I Wish They All Could Be California Blogs

We did it! We traveled by plane. And, not a single tear was shed and Josie was t-e-s-t-e-d (really, she tested herself but keep reading).

Things started out pretty easy breezy. Josie was really into the agent next to us
and was a little bummed we didn't have him checking us in. She is such a flirt!

Security was fairly painless and I even smuggled in a bottle of water "for the baby". I now know I can also smuggle in a variety of things"for the baby" such as my favorite grapefruit beer apple juice.

When we boarded the plane, the guy sitting next to us took one look at Josie (without realizing she is a perfect angel who never cries) and literally upgraded to first class on his iPhone in the span of thirty seconds. I didn't even know that was a thing. It happened so quickly, it makes me wonder if there's a secret photo of a screaming baby one presses on the American Airlines home screen that automatically grants you a seat as far away as possible.

It probably looks like this and is invisible to parents.

Anyhow, he tried to be less of a jerk polite and said, "Hey, win-win!" Totally, dude. Totally.

Haha! I didn't plan for this but as I was reviewing our pics
from this trip, our plane selfie caught the guy in action!! Busted, baby hater!

As we were taking off, Josie became enthralled with the safety presentation. Really, Josie? I can tell she is going to be one of those people who ALWAYS flosses. Her dentist is going to be pumped. Mine hates me!

"So wait, like, I make the mask levitate and then what?"

Josie snuggled with me for most of the flight but every once and a while, she'd wake and Jonathan would fly her over the seats so she could check out the other passengers. That's right: we played airplane on an airplane. How meta.

This is Josie before one of her take-offs

Alright, 8 readers I have, I know what you're thinking and it's one of two things:
A) "Wow, Jaimie. You are a paparazzi and need to chill out on capturing every single moment of Josie's life."
B) "Wow, Jaimie. You are a such a dedicated mom and I applaud you for capturing every single moment of Josie's life."
C) Some combination of A and B

Well, guess what? You are incorrect. There is one moment I did not photograph and it rhymes with scoop. If you read past blogs, you know Josie has this delightful habit of disregarding her diaper when she's gotta go. Well, friends, it happened on the plane. Boy did it happen.

Have you ever felt claustrophobic on an airplane bathroom? Take that feeling and multiply it by infinity. I had to not only change Josie's diaper, but give her a birdbath and an outfit change while she was sideways. AND SHE DID NOT MAKE A PEEP! Mom merit badge acquired!

WE LANDED!

We were so excited to introduce Josie to her west coast Grandma Anne and Grandpa Bob! Anne doesn't know this, but I saw her earlier and hid behind something until we had our cameras ready.

This was a pretty surreal moment for all of us. 

I have the best mother in law!

Jonathan's dad, Bob, was also on the scene. Here's a sweet pic of Anne and Bob at home with a sleepy Jojo.

Cuddles with Grandma

Josie also met her Uncle Paul and Aunt Crystal! As you can see, she was snuggled for a solid 7 days. Josie does not like to be put down in general so she was quite content with this. I'm not saying it's totally our faults that our child is spoiled rotten with affection, but I'm not relinquishing blame either. 

Did I mention we were in town for Grandma Deane's 90th birthday party? As a result, Josie got to meet so many family members!! Pictured below are Karin (left) and Susan (right). I swear Jonathan's entire family is made of organic sugar and maybe a little organic wine <insert wink>. They are the nicest people and staying with them felt like we were nestled in a small village. It was awesome. We had 300 babysitters!

Grandma Deane had a weekend full of events to celebrate being 90! We knew we needed a special dress for Josiebear, who has now acquired about 70 nicknames. 

On a scale from 1-ridiculously cute, this dress is off the charts adorable.
The child inside of it is also pretty delicious.

Here's Grandma Deane with her great granddaughter! These moments are so, so special! There's a balloon for every generation pictured below! Okay, I am a nerd. I know. Moving on...

Way back when we were only two months pregnant last December, we made another CA trip. We visited lots of family, including Tessie and Bim. During dinner everyone ordered wine. I did not. Since I had lots of wine a few months before at Paul's wedding (like, a lot), Tessie and Bim did the math. They were sworn to secrecy, as we had a plan to reveal the pregnancy to Anne and Bob (see my first blog ever!).

Being a new parent takes a lot out of you -
sleepless nights, cluster feedings, 25 diaper changes a day...
Jonathan is wearing a name tag so he doesn't forget his own name at the family gathering.
Did I mention I am LOVING Josie's little dress? Oh, like twice already?
Well, let's discuss another feature of it, because that bow on her tulle butt is almost too much for me.

Speaking of things that happened last year, I had an astonishing realization whilst in CA. These two photographs were taken on the very same day, one year apart. WHAT?!

October 10, 2014 and 2015. It's amazing what can change in a year.
That's right: I got highlights. Crazy! :D

Since she is so small, many group photos of much bigger humans means you can't really see her.
Here's a closeup of her sweet little mug.

The aforementioned ballerina dress dinner was for close family (of which Jonathan has hundreds compared to my ~11), and it was followed by an afternoon gathering in his grandmother's beautiful backyard. I don't often photograph people's backyards/homes, but just look at this:

It looks like elves live here who happen to whistle while they work,
but tall ones who surf in their spare time.

Back to people, a subject more in line with this blog's theme. Here's a really sweet group photo of the family! Josie looks particularly smashing.

Growing up, I had a friend who had her photograph taken with her two cousins once a year in the same poses until they were 18 so I proposed we do the same with Josiebear, her cousins Theo and Finn, and their sweet mamas. It actually came out really well!

Here's the moment Josie and Theo met. Both are newer additions to the giant clan of west coast fam. The babes were super into it.

Jojo also met friends who are family. First up: Uncle Arya, Jonathan's best friend since he was six. It must be surreal to see your childhood best friend become a parent - Jonathan's friends are some of the sweetest people I know and truly treat Josie as if she was their own, as evidenced in this photo. It's such a precious moment. I forgot to bring it out when he was around, but Arya made Josie the coolest rattle. M-A-D-E it for her. He also helped assemble Josie's bassinet. Did I mention he's an MD/PhD? Annnd a cat dad? Annnd his mom knitted Josie a blanket? I'm just sayin'.

We also got to watch the Dodgers' game with the Sullivan family! Here's Josie meeting Auntie Lyttle and Rhyle and Sadie. The Sullivan family visits Disneyland quite a bit since they're so close and Josie is wearing the outfit Stephen delivered to us in NYC - cutest Minnie around!

Pardon the blurry photo. I had to post it!

Rhyle and Sadie were so sweet and gentle with her. Josie was only mostly oblivious.

Finally, I've been loving our little family outings. We took the Real Housebabe of Santa Monica to the Santa Monica Pier and has so much fun!

Who wore her better?

We'll miss you, California! I will leave you with this gorgeous sunset, which is just a whatever Tuesday in the Sullivan neighborhood. Gasp!

One last thing! Anne flew back with us, which is a really big deal and we were so happy to have her! Stay tuned for her visit next post. :)

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

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.

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:                                

98 years meets 7 weeks

It was really something to behold. What an incredible blessing. I also got Super Grammie on camera to talk to Josie!

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.

                          

Josie was formally introduced to another important person from Jonathan's past and present: MJ

For our final day in Boston, we decided to go on a family trek. We had big plans to walk the Freedom Trail. We started at the Boston Latin School, the oldest public school in America annnnd met a star...

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 like a ton of bricks light as a feather.

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.