Weekend in the South


While Andrew toiled away in Frankfurt last week, Lucia and I journeyed south, to spend a few days with Andrew’s family. Our flight down was okay. We had an empty seat next to us, so Lucia could stand and sit and play the whole time—she seemed thrilled to crawl around under the seats, touch all the interesting venting, and pull all the in-flight reading from the seat-back pocket. She was so happy and calm that I allowed her to do all this even though I was, of course, horrified at the sheer filthiness of the things she was touching. I had no alternative, really. The only times she cried during the flight were when I forced her to sit on my lap: at take off; when I tried to get her to nap (who was I kidding?); and during landing.

But then we were there, and got to see Granny and GrandBob, Great Nanny, and Great Aunt Thelma, and a couple of highly interesting cats. Friday we all—along with Katherine and Patrick—set out for Atlanta, to go to Andrew’s cousin’s wedding. This was the longest drive Lucia’s ever done, and she handled it pretty well, crying only when she was very hungry and we couldn’t find a suitable place to stop. She napped and snacked and listened to me sing Music Together songs and played with toys.

Our hotel in Atlanta was wonderful—we had three adjoining rooms, so Lucia had ample space to crawl AND I didn’t have to sit in the bathroom during naptime and bedtime. AND they gave me a mini fridge to store all the food I brought for Lucia (including tasty meatballs made by Granny). It is challenging to have a baby during group events, of course; I ended up eating a lot of fast food meals during the times I had to stay with my napping baby while others gathered in restaurants. But we had a lovely time at the wedding, and Lucia was, of course, the star. I mean, the second star, after the bride. And I even went out to dinner and to a bar with Katherine and Patrick that night while Lucia slept, since Granny et. al were there to watch her.

We flew home from Atlanta Sunday afternoon, and the flight was exhausting but okay; no free seat this time, but nice seatmates who didn’t mind passing a folded-up magazine cover back and forth with Lucia a gazillion times or having her stand up between us on the floor. She attempted to escape by crawling up the aisle a couple of times—she almost got away once when my hands were occupied with an open container of Cheerios and I couldn’t manage to get the lid on. She was completely wiped out once we arrived at JFK, and the train ride back to Brooklyn was rough, and then I was in such a frantic hurry to get her to bed that I got soap in her mouth during her bath, which made her freaking out even more intense. I was asleep by 10:30…and Lucia didn’t utter a peep until 6am!

Now we’re all together again, a tired bunch but otherwise okay, ready for our next big thing: Lucia’s birthday on Friday.

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