We got back from the ABQ last night - sans our luggage of course, which went to Buffalo. The luggage claim lady was surprised at our not being mad. Lady, I just survived 4 plane trips with a 3.5 month old baby in 5 days. As we were not lynch-mobbed by our fellow passengers, anything else is gravy. In truth, The Girl was truly excellent, hardly crying despite the fact that she is teething like a mofo. I despise inconveniencing others or drawing attention to myself and a baby pretty much throws that out the window. But I don't give other humans enough credit. They are kind and forgiving, especially if your baby is pretty cute. We had to literally run to make our connection from Tampa to Raleigh and were the second last people on a plane that was full. And this was S0uthwest were you choose your own seats so...luckily a very kind man gave up his seat so we could sit together. Also, speaking of S0uthwest, I was kind of excited to use the pre-boarding feature for the first time in my life, you know the little spiel that invites passengers who need extra help and have small children to board FIRST? Well not at SW apparently. We had to wait for all the A people to board first, then they let the kids get on. Lame! Denied one of the few perks of parenthood! If you can call seating first a perk in the face of distracting your child for 5 hours on your fold-down tray. Also, if you can believe it - I still can't- airport security made me remove her teeny tiny seahorse Roobeez shoes and put them in a tray with my shoes. Um, do you REALLY think baby shoes size 0-3 months can hoard gel explosives? Really?
The trip was awesome though. It was like Baby Validation, showing her off and accepting praise happily. Also, many many hands to hold her. Her Grandpa is a super-Grandpa, so happy to hold all the babies. Grandma MIL is a tad more reserved (I see now why AH married me - he's used to confusing women) and finally held her on the last day. Both my SIL's and all their kids (5 in total) were around every day too and suddenly polygamy and sister wives made tons of sense. We traded kids and lent baby wipes and Orajel and helped make meals - it was an lovely little New Mexico village of family. I saw for the first time how she really recognized me and AH and responded to us. In general she was a sweet sweet girl. Even with the endless trips to restaurants (we were restaurants worst nightmares - 6 children under 5, 2 elderly people and 8 other adults - oy) and family homes, she held up. We ate boatloads of green chile and sopapillas, walked in the Sandia mountains and accepted armloads of baby girl clothes. People love to give baby girl clothes, it turns out.
I am sad to be back, a little. It is nice to have the changing table and crib back and all her baby accouterments but man, it was nice being around PEOPLE. People who love her too. However, despite all the urging we received to move to ABQ, I can't see voluntarily choosing to move somewhere where water is short and development continues unchecked. And driving is so necessary. Despite our friends there doing neat things with solar panels on adobe houses and xerescaping, I am too afraid of water running out and not being able to grow your own food. I know, always with the apocalypse!
Now it's back to just Us Three. Le sigh. No time to worry though - I have so much to catch up on and a 3 hour internship interview tomorrow (gulp) and the free Arcade Fire for Obama concert tomorrow too and lots of things coming up. Must-stay-busy-or-risk-feeling-lonely.