Recap

Gosh, so much has happened and I don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll just spew out some random thoughts on my trip back East:

Plane rides
Flying with a baby is such a crap shoot! I feel like we have tried every permutation of flying cross-country with her. Flying at night direct, flying during the daytime direct, flying during the daytime or nighttime with a layover, snacks, books, surprise toys (new toy introduced on the flight)... There's no telling when she'll be a little angel and when she'll decide to be crankmonster.

During this last flight, we woke at 4 a.m. for a 6 a.m. flight. She was mildly cranky on our first flight because she was tired. I was hoping she'd sleep during the second flight, but instead she wanted to run up and down the aisle. You know in the cartoons when you see machines starting to whirr out of control and steam starts streaming out until finally the machine just blows up? That's what I felt like ESK was doing. She was twisting out of my arms, climbing all over me, even scratching my face.

I was ecstatic when the plane landed and happy to let her run around the spacious and relatively empty Portland airport. But I still had the get our bags -- one 60+ lb. suitcase (which I paid extra to check-in) and ESK's car seat which was in a protective backpack. As I pushed ESK in a stroller in front of me, pulled the suitcase behind me and strapped the car seat to my back, people were kinda chuckling because I looked so silly. Another onlooker told me I looked like a sherpa. I wish someone could have taken a picture because I think I would have laughed as well.

Old & New Tricks
ESK's favorite word these days is "up". She says "up" when she wants to be picked up, when we're carrying her and she wants to be put down, and when she's seated and wants to run around. Lately, she's been saying it with a very commanding tone to her voice. "Uuuu-PUH!" Cracks me up.

While we were back East, she learned a lot of new tricks from her two grandmas and even her cousin GMK:

1) winking -- of course she ends up shutting both eyes; priceless
2) tickling -- learned from GMK; wiggle fingers around your neck and says, "ticka ticka"
3) finding nose -- touches nose when asked "where's your nose?"
4) peekaboo -- covers parts of her face (not necessarily eyes) with 2 hands and uncovers
5) "cheese" -- also courtesy of GMK; says something closer to "chee" when I take a picture
6) traveling up and down stairs (we don't have stairs in our apartment)

AND much much more.

When her dad saw her again in Portland, he couldn't believe how much she had grown -- physically and in every other way. She's really starting to look like a little girl!

I'll post pics of my trip soon...