Steve and I have often said that having Katherine has taught us patience and empathy. After this trip, we feel like we’ve gone through a rite of travel passage that we hope to never go through again. And, the next time we ever have to sit near a screaming baby on plane, we will sooooooo empathize with its parents.
Our trip started out well. Katherine snoozed all the way to the airport. She was a trooper as we progressed thru security & boarding. She even played with her toys as we ascended into the sky and fell into a deep slumber as the plane approached Southern California. However, when the plane starting descending into Orange County, she awoke rubbing her ears. Within seconds, she started to scream. Nothing would alieve the pain. She was so upset that she wouldn’t take a bottle or feed from the breast. Katherine screamed for 20 minutes non-stop – during the entire descent – and only calmed down after we de-boarded the plane. Fellow passengers approached us at baggage claim to inquire as to her well-being, which was very nice but reinforced our worst nightmare that Katherine was “that baby that screamed on the plane.” Since this experience, I’ve talked to our pediatrician and gotten a few handy tips involving over the counter medication to avoid this situation in the future.
Grandma and Grandpa Bush met us at the airport. We went back to their house and Steve whipped up dinner while I bathed and then put Katherine to bed in her Pack and Play. Given that this was the first time she had ever slept in a playpen, she did extraordinarily well and made it thru the entire night.
Visiting the Vasvarys
The next morning we played, got around, met Steve’s dad at Polly’s for lunch and then went to visit the Vasvarys, Steve’s maternal grandparents. This is the second time that the Vasvarys have seen Katherine, and they seemed to enjoy watching Katherine walk around and play with their plastic ambrosia container. Great-grandma Vasvary explained to Katherine how she puts Katherine to bed at night by lying down a picture of her that we sent for Christmas. In the morning, she turns the picture vertically, so Katherine wakes up. She’s done this every day since Christmas, which is quite remarkable.
Just to set context, we’ve been trying unsuccessfully to get Katherine to “wave” for the past several days. As we left the Vasvary’s home, Katherine gave her first wave. It was kind of like an arm movement coupled with a finger moving. Since then, she’s wiggled a couple fingers – which is extraordinarily cool.
Katherine’s First Trip to the Beach
After a very nice visit, Steve, Katherine and I headed to Newport Beach. Steve used his Boogey Board to surf the waves. Katherine walked around on the sand using my hands to stabilize herself and her little toes to grip the sand. She sported her cool Baby Banz hot pink sunglasses, which were essential since it was a hazy and windy day. She had a blast sitting down and grasping the sand in her hands. Unfortunately, she did manage to stuff sand in her mouth (twice!), which I wiped out with a towel.
Once Steve returned from wave surfing, we introduced Katherine to the surf. She loved it!! The wave would come towards her, and she would wobble towards it holding our hands. She also loved to be held above the water, so she could kick it as it raced over her feet and ankles. Despite the water being very cold, she was fearless and stomped in puddles mimicking Steve. We managed to capture a few video vignettes using our little Canon digital Elph camera. After our sandy adventure, Steve rinsed Katherine off in the cold beach showers (she howled), we packed her in her car seat and we drove back to Fullerton for a quick bath.
For dinner, we went to Great-grandma and Great-grandpa Ramsay’s house. The Ramsays had us over for an impromptu, but very nice, dinner of lasagna, salad and fruit. Katherine had fun during the meal with Grandpa Bush, as you can see in the pictures. We also found out that Aunt Amy is pregnant (congrats!) and that made the dinner quite a memorable occasion. We waded thru Steve’s growing collection of digital photos from the trip, and had fun catching up with family.
The Happiest Place on Earth & Almost Meeting Mickey (Twice)
Just about everyone in Steve’s immediate family has worked at Disneyland at some point or another. So, it was inevitable that we’d take Katherine to the Happiest Place on Earth at the tender age of 7.25 months. Many folks have asked me “did she get it? did she enjoy it?” Yes and Yes. She showed her grandparents why we call her swivel head. She sat in her little stroller, leaning forward and looked at all the sights, people. Because she was too young for many of the rides, we spent several hours walking thru Disneyland – taking pictures, visiting characters and pointing out changes that have occurred over the last 10 or so years.
One of the highlights of the morning was “It’s a Small World.” Katherine was exhausted at this point, having skipped her morning nap. We could see her try her best to keep her eyes open to watch the characters in the ride. Halfway thru, as the ride got dark, her eyes drooped shut and she snoozed for the next 20 minutes or so. You can see a picture that I took leaving the ride with Katherine asleep in the Baby Bjorn and in her pink “First Minnie Hat” embroidered with her name. Of course, we got her some Minnie ears which she just detests wearing. ๐
We managed to get pictures of Katherine with Snow White and Goofy….and Mickey sort of. We caught sight of Mickey on Main Street and patiently waited to take our picture with him. As our turn approached, Mickey’s handler started to say that Mickey had to leave. Of course, we were courteous and took the pictures for the people in front of us. Just at that point, Mickey took off – probably to cool off backstage. (Our second Mickey sighting was later that night during a parade. We got to see his backside since we arrived just as the parade ended.)
As you can imagine, it was HOT and we went home around 2PM to cool off and give Katherine her nap. We had to work very hard to get her to nap, as she really was over-stimulated from Disneyland. But, we did get her to sleep for 2.5 hours and later we took her back in the evening for Fantasmic. Overall, she was a champ at Disneyland – and we had a great time watching her in this environment.
