We were traveling with my mom, brother and his girlfriend. We all met at our house and drove to the airport to drop off cars and get going. Poor Callie was quite confused when we woke her up after she had only been sleeping for about 6 hours. Usually it is the other way around! We had her in pajamas, just to make it easy.
She did awesomely well on the plane, again! She is just a great flier. She slept for part of each flight. She made friends, of course, as she waved to everyone as we walked back to our seats. She even got invited to party with some college girls as they headed to Mardi Gras! Quite the party animal!
She loved looking out the window with Grandma Tere.
I had thought about not bringing the Boppy with us, but it ended up being the best thing to bring!
It gave Callie a nice spot to sit on my lap without worrying about her falling.
Time to eat! again....
Hanging out with daddy
We had a short layover in Houston where we got a bit to eat and then it was back to the plane. It was perfect! The first flight ended just as she was getting antsy. The hour in Houston was just enough for her to crawl around a little and then she was tired again. I must say, I was pretty much dreading the thought of traveling with a much more mobile Callie than we had in Paris, but it turned out alright!
Callie hanging out at the rental cars. She made everyone smile with her frankenstein walk!
We arrived in Tampa and got our rental cars and went to visit with my grandparents and relatives. It was my Aunt Patty's birthday so we all had a nice dinner and cake before heading back to the hotel.
Then the real fun began. Ugh. I don't even want to type it. But here it is, we've figured it out, Callie is a great flier, but a terribly sleeper in places other than her house! We bought a peapod tent for her, it looked to have a good cushion in the air mattress and it packs up really light, so light and small you can fit it in your luggage. We brought her back to the hotel and she was WIRED! So we thought we'd let her crawl around and do her thing.
Little miss crazy pants
Does it look like I want to go to bed??
That went on for about 2 hours. It became clear that she was finally getting tired because she was crawling/walking and then falling every couple of steps. We tried everything. Rocking, singing, eating. It got so bad around 1:30am that I just thought to myself "This is not a vacation. I do not want to travel with her anymore. I just want to pack my bags and go back home." It certainly didn't help that she had just headbutted me so badly that my face was swelling. At this point it was almost 2:30am. We were faced with two more options. Driving her around, but of course I knew that once we stopped the car and got her out of the world's crappiest carseat that we rented with the car she would be wide awake again. So we put her in the peapod and let her cry for 10 minutes. I felt bad for our hotel neighbors, but we didn't have much of a choice. After ten minutes, I took her out and held her in the bed and whaddayaknow? She passed out. After a few minutes, Bill asked "Do you want me to move her into the peapod?" God no. Nobody breathe, nobody move a god damned muscle. So there we slept. Luckily it was a big bed because baby girl was doing the mambo in her sleep. At one point I woke up with her knees in my throat. She slept about 7 hours before she woke up again. I fed her and I got in the shower. When I come back,this is what I see.
My hopes for getting to Orlando today to see the Harry Potter park are quickly fading. But who knows...Bill was never really on board with the whole idea. He seems much more excited to go visit Tampa's World of Beer attraction. Go figure.
The last photo is the best! miss you two!
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