Zatera Ul

My grandma died about 12 hours after we got back home from our trip to Michigan. So out we went again. This time we flew, only affordable because of the bereavement fare (Northwest: 70% discount, must stay over a Saturday, have to become a WorldPerks member, their software for signing up to become a WorldPerks member thinks my real first name is only a nickname or alias so we had to do that part on the phone too).

Departure: Thursday evening. We made it through the security theater without incident, but it certainly wasn’t a graceful process. MFH needed about seven of those plastic bins just for his own stuff; three more for the baby and I; finally, the car seat.

OLC did pretty well on the plane, just made a big mess out of Cheezits, torn Skymall catalogue, and tomato juice, and she was a little fussy during the descent. It was a pain to lug the car seat along, especially having to board with it in the general rush and discover that airplane seatbelts are a little different than car seatbelts: they buckle in the middle, not the side. That gave me a little trouble when we landed and I was trying to squeeze my hand in behind the seat and unbuckle the darn thing. I suppose reclining the seat some might have helped with that.

The funeral and so forth went ok. Lots of relatives got to see OLC in person for the first time.

The Saturday that we had to stay over, we went down to Grand Rapids and went to the Van Andel museum, which is pretty good. OLC managed to lose one of the mittens-on-a-string that her grandma made her, though.

We left on an early Sunday flight. I felt horrible because I didn’t really get any sleep Saturday night. OLC conked out about a minute before takeoff, and resolutely slept through everything until the descent started to bother her. Then she fussed enough that I finally took her out of the car seat and left her nurse the rest of the way. There was a 3 or 4 year old, though, that was really having a hard time; doing a very creepy low-pitched hollering.

When we got home, I went to bed for the rest of the day. We are still working on getting ourselves back to normal. MFH is sick with a cold, and OLC picked up a stomach bug somewhere. She has been nursing and sleeping more than usual. Meanwhile, our jobs are picking up again.