Part one: The journey.
I have lots to write about, so I’m going to have a trilogy of posts to catch up. First, I’ll tell you about our trip. Last week, we went back home to Mississippi for my grandmother’s 95th birthday. We were very nervous about flying with a baby and were kind of dreading the trip, but it actually went pretty well. Air travel was rough because it was a lot of time in an extremely tiny space with an antsy baby, but we managed to keep Falco entertained. He slept a little, but not nearly enough! Matt said repeatedly that we aren’t going anywhere again until Falco turns four.
Once we got into Gulfport, we had to rent our car and car seat. It was the opposite of a smooth operation and took forever. Our car rental company did not have an infant car seat and had to ask three different companies before finding one. The one they finally got us was very old school and was a royal pain to install, which he had to do ourselves without instructions in the hot and humid weather of South Mississippi. After a day of air travel and waiting over half an hour just to get our car, I did not have the patience to fight with a car seat in the heat with a fussy, hungry baby.
Eventually, we got on our way and went to meet Ma-Ma, my aunt and her husband, and mom and Mark for dinner. (Mom and Mark had just flown in that day a couple of hours earlier.) We met them at the very delicious catfish restaurant, Aunt Jenny’s, in Ocean Springs. Mom was beyond excited to see Falco, and Ma-Ma was very happily surprised that we were there. Falco was completely charming and was happy to meet everyone and sat very politely in his high chair while we ate dinner. I was amazed at how well he did after flying all day and hardly napping at all.
After dinner, we went to my aunt’s, where we were staying in the guest house, and got Falco ready for bed. They had a pack and play there for us to use, and we had no idea how he would do sleeping in a strange place. We did his bedtime routine as close to normal as possible, and he went right to bed without a peep. I was so worried that he would get scared or cry and never go to sleep, but he slept all night all three nights we were there without a complaint. I don’t know when I have been more proud of him.
One day, Falco stayed with Mom for about an hour and a half while Matt and I ran an errand, and he did fine with that. He was never afraid of anyone the whole trip. Everyone went on and on about how good and happy he was. One day we took a drive into Ocean Springs to see our old stomping ground. I wanted to show Falco the front porch of our old house where I first met Matt, but he slept through the whole tour and missed all of the highlights.
The night before we left, Ma-Ma’s party started at 6 p.m. This was very sketchy for us because Falco is usually getting ready for bed at 6:30 and never goes out at night or stays up past his bedtime. Mom tried to get him to go to sleep at the party, but he wasn’t having it. He wasn’t in the mood to party either though and was tired and whiney. We ended up leaving at 8:00 to get him to bed, which was fine because we needed to get up early for our flight anyway.
Did I mention that it was miserably hot and humid there? I can’t believe we used to live like that. Despite the sweltering weather, it was nice to go back and see lots of my relatives and have everyone meet Falco. We got back to San Francisco pretty early on Sunday, and we were all very glad to be home. The weather here is great: Foggy at night, sunny during the day, and cool enough to need a hoodie. Perfect!
Up next: Falco is getting around…
