Traveling with a Toddler and Lots of Pics from the NY trip

excited for her trip (at the airport)

As I mentioned in last week's Thursday Thoughts, EM and I went to NY for the weekend (2 weekends ago). This was EM's first plane ride and boy was it an experience. You know when you get on a flight and see someone with a baby/toddler and cringe, and they end up being "that person" on the plane with the screaming kid... yea, well that was me and I wanted to cry by the time we deplaned.

I purposely chose evening flights thinking since EM normally goes to bed around 7-7:30, she'd just sleep on the plane and then I could doze off and it'd be perfect. Well, our flight was supposed to leave at 8:10, was delayed to around 8:40, so I figured, even better. While we waited for the flight to board, EM was perfect, playing, walking around saying hi to everyone, pushing her stroller around, in a great mood. Luckily, we flew Southwest and were in boarding group A! When we got on the plane, I spotted an empty row and sat EM in a seat (even though she was supposed to be on my lap, I had asked any knew there were about 45 empty seats), sat next to her and put my diaper bag on the third seat and luckily no one tried to sit with us. We had the whole row of seats, perfect! So we take off, not so bad, but throughout the flight, I kept trying to get EM to calm down/lay down and fall asleep. This is where I went wrong. When she'd just play with her toys/books or be snacking (how was she hungry considering she normally is asleep at this hour is beyond me)  she'd be fine but as soon as i tried to get her to go night night, she'd get super fussy and cry/scream. Trying to console her only made it worse. It wasn't the WHOLE flight, but it was enough of it that someone even offered me a banana to try to quiet her (it worked BTW).  EM finally tired herself enough and crashed at 10:40pm (3 hours past her normal bed time) and we landed at 11:15pm. I tried so carefully to pick her up without waking her, but I was unsuccessful, and she woke up screaming and of course it took people FOREVER to get off the plane even though we were only in row 7. Our stroller wasn't immediately ready and EM was just crying the whole time. As soon as I put her in her stroller, she was fine. I was mortified and dreading our flight home on Sunday night.  I got several "I feel so bad for you" looks, several "We've all been there" comments, and a few nasty stares (which I was surprised, were only a few).

watching the luggage carts

all smiles ready for take off

how she FINALLY passed out

Our actual visit in NY itself was a great time! EM got to meet some new family members including my cousin (who is actually younger than her). It was so cute watching them play together (they are about 4 months apart). And we got to spend a good amount of quality time with the people we visited. Somehow on Saturday, EM made it through the day until around 6pm before crashing. Was surprised she hadn’t fallen asleep in the car in between visits around 1:30 (already past her nap time) and was surprisingly chipper. She crashed at 6pm, slept for about 45 mins, ate a little and then was out for the night around 7:30. On Sunday, the day of the baby shower, which started right at her normal nap time, she was really happy and chipper as well and didn’t crash until 4pm, where she literally fell asleep in my arms at the shower and my sister in law (who also flew up for the shower with one of my nieces) and I rotated holding her while she slept. She slept only about 45 mins again and then we got packed up and went to the airport for the dreaded flight home. Once again, we got really lucky with a non-fully booked flight and had the whole row of seats to ourselves. This time, rather than trying to get EM to sleep on the plane, I just let her play, eat snacks, “read” and play between me and the empty seat. She didn’t cry once. It was SOOO much better! Even if I was sooo exhausted from the trip and wanted to doze, I would prefer entertaining her to trying to console her screaming and crying. She didn’t crash until we were on the shuttle to the parking lot where my car was. Monday she was a little cranky in the morning going to day care, but she just went to bed early and she’s been back on her schedule and is doing great.

Playing in the pool with Cousin Allison

Enjoying Great Aunt Dawn time while watching Cousin Danny play football

all smiles at bedtime 

Playing at Gramps house

playing at the park with Gramps

and EM had her first ice-cream cone

giving kisses to Cousin Thomas

and playing with Cousin Hailey

passed out at the baby shower

playing so nice on the plane ride home

reading her Spirit Magazine

My cousin’s baby shower was absolutely gorgeous! I felt like I was at a wedding. She found out she was having a boy, and his name is going to be Jaime Jr and he’s going to be one well-loved little man! He should be arriving any time in the next few weeks and I can’t wait for his arrival!

the beautiful parents to be 

Overall, traveling with a toddler is exhausting, but the key is to kind of let them go off schedule and just have fun rather than try to get them to sleep when they clearly don’t want to. It makes for a happy mommy and happy baby!

Weekend Recap(s) - Enjoying the Florida Weather

Well looks like I’m sucking at blogging again, here is a quick update in pictures of our last week and a half/ two weekends!

I helped host my sister’s baby shower! She and Baby William were spoiled with love (and lots of presents!) I think she was really happy with how it turned out!

EM had her 18 month appointment and weighed 22 lb 10 oz and is 31.25 inches. She’s perfectly healthy and on track for everything developmentally.

We attempted to take EM's 18 month photos, but the photographer didn't like how they turned out so we're going to re-do them. She did however send me one that came out great!

EM continued with her swim lessons both weekends. She’s doing really well and only had one “bad” day so far where she cried (and it was super chilly out, so I don’t blame her!) Her one friend from day care is in her class, and the two girls are so cute high-fiving each other after each new skill they learn.

