CA

Elena's first Circuit Assembly is over! And it was not easy. Actually, the assembly part wasn't too bad. The prep was awful. I have always hated packing and now I'm "the Mom"! It just does not come naturally for me. We decided to stay overnight at a hotel. We were going to do Friday and Saturday nights, but decided to cancel Friday and just do Saturday, so that meant Saturday morning we were packing everything for an entire weekend - outfits, books, diapers, food. At the last minute I remembered I didn't have her hat and didn't have a clue as to where it was, which as you will see, ended up being the star of the weekend and so really was crucial. I had a minor meltdown, but Lenny helped pull us through.

We only had to return to the house once after leaving when we realized the camera was dead and didn't have the battery charger. We were finally on the road about the time the program was probably starting. Our assembly is outside Boston, so a little over an hour away. Maybe closer to 1 1/2 hours depending on traffic. Of course, Elena fell asleep for about the last 20 min. of the drive. So we pulled into the parking lot and I didn't want to wake her up, so we stayed in the car and listened to the rest of the morning program on the radio. Then at the lunch break she was still asleep, so we went over to the hotel to check in. She woke up so we brought all the stuff to the room and ate our lunch and everything there.

We made it back to the Assembly Hall before lunch was over and she was a huge hit as soon as we walked in the door. Our friend, Alycia, took her pic as seen below:


I then ran over to the coat room to try to find a sister from our pioneer school who hadn't seen the baby yet and we found her right away and she took our picture. Then we found Mom and Dad and our seats and this woman I didn't know exclaimed, "Look at that baby! I wish I had a camera!" I told you, she was a hit. So since she slept for a while in the morning that meant she was up ALL afternoon, but we took turns with her, and let her crawl around a little in the back, and it was okay. I did try to go to the Nursing Mothers room about halfway through the afternoon and this brother stands up and says, "Are you looking for the Nursing Mothers room?" Uh yeah. "It's in the Ladies Room. This is Accounting now." Hunh? "Accounting took it over." Okaaay. So I go into the Ladies Room and sure enough, they changed three stalls over from toilets to chairs and stuck a fold-down changing table on the wall. So now we get to nurse in the midst of constant flushes and talking and kids running around and everything else, but at least we still have our stalls. All 3 of them.

Right after the program we called in take-out from California Pizza Kitchen, which is at the mall right near the hotel. Well I have yet to meet a GPS that can actually navigate around Boston and its outlying areas. Total nightmare. Not to mention trying to get around the mall itself. But we did it and the food was good. Elena had fun exploring the hotel room.


She actually fell asleep pretty easily and then proceeded to wake up every hour. Poor Papi was a wreck Sunday morning, but I helped pull us through and we got to the program only shortly after it started. She fell asleep towards the end of lunch and Nona kept her asleep for a while, so by the time she woke up, there was only one talk left, I think. Here she is sitting with Papi. I think he was trying to help her clap on cue. She tended to clap a couple minutes after everyone else. Ha ha.

She hasn't quite learned to keep her dress pulled down, but at least you can see the cute tights!