Tis the season for the standardized tests required for graduate school admissions. In the spirit of this fact, I offer a practice problem:
Jaimie, Jonathan, and Josie (7 weeks old) are traveling to meet their Boston family from their home in Jersey City. Prior to Josie, this trip took Jaimie and Jonathan about 3 hours by car. If each week of an infant's life adds 30 mins of travel time, and each week also amounts to one suitcase:
a) how much longer will their trip take, and
b) how many bags are needed for the trip?
*The correct answer can be found at the bottom of this post.
I should mention the outfit pictured here is Josie's second of the day. We had a lovely, rapport-building chat about nicer ways to tell mommy we don't like our outfits. After a second bath and diaper fastened with extra care, away we go! I should also mention we were totally neurotic super easy-going and did not overpack even a stitch of clothing. I didn't even try to take 50 diapers for 2 days. Not even a little bit.
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| Rest stop 1 of 6: The Js in our shades |
Speaking of babes, we got a few car accessories to make our trip more Josie-friendly. Check out our new mirror! Mostly this was helpful for me to observe the progression of pacifier spit out:
Baby notices pacifier is not in her mouth --> fussing --> yelling --> screamingggg!
With this handy gadget I was able to rearview it and re-insert. Homegirl loves her paci. I call it "baby chewing gum".
Boston is a special place for us for several reasons. First, my parents met in Boston and (TMI alert) I am fairly certain I was conceived there. Without Boston, there is no Jaimie and therefore no Josie. My family still has a few key members in town including my Aunt Karen, Uncle Joe, cousins Joanne and Carsten, and my 98 year-old Grammie (who informed me when I shared I was pregnant that she is to be referred to as "Super Grammie"). Jonathan also attended graduate school in Boston and he has several friends from his MFA program still there: Alex, Drew, Brandon, and Elle. We were super excited to introduce our little babe to this crew.
The day or so before we left, I got an excited call from my aunt wanting to run an idea by me. You see, Super Grammie's husband, Grampie, was a professional photographer and his cameras are still in the family. My uncle is also a pro photog and thought it would be neat to capture the moment Josie met her Super Grammie with my Grampie's old camera and film. We would arrive to a photoshoot - the kind that makes an audible "poof". I mean, c'mon, can my family be any more awesome?
Here is a sneak peak of the precious moment:
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| 98 years meets 7 weeks |
The next day we visited some of Jonathan's best friends: Alex and Drew. Alex narrates a boat cruise and we were able to hang out with Drew while we listened to a Brit tell us facts about Boston. He was great! Josie was stoked she was able to don her shades again.
We had a sleepover with these two and had a blast! We were joined by Brandon and Elle; little known fact: Elle is the baby whisperer. Josie started doing her fussy Josie thing, so Elle picked her up and started singing to her...she was mesmerized. To be honest, Elle's voice is so magical she was kind of lulling me to sleep in a fairy princess dreamland too.
We were also joined by Sara, another bestie, via Skype.
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| Josie was formally introduced to another important person from Jonathan's past and present: MJ |
What's shakin', Ben? Josie loves US history and was really excited about this opportunity.
She let us know by napping through it. If you look closely, her shades are betraying her which makes me rethink all of those lame school trips I've taken and why I did not have baby shades myself.
The thing about being new parents is we sometimes get a bit too ambitious. After about 15 minutes of walking, I was kind of over it. Don't be fooled by my smile as I wear this little girl through the humid streets of Beantown, who is actually twice the size she should be for this age and feels
Our ambition led us to food...and other things...such as beers the size of our heads. We obviously had to make our way to Cheers, the place where my parents met (an ironic fact as neither of them really enjoy drinking...somehow that skipped a generation).
As we said our goodbyes, we knew we'd be back. Hopefully next time we'll be a little more efficient and a little less snoozy. Josie loved her Auntie Karen and even stayed awake for a few minutes to snuggle!
Check out Uncle Joe driving the stroller and cousin Joanne, who is also a Josie!
Of course, we ended the day poppin' bottles in Boston Common and meeting some of the locals who gave us some really odd unsolicited advice. I'm going to leave this part blank until I can recall...
Solution:
7 weeks of life at 30 minutes per week = 3.5 hours added to the original 3 hours
7 weeks of life at one suitcase per week = 7 suitcases
The trip took 6 and a half hours and required 7 suitcases. We were there for 2 and a half days, but it was totally worth it!
My heart experiences a million micro-explosions with each new person Josie meets, but one of the grandest feelings was introducing Josie to Grammie.
