Ella handles travel surprisingly well; she adapts easily to the new environments, has no problem sleeping in strange places and loves the airplane. Her travel activity on planes can be very disconcerting to anyone else and it certainly is to us it consists mainly of flipping the in-flight magazine back and forth for hours.
She seems content with it for us it is a reminder of her problems. She seems excited by new places and activities and hardly ever gives us a hard time, maintaining her cheerful disposition. That is still a wonder to me. Ella nearly always wakes up smiling, jabbering cheerfully, very, very differently than everyone else in the house. Things are basically alright for her, if she is complaining there is generally something wrong. Not a whim or a bad mood, Her brace is hurting or she is hungry, when the situation is corrected she is fine again. Lets go.
She has been willing to try more different foods and that also makes it easier to travel with her. Going to restaurants is usually not an issue. She will also walk considerable distances as long as she does not see the stroller. If she does that is it. So we usually have to make a decision ahead of time. Stroller or not.
In our last trip to Spain we discovered gawkers are a universal race, not limited to national borders, age or dietary preferences. Everyone gawks when Ella goes by, you would think this would make us proud as parents. Surprisingly it doesn’t. There are different types of looks, the ‘oh my god did you see her’ type, the ‘I’m going to pretend I am not looking but sneak a peak’ look and the ‘check that out’. Of course there is the outright ‘I will just stand here and look at you’ style mostly adopted by the younger generation.
Ella doesn’t seem to notice or mind, a fact that both comforts and disturbs me.