We made it home in one piece

Claire was a little survivor for her first long trip away from home. She's used to wood floors and she had a hard time figuring out how to walk on carpet. She fell several times a day and acquired lots of bruises. The scariest part was that she fell down the stairs. I had opened the bedroom door, then mistakenly turned to straighten "one more thing" in the room before I left it. Meanwhile, Claire walked to the top of the stairs. Just as I got to her to reach for her hand, she started a somersault from the top step. She flipped flopped over her head a few times as I chased her down the entire flight of stairs, freaking out enough for the whole house to hear. She flattened out onto her back at the bottom 2 steps and started crying. In my haste I think I stepped on her arm. I picked her up right away, which was probably not smart. But, she was okay. She cried for a minute or two, stayed in my lap for another minute, then crawled out of my lap and surprised me by climbing up the stairs. Lots of prayers were said on my part thanking Heavenly Father that she was not hurt. Lucky girl.

Prior to taking Claire on the plane, I put together several books and toys for her to play with. I even made 2 new toys for her, but they failed at keeping her attention. She was her own entertainment the whole way home and it was honestly hard for me not to laugh. She wanted to test out her skills of climbing so she would slide out of my lap, face me, grab my hands, and climb her way up the seat, only to slide out .5 seconds later. Repeat....repeat....repeat. She kept doing downward dog in my lap so her diaper bum was right in my face. She also made friends with the people on both sides of me. She kept touching the man's watch and she even poked the woman's tummy. I'm glad the woman was a good sport. She then became Miss Grabby Hands and kept reaching for the neighbors snacks and drinks. When I kept pulling her away, she slid down in my lap, to try to kick one of the drinks. Luckily, nothing spilled. I'm catching glimpses of a sneaky toddler. I was thrilled to see Rich at the airport, but it took Claire a couple minutes to go to him. It was sad and strange because she's so attached to both of us. Daddy was so happy when she changed her mind and reached for him.