Sanibel Island - 11/5/16
As Evie gets older, the strategies when flying with him change. He's still a champion flyer, but more than 5 hours is starting to ask a little too much. We booked a non-stop flight from San Francisco to Ft. Lauderdale, hoping for the best. He did amazing, slept a lot and was quiet (but happy) when awake. The captains announced we would be landing soon, and we both breathed a sigh of relief.
Turns out, the trip wasn't quite over and instead, we were being re-routed to West Palm Beach, where we would be stuck until they re-opened Ft. Lauderdale airport. In short, a package plane caught fire on the runway (seriously) so no flights were being allowed to land. You can read more about it here, if you're interested.
What it meant for us was a delay with little to no real information. The airline we were flying had no gates at West Palm Beach airport, so we were stuck on the plane. Cue the rabble-rousing as people flipped out about being held hostage. There were definitely adults on that plane handling the unexpected worse than Evie. From our perspective, we were just trying to keep him happy and were starting to worry that we didn't pack enough snacks.
Luckily, the airport people did their jobs quickly and the delay only ended up being 2-3 hours in total. While it put us in much later than expected, we didn't run out of food or diapers on hand (yay!). And while Evie did start getting cranky and frustrated not being able to move around on his own, we really can't complain. Snacks, toys that attach to things, nursing, and giving him lots of attention were the keys. Not letting our frustration and irritation take over was the other major key.
At FLL airport, ready to be done travelling - 10/28/16
The next day, visiting began. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins! Evie just loved watching his cousins and getting attention from all these new people. We were a little concerned that "stranger danger" would have reared it's head by this trip; turns out that concern wasn't necessary. Evie had a blast with his family. One thing we were a little less prepared for was just how overstimulating the trip would be for Evie. Once we figured out that we needed to force some down time here and there, his fussiness improved.
Visiting with cousins - 10/29/16
Thoma Family - 10/30/16
Playing with Grandma and Grandpa - 11/4/16
We talked about bringing Obie's Molly Bear for the trip, but again we settled on his yellow "O." It comforts our hearts to see him included, but on the flip side it hurts when we forget to pull it out. While we got lots of lovely photos of the kids with the "O," we did forget to bring it trick-or-treating. This always brings guilt, maybe more than it should.
Speaking of trick-or-treating, it was a wonderful experience to be able to do that. If we were home in California, there's no way we would have done it. We wouldn't have even had a real excuse to dress up at all. Everett's first Halloween would have been just a cute animal onesie and a photo op. Instead, he got the real deal! A full-out family costume and going door-to-door.
Pumpkin patch - 10/30/16
Pretty proud of how this turned out - Elliott, E.T., and the moon! - 10/31/2016
Evie had a lot of firsts on this trip - first Florida visit, first crazy air travel story, first Halloween, first trip to the beach, first cheese, and first Michigan-Michigan State game (he wore San Jose State gear, in case you were wondering, Go Blue and Yellow Spartans!).
Quick pre-game family selfie - 10/29/16
Another special first was meeting up with another rainbow family. Evie loved hanging out with baby Louie, and we loved hanging out with Louie's parents. Louie and Everett are less than two weeks apart, and their older siblings Piper and Oberon were born less than a week apart. Although none of us had met in person before, we all had an enjoyable day. There's something different about being with people who "get" baby loss, and we really appreciated the chance to meet Louie and his family in real life.
Flamingo Gardens with friends - 11/2/16
#EvieAndLouieAdventures - 11/2/16
He must have really been paying attention to his cousins and friends, because the week in Florida and the days after included a huge increase in mobility. He's an expert at the inchworm scoot and is pulling up to standing on anything he can.
This guy can scoot - 11/12/16
He's clearly starting the transition from baby to toddler, and it's wonderful to see. A lot of parents express wishing their children would stay younger longer or asking "where did my baby go?" We will do our best never to say those kinds of things. We know what it's like to have a baby not grow up. While we will reminisce about younger Everett, we will never ask him to slow down. He will grow and change, our relationship will grow and change. There will be challenges, and some day he'll tell us he hates us or some other hurtful thing. And in the back of our heads we will be so happy that he's able to do that.
