The flights home went far better than the trip out, with Kate succeeding in napping when she needed to so there was no post-trip meltdown as I was expecting. It went as well as could be hoped for with a small child, especially a child being of monkey-like age. The poor thing got so frustrated at being stuck on our laps and not being allowed to eat everything in sight.

On the way out I was a little paranoid about the pressure on her ears so I kept trying to force her to nurse while going up and down, which I don’t recommend doing. My little piggie finishes nursing in like 2 minutes flat and of course she’d always decide she was hungry as we were taxiing out, meaning she was done before we ever took off. Trying to cajole her into continuing only resulted in her getting very irritated and grouchy. But regardless she didn’t have any crying that seemed to be connected with discomfort. So this time I figured she’d let me know if she was unhappy and if her ears did bother her she’d probably want to comfort-nurse anyways. And you know what? She was fine. Maybe the paci was enough. Our second flight she actually fell asleep on me in the airport, I carried her into the plane, sat down, Den strapped me in, and she continued sleeping for the next hour and a half. On the descent she started getting fussy, which I belatedly realized was probably her ears as well as hunger, and a quick nurse seemed to solve that.

Kate stared when we walked into our house, I could imagine her thinking, Wait, I recognize this… Then I put her on the floor where she proceeded to play quietly with her toys for an hour – a feat unheard of at my parents’ house. She was especially thrilled to be reacquainted with her leap frog music table, where she could stand and play, though that required me sitting with her to spot. (She topples very infrequently now… amazing change in just 2 weeks!) I also noted that she laughed and played through her diaper change in her room, whereas at my parents’ she would cry every single time we put her down on the changing pad. I really don’t know why it’s so much more fun in her bedroom, but I’ll take it.