Montreal / Burp

This week was a particularly exciting week! On Thursday, I took Kiana on her airplane flight and her first international trip: we flew to Montreal, Canada so that I could attend the International Studies Association's annual conference there. (We had to get her a passport so we could go, and we love her cute little face on her passport photo!) I put Kiana in Kiddie Corps Friday and Saturday morning to early afternoon, and shuttled back and forth to nurse her every few hours. It was a little crazy, but it worked! The Kiddie Corps staff were superb: incredibly caring, attentive, engaged, and just totally lovely. Kiana was a trooper: she was distracted by the big kids there, and only really got upset after being left there multiple times on the second day (totally understandable!). Kiddie Corps made it possible for me to meet with my book editor (University of Michigan Press), a co-author, and attend a business meeting and a few panels, and look professional doing it. My friend Catia also babysat Kiana for a bit on Friday night so that I could go to the Peace Studies reception and thank them for making the trip possible (they gave me an award that covered a big segment of the conference costs). And then I also got to catch up with some friends who didn't mind Kiana dumping large piles of food on restaurant floors, or bouncing babies while catching up or talking career planning! The weirdest part of the trip was that the Sheraton which we stayed at was constructed in a way that the wind around it blew like a gale for the first part of the week, and every time I walked Kiana back and forth to Kiddie Corps (in the Fairmont, the *other* conference hotel!), I felt like I was going to get blown away - like Mary Poppins, but much less perfectly unruffled!. Ah, well. I am really happy that I went!


While we were gone, Daddy tag-teamed with different backup childcare options with Aidan: Thursday, Aidan stayed at playschool late (till 6PM), and Friday, Laurie picked him up at 1PM (his normal time) and they took a train ride to visit dinosaur bones at the American Museum of Natural History. Saturday, they had a treat! Aidan has been wanting to go to "the end of the A train" for a long time, but we haven't gone, because it is a LOOOOOOOOOONG way to go. But, since it was just the two of them, Saturday, Daddy took Aidan all the way to Far Rockaway, the very end of the line! On their way, they had lunch at Five Guys (a favorite!) to break up the trip. But afterward, even Aidan agreed that a 4 hour round-trip train trip was too long! It was a great Daddy/Aidan adventure, though.


Sunday, Aidan and Daddy picked me and Kiana up at the Newark airport, and we all were together again. Daddy and I agreed that, oddly enough, just having one kid is *much* easier than two, now that we are used to two. But we were still glad to be all together again!


Highlights:


AIDAN:
- Aidan now says "Burp" as a silly word. On one hand, he explained it to me very reasonably: "Mama, when I have burps, I say 'burp', so people can know it! ... Burp!" On the other hand, we know have full "burp" conversations! E.g.,
"Daddy, burp?"
"Yes, Aidan, burp?"
"Burp!"
"Burp!"
[I think this is hilarious!]
- Aidan was thrilled this week because we got him "The King's" blue mack truck hauler (to carry his "The King" race car from Cars around) as a present to celebrate all the stickers that he has gotten avoiding potty accidents and sleeping through the night. We are hoping we continue to have more reasons to celebate these trends!
- Aidan has been very into pretending to be "the GOOD superman" recently. I'm not sure if there is a *bad* superman, but I'm glad he's decided on this kind!



KIANA:
- Kiana stood up all by herself this week! She regularly walks us around the house now, and completely directs the walking (we don't pick where we are going, we just facilitate). However, this weekend, she let go of my hands, and just stood there, unassisted for about 5 seconds, before grabbing hands again and moving on! She is going to walk so soon!