First Plane Ride and a few other "firsts"

This past weekend, Ava took her first plane ride! Her and I traveled together to St. Louis to visit our BFFs while daddy stayed home to do a fishing tournament. She did great! Good thing because traveling alone through the airport (O'Hare) with an infant and not checking a bag is a little tough. I had a lot of stuff to carry. And when we had to go through security, I had to take her out of her stroller and put the stroller through scan. I had a rolley carry-on, a big diaper bag and a big purse. Plus a coat, a blanket, Ava and the stroller. With getting my shoes back on, unfolding the stroller and grabbing all my bags all while holding Ava, it wasn't easy but we did it. We flew American so we were not able to pre-board unfortunately. Once we were able to board the plane, I had to check her stroller right at the entrance of the plane and once again, carry all that stuff. Our seat was in the back of course and trying to walk through the skinny isle of the plane was a bit difficult without knocking people in the head with all my bags while rolling the carry-on and carrying Ava. On my way home from St. Louis, the stewardesses were a bit more helpful and took my carry-on and put it in an overhead for me. That helped a lot. Before we took off, I was all ready to nurse which is what everyone told me. I brought my cover-up and had it on ready to go. She was way overdue for her nap so I was hoping she would just nurse and fall right to sleep. Well she did not want to nurse, so I pulled out my back-up, her pacifier, which she hasn't used since she was 3 months old and it worked like a charm. She sucked on it for like two minutes and was asleep before we even took off. She slept the whole way which was only an hour but I'm thankful. While we in St. Louis, I was able to catch up with my closest friends and visit with their children who are 5 years old and 19 months. Ava had lots of fun too playing. They have so many toys in their house!

So while there, she ate eggs for the first time, advanced to a bigger girl sippy cup, drank out of a straw and took her first swing ride on their swing set! She also decided that waving at everyone is her thing now. It's so cute! Especially on our way back home, she only slept about half the time, but the other half, she sat up and flirted with all the cute men around me. She flashed her cute smile and waved. It was absolutely adorable! Only near the end did she get a bit fussy but she had not really napped and the plane was SUPER HOT! Once we got off and she saw daddy, she was all smiles again. I tell ya, I know I'm biased but every day her smiles and expressions just put me on cloud nine. I mean even in the mornings when we walk into her room to greet her for the morning, she sees us and just gives us the biggest smile ever. It's such a great start to my day!