Adventures in Travelling

Let me just say, that each time I leave the house with Kiera, stroller, car seat and suitcase in tow, and sometimes Bentley, I question my sanity. when Kiera was a baby, it was actually MUCH easier. she just slept, ate, hung out. now, she wants to RUN AROUND the airport and HATES to be "stuck" in her stroller at all. this time my journey was SANS Bentley, and thank goodness.

I left for my sisters almost 2 weeks ago, which I find hard to believe, I feel like I am only just recovering. I left early Thursday morning, well 7am, which for flying isn't actually THAT Early. anyway, Doug had checked the loads for me and told me that going through SLC was probably my best option as there was 3 seats still open and wide open to get there. he also told me the flight left at 840. well I got there in time for 840 and found out the flight was leaving at 825!!!! so I ended up being VERY rushed and had to drag all of my bags with me, which I hadn't counted on. I rushed on the plane to have a flight attendant who totally hated me and was a total beeeoutch to me the whole flight. and what exactly I did to piss her off I am not exactly sure. but she did a really crappy job and if I was a paying customer, I'd be pissed. well, I all ready am and am not a paying customer. :P anyway, got to SLC to find out that the flight to Vancouver was completely full and I was not on. thought quickly and requested a written ticket from Calgary to Vancouver, but only to find out they had JUST CHANGED their rules about that and would no longer be doing it at the gate. so absolutely no more last minute change of planes or last minute needed tickets. thank goodness they weren't doing that in September because Doug and I would have been mega hooped to get to Egypt, but that is another story. anyway, they won't do it so I have to wait another 2 hours to catch a flight to San Fran, which ends up being delayed which means I miss my connecting flight to Vancouver. which means that I have to take the later flight which only leaves me 45 minutes to get to my next flight out of Vancouver to see my sister. and of course, the flight TOO Vancouver is delayed. by now, Kiera had HAD it, she was very grouchy on the flight and I was rapidly losing patience. when we finally get to Vancouver, we had to stand in line and WAIT for 40 minutes at customs, where there is just no way that I can let her out of her stroller. I pretty much ripped into the customs guy asking him, why is it that every time I come to Vancouver I stand around and WAIT like this? and why is it there is NO LINE for people with small children? what if I had come from a flight from Korea or China or something? my child would be flipping out being told to stand and WAIT for yet another 40 minutes?!!!
so of course, by now I had missed my closest connecting flight and I had to wait another 3 hours in the Vancouver airport. what joy. by this time, THANK GOODNESS, she had fallen asleep. the only good thing about the day was that she didn't have to be picked up when I went through security. they let me drive the stroller through and then they did their checking to it on the other side. phew. I am SO GLAD I didn't have to wake her up again. we got to our destination about 17 hours after we left. ewwwwwwww.

We had a good time in Nanaimo, though it was rainy for the first couple of days. Kim has a very cute place that they've done a great job on. they were also gracious enough to lend me their bedroom, where Kiera was able to nap and sleep and we were able to hang out while she did so. a bit easier than if we were crashed in the living room where the TV and kitchen were! Kim has a great park just down the street that Kiera loved to go to and went down the big slide over and over and over again. we also went back the next day so she could do it again. we have some super cute pics somewhere I forgot my camera. duh.
The night before we left we went to their water park which was so much fun! They gave me this "fish" thing that has holes in the middle for Kieras legs and she was up high with life jacket on and had a pretty good time. at first she was freaked out by the waves and wasn't really sure what to think. we went down the waterslide together too. she didn't cry, but she was pretty scared. I think she will like it more in a few months.