We’ve been spending a lot of time in pools the last two weekends and EM loves it! Gotta enjoy the Florida weather before the heat gets too much for this preggo lady!

We spent Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend at my parents to celebrate my mom’s birthday! All of EM’s cousins were there and despite a really bad hail storm, they enjoyed spending time together and my mom loved having all her grandkids over for the afternoon! Emily even made her Grandma a special present!

the hail that destroyed 10 panels of my parent's screen cage

EM creating Grandma's Birthday Present!

One of my best friends has a 3.5 month old, and we got to spend Monday with him! EM and Scottie (and AB too when she’s here) are going to spend a lot of time together and become the best of friends too!

We are on week 6 of G traveling all work-week. EM and I enjoy making silly videos and sending them to Daddy.  It hasn’t been too hard on me YET although I am not looking forward to how it’ll be with EM and a newborn or when I get REALLY pregnant, but we’ll play it by ear and see how things go.

Pony Rides and Bounce Houses

Well the weekend flew bye wayyy too fast! Friday Night, we didn’t do much. We stopped by G’s parent’s house after dinner as there was some family in town that wanted to meet Emily, then G and I just watched a movie after EM went to bed. We watched 500 Days of Summer. I don’t know that I’ve ever actually seen the whole thing. It’s too slow paced for me and not one I’ll be watching again anytime soon.

Saturday was a very busy day! G was at the NCAA Tournament all day and EM and I had a birthday party to attend. Since the birthday party was in my hometown (it was a 4^th  birthday party for my friend’s son; she’s probably the only person I really talk to that still lives in that town besides my family), we left early and stopped at my parents’ house and was able to spend time with them, plus my sister and grandparents came over. Then we went to the birthday party which was at a farm. I loved it! It would have been slightly better if EM was walking but we still had a great time. They had a ton of animals to look at plus pony rides, a cool swing, and a bounce house. It was a gorgeous day out (actually got a little sun burned on my shoulders, whoops!). EM loved the bounce house and her ride on the pony. It was hard to get a good picture on the pony since I wanted to be close in case she got wobbly.

After the party, my parents had my brother and his family and my grandparents over for dinner so I got to spend some time with all of them as well. I always love spending time with my family. With our hectic schedules, we only get to see them about once a month as they live 1.5 hrs away, so whenever I do go over there, I try to make a full day of it. I love watching my nieces and nephew (and brother and SIL too) interact with EM. They are so sweet to her and share their toys and just love being around her. I have a great relationship with my one set of cousins (despite never living in the same state, but we did see each other about once a year growing up) and I hope EM and her cousins will have the same!

On Sunday, I actually accomplished more than just sitting on the couch (my usual Sunday), don’t worry I still snuck in a nap while EM took hers, that never doesn’t happen! Both dogs even got bathed (don’t even want to think about how long it’s been). I took EM to our community playground for a little while but like Saturday, without her walking it makes it kind of difficult. Crawling in mulch isn’t exactly something she likes, so I’d have to pick her up after eat time down the slide and put her on the steps to climb back up. She seemed to enjoy herself though but this Mommy got tired after only a little while. We finished the weekend with dinner at my inlaws. It was super yummy! I even finished most of my laundry yesterday (determined to finish the rest tonight, it was in the dryer when I was going to sleep).

EM definitely is improving on her standing though, hopefully her first steps will be ANY day now!

Monday morning came wayyyy too fast, but this was the first weekend in a long time where we got out of the house and did fun things with EM so I welcomed the tiredness.

UCF vs. USF

all bundled up

Black Friday is not just for shopping! As a UCF Fan it meant wearing black for our blackout game against USF and having a blast tailgating. We hate USF and it took us until Friday to FINALLY beat them. In the past they really weren't that much better than us when they beat us, and this year we are SOOO much better than them and they ALMOST beat us. It was a rough game to watch, way too many interceptions and fumbles and just crappy playing by the Knights, but we did it, we finally beat our rival USF. Tailgating was fun even if the game was stressful to watch. We brought EM for the tailgate portion since it was beautiful outside. She was pretty cranky though (she has a cold and is hardcore teething - has gotten all 4 teeth in one month and is working on cutting her 5th) and since we knew the temperatures were going to drop, my wonderful mother in law took her when she left tailgating so that we both could stay for the game. I left in the 3rd quarter because I had a massive headache and wanted to get home to EM (even though she was sleeping, I still felt bad not leaving with her when she was feeling sick). I listened to the end of game on the radio during the 45 min ride home and it was definitely a nail biter. Final Score: 23 to 20. Whew!  

Plus we moved (some back) up in all the rankings this week (surprisingly, considering how terrible we played) Up to 15 (from 17) in the AP; up to 17 (from 19) in the USA Today; and up to 16 (from 19) in the BCS - breaking all UCF records in the polls!

A few fun photos from tailgating and the game. 

Giant Size Beer Pong

EM had fun playing in it (no there wasn't beer in it)

our Knight mascot

BLACK OUT

Jacob was sporting all our UCF Swag

hey, they don't sell beer in there!

My love and I