My Trip East in September

I think that it's about time to tell you about my trip East in September. Last month, Mommy and I criss-crossed the U.S.-- first flying to Pennsylvania by way of Chicago, then flying to Orlando, Florida, and finally flying home to California. I am a seasoned traveler and I know that when the plane speeds up and takes off it is time to exclaim, "Whee!" along with Mommy. Unfortunately, I also know that plane travel also means long periods stuck in a confined space, so I am no longer a consistently good traveler. Let's just say that the flight attendents had to serve Mommy's snack and beverage on a tray across the aisle since my constant attempts at escape were pretty violent. Oh well.

Anyway, the times that I was not on a plane, I had a pretty good time. My Grammy took Mommy and Me to see "Bob the Builder Live!" at the Wachovia Arena. While I don't know much about Bob himself, I do love trucks, and there were many big, nifty, animatronic trucks in the show (their headlight-eyes and grill- mouths even moved!) as well as lots of lights around the arena. I found these to be very entertaining! I even got a big lightstick with Scoop the truck and Bob the Builder stuck on top. Cool!

While in Wilkes-Barre, I also had fun playing in Auntie Max's yard, Kirby Park, as well as in Nainnie's and Grammy's houses. I also visited my friend Julia (age 3) and her parents in Mountaintop, grooved to live music at my Uncle Jack's place, and visited with Marguerite as well as my godmother, Jo Ann. (I surprised both my Nainnie and my Grammy by calling them by name on this trip! I'm still working on the others, although I still remember that Auntie Max is "Ant.") My social calendar is always full in Wilkes-Barre!

After Wilkes-Barre, Mommy and I went to Orlando to attend my cousin Emma's baptism. (Daddy and Nainnie also came too, but each flew in separately.) I had really been missing Daddy, and he arrived just in time to cheer me up.

Emma and I played at her house and at a really nifty playground a bunch of times. I also went to the Orlando Science Center with Mommy and Daddy one day. This was a lot of fun since part of the place is dedicated to toddler activities like water play with boats, building with huge lego-type blocks, and participating in an orange juice production assembly line (much more fun than it sounds!). I also went to Sea World one day with Mommy, Daddy and Nainnie. It was a sort of wet day, but we saw lots of sea animals. I especially liked the big windows looking into sealife exhibits where fish and manatees were right there on the other side of the glass and I could almost touch them. I also really liked watching the rays swim around and around. Mommy and Daddy learned that the rays really like belly rubs, so lots of rays came over to us although I could not reach them.

I also had a nice time playing with my Uncle Dave and Aunt Julie. One night we went to Downtown Disney along with Nainnie and I really had fun on the big slide at the Lego Imagination Center. I rode the carousel too, but while I like horses I was kind of nervous when they moved.

We also all went to Emma's baptism, where I lasted in the church service just long enough to see Emma hug the minister after he baptized her. Then Daddy took me to the church nursery for the rest of the service. Oddly, when Mommy and Daddy went to pick me up from the nursery, the caregivers asked what language I spoke since they didn't think it was English. Mommy and Daddy were perplexed at this. Then they said that I'd been calling out "Abba!" for some time. Unfortunately, they were not aware that "Abba" is my favorite nickname for Mommy!

After all of the excitement of my trip, I was really happy to get home and get back into my routine and greet my toys again. Home is a nice place to be.