Our week in photos: 14/6/15

1. Baby’s first fortune cookie.
2. Reading in the bath (we were in a hotel and Daddy-man had to make an important phone call, so we went somewhere we wouldn’t distract him).
3. Waiting for lunch at Andersen’s.
4. It’s 2am and your jetlagged baby is wide awake. The solution? Plop her in the playpen, put on Frozen and curl up on the sofa in the fetal position.
5. Hello airplane!
6. Dolphin-riding at the play-area at LAX.
7. Family selfie with a mini Statue of Liberty.
8. Pyramid Lake.
9. Surf’s up!

Out and about

The themes for this week have been driving and jetlag.

After spending two weeks in the Pacific Northwest visiting with family, it was time to head back down to Southern California to catch our flight back to the UK.

While our drive up to Oregon and Washington had been a leisurely one along the coast, with stops along the way to see old friends, this drive was just business and we drove straight down the middle of California along Interstate 5. It’s not the most beautiful drive, although it has its moments (like Pyramid Lake in the mountains  before you get to LA). It is, however, a fast route and Daddy-man covered all 1,030 miles in just over two days of driving.

Through the journey, I was in the backseat with Pumpkin, trying to keep her entertained. The iPad was a godsend (how did people raise children before there were tablets???) and we also made good use of my airplane activity kit (I’ll be posting about it soon). There were also plenty of stops along the way and lots of running around once we finally got to the hotels each night.

We had some very sad news during our drive, though. My grandpa (my dad’s stepfather) passed away in the night. It was such a surprise, as we’d been visiting with him only a few days earlier and he seemed mostly okay. I’d even planned on sending him a book of photos of London when we got back (he’d spent time in here when he was in the military and had mentioned how much different it must look now). It’s a reminder of how quickly we can lose someone and he’ll be very much missed.

Fun at home

On Sunday night, as we got ready to leave my parents’ house, Pumpkin must have realised something was up – because she refused to go to bed until about 11:30 – but it meant she got a lot of good playtime in with my parents before we left.

At our homes-away-from homes (aka hotel rooms), there was a lot of drawer-opening, taking-tissues-out-of-the-box and checking out “Other Baby”, who lives in mirror-land.

Once we got home, the ‘fun’ has been dealing with jetlag. On Saturday morning, Pumpkin woke up at 2am and stayed awake until around six, when we both finally got to go back to sleep. Most of those four hours were spent with her in the playpen watching movies and playing with her blocks – I layed on the sofa, lightly dozing in the fetal position. Similar scenes will probably be occurring for a few more days while we all re-adjust.

Time for me

You don’t get much opportunity for me-time when driving north-to-south across the US, but I did manage to get a bit of work done on the drive down and during Pumpkin’s nap times, I spent some quality time on Instagram (and I might have had a nap or two).

On Sunday night, I also finished writing my first paid-for sponsored blog post. It was a Father’s Day gift guide and I was very pleased with the results – and I must admit, it was wonderful seeing the payment arrive in my Paypal account!

My favourite moment was…

Seeing one of my oldest friends on Wednesday – she lives in LA now and I rarely get to see her on visits back to the West Coast, since we normally spend all our time in the northern half. She is absolutely wonderful with children and although Pumpkin was a little unsure of her at first, it didn’t take them long to become good friends.

Oh, and arriving home was also good. As much as I love our trips to the US, after all the flying and train/bus/car travel, our sofa is a very welcome sight!

This week last year in photos:

1. Mummy-baby selfie.
2. Little girl in her tutu.
3. Happy girl in her pram.
4. My weighted companion cubes (Baby’s first cos-play).
5. Looking cool in Raybans.
6. Baby swans in St James’s Park.
7. Stylish little lady.
8. snoozing.
9. The giant blue… um… rooster… on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square

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