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Well, the handoff has been successfully made from the east Coast to the West Coast grandparents. The day started at 3 AM. We woke up Mia who was silly and smiley and glad to be up in the middle of the night. Mia set out on her journey with her granny and great granny, one last playing of Barney in the Honda DVD player. She stayed wide awake the entire time. She arrived at BWI Baltimore, MD at 5:15 and got checked in for her cross country flight.
Arriving to the gate we found the flight delayed due to an emergency with the flight attendant. As we waited for the new flight attendant to come, the next flight became impossible to connect to. We took an 8 hour day and turned it into 18 for this little girl. Mia was unplussed by the delay. Mia delighted the audience around her by talking, toddling around, and being quite the animated 1 year old. She kept many frustrated people happier with her joy.
Finally at 900 we boarded the plane for Salt Lake City Utah - a 4.5 hour flight with 1 Mia, 1 large diaper bag and 2 book bags and 2 grandmas. The looks on everyones faces said it all....Will this be "that screaming kid?" Mia was so good, until she realized the young man on our row had a laptop. She scrambled over both grandmas to get to the computer. We caught her at the pass, but she continued to eye the computer for the remainder of the trip. She was tired, she cried, fell asleep, woke back up, played patty cake, ate cheerios, dried fruit, drank water...and all along the pile of leftovers fell on the floor. She smiled at the kids on the seat in front of us, smiled at the business men behind us and made many new friends. As we left the plane we apologized profusely for the large pile of leftovers on the floor, smashed into the floor by a 1 year old who held it together for a long flight.
For the afternoon we enjoyed the large empty areas of the airport to watch Mia practice walking. For a child who came to Maryland able to take one step and babbled a little, we traveled west with a little girl who can walk and walk and walk and DOES SHE TALK! She loves to copy sounds, sometimes sings, and babbles babbles babbles. She is great at Patty Cake and loves to lift her arms as we say SOOO BIG! She does itsy bitsy spider and hugs anyone who sings Barney's I LOVE YOU song. For 2 hours she walked, talked to people, would attempt to run to strangers before we caught her, looked for cell phones she could take from unsuspecting people. She brought smiles to everyone she interacted with and had a great afternoon. After all that exercise she fell asleep for about an hour on a blanket on the floor.
Finally at 5:15 MT we got onto the final flight for the day, off to meet Grandma and Grandpa Davies. For the 1 hour flight she was delightful. She hugged and hugged and hugged. Smiled at everyone and loved the trip. We couldn't have asked for a better good bye. For a little girl who had minimal sleep all day, she stayed happy and silly and loved on her grandmas. Thank you Mia, we needed that.
The reunion with her grandparents was wonderful. There were tears all around, but the joy on Mia's grandparents faces said it all... we cannot wait to love on you for the next 5 weeks. So as we handed off diaper bags, clothes, leftover bags of Cheerios and goldfish, bottles, wipes, and more STUFF than any of the adults. Mia smiled and was fascinated with yet another new experience. She got to the truck and didn't look back. She's a forward thinker, loves to learn, and is soon to run circles around her parents.
We are excited to see the new adventures Mia gets to have on a ranch with lots of uncles and a grandma and grandpa who cannot wait to spoil her. Mia, you made out lives special for the past month. Enjoy round two. We love you. Enjoy a wonderful 1st Birthday this week!
PS. This trip would not have been so enjoyable without the love, support and aid of Great Grandma Fiddler, 70 years old, goes to the gym 4 times a week, and lifted Mia, bags, backpacks without a single stop. She walked fast, she rocked Mia, she kept the trip on track. You are my hero and I am glad that Mia got to know how wonderful you are.
Arriving to the gate we found the flight delayed due to an emergency with the flight attendant. As we waited for the new flight attendant to come, the next flight became impossible to connect to. We took an 8 hour day and turned it into 18 for this little girl. Mia was unplussed by the delay. Mia delighted the audience around her by talking, toddling around, and being quite the animated 1 year old. She kept many frustrated people happier with her joy.
Finally at 900 we boarded the plane for Salt Lake City Utah - a 4.5 hour flight with 1 Mia, 1 large diaper bag and 2 book bags and 2 grandmas. The looks on everyones faces said it all....Will this be "that screaming kid?" Mia was so good, until she realized the young man on our row had a laptop. She scrambled over both grandmas to get to the computer. We caught her at the pass, but she continued to eye the computer for the remainder of the trip. She was tired, she cried, fell asleep, woke back up, played patty cake, ate cheerios, dried fruit, drank water...and all along the pile of leftovers fell on the floor. She smiled at the kids on the seat in front of us, smiled at the business men behind us and made many new friends. As we left the plane we apologized profusely for the large pile of leftovers on the floor, smashed into the floor by a 1 year old who held it together for a long flight.
For the afternoon we enjoyed the large empty areas of the airport to watch Mia practice walking. For a child who came to Maryland able to take one step and babbled a little, we traveled west with a little girl who can walk and walk and walk and DOES SHE TALK! She loves to copy sounds, sometimes sings, and babbles babbles babbles. She is great at Patty Cake and loves to lift her arms as we say SOOO BIG! She does itsy bitsy spider and hugs anyone who sings Barney's I LOVE YOU song. For 2 hours she walked, talked to people, would attempt to run to strangers before we caught her, looked for cell phones she could take from unsuspecting people. She brought smiles to everyone she interacted with and had a great afternoon. After all that exercise she fell asleep for about an hour on a blanket on the floor.
Finally at 5:15 MT we got onto the final flight for the day, off to meet Grandma and Grandpa Davies. For the 1 hour flight she was delightful. She hugged and hugged and hugged. Smiled at everyone and loved the trip. We couldn't have asked for a better good bye. For a little girl who had minimal sleep all day, she stayed happy and silly and loved on her grandmas. Thank you Mia, we needed that.
The reunion with her grandparents was wonderful. There were tears all around, but the joy on Mia's grandparents faces said it all... we cannot wait to love on you for the next 5 weeks. So as we handed off diaper bags, clothes, leftover bags of Cheerios and goldfish, bottles, wipes, and more STUFF than any of the adults. Mia smiled and was fascinated with yet another new experience. She got to the truck and didn't look back. She's a forward thinker, loves to learn, and is soon to run circles around her parents.
We are excited to see the new adventures Mia gets to have on a ranch with lots of uncles and a grandma and grandpa who cannot wait to spoil her. Mia, you made out lives special for the past month. Enjoy round two. We love you. Enjoy a wonderful 1st Birthday this week!
PS. This trip would not have been so enjoyable without the love, support and aid of Great Grandma Fiddler, 70 years old, goes to the gym 4 times a week, and lifted Mia, bags, backpacks without a single stop. She walked fast, she rocked Mia, she kept the trip on track. You are my hero and I am glad that Mia got to know how wonderful you are.
-Kathy
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