travel

Reunion

Joe came back from his two-and-a-half week trip to an ecstatic Viola, who ran across the baggage claim with arms outstretched to greet him. It was one of the cutest things I ever saw.

The images are blurry, but the emotion comes through.

She set about pointing out all the spots on the terrazzo floor. This took a while.

She also pointed at papa with both hands, just in case I missed him. As if my relief at him being home wasn't palpable.

Caribbean

Well, so far I've been in the Caribbean for 9 days on a cruise ship. We finished our work a couple days ago and have been hanging out and quite bored. I thought I would be able to get some work done but wifi costs a fortune and its hard to concentrate when everyone around you is on vacation, leathery, and entitled.

Yesterday, I was able to get out in St. Martin and sail on US55, Stars and Stripes, the 1987 America's Cup yacht that was instrumental in bringing the Auld Mug back to the US after Dennis Conner lost it to the Aussies in 1983. He redeemed himself by skippering US55 to victory in the Louis Vuitton challenge series and then skippering the Young America boat in the finals of the Americas Cup. I need to check my facts but I think that's how it transpired.

This morning i turned on the TV in my cabin and the Americas Cup, which is in the hands of the Swiss, was getting ready to start. Larry Ellison and his BMW Oracle trimaran won the first race handily. You have to love International TV. I've been able to catch a couple Italian Soccer matches as well.

Sunday I say goodbye to the sunny Caribbean and the Solstice and hello to the Eclipse in Papenburg, Germany, where the temperature is currently 20 degrees.

Boy, do I miss Jess and Viola!

And I thought we couldn't do it!

I thought our trip to Boston was going to be really tough. A six-hour flight, a four-day conference at which I was presenting, 2 different hotels, a 3-hour time difference, a child with trouble falling asleep even in her own time zone, really hot weather, and so on. But we did it, and it was fun! Check out the pictures to prove it.

One of the things that made it so great (besides seeing Adam and Stephanie) was that Adam borrowed a really fancy stroller for us. We were all Sally McPractical when we got our stroller - we chose a model that got the thumbs-up from Consumer Reports but didn't cost much. We've had to outfit it with aftermarket sun shade and cup holder, but other than that, we thought it was pretty nice. Until we met the Bugaboo Frog.

It was a little rolling home for Viola. And I'm sparing you the details of its virtues by deleting the paragraph I just wrote about the 4 positions of the sun shade. Suffice to say, we went everywhere with the stroller - on the subway, on a train, on a ferry, up the stairs to our B&B, and down many, many sidewalks.

We were also mildly successful in continuing our routines and keeping the baby mostly happy. Here's Joe feeding her some sweet potatoes in the hotel room, her third food (after pears and plums in the previous weeks).

Did I mention she's even cuter than ever? By the end of the trip she was starting to wave, clap, and even say "ma-ma" - who cares if she doesn't know what she's saying?

Boston

Jess and Viola as we were walking to Uncle Adam and Stephanie's place in a light rain. She was trying out a new forward facing position in the wrap. Viola seemed fine with it.

Here we are at Mangia Mangia for lunch. I had a fishwich and a bowl of Chowder, Adam had the trademarked Mangia burger, Jess and Stephanie had the Italian sub nicely stuffed with mortadella and cut in half because they're ladies.

12 things that happened on our trip to Illinois, only one-quarter of them involving poo

1. Viola's poo squirted out the side of her diaper just as we were about to leave for the airport. It got all over my jeans and on every piece of her outfit. Note that this has never happened with her regular cloth diapers, only with the disposable ones we were using for the trip.

2. We picked up the wrong stroller on the walkway when we landed in Chicago. At first we thought it was no big deal because it was exactly the same model as ours, but then we noticed it was rusty and missing a sun shade. Oh, and there was sticky stuff on the handles. Anyone need a free stroller?

3. We went out in the boat on the river. I don't think Viola liked her life jacket at all.

4. I started eating dairy again for the first time since she was born, and a few days later she started pooping green. The green poo lasted for a week. Here, Joe, Stephanie, and Adam are at the Dairy Haus in Rockton, minutes before I tasted a bite of Joe's black walnut ice cream. Tsk, tsk.

5. Viola saw her first cornfield.

6. We drove down to Normal, Illinois to visit our good friends Matt & Carmen and we met their daughter Josephina for the first time. A video of Viola and Josephina follows; it will definitely be boring for most of you if you are not the parent, grandparent, or aunt or uncle of one of the featured children.

7. Viola had her first go on a swing (an infant swing-set swing - how do you say that?) I thought I took a picture of it somewhere...

8. Michael Jackson died and lots of Illinoisan people complained that there was too much media coverage about it. I bet these same people didn't complain that there was too much media coverage when Elvis died.

9. My parents threw a party and showed their granddaughter off.

10. Viola sat in her first highchair at a restaurant and chewed on the table.

11. Viola cried and sobbed for about an hour every night when we tried to put her to bed.

12. On the flight home, she pooped during descent and it got all over her, my shirt, and my jeans. Indeed, it was green, and I couldn't get up to change it until we landed.

Portland Pictures

Howdy from Portland, a bit late, but still cute.

We did it!

We've had so many Viola milestones since I last posted. One: we took a short road trip to Portland and stayed in a hotel. (We took the Subaru; it came back to us. For those of you who were still in suspense from my last post - don't forget to click the Read More button). Two: we rode a plane. To Illinois to see the doting grandparents and uncle and lots of family and family friends. Three: Viola turned one-half of a year old! Which also means I've accomplished six months of breastfeeding, three of them while working full time.