I've moved!

From now on I'll be at my new site. Come visit anytime:
http://underconstructionblog.typepad.com

Snippets of a Trip Update

We're back! Fortunately I had the foresight to take the rest of the week off work so it's a Thursday morning and jet lagged baby is (now was) asleep, Mr. H is watching NASCAR (recorded from last weekend) and I have a minute to provide you, my faithful readers, with a few photos and some snippets of updates.

On our porch in Switzerland
Portrait of the happy traveler on a train

I'm having a hard time remembering back almost two weeks ago when we were racing to catch our flight in Dallas but here's a few things I do recall:

Why we aren't at all surprised American Airlines isn't doing well
We had 4 separate flights with American (and two with British Air) and three of the four were delayed (only one weather related). That caused our luggage to miss the connection and left us in Switzerland the first two days with no luggage. Of course I packed 3 outfits and plenty of food and diapers for Biscuit and nary a pair of clean underwear for myself.

The thing I never thought I would do
Drug the baby. But I gotta tell ya, a half teaspoon of Benadryl makes an international flight a lot more tolerable for all involved. She was a real trooper (and I don't think this will lead to any lasting drug problems! :)

A beautiful view
We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary in Europe and used it as an excuse (twice) to go out together (without Biscuit) and go to the top of tall mountains for the views. I think a picture is worth a thousand words here. The other mountain we visited was in a solid fog bank, no views there.

To sleep, perchance to dream
Despite a jet lagged 8 month old we did get some sleep. She napped (or didn't) on the road every day (on trains, busses, in her backpack etc.) and slept in our bed with us at night.

The cutest thing we didn't capture on film
Biscuit helping me hold onto the metal pole on the Airtram at the Dallas Airport. Her chubby little hand gripping the pole. Trust me, it was adorable.

First runner up on the cutest thing we didn't capture on film
The cute new tricks on licking her lips and then puckering up and making a fish face with her cheeks pulled in

Constipation update
remember that last post? We got FOUR POOPS THAT SAME DAY! I guess it resolved!

Crawling update
So she gave up on learning to crawl during our trip and cut her first tooth instead. We're still waiting for a full appearance but it's broken through the skin as of the Fourth of July

Baby Travel Tip
Snap tape (that you buy at the fabric store) makes the best pacifier holder ever. And, for us, the pacifier was perhaps the most critical equipment we had with us

There are approximately a million other fun things to tell you about but I don't want to bore so here's a picture

Report from foreign lands

Short version: the trip is going even better than we could have hoped!

Highlights:

• Biscuit slept the entire international flight from Texas to London except the 2 hours we spent on the runway awaiting a repair to the airplane
• The views everywhere have been amazing (in Adelboden, Switzerland and Chamonix, France)
• The family has been getting along great

Lowlights:

• Biscuit did not sleep at all the first night in Geneva
• Biscuit learned to sleep with her "taggie" but the taggie now resides near the train station in Spiez
• Our trip is almost over :( We leave Chamonix tomorrow for Geneva then home

Random:

• We needn't have brought any baby toys, the child has a new paper obsession and has been shredding magazines, napkins and placemats across Europe and when she needs a break from that, an empty water bottle is the toy of choice
• I think I fed her sour cream (or maybe cream cheese) in an attempt to give her plain yogurt last night. Whatever it was, she loved it!
• Now she is constipated...bananas or sour cream? Who knows....pears and peaches only today.

Ok, the internet is 1 Euro per 10 minutes (yikes) must go without proofreading

Au revoir!