back to reality

It's odd getting back into our usual swing of things, with just Donovan and I after having everyone around for 3 weeks. Yesterday actually went really well-- D woke up happy, was in a good mood most of the day, I got a lot accomplished. Today, was different. Today he woke up cranky, and was cranky off and on all day long. I think it's his teeth, he's getting a new molar on the bottom and from the look of the size of that thing I can't imagine it being anything other than supremely painful. Of course then I go through the whole to-give-or-not-to-give-Motrin conundrum, wherein I feel guilty if I don't give it because then I'm letting my child suffer needlessly, but if I do give it I might be drugging my kid for no reason not to mention that this tooth has been trying to come in for weeks now and who knows how long the pain will last and I can't be giving him Motrin every day for weeks on end. So I didn't give him any today, though maybe I should have-- he was just acting funny and pissy all day, like throwing a fit when I told him he needed shoes to go outside when normally he LOVES putting his shoes on.

All the fussing left me exhausted, as it tends to do, and my saving grace was when we were playing outside and D suddenly decided he was gonna walk right on over to his Brazilian girlfriend's house to go play, except everyone in the family except for the grandmother is away right now, but the grandmother welcomed us in anyway (she kinda loves him) and let him play for a good half hour or more and he was happy as a clam the entire time. I may have hurt her feelings when I declined her offer for this stuff she'd made that was like a sweet version of corn bread (I did have some later, when Zach showed up and gladly accepted her offer). I didn't realize till afterwards what a typical American thing that is to do-- refuse food out of politeness-- and that I should remember to always, always accept whatever food items a friendly neighbor offers especially when she comes from a latin culture. So anywaym her home was a nice break, then the screaming continued anew when we got back home. D ate a dinner of 3 strawberries, then screamed all through Zach's attempts to give him a bath. He's now asleep, thankfully. That is one area where he's spoiled us, he almost always goes to sleep easily. Knock on wood. I'm sure it won't last.

Last night I finally sat down and booked tickets for us to fly to Austin in October to visit everyone. D and I will stay for about 10 days, Zach will join us for 5. Which means that he'll fly there with us, and then on the way back I'll be the sole parent. Thank god Alaska Airlines icked up the direct SJC-AUS flight after American dropped it, b/c while I'm slightly nervous about a direct 3.5hr flight with a toddler, I would really really not want to do a 5+hr flight with a layover with a toddler. I got D his own seat, and today I went ahead and ordered a rolling attachment for our car seat, which will hopefully make things a bit easier. So I think we'll take that along with our car seat, I debated taking the Maclaren but think we'll instead keep it here and use the hand-me-down stroller my parents have at their house... we'll be charged for checked baggage, which sucks. And I'll try to limit our carry-on bags to the bare essentials, and if luggage gets lost well Target and Walmart are right down the street from their house so that's not a big deal. It'll be more important to have fewer things to juggle on the plane, I think.

We've flown with D a bit before, but it's been a few months (last time was at christmas when he was 10-11 months old) so if anyone has tips on flying with an active toddler I'd love to hear them. Thanks!