Shower for Baby Birm

My sister, Sally Birmingham, is pregnant with a little baby boy due mid May. Since she and her husband, Andrew, are keeping the name a closely guarded secret, the baby is has earned the nickname of "Baby Birm".

This past Saturday was Sally's baby shower, so Charlotte and I started our travels to Pennsylvania on Thursday morning. Since we fly standby, we try to fly during off times - like Thursday morning. I checked the flights on Wednesday night and everything looked pretty good for the Thursday morning flight to Harrisburg but the flights looked pretty bad for the rest of the day. Judd dropped Charlotte and I off at the airport early Thursday morning so we could make our flight - Charlotte was beyond excited to fly on an "airpane" and see Grammie and Grandad.

We get to the gate and I see on the Gate Information Screen (GIS) that we are 4th on the list and there are only 3 seats left on the plane - awesome. This is just what I want to see when I'm flying with a 2 year old. I decided just to wait it out to see if anything would change last minute. The gate attendant told me that I had a chance if a couple of people didn't show up, but Charlotte would probably have to sit on my lap. I didn't care at that point, just wanted to get on the plane.

We sat there and waited and at the last minute I saw two people come running down the terminal and into our gate area. So, we didn't make it on the plane. This made Charlotte VERY upset and she launched into a temper tantrum. I drug her kicking and screaming over to the departure screens and noticed that there was a flight to Baltimore that was delayed 10 minutes and I had about 15 minutes to try to make that flight. So, I called Delta, had our reservation switched, threw Charlotte into the stroller and when sprinting down the terminal to try to make it from gate C42 to gate B10. Sweaty and out of breath we made it with about 20 seconds to spare. I got on the plane and quickly called Judd to ask him to make me a car reservation so I could drive from Baltimore to Harrisburg when we landed.

The plane ride was fine - Charlotte is actually a pretty good girl on the planes. Biscoff cookies and apple juice in a big plastic grown up cup help a lot! We landed and I turned on my phone to see Judd had made us a car reservation that included a car seat. Before going to pick up the car, I had to make a stop at the baggage office to find out where my checked luggage went. I find out that it is at the Harrisburg airport - it went with the first flight. Then the baggage guy said to me, "Hey, ya know - the noon flight to Harrisburg is about to leave with 7 seats open - you should have waited for that". I let him know that I am not someone that can see into the future and had no way of knowing that. I also let him know that when traveling with a 2 year old, usually the option that keeps you in motion rather than trying to keep them entertained in one place for 2.5 hours is usually the best option. I thought about peppering my response with expletives, but decided to try and keep it together.

Charlotte and I finally got to our car and pulled onto the highway to Harrisburg. She passed out as soon as her head hit the car seat. So, it was a nice relaxing drive to Harrisburg. We got there and had a couple hours to kill before my mom could get home from work. Normally we would have been able to let ourselves into their house using their garage door - however, on this particular day, the garage doors were broken. So, Charlotte and I ate a very late lunch at Cracker Barrel then headed to the park to play and wait for Mom. Mom came to get us, then I headed to the Harrisburg airport to get my bag. And do you know what the first thing the baggage guy there said to me? "You know, that noon flight to Harrisburg had 7 seats open, you should have waited for that." After the very long day I had just had (we left at 7:30 am and it was 5pm at this point), he's very lucky to have all of his teeth.

I have to say that through all of the ordeal on Thursday, Charlotte was so good. She really rolled with the punches (with the exception for losing it when we didn't make it on the first flight). She didn't have an accident the whole day - went for a 3 hour stretch at one point with no potty break. She only had an hour nap and didn't eat lunch until 3pm!

We ended up having an awesome weekend, totally worth the travel drama. The weather was AMAZING - upper 70s and sunny the entire time. Judd flew up on Friday afternoon to join us - he had much better luck than we did.

Sally looks awesome, and seems to feel good. It was a great shower - Rachel did an awesome job planning everything. We got to visit with lots of family. Sally and Andrew were given so many wonderful gifts for Baby Birm. You can just feel how excited they are and are going to be wonderful parents. Such a lucky little baby to come into a loving home and family.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me - I didn't take a single picture the entire weekend. But, I'll leave you with this video from last night. Charlotte woke up at 5:30am yesterday so we could make an 8:30am flight out of Baltimore, and only napped for 20 min the entire day. So, she was pretty loopy by dinner time yesterday. If this doesn't make you smile - well, you probably have a heart of stone.