Montreal Jazz Festival

Forward to this post:  I decided that since Stretchy is not nearly so Stretchy anymore... I'm going back to MiniM.E.  It just feels right...

This past weekend we took MiniM.E. to the Montreal Jazz Festival.  We made reservations months ago... like probably when she was two months old.

As the weekend approached, I was excited anxious terrified ready to take MiniM.E. and hide under the bed and hope Bob didn't notice we were gone and would just leave without us.  We'd been to NH.  We'd been to NC.  We'd even flown on a plane.  BUT we'd never stayed in a hotel, or been someplace where I didn't know the location of the nearest Wal-Mart in case we needed more diapers/food/clothes.

What if she throws up on/ poops on all her clothes and she doesn't have anything to wear?
What if we run out of diapers and can't find a store to buy more?
What if we run out of her favorite food, puffs, and they don't make them in Canada?


To heighten my anxiety about the trip, MiniM.E. just had to learn to crawl a week before we left... Really?

What if the carpet in the hotel isn't clean?
What if she doesn't want to be in the stroller or the frame pack because she just wants to crawl?


And there were the normal concerns about any vacation with a baby...

What if she cries the whole time?
What if she doesn't want to eat?
What if I can't nurse her in public because she's too distracted?
What if she gets sick?


And worst of all:

What if we totally mess up her sleep schedule and she NEVER SLEEPS AGAIN?




I suppose it's my job to worry, but this was a little ridiculous.  Not to mention the fact that I was also having an anxiety attack about what to pack.  On all our previous trips, there had been a location for MiniM.E. to sleep, a washer and drier, and, as previously mentioned, a Wal-Mart.

It only took me three days to pack our entire house in the car.  Well, not quite, but we needed a roof carrier.... need I say more.


Fortunately, all my packing was worthwhile as MiniM.E went through just about every outfit we brought. I may have overdone the diapers, as we drove home with an entire box... but better to be safe than sorry!

AND, all my worrying was for nothing.  MiniM.E. was a fantastic traveler and everything went really well... except the entire day that I worried that MiniM.E. had Tetanus because she got the tiniest of scrapes on her foot from crawling around the hotel carpet... but I'm pretty sure she doesn't, so we're good now...

MiniM.E. loved the hotel.  There were so many new things to explore.  Fortunately, all the rooms had recently been renovated, so I was cool with letting her go to town crawling on the carpets.

Ooo... fun circles! 

If only I could learn to jump, this would be ten times better!

Eating at the makeshift baby-highchair. (Sorry Delta, for the sweet potato stains on the armrests of your chair...)

There was a lot of eating in the room

We brought most of MiniM.E.s toys... even this play table

And reading books

And some walking practice

 MiniM.E. can't walk quite yet, so there was a lot of being carted around.

On daddy...

With daddy...

In the shade...

In the sun...

and with Mommy...

As you can see, MiniM.E. didn't seem overly excited by the jazz festival... in fact, this is how she spent a lot of her time...

sooo tired

face plant sleeping

This was at an incredibly loud concert...

Fortunately, there were a couple fun things for her to do on the trip.

We swam a few times...

And got wet in some awesome fountains at the jazz festival.

Overall, I think it was a successful trip, and in the future, I will try not to stress so much... though I'm sure that I will anyway.  We had a really great time.  If being so exhausted that you nap anywhere and everywhere by the end of a trip means you had a good time, I think MiniM.E. really enjoyed herself too.