March 6th-16th (Spain)

Flight left at 4pm or so. We got to the airport early, which was a good thing because it took them 45 minutes to check us in. Sigh. We had put Isabella on the ticket, but hadn't actually paid the $400 fee (yes, they charge that much to have a baby sitting in your lap). That, combined with Bill's green-card status just confused the lady behind the desk. Going through security was also really slow because they had a newbie behind the scanner. And get this - I could take my bottle of water back out, drink it, and then send the empty bottle (and me) back through security, but I can't sit there and drink the water after it's gone through the scanner. Stupidity. Fortunately, Isabella stayed happy and asleep in the Mai Tai carrier through all of this.

Someone checked in next to us with a kid in a backpack carrier with a stand. Seemed like a good idea.

Lots of nursing on the flight to Chicago. Got our first "ooh, coo" from the lady at the food court. The flight out of Chicago started off ok... then we were put on a ground hold because they didn't have the log book. Then we had to be de-iced. Then the push-back thingie broke. They took so long to fix it, that we had to be de-iced again... So over an hour sitting at the gate. The pilot was very apologetic and sounded like he thought this was all a bunch of really stupid hold-ups too.

Isabella slept most of the flight. We had two seats next to an empty seat, which was really nice but my backside still was rather painfuly the end of the flight. Didn't sleep more than a few hours - couldn't move around too much or I'd wake the kid up. The cabin crew ooh'ed and coo'ed as well, especially when Bill took the kid back.

At Heathrow we had a long, long walk to the next terminal, without a bathroom in sight. When we finally did find one, the changing table folded out long-ways and blocked the sink - and you couldn't stand at the end of it. Sigh. Isabella was fine in the carrier when we were walking, but as soon as we got on the transit bus, she went off.

Since we missed our connection, we had to stand in line at American to get re-booked. And then had to stand in line at British Airways to get our tickets. The only good thing was that we got to stand in the short security line because of the baby.

Just missed pooping the baby - I wasn't patient enough holding her over the toilet. There was an woman from India who had a toddler and a very young baby in the toilet. She probably thought I was a bit strange for coming in twice in two minutes...

Ended up spending over an hour circling the shops at the gates to keep Isabella asleep. Saw another woman with an Ergo carrier and a young baby. Then discovered that we had to go through *another* security line to get to the gate - which made us all late, because the
line was really long and they'd called the flight about 10 minutes before it was due to take off.

Had our first "baby seat belt" experience - a belt that attaches to your seat belt and goes around baby. They're mandatory on European flights, and illegal in the US. Go figure. We got a SpanAir bib for the baby - the cabin crew went completely ballistic over Isabella. There was a couple right in front of us with a really young baby which they had in an Ergo carrier. Ah, other kids to blame the screaming on!

They lost our luggage, of course. After waiting half an hour for the luggage to come off the carousel, we had to wait another hour to finally get someone to take our info for the bags. Bill saw another woman breastfeeding in the airport - rather unconcerned about modesty, so he figured I'd be fine. Although there were no seats in the luggage area, so I ended up perched on a railing when Isabella went off. Very uncomfortable. And the bathroom was at the opposite end of the baggage claim from our carousel.

Taking the train to the hotel turned out to be really easy, since the hotel was on top of the train stop. Ran into a guy on the walk to the train who showed up a picture of his 3 month old on his cell phone... One advantage of not having luggage was not maneuvering it onto the train, although I really needed a change of clothes by that time...

Hotel was very swank, with a really, really big bed for a European hotel. And a bath. So we took a bath, and crawled into bed to sleep for 12 hours. Isabella didn't have any trouble with the time change, although she woke up every two hours or so. Absolutely no way I was going to get up and pee her in the middle of the night (too tired) but at least I caught the poop in the morning.

Ate breakfast at the buffet - a whopping 15 euros a piece, but we were too hungry to try anything else. Since we didn't have our luggage, Bill ended up buying more diapers at the adjacent supermarket, as well as some food, later. We asked the nice people at the check-in counter to call about our luggage, but neither of the numbers worked. Grumble.

Checked in at the conference and went to part of the first keynote, which was a really bad talk. Didn't feel bad about missing part of it to deal with Isabella. I tried to sit in on one of the sessions but decided it wasn't worth it, so we checked email, I fed the kid, and Bill went shopping. I had to chair a session in the afternoon, which was abysmally boring - you have to wonder about someone with over 30 slides for a 15 minute talk! After the session we had a bit of a wander around the area around the train station. Typical shops and cafes, not much in the way of restaurants. We ended up at a Kebob place, where yet another person showed us a picture of his kid on his cell phone... gradually learning what "how old" and "girl or boy" is in Spanish.

Bill ended up taking the train out to the airport to get our luggage. We (finally!) got through to the airline folks and decided that we weren't going to risk the "maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow"
luggage arrival. It was very nice to have clean clothes.

Went sight-seeing the next day, back at two to chair another session. Saw one woman wandering around with a kid in a carrier, and lots and lots of people with strollers and kids in Eskimo suits in sleeping bags. It wasn't *that* cold! Isabella got tons of attention, probably because dad was carrying her around in a bright red sling. She loved looking at all the people and hardly fussed at all. We stopped at a Subway-equivalent for lunch (a real baguette with meat, no special sauce, and fresh-squeezed orange juice). We went into the cathedral (where she was again fussed over) but that only lasted until someone got cranky. Stopped again at a cafe later to feed the kid. A juggler (looking a bit down and out) came by and juggled for Isabella - she seemed to like it.

