While Matt was away at a bachelor party, I decided to take Charlotte to Colorado to visit my parents for a long weekend.
I’m so glad we went! I was really hesitant when I was initially thinking about it because I was nervous to travel with her by myself. Afraid she’d scream and cry the whole time. Or run away from me at the airport. Or kick the seat on the plane regardless of me trying to stop her. Well, I was pleasantly surprised. She was a delight the entire trip! You could tell she was having so much fun!
We went to the Discovery Museum, the library, sledding, to the park, shopping, out to eat and she was so fun through it all. I think one of her favorite parts of the trip was walking around the house saying “where are you, Noni/Papa/Bailey (the dog)” when she couldn’t find them. She would say it over and over and laugh and giggle when she found them.
{The headphones lasted about 30 seconds.}
{Very unsure of it all.}
{Trying on her snow pants!}
{Playing at the Discovery Museum with Papa.}
{Not wanting to budge in the snow.}
{Not really enjoying the sledding, either.}
{My parents enjoyed the sledding though!}
{Noni and Charlotte in an igloo at the park.}
{My parents got her a couple really cute toys to push and ride. She was trying to figure out how to ride in this one….}
{Old Town puts these white lights on all the trees and it’s sooooo pretty! They keep them up until the middle of February.}
My parents have two sets of stairs in their house. From the main level there is one leading to a lower level and one leading to an upper level where most of the bedrooms are. We only had a gate for the stairs leading down from the main level- I was afraid Charlotte wouldn’t be paying attention and would fall down. She got so good at climbing up the stairs. She would sing “crawl, crawl, crawl” as she was crawling up them. The landing is a good size, but as soon as she exited a bedroom (about 7-8′ from the first step), she would immediately get on her bottom and scoot forward. Safety first, my girl, safety first :)
She was also so good with my parents dog, Bailey. The last two times Charlotte has seen her, she hasn’t shown much interest in her, but this time was different. She always wanted to know where Bailey was and go find her. Also, when we said “Where’s Bailey?” or “Want to find Bailey?” she would put her finger up to her mouth and say “shhhhh.” Bailey was always asleep.
As for the flight, she was surprisingly great! I bought her her own seat because I couldn’t picture her sitting on my lap for 2+hours in such a small space. She had the window seat and I had the middle seat. I had lots of snacks/treats for her, she played on her Fire tablet, she looked at videos and photos of herself on my phone, I had some stickers with me and she enjoyed looking out the window. I was certain she’d fall asleep on both flights, but she only slept for the last 20 minutes of our return flight.
I’m already looking forward to going back to Colorado in the snow next winter because I’m sure she’ll grow to appreciate it by then!