We made it back to the cold yesterday morning after what seemed to be an eternal day of traveling, almost 24 hours total of travel time from door to door. Maya handled air travel like a champ - she was great on the way down to Uruguay when it was just the two of us, her eyes opened wide when the plane took off (what the heck is that!?!) and slept in her bassinet for most of the trip. We had to make a bit of a stink on the way back because the told us we had the bulkhead seat and we boarded the plane to discover we did not. Luckily one man was willing to switch seats with me so that Maya could have the bassinet again which really makes all the difference, the slept most of the flight and spent the remaining time looking for people to flirt with across the aisle. We've discovered that Maya is quite the little social butterfly and loves new people, especially if they're willing to make lots of funny faces and smiles at her which is usually the case when a baby is staring at you waiting for your reaction, she returns the smiles right back.
Our trip was a success and minor catastrophes (like my brother missing his flight on Christmas eve) worked out in the end (boy genius made it down only because a flight with mechanical problems was rescheduled for the next day and several passengers decided to bail). The weather was spectacular, we maybe had 3 days of clouds. It was beautiful beach weather and we divided our time in Punta del Este between the beach, the pool, walks in the neighborhood, lots of big family meals and seeing friends and family. Brian and his parents had a good side trip to Buenos Aires to see the city and catch up with a foreign exchange student that lived with Gib's family when they were in high school and haven't seen since. Prior to their arrival we were in Montevideo making the rounds and doing some shopping. Poor Maya was the recipient of typical Uruguayan baby tortures - she got her ears pierced and her head shaved her first week there. The head shaving because her long black strands were falling out in pieces and she looked a little funny. The earrings because it's pretty customary to do and they really look very nice on her. It only took her a few minutes to recover from each ear, she complained a little more with the second and let us know she wasn't happy about it, but thankfully didn't have any other issues with the piercings afterwards, they healed nicely and she's now sporting gold studs. Her major milestone was learning how to flip over and now she's a little obsessed. She'll swing her leg over her side to turn whenever you put her down on her back which makes diaper changes a little more challenging. She loves her new freedom and tries to crawl - pushing her legs back and forth against the ground but can't quite hold her front end up at the same time as all the butt wiggles so she usually ends up dragging her face across the floor and eventually getting frustrated and cries out to be rescued.
Maya met her cousins, great uncles and aunts and long time friends of my parents. It was great fun to introduce her to everyone and she was showered with gifts everywhere we went. I was on a mission to get baby books in spanish so she can get on the right foot learning the language. We hired a Colombian nanny which will be a big part in teaching Maya spanish. In the meantime I have 3 weeks to get my act together before I have to go back to work Feb 2nd and hopefully get Maya on a reliable sleep schedule (she is not a good sleeper and still gets up a couple times a night to nurse). She appears to be in the early stages of teething and puts anything and everything in her mouth to chomp on with gusto including your hands, she seems to like the pressure against her gums, poor kid. I can't believe my maternity leave is coming to an end and I have to spent the bulk of my day in an office and not with Maya - I'm going to miss her! We've never spent more than a couple of hours apart, the week I expect will seem to last forever. But what can you do - growing pains. A lot happened in 2008 and were looking forward to making the most of it in 2009.
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