Rowdy and I had our first little adventure together. A lovely, warm 7am Dr. D brought us to the train station:
So exciting! One word of advice: if there's a little black speck moving on the toilet seat, Do Not Sit Down! Unless you want to go home crabby. I was a little nervous of sitting after the toilet incident, but eventually need for rest wins over fear of buggies. Even for babies. Rowdy spent some quality time with Froggy Friend:
And then she took a nap:
For thirty minutes. Some wake time. Then another nap, for another thirty minutes. So on all the way to Chicago. Welcome Union Station!
Then we started walking. And walking and walking and walking ...
Rowdy loved everything. Everyone smiled at her (of course!). And Mama's feet didn't start hurting until the 2 mile mark. Only half mile to go. But we made it!
And a lovely day with my wonderful friend Kerry Cohen and her adorable youngest son, my adorable youngest daughter and yummy food (thank you Charlie!). Not to mention hot footwear and gorgeous hair (neither mine, by the way. I was more messy and wrinkled). A quick ride back to Union Station (Thank you, Nancy!) and off we chugged toward home:
Pretty sunset:
A nice lady offered to hold Rowdy for part of the last hour. Rowdy bathed her in burp-up, which was awfully sharing, I thought. The woman didn't seem so appreciative, but whatever. Little Rowdy was soaking in Travel Excitement by that point. Sleep? Who would suggest such a thing! She nipped and napped, finally crashing at 11pm as we pulled into the station.
Miss Rowdy didn't care for her last few minutes on the train - mean mama woke her from sleepies to pack her up in the sling, sling on the backpack, and head out. One early-20s girl shot her many dirty looks, as if glaring daggers at a delirious, screaming baby will HELP anything. Would it be mean to admit I hoped that gal made a visit to the creepy-crawly bathroom stall? My other thought: "Rowdy will cry for a moment, but you will be a B@!#% forever."
A day of adventure, fun, friendship, challenge. And worth every exhausting minute!
Hi Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteSounds like a wonderful day! I've always schlepped my kids around with me, trying to expose them to the world so they could grow up appreciating it. So, at times, that meant they acted up in public. It was only when they were babies and couldn't help themselves, and it wasn't very often, since I usually knew what to do to calm them, but I believe, as a result of carting my kids all over creation, they've turned out to be smart, well-socialized, worldly kids today. So when someone glares at you because they don't like to hear a child cry, just hold their glare...and smile. Your kid is going to become a more compassionate person than the down-at-the-mouth grump who's shooting daggers at you.
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