and stuck it in her mouth without even wiping it on my jeans. Germs, schmerms, we had to stop the insanity.

She finally started to dose off, so I made a break for it and ran down the aisle as she started waking up. My goal was to get to Josh so she could suck on his pinky finger. That was the only way she would calm down. By the time I made it to him, she was starting back up with the kind of screams that start with the long inhale.

Miraculously, Josh was able to get his finger in and she calmed down and finally went to sleep.

( Interesting side story- At one point, the guy sitting on the window seat had to go to the restroom. Not wanting to wake the finally sleeping baby, he somehow scaled the wall, found a grip, swung over Josh and Nora, and landed in the aisle. He was a ninja, that’s the only explanation. There is no way a non-ninja could have done it. Nora didn’t even stir. And then he did it again on the way back. I stared at him with my mouth open. Okay, fine, I also gave him a thumbs up. I was that impressed.)

Nora slept the last 2 hours of the 5 hour flight.
People came up afterwards to tell us how sorry they felt for us and how they had been there, too. We, my friends, were those people with that baby.

But.
It is totally worth it. She’s our sweet girl. Though she was beyond exhausted that night. I think God was ministering to my heart during the worst of it because I thought how grateful we are to have our Nora, even when she’s hysterical. And that’s such a true thought, it had to come from God.

However, we will never be flying at night again.

Had another interesting thing happen in transit the other day. Since I was away on business travel, Google offers various ways to get around town. One of the methods I used in the earlier part of the week was my trusty 3 mile town car ride to and from work. It’s pretty simple: You call this number, ten minutes later you get a phone call confirming the impending arrival of the driver, driver rolls up, and you hop in. For particular trips like this, Google fits the bill and there’s no transaction on your end. Nice, simple, convenient.

However. There are those that game the system. Not Googlers, as it turns out, but other taxi drivers. Rogue taxi drivers–that in my case posed as the car service Google has arraignments with. Here’s what happened…

Leaving my desk for the day, I received a phone call that a driver was rolling up in a white town car. I walk downstairs, see a car of that description driving up, approach the window, confirm my name, the driver confirms, and I hop in. Moments after settling in, I realize through a very confusing, and twisted discussion with the driver, that I’m in the wrong car — not the one that I had called. The quickest way to realize this was to ask if at the end of the drive I’d have to pay. “Yes, yes, yes. YOU WILL PAY.” I told him that in prior rides I didn’t have to pay, but he nodded and insisted again: YOU WILL PAY — 3 DOLLARS A MILE. He went on to lecture to me that I should “never ever” call the other people, that they only do local drives, but he will go anywhere in the Bay Area, and offered me his phone number multiple times.

At this point, we weren’t quite off the campus but we were still driving and, at this point, far from where he’d picked me up. I suggested that he should take me back. He refused. Really. He did. A quick glance at my door I noticed it was locked, and briefly went into MacGyver mode thinking I might bail out anyway. I decided to stay the course and just be driven home. Shortly after crossing the freeway, I received a phone call from the original town car service, “Josh, the driver is waiting outside, can you give us an idea how much longer you’ll be?” After a quick explanation, they expressed their sympathy and told me not to worry.

Moments later I arrived at the curb of my hotel, and paid the driver sans tip.

Today, a week later, I took the local bus system to the campus up here in Kirkland. No issues as of this morning!