Wedding

Clare & Charlie's Wedding - my first wedding

I went to my first wedding in Trinidad, and I have to say that for me, it was all about the entrance. A caravan pulled up in front of the hotel to pick up Clare. The lead car had two loud huge speakers blaring Indian music.



The next car was for the wedding party. It had flowers and saris and who knows what else covering it.



The door opened and out popped Charlie with a huge grin on his face to get Clare.



We joined in the caravan down the streets of Trincity towards the reception site - next to the Trinidad & Tobabgo FIFA-approved National Field. The music kept playing and people were honking and shouting out of their windows.



The noise didn't end there. The wedding party entered to the fast beat of drums and got everyone up and moving their rear end.

Daddy introduced me to a new friend on the dance floor. I didn't dance for very long. Even though the music was really loud, I was passed out in Daddy's arms by 9 o'clock. Someday I'll make it through the whole party... I did wake up again at 1am in the hotel. Does that count?

Airports

My first international trip and I spend most of the first day in airport madness. We woke up a little early, finished packing and headed off to Washington Dulles. Well, apparently we were supposed to be at REAGAN!! Oops. So with an hour and a half till our flight, we hopped in a cab and went the 35 miles to Reagan Washington National Airport. (Note on the map that we started in Wheaton... oh and we could have just taken the metro to Reagan!) Despite a really really slow check-in agent, we made our flight with some time to spare.


The airport fun didn't end there though. Miami got shut down for 4 hours! When we got there, we had to circle for about an hour. Daddy's head was killing him, but I was having fun playing with the kid in front of me. Luckily we landed before the airport was closed. We weren't that lucky though. We had a 3 hour layover which turned into a 7 hour layover. I know the Miami airport carpet pretty well now. Luckily for me, there were lots of people and kids to watch!


There were actually TOO many people and kids to watch. I was exhausted but didn't give into sleep until we got on the plane, sometime around 10 pm!

Lily & Ea

Before we left for T&T, I tortured Grandma Lily and Auntie Ea for a while... and then I remembered that I'm supposed to like my family. Oops. :-) The experts agree that I'm allowed to act like this though... its called 'stranger anxiety'. After a few days of crying, I settled in for some fun. Daddy took part of a day off and we all (except Mommy) hung out downtown.



I practiced my pincher grip and got really good at eating cereal, and then peas and pieces of fruit. It makes Daddy really nervous that I'm going to choke. I don't know why he's worried! I only cough and choke when I'm too tired to remember how to chew - usually every morning at breakfast after I wake up. I'm NOT a morning person!


I'm a proficient crawler now. I can even crawl over my toys - before I tripped over my duckie and face planted into the floor. I look less like a crab or spider than I did before. However, I still have my own unique style.... it would be boring if I did it the way everyone ELSE did it. Sometimes I pretend to be a sea captain and crawl with one straight leg (peg leg) and one bent one (normal). Other times I like to stick my butt up in the air as high as I can get it and 'crawl'.... there's was some Discovery channel documentary on grown ups that 'walk' like that - the "hand-walkers". I don't know what was so special about them. Its easy to stick your butt up in the air!

I don't want to toot my own horn too much, but I've become such a good crawler... I'm pretty much done with it. I want to stand and walk!

We're back!

Some of you seemed to have noticed a lack of postings recently. Well, we were busy, busy and then gone. We went to Trinidad and Tobago for Clare and Charlie's wedding (Mom's friends from grad school) and then for some rest and relaxation. It was my first international trip! I did my best to make sure that Mommy & Daddy didn't get too much R&R - they had to entertain me!

There's a lot to update you on... so we'll start slow with an overview and then add more over the week with details and more pix (kinda like for the visit to LA).

Clare was beautiful. I couldn't stop staring. She had sparklies all over her dress and even on her face - ooooh... shiny things to put in my mouth!! Charlie looked very handsome.


After a couple of days in Trinidad for the wedding, we took a 25 min flight to Tobago. We stayed in a small fishing village called Castara. My favorite things about Castara were the doggies everywhere, the roosters, and playing in the ocean!


Daddy and me on top of a hill with Castara Bay in the background.

Brief Update

We've been BUSY! This will be brief, until our many visitors are gone and Mommy gets a chance to get pictures etc together. I've been working hard on my crawling and by the time Grandma Aileen got here, I could make it all the way across the living room! I'm pretty quick now - which means that I can get into trouble quicker. :-)

Grandma Aileen convinced Mommy to let me try Cheerios! Yummy, yummy, yummy! I took me a day to figure out that its easier to use both your pointer finger and thumb - instead of just poking at it with the pointer finger. Now I'm a pro and only drop less than 5% (yes I know percentages!) of my Cheerios. Now if I could only master picking up pieces of peach... they just slip right out of my grasp!

I got 2 days to hang out with just Mommy & Daddy and then Aunti Ea and Grandma Lily came to visit - they're still here. Like I said... busy busy. Yesterday we went to the Baltimore Aquarium. I saw tons of fishes though I couldn't figure out how to use my newly mastered pincher grip to catch them. I also got to people watch. It really was a toss up as to what was 'on display' - fish or people? Today we're going into the city to people watch some more. I think Grandma wants to look at things hanging on the wall... but I'll be on the look out for kids to play with! Tomorrow... the zoo!