Good afternoon! Maddy and I got back home last night. Our flight was delayed by 20 minutes but Midwest actually posted it early enough to stay at home a bit longer. Check in was fine. My parents helped with the luggage. We hung out and let Maddy crawl around for a while before we went through screening. Everyone smiled at her and she'd crawl around wave at them! It was really cute.
Then it was time to go through screening. Argh. That was a pain. I don't know who Milwaukee thinks they are, but they are PARANOID freaks at TSA. They were nice enough, but man, the screener wants to see your boarding pass as you are putting luggage on the belt, they want the luggage just so...etc. It took FOREVER. Reagan was no where near that paranoid and they are right next to our nations capital! They did search my diaper bag which I expected. Didn't take very long though and they were nice as could be... cooing over Maddy.
Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers though! Managing a 10 month old, a diaper bag and a stroller sounds easy enough until you take the 10 month old out of the stroller and have to collapse it while holding her and the diaper bag. Even if that can be managed, picking up all three again is quite difficult. Fortunately, in line to get screened the gentleman behind me collapsed the stroller for me (it does benefit him afterall since it gets me through faster). Then when I had to collapse it again while boarding the plane a nice lady behind me offered to carry my diaper bag to my seat for me.
It's nice that we can bring liquids on the plane again that you buy in the terminal. It allowed me to buy water for Maddy's bottle and mix the formula before I had to have her out of the stroller. They gouge the prices though, but that's to be expected. I'm just glad I could take it on with me!
She handled the plane ride really well. Thank goodness for fruit puff snacks and sippy cup. She enjoyed a few of her new small toys before she fell asleep on my lap. Once again, thank goodness for the generosity of strangers. My seatmate put all of my stuff (snack cup, sippy cup, airline 'three pretzel' bag, etc) on her tray table and insisted that I leave it there and it was 'fine'. That was nice of her. Also, the couple across from us had the sun shining in their window as we turned and they immediately noticed I was blocking Maddy's eyes from the sun while she was sleeping and they lowered their shade.
She loved seeing Matt when we got off the plane! He loved seeing her. The car ride home was a bit long due to traffic, but I still had the diaper bag full of toys and snacks so that tided her over until we got home. We ordered out last night and it arrived as we got home. Even Maddy loved the Gyro and cheese fries!
It took her a long time to go to bed last night. She'd fall asleep in our arms but if we left the room she'd stand up and wail because she was overtired, had a long day, was scared of her room and it was late! So, I gave her a 1/2 dose of benedryl to help her get to sleep. She slept all night.
Today, I've unpacked most of the luggage. Just a little bit left to do. Grocery shopping and laundry need to get done, but Matt really kept up the house a ton while we were gone. He even laid new floor in two of the bathrooms and vaccummed the living areas before we got home (Maddy hates the vaccum). So there no extra chores to do!
Must give big kudos to my parents though before I leave off this chapter of the visit to WI. They were ready for us to come up and visit them. They had everything set to go: portable crib, baby room, noise machine, night light, diapers, formula, food, snacks, toys, everything! Maddy did really well up there and I think it was mainly because they were so ready for us. It was great seeing so many friends, many of whom had to travel to see us. It was nice seeing so many family members too. Everyone was very generous with their time and I know Maddy and I appreciate it.
Alrighty, I better get moving. I have stuff I want to do before she's up for her nap. That's enough for now, I'll talk with you all later!