So we are all packed except for a couple of minor items. This is really nice, we still need to clean a bit, but we are more or less ready for India! We did have to stop and pick up a hat for Desmond, since the one I had was too small, but I found one at Gymboree for 99 cents so it worked out nicely, now if only he’d keep it on his head.

Anyways we are all set and ready to go. It seems that Benadryl does nothing for Desmond, it doesn’t make him hyper, which is good, but it also doesn’t seem to knock him out, which is less good, but not a huge deal. So we won’t be drugging him with Benadryl to get him to sleep on the plane, I hope he sleeps on his own, 15 hours on a plane with a non-sleeping toddler would just not be fun!

So we got both good and bad news about the flight home from India today. The good news, we’re on the direct flight home, which is nice, it is shorter then the one with the layover in London, and since the layover was so short it wasn’t really worth the stop. The bad news is it gets in 12 hours earlier then our flight with the layover. Now this won’t be bad news, if we didn’t now have a 15 hour layover at JFK. Which so isn’t going to happen, there is no way Desmond will survive 15 hours at JFK let alone me and Dan.

Our options are to change our flight with Delta which is a $50 fee for each ticket, to try standby, which may or may not be the same fee or a $25 fee, hoping that Delta doesn’t raise their fees in the next 2 weeks, rent a car and drive home or pay for Amtrak tickets and just abandon our tickets home on Delta. All three will likely cost about the same, since with Amtrak we don’t need to get Desmond a ticket, he’s under 2, we can’t use the car seat anyways, and the seats are large and it being a train he can walk around which he’ll love. We figure we’re going to wait until we land and figure out which option to take from there. We are 99.9% positive the option will not be renting a car, because we really don’t want to drive 5 hours home after being on a plane for 15+ hours and being jet lagged.

I have a feeling the train may end being our top option, except the bus ride to the train is 2 hours before we get on the train, so that maybe pushing it a bit for Desmond after a day on a flight already. It costs almost exactly the same for either the train with the bus to it or the plane change fees, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens when we arrive and if there are any ticket even still available on an earlier flight when we get in.

On the plus side we’ll be arriving home around 5pm most likely, which is much nicer then the midnight we were expecting.

So we’ve spent the past two weeks getting ready for India. We are now 98% packed, which is just odd since normally we hit this point about 10 minutes before we head out the door, and then have to come back to the house 2 or 3 more times for things we’ve forgotten. One of our checked bags is finished and at my in-laws and the other one has about 6 more things going in it and it is packed as well. All our carry ons are packed, though there are a couple more things going in each of them, and the living room is cleaned and vacuumed. It is really strange being done ahead of time.

I’m not quite sure I like it, that last minute rush gives a nice adrenaline rush. Then again knowing we have everything we need and are all ready is kind of nice too.

So we leave for India in almost exactly 7 weeks.  So we are slowly getting ready for the trip.  We’ve bought Desmond new cloth diapers for the trip, but we still need to order him a couple of new covers, I’m think 6 or so.    We just got Dan a new carrier to use, since he doesn’t like mine, and since I will be almost 20 weeks pregnant when we go, he will likely be carrying Desmond a lot more then me.

I bought a memory card for my camera, but it wasn’t the right type, so I returned it, I want to pick up another one, so I won’t have to worry about not having enough space to take tons of pictures, since we all know I love taking tons of pictures.  We also need to get a few other items, small and large, and book K-line at the kennel.

We are trying to sort of slowly gather everything we need, so there won’t be a huge rush the weekend before we leave, okay let’s be honest there is no way to avoid that huge, “We still need xyz” and to pack frenzy before we leave, but we are trying to make it so that there are only a few items on the list rather then a ton of things.

Other then getting stuff ready though, we aren’t really doing much for India, Dan and I did take a Hindi class earlier this year, but it was kind of pointless and didn’t do what we were hoping it would do.  We do plan to visit the Taj while we are over there, but other then that, we don’t have any firm plans on touristy things, since honestly they will be a bit tough with Desmond anyways.  Our tickets are booked though so we are ready on that end, we do still need to fill out the VISA forms I’ll have to ask my father in law about them this weekend, I can’t remember how early we got them last time.

We are slowly but steadily getting ready for Desmond’s first big trip to India, anyone want to take my place on the plane for 15 hours with him?

We also took him to the playground while we were at the lake house and he had a great time with Nonnie (I took pictures, Nonnie went down the slide with him and without). When he goes down slides on his own he tends to come down feet first on his tummy.

We went out on the boat and Desmond had fun, he got to drive the boat, since he is old now. Doesn’t everyone let their 16 month old drive a boat? My Dad helped him while he was steering.

Here are a couple of pictures of Desmond swimming with his Nonnie (my Mother). He loves the pool and swimming.

While we were there we saw my Grandfather twice, I finally got a couple of newer pictures of Desmond with him. The last pictures I have of Desmond with him are from last Thanksgiving, so it was time. Anyways here is Desmond, my Dad and my Grandfather.

So we finally went to the Atlanta Aquarium and Desmond got to see the “dish” he loved them. Here are a couple of pictures of him watching the “dish”.

We’re back from Atlanta, have been since Monday actually. I got a bunch of pictures uploaded yesterday, but didn’t have time to post till today. We had a lot of fun. Desmond loved playing with his Grandpa and Nonnie. We went out to dinner with a bunch of relatives for my aunt and uncle’s 30th wedding anniversary the first night we arrived, which was nice, though late, Desmond fell asleep on the way back to the lake house and didn’t wake till morning. He did enjoy his chocolate shake though.

We had fun at the Children’s museum with a couple of people from a message board I frequent who also had babies the same time as I had Desmond. All my pictures from that came out really dark though, so I’m not putting any up. He loved the fishies at the Aquarium and it was nice spending time with my middle sister, who I don’t spend much time with. He also loved swimming a lot while we were at the lake house and going out on the boat. He wasn’t as thrilled with Grandpa for taking him down the water slide twice though. Maybe next year. All in all we had a lot of fun, though by the end Desmond was definitely missing his Daddy.