The next morning Kim dropped us off at the airport. I was a bit worried, because it was one of those situations where if I left early, I would have to wait for a few hours in the airport for my next flight, but if I caught the next one, it would be a very tight squeeze. because I wanted to go home and the flight to Denver was wide open, I decided to leave. I got to the airport 45 minutes before the flight left. this is Nanaimo that has like people living there. well, they couldn't find my listing even though I KNOW I listed. so I had to leave the line, go to the AC 1800 line and talk to someone again and RELIST myself. why the agents were being asses I am not exactly sure. but they were. I came back and they couldn't find my listing AGAIN and at this point I was frustrated and I said "listen I didn't make this up". I was also annoyed because I am 99% they are QUITE capable of listing me themselves, and they were just being stooopid about it. so then they were like "you needed to be here an hour earlier and you need to be nice. we are trying to help you out here, maybe you need to take the next flight". I was SO MAD because I didn't feel like I was doing anything wrong except get frustrated at the computer system. I was also ticked because my sister had just left and I would have to call her again to bail my sorry butt out and take me to another flight on a float plane airline that I had considered before. anyway, the agent calmed down after her little power trip and put me on the flight. we got to Vancouver and I decided that I might as well check in for my flight leaving in just over 4 hours. I went through, laa dee dah and talked to the Customs agents. who asked me where my green card was and I told them that I had the extension, but didn't have the card. I didn't think I NEEDED it as I was told to SEND IT IN. argh. so they said, after much discussion, they wouldn't let me in. unless of course, I wanted to pay 260 US to get into the country after my travel document was approved. whatever. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. so I left and went and bought a ticket for West Jet to Calgary. I tried calling Doug at this point, but we can't take collect calls and I had no other way of calling him because it seemed to also be rejecting my credit card. I was also INCREDIBLY stressed at this point because I wasn't sure exactly how long I would be stuck up there for. not that I don't like it. but I am 7 months pregnant and my CARE and INSURANCE is here. and I somehow don't think my mom would let me birth at her house, LOL.
got a ticket, called my parents who then asked "what time will I be picking you up?" and found a prepaid phone card to make the dreaded call to Doug. who, of course, wanted to kill me. I left a message at my parents saying I would be there at 230. got to Calgary (wierd flying on an actual FULLY PAID ticket) and of course, there was no one there to greet me. just my luck. I have like NO canadian coins, well money period and am making the calls I can and hanging up before they pick up. my parents said they couldn' t be there until 430. what fun! another 2 hours in the airport with Kiera who is ready to scream! and trust me, her mama was too!
at about 345, I was walking Kiera to the bathroom to change her butt and she was totally flipping out about it. I was short on patience, holding her hand, telling her it was not an option about holding my hand and she had to do it. this nice lady offered to watch all of my crap while I took her. so I took her up on her offer went to the bathroom changed Kiera's bum and came back out. the lady was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO nice. I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad I met her because she entertained Kiera for a while and we just sat and chatted. after about a half an hour and me trying to stay kind of vague in my answers about WHY we were here, I finally just told her the whole story. she let me vent. it was VERY nice. she then walked me to my parents car when it was time.
Kiera happily went to my mom when she saw her. but my mom told Kiera that grandpa was just down there and Kiera looked up, saw grandpa and went TEARING down the sidewalk, as fast as her little legs could carry her to see her very favourite "Bubba". now she calls him Bubba. okay then. but it was a happy reunion and I was SO relieved to be with somebody who knew her and we could go and chill out for a couple of days. its also good because we probably won't see them until after this baby is born because of my green card and then scheduling for their busy lives.
we went home, and Kiera was very excited to see her bed and her toys at grandmas house. the next morning she woke up and asked me "where's bubba" was the first thing out of her mouth. she was just so happy to see them. of course, bubba was still sleeping.
we did have a nice visit and I got to meet another friend of mine from my online forum. She had posted her picture and I had recognised her from way back and told her that. we knew each other from around Calgary and I had actually had a crush on her cousin at one point. she has a son a few months older than Kiera too. we met for lunch and she was a great lady who shares the same parenting philosophy as me.
my green card ended up being in my change purse part of my wallet all zippered shut that I never look in because I never have cash. so the story of my life.
Doug was doing an overnight on Friday in Calgary so the next morning we all met for breakfast and he saw me off onto the plane to Denver and he flew the next one out to Chicago. now we are home. and I am very happy to be home.

She has added exponentially to her vocabulary since I listed last time. she has tons of words and recognizes names and faces quite well now. she is still very much in love with Elmo. she is also describing what she does sometimes too, mostly "me go". she loves to put on big shoes by the door and pretend she is going somewhere. its pretty cute. she is also at the age where I feel that I can actually COMMUNICATE with her my wishes and desires about her behaviour and have a reasonable expectation she can do it now. which generally she does, though sometimes not without much drama. I am super happy with something called the 5 steps that puts the onus on HER to control her behaviour, not me. I am going to raise a child with a sense of internal control and not an external use of force to get the desire behaviour. Gentle discipline does not mean permissiveness, though most people equate not spanking your child with that. she will be discipline and it doesn't even mean that somedays I won't be a hard ass about it. I have set boundaries for her that she has run into head on, and so far I am pleased, though I am definitely wondering what I am going to do when she hits the teenage years. but I will cross that bridge in a while.

and you people wonder why I never update, maybe cause this one took me 45 minutes to write!