Texas Trip Recap

I had the best intentions of blogging about our trip as it was happening, but we were generally busy visiting all day, and by the time Peeper was down for the night, I wasn't far behind, so I was doing good to manage to toss up a Daily Peep photo on my way to bed!

I must admit that I was more than a little apprehensive about making the trip on my own with Peeper, but it went really well, and she handled it great!

Negotiating the airports wasn't bad at all. I wore Peeper on my front, wore the backpack/diaper bag on my back, and carried the carseat (with the base tucked inside the bucket) over one elbow.

I got on the plane like that, got the seat installed, then put her in it. On both flights, she slept at the beginning and end, and was awake for most of the middle. She spent most of the flight in my lap, but got in the carseat for takeoff, landing, turbulence, and when she acted like she wanted to be in it. Oddly enough, she was more willing to nurse in the carseat than in my lap, which my back has not quite gotten over yet.

She enjoyed the "snacks" that they served in the plane - I got one ham and one turkey sandwich, so we could share some of each. We gave our M&Ms to our seatmates, which seemed the least we could do.

On the flight down, she completely crumbled a hard wheat roll all over me, but we had softer, more bun-type rolls on the way home, so less mess.

When we arrived in Houston, Frappa picked us up at the airport, then we picked up LadyKay when her class was over, and headed to hometown - with a stop for Italian food along the way. That evening and the next day, we mostly just hung out and visited.

On Friday, Peeper and I made a run to Target (Which is set up exactly mirror-image of ours. Very disconcerting.) and visited at the beauty shop while Anonymama was getting her hair done. Her beautician has been cutting our family's hair for, oh, close to thirty-five years, so she's definitely on our list of people to see while we're in town!

That evening, Peeper and I had dinner at LadyKay's house, and spent the evening visiting with her, Frappa and Kiddo1.

BabyBro and HisLovelyWife (and their feti) came into town Saturday and Sunday, and we had dinner on Saturday evening with everyone, then sat around talking with babies all evening and the next day.

They opened a big box of clothes (and bumbos) for the babies, which I'd shipped ahead. We'd somehow managed to find ourselves with a pink and a blue bumbo, so it seemed only fitting to pass those on, along with some hand-me-down, some regift, and some new clothes.

They had a couple of things for Peeper, too, including some new MaryJane socks (bigger! sparkley!), some MaryJane fuzzy slippers for later, and her Halloween costume!

On Monday, Peeper and I went to lunch with Frappa and a friend who has a four-month-old little girl. That's when Peeper sprouted her tooth!

That evening, my friends G and L came over with their son M, who just turned two. I've known G since kindergarten!

Tuesday was another round of visits with Anonymama - first up to her church to show off Peeper to the secretary and the preacher and several other folks who wandered in and out of the office (It was Vacation Bible School week, so there was a lot of action for a Tuesday.) and then up to Anonydaddy's office to visit him and show her off to everyone there.

After that, the three of us went to lunch, then back to the Anonyparents' house for a nap.

On Wednesday, we got up too early in the morning, and LadyKay took us back to Houston to catch our plane, before heading off to her class.

(It worked out great that she has a Wednesday afternoon class at University of Houston - where she's working on her MSW - and Wednesday is one of the cheapest days to fly!)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Shrike was busting her ass cleaning, organizing, and getting rid of crap. I know she missed us, but she also enjoyed the break.

Peeper and I missed her, too, of course, but really enjoyed our visit, and Peeper handled it all really well.

It took her a little while to warm up to all those "strangers," and she still wanted to know where the hell her Mama was at all times, but she was a real trooper, all things considered.

In fact, it went so well that we've decided to do it again sooner than we'd originally planned!

Of course, Shrike's vacation time is pretty limited, but since we've established that Peeper and I can handle the trip on our own, and since she and I don't have work schedules to worry about, the only thing stopping us, really, is the price of the plane tickets - and the Anonyparents have offered to help with that.

So, basically, they can see Peeper as often as they want to pay for! :-)

What we're tentatively planning is to visit more or less quarterly. We were already planning for all three of us to go around New Years, so we're adding another Mama/Peeper trip before then.

I would just split the difference, and go in mid-October, but that puts us right in the time frame when BabyBro's twins may or may not be born yet, and I'd hate to just barely miss them, so we're looking at the first week of November. That's technically when they are due, but I think it's a safe bet that they'll be here by then, and I don't want to wait much longer because we need a few weeks to recover before Christmas and our next trip down!

That will be right after Peeper's birthday, so it will be nice to celebrate with my family, and I've told Anonymama to consider the plane tickets to be her gift from them.

I'm really looking forward to it - especially the part about meeting our new niece and nephew - but in the meantime, I sure am glad to be home.