I’m feeling a little fuzzy around the edges. No, that’s being a
tad mild.
I feel like a wreck.
But after a 15-hour (and still counting) day spent holed up in
jumbo jets and crisscrossing the Bay Area who wouldn’t?
I’m feeling a little fuzzy around the edges. No, that’s being a tad mild.
I feel like a wreck.
But after a 15-hour (and still counting) day spent holed up in jumbo jets and crisscrossing the Bay Area who wouldn’t?
I don’t know what my husband, Chris, and I were thinking when we decided to enter another time zone with our daughter.
Did we just wake up one morning and say, “Hey, I know what would be fun. Let’s pack everything we own into seven gigantic suitcases then wake up at an ungodly hour so we can pack ourselves and our 4-month-old daughter into a plane bound for the opposite corner of the country?”
We were out of our minds. Don’t get me wrong. I love to travel. I live to travel. But this kind of travel, this traveling as parents, is not fun. It’s punishment.
Of course, before our darling angel was born, a trip to visit friends in South Carolina seemed like an adventure. A week to relax, unwind and of course show off our beautiful daughter. And we did have a wonderful time. It was just the getting there, getting back and stepping back into reality that is unspeakable.
But I will try. First of all, let me address the luggage. I always thought I was a good packer. I once managed to trek through Europe for six weeks with only a backpack.
But when it came to packing a cross-country trip for a week for our daughter I was at a complete loss. Thank goodness for husbands.
Chris managed to find a spot in our bags for all of her gear, including car seat, stroller, Snugli and the all-knowing, all-powerful take-along swing. Not to mention about 137 diapers, 27 outfits and four floppy sunhats. Hey, I wasn’t going to be unprepared. And besides, I didn’t want to spend my vacation at the Fast Mart shopping for baby essentials.
So, somehow we loaded up and headed to the airport the day after Easter. Our poor car was nearly scraping the ground, straining under the weight of all of our stuff.
I must say that I couldn’t be more pleased with the airport people. They were very helpful and pleasant. Of course, I hated the waiting – the waiting in line, the waiting to board the plane and the waiting to take off. But unfortunately, that’s unavoidable.
I must also say that whoever designed commercial jets, didn’t have babies in the forefront of their minds. I mean how the heck are you supposed to entertain a 4-month-old for seven hours in 1.2 cubic square feet of space? Let alone change a diaper. It wasn’t pretty.
But our Emma is a champ. She definitely deserves a merit badge in travel after this experience. She didn’t cry once, mostly because I headed her off at the pass with her lunch. And most of the time she slept or entertained the flight attendants with her imitation of the cutest baby on the planet. She’s really quite good at it.
Chris and I also made another important discovery. We can go out to a fine restaurant with our daughter and not feel we have to bribe the hostess for a table.
Our daughter actually can be smiley through a complete meal. Not only that but she can charm the pants off anyone within 50 feet of us. This will definitely save us on baby-sitting money.
But maybe most importantly, she was an inspiration to me this morning when I woke to a hotel wake-up call at 4:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. While I wanted to roll over and go back to sleep, Emma flashed me one of her cutest grins then crowed and waved her arms excitedly like a baby bird about to take flight.
She is too amazing for words.
Now, if I can only figure out a way to reset her body clock and trick her into thinking she never left California, I’d be golden.
Kelly Barbazette lives in Gilroy with her husband and miniature dachshund. She is the owner of Write Now, a copywriting and public relations company in Gilroy. She can be reached at kb*********@ya***.com.