After the session decided to go back down to La Rambla (the walking, old part of town) for dinner. Had some pretty good tapas at a place that caters to English travelers. She did very well, although I ended up standing up to eat a fair bit, and towards the end she went ballistic again. Unfortunately, while she was fine walking around, as soon as we got on the metro she went off. So we ended up walking back from the second to last station.

Since I had my talk at 2pm, and Isabella wasn't waking up until 10:30am or so, ended up sitting in the hotel room and reading email most of the morning. Skipped out right after the talk and went back to La Rambla. Went to the Dali museum, and two minutes after going through the door, guess who started screaming... so Bill took her out (which turned out to be a long ways out - I heard crying for several minutes) and wandered a bit outside while I went through the museum at a fairly fast clip. Joined him outside, we cleaned up the messy baby, then went and sat and had a coffee while Isabella had her afternoon snack. There was another baby at the next table over. After coffee the nice woman let us back into the museum so Bill could see it.

Had dinner at a place that wasn't as good as the place the previous night. But it did have musicians in the square. La Rambla was packed with people (Saturday night). On the metro back it was squish the people on. A nice woman made everyone give us space in the corner so the baby could breathe.

The next day we basically packed, I gave my talk, and we fled. Bill says I got a dirty look from the woman across from me on the train when I started breastfeeding (screaming child not happy in sling). She kindly offered to get my stuff for me when we got off, though, so she couldn't have been that upset.

Got to the airport in plenty of time and, again, wandered around the airport. Saw another couple with a wrap sling and an ergo (two kids). Took a very short flight up and down to Majorca. Took us a while to find the car rental place - turned out to be a woman standing with a "National" sign. Very small operation. The car had a car seat but it took us forever to figure out how to get it in and adjusted, and it was still way too big for Isabella. She hated it. Screamed the entire time she was in it, until she fell asleep. We took a bit of a wrong turn coming out of the airport, so were a bit late making our rondevous with Bill's parents and our hosts. They were standing on the
street under the dinosaur waiting for us, since it was a bit complicated to get to their house.

Had to fit Isabella and me into a twin-sized bed. That actually wasn't too much of a problem, but there was no light, and getting latched on in the dark was rather difficult. Ended up using the light from the IPod, which involved touching it to get the light to come on, then quickly getting latched on in the 10 seconds the light was on. Isabella was slowly rotating earlier, but we both were sleeping 12 hours at night, so that made for an early night.

After a very leisurely start and a grocery trip, we went out to the local caves, which were big, and full of cool shapes. And a tacky light and music show. Ended up carrying Isabella through, since she didn't want to sit in the sling. But she made it through without disturbing the other folks. Had lunch/dinner at a square in a nearby town. Accidentally ended up ordering two salads, but that was ok, because I was really hungry. It is a terrible tragedy, however, to be in Spain and not be able to eat Gelato...

Did a very simple hike around a point the next day. Unfortunately, Isabella just wouldn't settle. So we stepped off the side of the road, I sat on the ground, and we had a short feed. Helped a little, but she went off again in a few minutes. Very frustrating. So at the top we sat and had a longer feed, until she went to sleep. Transferred her to the sling and had 45 minutes or so before she woke up again. It's very hard to hike around with a kid strapped to your stomach - you can't
see your feet. We walked around an old tower, then down and around the point right above the water line. Dripped a few drops of Mediterranean water on Isabella's hand (too hard to get her toe in...). In order to get her to sleep a while longer, took a bit of a drive. Unfortunately, the drive wasn't that scenic and turned out to be longer than expected, so Bill ended up a bit wound up. But Isabella did finally get more than 20 minutes of sleep.

Went for another very short hike the next day as well - out to a cafe on a point with a tower and back again. Got to use the sun hat, which really makes her look silly. She fell asleep on the way back from the cafe, although it took a few minutes for her to go out. And she didn't stay out for that long. No wonder she's sleeping for twelve hours at night!

Next day was trip to the airport day - up at 4:30 in the morning to drive to the airport. Little person was Not Happy. She kinda fell asleep in the car seat, but it took a long time. It again took a long time to get our tickets - 30 minutes. I have no idea what the problem was. Security was very quick, though, fortunately. A very short hop to Madrid, then sit around and wait. Bill left his book on the plane, and the cleaning crew couldn't (?) find it, even though he told them where it was. We had another baguette with meat for lunch and fresh orange juice (I'm going to miss those). Flight wasn't very full. But it was a long, long flight - 9 hours. Poor Bill, I made him change Isabella after she exploded while I was nursing - something that hasn't happened in a long time, but I was tired and not paying attention. It was our first excursion with the G-diapers, which ended early because she exploded onto the diaper cover. Fortunately, we caught the next
big poo. Since it was daytime, Isabella didn't sleep much and was a bit cranky. I got very tired of nursing her, especially with her popping on and off constantly, something she's started doing a lot of recently. And thrashing around and grabbing while nursing.

We just started the grab-everything stage. Which is good because she can be entertained for a while with a toy, bad because she keeps pulling my hair out and giving me indian-burns. But she was very bored during the flight, after her days of excitement, and somewhat fussy. There was another baby on the flight, looked about the same age, and they, too, were walking up and down the aisles with baby. Turns out the people sitting in front of us were also from St. Louis. They told us Isabella was very well-behaved - the second comment we got like that. So hey...

Very tired by the time the plane landed in Chicago, and a long terminal change with an incredibly long passport line and a long security line. And an over-stuffed plane because some other flights had been cancelled. She held it together, though, despite it being 2am her time, until we got in the van to go to the parking lot. She finally fell asleep in the car seat a few minutes from
home. Fortunately, she stayed out for a couple hours so we managed to get settle in bed until then (we just put the carrier by the bed).