Home Again, Home Again

Tory and I are back in Nebraska this weekend while Andi works somewhere in Oregon. We flew back Thursday afternoon on Tory's last flight as lap child. Next time we fly, Tory will have her own boarding pass and Andi and I will be shelling out something like $450 for her seat on the plane. Wahhh!

I posted this "sad face" photo on Instagram expressing our feelings about paying for her flights now. This was kind of funny, actually. Tory's very into facial expressions right now and I'd asked her to take a picture by the airplane, but she wasn't interested in the least bit. Cue: fake SAD FACE.

This kid. What a character.

Actually, I was bummed about paying for her future flights until a few people on Instagram commented on my photo saying they have to pay for four or even FIVE tickets for their families and whoa ... I guess paying for one kid isn't too terrible after all. It's been an awesome convenience to travel back to Nebraska to see my family with little cost associated. Hard to believe next time we fly back we'll have another "infant in arms."

Tory was very well behaved on the short one-hour flight to Nebraska, but her demeanor while we've been at my parent's house the last two days has been far from stellar. Whenever we come back to Nebraska, Tory's regular eating/sleeping schedule is thrown out of whack (as is always the case when traveling somewhere new). She's just one of those kids who thrives on eating and sleeping at the same time every day and that's really hard to accommodate when there's lots of people in my parent's smaller-sized house and big family dinners every night. My sister's kids are the exactly opposite and are on a very "go with the flow" schedule which makes Tory seem even more high maintenance in comparison. When we were back in July, Tory adjusted very well to irregular naps and later-than-normal bedtimes, but this weekend hasn't been so easy and my solo parenting patience are wearing thin. Last night, Tory had a two-hour screaming fit at my niece Neeley's birthday dinner which left me in tears of frustration by the end. Sigh. So is the life of travel sometimes. I guess all these sleepless nights are good practice for Baby Brother's arrival this winter.

Neeley's official first birthday party is tonight and my mom, sister and I are hosting a baby shower for my cousin, Jes, on Sunday. Lots of family gatherings and celebrations ahead this weekend. Let's hope things smooth out for Tory and I can relax a bit more this weekend.