Back to Sesame Place

We bought season passes the first time around, and we never got to see the "Please Touch" museum. But the real reason we headed back: I thought Philadelphia would be a good choice for Megan's first plane ride - worth taking a plane (it was a 9-hour drive) but not so far that she would get squirmy. Also, I had yet to have a vacation with just Mommy and Megan.

So we left on a Thursday evening after she'd napped at daycare. Our plane was an hour late, so we had plenty of time to examine the airport. We found a corner where we could watch the planes take off. She was excited to see them 'run and jump - like Megan'. We must have seen at least 20 planes take off before it was time to board our own plane.

We walked down the tunnel without incident until Megan saw the plane ahead. She screamed, turned around, and tried to run the other way. I had to hold her against me pretty forcefully to head back to the airplane, and she did not stop screaming - loud. She did NOT want to get on that plane. I did what I could - I kept whispering in her ear that everything was fine, and we were going to fly on the plane like we talked about. She just kept shrieking. It was so bad that at one point I was calculating what I would be losing financially by getting up and leaving the plane... the plane tickets, one night at the hotel... the rental car fee?? Finally after about 10 minutes her shrieks turned into whimpers. She became very soft-spoken and polite "Want to get off... please?" I was able to distract her with a huge sticker book for most of the plane ride. She also liked getting her milk and animal crackers from the flight attendant.

Sesame Place was packed Friday - we were lucky to get in to see "Elmo's World Live" and "Big Bird's Beach Party". We headed back to the hotel at lunch time, but Megan refused to nap. So we went back and spent some time in the wave pool and on the push trains. We also caught the parade. Then at 6p (when they closed) she zonked out in the backseat.

We had a wonderful trip- we skipped Sesame Place a few times and saw some other local attractions. We had a fridge and microwave, so we were able to eat most meals out of boxes or microwave bowls, sitting at the pool. It's so much less stressful than trying to eat every meal out.

We also made it to the "Please Touch" museum before we had to head out of Philadelphia Tuesday. I was a little disappointed - Cincinnati's Children's Museum is a heck of a lot nicer, but it occupied her for the 3-4 hours we had to kill.

Megan was so great the whole time - I can only think of one meltdown and it was very short-lived. She listened to Mommy, did not get too upset all the times I got lost :) , and soaked in her surroundings with enthusiasm. I don't think I've felt so bonded with her since before I went back to work.