We’re Back.

We survived. We lost a paci clip, and about 40 years of our lives, but we survived.

First of all, a few lessons were learned en route:

1) There was no point in taking the Britax Boulevard car seat on the plane. It was almost too big for the seat, some fat guy sat in front of her (he had the choice of 3 seats in his row and chose this one. Nice) and moved his seat back so she was pretty much dangling from the harness. Thus she was not comfy. Plus that thing is heavy to carry through Departures. Aside from taking off and landing, she was in our arms the entire time.

2) The loss of said paci clip was catastrophic. She was throwing her paci at people walking past, at the staff, heck at anything that moved. I would have chewed my right arm off for a paci clip at one point. That and a very large bottle of Pinot Grigio.

3) Heathrow airport seem to be lacking in baby food testing machinery – when departing from RDU the Security staff ran her food (6 x 8oz bottles of RTF formula, 3 jars of food – all unopened)  through some sort of machine that detects tampering or any general dodginess going on. At Heathrow, we had to open and taste the food. When I say we, I mean the husband, who incidentally squirted a considerable amount of Ella’s Kitchen Prune Brekkie over his arm and face (I forgot to remind him of air pressure lol) so I got it in the neck for that.

4) On the first day back after a British Bank Holiday, American Airlines see it fit to run their check-in department on a skeletal staff basis so be prepared to wait almost 2 hours in line to check-in. Be prepared to miss out on all the duty free chocolate shopping and 3 for 2 books in WH Smith. You’ll have enough time to beg a café for a cup of hot water to warm a baby bottle then peg it to the departure gate (the furthest one away in the entire airport), where you will be expected to wait in line yet again. Your baby will then refuse to drink the bottle you so frustratingly warmed for her but will be crying for food 30 minutes later after you have boarded your plane.

 

Would we do it again? Probably not! It wasn’t really as hard as I expected, but we were so very tired and drained from a week of constant activity and the baby was definitely overtired and overstimulated. But we got through it as a family, and maybe when she’s ten we’ll consider doing it again. Maybe. Right now my knuckles are still pretty white. God I hate flying.

Things seemed different when we got ‘home’. Maybe it’s a combination of not visiting for almost 3 years, getting used to the American way of life. Who knows. But when we lined up at the International Border for our security check I looked around and couldn’t believe how European everyone looked! I know that sounds daft, but I didn’t feel like we had come back to the people and place that we knew. It didn’t feel like home anymore. So I guess we don’t really know where our home is right now. I am The Littlest Hobo.

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The Christening (Part 1)

I call this Part 1 because I’m waiting on family & friends to send me pictures so I can do a proper christening-related post. I had no opportunities to take pictures of the day due to one incredibly clingy child and one moderately sheer and majorly uncomfortable christening ensemble (I am penning a letter to Jessica Simpson to inform her that her shoes are not at all comfortable as you read this). So here are my only pics, courtesy of my brother-in-law who incidentally has not held a digital SLR camera in his life (can you tell?).

I deliberately cropped our feet out, to remove said brother-in-law’s head shadow!! lol.

She was an angel the entire day, didn’t even cry when the Vicar took off with her to pour water over her face (seriously, she thought she was having another Daddy bath!). The weather held up, allowing us to have the bouncy castle at her party afterwards (which our child-ridden friends could not thank us enough for). My sisters cupcakes went down a storm. My mother-in-laws’ car got smashed in the car park outside. It was an eventful day. More details to come.