Travel Log, 1st installment

Travelling with a baby is not as bad as it sounds!

We left in the morning from Saipan and flew straight to Nagoya. Savita slept most of the way. Arrived in Nagoya around 12. Our plane was set to leave at 2 pm. We boarded and sat on the plane for 2 hrs before being told there was a mechanical problem, the part was being flown to Nagoya and we would not leave until the next morning. We were given food vouchers so we could get some food while NW was trying to sort out the hotel situation. Ever seen 400 people trying to get some food from the only place in the terminal all at once? Not a pretty sight. Finally got us some tucker. By 6:30 we were given vouchers and directions to the hotel. Yep, we had to walk! I don't mind walking but a 15 pound child gets pretty heavy after a while and it was freezing. Savita made 400 friends, smiling at everybody and trying to get them to play with her. She slept while we're waiting at the airport and had her picture taken with a 100 Japanese HS students. At the hotel she enjoyed her freedom by playing on the bed and slept through the night. We brought Benadryl so we could drug her up, but we never used it.

Left early the next day for the long haul from Nagoya to Detroit, 11 and half hrs. They could not get the video to work during the flight, which sucked. Especially when you don't get to sleep much. That seems to be the only drawback of traveling with a small child, you don't get to sleep as much as you'd normally would. Savita was in and out and Thu and I perfected the tag team eating, feeding and changing. For some reason she didn't like the changing table on the plane much, but other than that she never gave a peep until we did a nose dive during the descent. Obviously Savita's ears couldn't keep up with the eaqualization. She managed to have 400 people being concerned about her well being. We all worked up a sweat the last 10 minutes of the flight.

Had a pretty smooth transition to the next plane, our flight from Detroit to Dallas. Savita slept most of the way, no problems with her ears. In all I think we spend something like 36 or 38 hrs traveling and racked up thousands of comped airmiles. Once in Dallas she was a big hit with the whole family and Thu and I would lose track of her once in a while.

Austin

Drove to Austin for the day and met up with Dennis & Inez and Kristy, Parke and Kai. Savita particularly enjoyed trying to bug Kai. Whereas Kai didn't want anything to do with it

Texas

Savita hasn't touched the floor in probably a couple of days. She is loved very much.

The Happy Couple

Wedding Pictures

Savita is a big hit with the family and is handed from one person to the next like a hot potato. Here she is wearing the pink dress her grandmother bought for her.

Picture below is with two cousins and her great grandmother.

Flight

Got stuck in Japan overnight. The plane has some kind of mechanical problem. This is how we camped out on the airport for a couple of hrs. before they put us up in a hotel. Savita did great, she made some 400 friends by being miss charming.

Ready or Not....

We're about to ship out to Texas for 2 weeks. It's 1:3o in the morning and we're leaving at 8 am. Thu and I are still packing and cleaning and trying to decide what we should and shouldn't bring with us. I think we're pretty sure we'll bring Savita. It will be interesting to see how she will do on the plane, her first trip across the pond, but we have good hopes she will be easy. It's amazing though the amount of extra crap we are carrying along just for her. She's half our size, but her stuff takes up more space than our stuff combined.

She's eating vegetables regularly, she loves the sweet peas and carrots. We have some bananas for her for tomorrow. I wonder how she'll like those? Her starting to crawl is not too far away. She's moving pretty fast across the floor by pulling herself along. She's discoverd the outlets and seems facinated by the protectors we have one them.

Crazed Baby

Salsa Practice

Salsa Practice with mom for uncle Kong and aunt Sheila's wedding.

Sweet Peas

Sweat Pea's first Sweat Peas.

Funny

She has the whole bed, but ends up all scrunched up in a corner every time. Silly baby.

Higher Places

Elephant Wrestle

Mom and daughter

Here's mom leaving for work, but first she has to say goodbye to her daughter. Savita has caught on to the camera and whenever she hears the little tune when we turn on the camera, she stops everything she is doing to pose for the camera.

Where did she go?

HAIR

When the moon is in the seventh house and jupiter aligns with mars, peace will guide the planets......

Look even the hair style is the same!

Independence!

"I don't have to stay on my mat if I don't want to!"

Baby Pilates

I think they call it "Neomama Post Natal Baby Pilates"

Reading

Savita has started reading her own books.

5 Months and 5 days

Time flies. Savita is growing so fast that if she keeps going at this rate she will be 6 ft before her 5th birthday. She perfected the rolling part and is now on to bigger and better things. She manages to move around a little pretty deftly by trigering or by pushing her face in her mat, stretching her legs and lifting her butt in the air and either push her face forward (I call it nuzzling) or roll over at an angle and thus turning. Whenever she moves an inch she looks really smug, like; 'did you guys see that?'. Last night we watched her for 15 minutes while she nuzzled around in circles in her crib. Besides the obvious joy she takes in her new found freedom, where she used to turn around a soon as you put her on her back she now spends half her time on her back doing her baby style of pilates. When on her back she lifts up her legs straight as if she is doing an ab work out, you can already see a tiny 6 pack forming. Next time she does it I will try to take a picture. Who knows there might be money in a baby work out DVD?

Got to love your dad who takes pictures of you when you've just woken up.

Ook even snel in het Nederlands. Savita groeit zo snel dat als ze op deze manier doorgaat is ze net zo lang als haar vader voor haar 5de verjaardag. Het omrollen is oude koek op dit moment en ze is bezig met zich voorzichtig aan het voortbewegen. Ze kan een beetje tijgeren of ze duwt haar neus in haar mat, strekt haar benen, kont omhoog en duwt dan haar neus naar voren (ik noem het neuzen) of ze rolt schuin om en draait zo in de ronte. Als ze zo een stukje vooruit komt kijkt ze heel wijs om zich heen zo van; 'hebben jullie dat gezien?' Gisteren hebben we 15 minutes naar haar staan kijken terwijl ze rondjes neusde in haar bed. Buiten het feit dat ze zichzelf kostelijk vermaakt met haar nieuw gevonden vrijheid, heeft ze er op dit moment ook een handje naar om op haar rug pilates te doen. Ze blijft nu dus meer op haar rug liggen ipv gelijk naar haar buik te draaien en tilt dan haar benen tegelijk op alsof ze oefening voor haar buikspieren aan het doen is. Je kunt al een miniscuul wasbordje zien. He wie weet valt er geld te verdienen met een baby exercise DVD?

Puppy Love

Savita and Sashi are getting to know one another and don't seem to mind eachothers company.

Especially for Uncle Kong...

Big Girl

Savita is eating her rice cereal pretty regularly at the moment and getting pretty good at it. This is right after finishing her bowl. Look no bib mom!

Size difference

Sometimes it is hard to imagine how much she has grown in the last 4 months. That's when it comes in handy to compare pictures.

Walk About

The carrier is still a big hit. This is us about to leave on our daily walk down the hill. She's getting pretty heavy by the way, I can feel it in my calves going back up the hill.