Putting the passport to good use

Our bags were packed, we double and triple checked everything, and after much anticipation, drove to JFK to fly to Prague for the month. Phil has a conference and some research to do in Prague, we decided to make an extended trip out of it and show Ellie one of our favorite cities. I had a bit of apprehension about the overnight 8+ hour flight from New York to Prague. Let's just stay I tried not to think about it too much. Phil and I always say to each other that we ask a lot of our 11 month old daughter, but she (almost always) rises to the occasion. And on the flight, she did just that. She did fine in the airport, and we were lucky to get the bulkhead seat with no one sitting in our third seat. She played, read, ate, and generally kept us and some of the people around us smiling for awhile. (Not everyone, but hey, what are you going to do?) A few hours into the flight, she got tired and cried on and off for a bit. Here is her "less than happy" face.

We tried to put her down in her bassinet (a very cool contraption that hooks into the wall for babies to sleep in). But at that point, she was having none of it.

Eventually, she got tired enough to fall asleep in my arms and slept for 5 hours. In the bassinet, all you could see was her little butt sticking up in the air;) She even managed to stay asleep through landing.

Our friend Laura was kind enough to pick us up so we had a friendly face waiting to greet us at baggage claim. That made a huge difference in our happiness, thanks so much, Laura! She took us to the flat we rented, and we got settled in. It was 60 degrees and raining when we arrived, a perfect day to hunker down and get over our jet lag. With only a short excursion out for dinner supplies, we kept it very low key that day. The flat we rented came "baby ready" with a crib, high chair, and changing table, all things that made our life much easier upon arrival. It is a lovely place with lots of open space for our little crawler to explore. But after the overnight flight, Ellie was very tired so exploration really had to wait for a day or so. She slept for her usual naps and then for 14 hours that night! All in all, it was a blissfully uneventful day of international travel with Ellie...and that is all we were hoping for.