Wishful Thinking

Last weekend, Lucy did wonderfully on our long drive to and from Vallejo. Previous to this trip I was very anxious about our upcoming plans to visit the Philippines and Japan. Can you imagine 16 hours on a plane with our cranky baby? Oh god! To our surprise she only had one melt down that lasted 15 minutes (my friend Tina laughed at the fact that I was claiming this 'short' tantrum as a meltdown). In fact we were so confident that we decided it would be great practice to take the train to San Juan Capistrano for the day... And what a trip it was! SUCH SILLY Fools!! I'll spare you the details of my child's behavior on the train. Let's just say both Tom and I were sweating and so tense that I thought our ears were permanently glued to our shoulders! The other passengers' ears were probably ringing by the time we arrived to SJC.

As with all difficult moments in life, there are always lessons learned.First of all, our trusty hiking carrier will not work in Japan if we want functioning hips when we get back. Secondly, if we want our backs in place (to go along with our functioning hips) we need a lightweight travel stroller to lug around our fatty(This is regardless of all the warnings against the difficulties using a stroller in Japans railway stations). We realized we needed one so badly that we ordered one as soon as we arrived home! Finally, we are just going to have to learn to roll with Lucy's punches. Is that possible?

Anyway, below are some photos from our trip:

This is a visual of how Tom feels carrying aroound a 24 lb 8.5 month old for a few hours.
At the SJC Mission just before Daddy let Lucy run her hands through the Koi pond and Mommy busted out her antibacterial wipes...
and here is our Lucy flirting with the people sitting behind her on the train....