On the Move!

Back Home

We're back home after an extended weekend trip to the east coast.  We attended my cousin's lovely wedding in Brooklyn, NY.  The venue was gorgeous, although it was a little tough to find and you had to drive through some pretty sketchy areas to find it.  It was right on the water, with a beautiful view of the Statue of Liberty in the background. 

I was really worried about how Emma would handle the long flights there and back.  She has flown before, but that was when she was tiny and didn't move very much.  Lately, she has become super active, and is totally walking on her own and getting into all sorts of mischief.  She actually started to walk (without holding onto anything, without holding anyone's hand, and taking more than a few steps) right before, and I mean literally right before, we were packing our car to head to the airport.  She suddenly got up off her tushie and just toddled along like it was no big thing.  She cracks me up.  Anyway, she was so well behaved on the flights that we got compliments again about what a "good" baby she is.  I put "good" in quotes only because I don't really believe that babies are "bad" on planes on purpose.  And truly, to get annoyed with parents who are probably even more stressed than anyone else on the plane about keeping their baby in check is really not productive, or for that matter, very nice.  And I have to say that I really did feel that way even before I had a baby myself!

Incidentally, on the way back to San Francisco, two passengers in front of us were speaking French, and their neighbor kept bothering them with cooking questions and tales of all her allergies and her daily cooking habits.  I thought to myself that those two Frenchmen were incredibly nice and patient with the overly talkative neighbor.  Then, when it was time to exit the plane, those two Frenchmen stood up, and who could one of them be, but Jacques Pepin (!).  He and I exchanged smiles and he seemed like a very nice person, what with his patience, and even helping fellow passengers get baggage out of the overhead bins. 

Knuckleheads

So, what knucklehead decided that it would be a good idea to hold a mandatory training session on Saturday, starting at 9 AM, to last 4 hours, in a location that would require half of the attendants to drive an hour to the training site?  Oh, wait, that would be my knucklehead bosses.  It was the best Saturday morning ever.

Walking

So, yesterday, while husband and I were at work (boo), Emma took her first "real" steps.  She walked about 10 paces, then plopped herself back down on her tushie.  She has been "cruising" for months (where she holds onto things and walks around), and toddling along while we hold her hands, but she has been really reluctant to walk on her own.  She sometimes would take 2-3 tentative steps, look around, realize that she wasn't holding onto anything, then do a flying squirrel leap for the nearest solid object to hold onto.  Sometimes, she would miss the object and fall. 

My mom called me at work when Emma took her steps and I swear she sounded hysterical, laughing and jabbering at the same time.  I thought she was going to say something along the lines of "HAHAHAHA, I have had it, and I am leaving!" - that is how exuberantly crazy she sounded.  But, in the end, it was only proud grandma speak.