In early May, I was feeling down about the fact that I wasn't going to be attending my sister's graduation from her PhD psychology program. Paul encouraged me to look at flight prices, and it ended up that Charlotte and I were able to get back to the States for a week! We flew into Boston and visited with my parents for a few days in New Hampshire, then travelled with them down to Long Island to spend the weekend with Allie, Matt, and his mom & sister who were in from California for the event.
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| Peppa Pig airplane time |
I didn't take nearly enough photos to document the trip, but we were so happy to be there! Charlotte had started potty-training just a couple of weeks before, but did a great job on the airplane (although she was a little scared of the loud flush situation) and at my parents' house in general. I am a little hesitant to write too much about the potty-training experience because it's on the internet forever -- sorry future teenager Charlotte -- but it's relevant to describing Allie's graduation day. Charlotte picked up on peeing in the toilet right away (with a few accidents, of course) but we struggled with poop for weeks. She would wait several days, until she just couldn't wait any longer, and then she would do a "potty dance" and I would take her to the toilet. She'd cry and refuse to go, so eventually I would help her up, and then (usually less than 3 minutes later) the whole process would restart. One day she refused to go for almost 10 hours -- most days it took 2-3 hours. That was a lot of trips to the toilet, and I was about to lose my ever-loving mind. I wanted to yell JUST GO (and sometimes I did, not helping the process along, I'm sure). Several weeks later, I figured out a way to prompt her that gave her a sense of more control (oh, I can just make this happen?) vs. feeling like it was something she couldn't prevent -- and the tears went away. However, we were still in the midst of the prolonged poop-isodes when we were in the States for this trip.
On Allie's graduation day, we went to a pre-graduation brunch for all the clinical psychology PhD students. We took a lot of trips to the bathroom (although it seemed like Charlotte just wanted to check out the scene) while we were there. Then we all moved over to the arena for the graduation ceremony. It was a graduation for all the PhD students, so each person was hooded by their advisor individually. Fairly soon after the ceremony started, Charlotte started the potty dance. I had taken her to the bathroom multiple times, with no success, and we were back in our seats when Allie stood up to head toward the stage. Charlotte waved to Allie, then got THE LOOK in her eyes and I knew we had to go to the bathroom right away. She finally did her business while Allie was getting hooded by her advisor. I was super disappointed to miss the big moment. But it's a funny story -- and a firm reminder that parenthood comes with the need to be unselfish at times when it's really hard to be unselfish. After the ceremony, she passed out in her stroller for awhile -- you know, pooping takes it out of you when you're 2.
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| The view from our seats |
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| The big moment... that I missed! Congratulations Dr. Allie Danzig! |
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| Stroller nap |
In the afternoon, we went out to Montauk and enjoyed the beautiful views from the lighthouse. Charlotte loved running up and down the hill with Aunt Allie! The next day we went to a couple of great wineries on the North Fork (if I'm remembering correctly). We had a nice time visiting with some of Allie's co-graduates at both wineries, and Charlotte even got to fly a kite with Granddad! She loved it!
After we wrapped up our lovely weekend, we drove north again with Mom & Dad. We got to Boston mid-afternoon, and walked around Boston Common. Charlotte loved riding the carousel and finding (finally... took us awhile) the Make Way for Ducklings statues. We finished up the afternoon with a dinner at an Italian place in Boston's North End, then headed back to the car to head to the airport. Charlotte and I had a flight scheduled for around 10 pm, but when I checked my phone I had a message that it had been delayed til 2:15 am!! I laughed crazily for a few minutes at the thought of having to deal with a super tired Charlotte at an airport by myself... but it turned out that she fell asleep in the stroller once we were through security. Then she slept on my lap and on some chairs until boarding. She was surprisingly chipper when we had to board the plane, watched a couple episodes of Peppa, and then was agreeable to go back to sleep. Best case scenario, really!
We were so glad to get to visit with everyone and celebrate Allie's big accomplishment!!
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| Airport snoozin' |
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