Two Hands Now Required

For reasons that escape us now, when we planned our trip, it seemed prudent to make a rapid exit from Vancouver (BC, not WA) to New York so that E could spend her birthday at home.

So, last night we duly strolled into the Vancouver airport (which is totally excellent: free wifi and free carts among other things) and got on our red-eye taking off 22:50 Pacific time a/k/a 1:50 Eastern time, and flew for just under five hours to New York. I got about 3 hours of sleep, and I think E got about the same. Y claimed only 1. Anyway, arriving just before 7:00 Eastern, we surprisingly managed to roust E up to walk by herself, although she immediately started protesting that she "didn't need a birthday".

Out from the airport, we got a car ride back to the city. Now, if you're paying attention to the time, you've noticed that this means it is rush hour and therefore it took forever and then some. So Y and I are totally zonked upon our arrival home, but E has woken up and is Ready To Go(tm).

I managed to sneak off for a nap leaving Y to take the "first shift", which she evidently solved by putting on a DVD for E to watch while she napped in front of the TV. My first act upon waking up was to try to acquire a soft-boiled egg for E (fail) a latte for myself and Y (success) a "Turkey and Brie" sandwich (total lie: they had only Ham and Brie) and bring it all back for breakfast/lunch. We followed that up with the ritual opening of the presents immediately followed by the using of the presents.

Now, it turns out that when dad (that's me) is really organized and buys a bunch of presents for the daughter (that'd be E), that doesn't count, because mom (that's Y) didn't buy any. So, there was a whole second round of present getting which involved a balloon of any sort from Balloon Saloon (a singing princess balloon was chosen) and $50 to be spent "any way we want" at Barnes and Noble, although half of that was cashed in on a balloon blower-upper from the Saloon.

Anyway, we came home with our loot, and now it was time to go swimming. E has been a total fish for the last few weeks, so we (which means me) have been taking her to pools regularly. She can propel herself across long distances with the help of flotation devices, and across short distances without, and can put her face into the water with the technique of pinching her own nose with her hand.

After that, it was time for the requisite shower to wash off the chlorine, but we wanted a bath instead, so we got a bath. And we requested soup dumplings for dinner, so an order was placed to the shop. After a while we came out of the bath and got dressed, and then the food arrived, and then we promptly fell asleep with our head on our dinner plate. Fortunately no food had been placed in said plate yet. Y magically managed to get her to wake up long enough to walk to her bed, and we are currently trepidating over what time she's going to wake up next.