Another Kind of Zoo - - the Airport

Alexa and I flew to St. Louis this morning, and had a different kind of zoo experience than yesterday morning...the Phoenix Airport was busy!  Thankfully Alexa and I had only carry-on bags, and, thanks to my sister, there was already a car seat in St. Louis - - the luggage check-in lines were snaking through the airport.  Whew!  A TSA agent noticed Alexa and I waiting patiently in the security checkpoint line, and he came over to us and told us to switch to the employee line.  I'm not sure if it was the holiday spirit or something else, but the TSA agent saved us probably 30-45 minutes of waiting time.  After a completely full flight and two maintenance delays totaling over an hour, we made it safely to St. Louis.  Despite the delays, Alexa was extremely well-behaved on the flight.  She couldn't get off the plane and into the terminal fast enough; as soon as she saw her beloved NeNe (Grandma Niehoff), she sprinted towards her screaming, "NeNe!!!"  I think that made my mom's day.... :)

Granty continues to be in the forefront of all of our minds, especially as the one-month anniversary (December 25th) of his passing draws near.  I was packing his "GVH" tote to use as a carry-on for the trip, and Alexa was in his room with me as I pulled out some of his personal effects from that last hospital stay.  Alexa pulled out his little green, rattle ball and said, "Aww....Granty's ball.  Why did he have to die?"  Good thing she's easily distracted because I had no answer for that...trust me, I wish I did.  Another reminder came on the airplane - I had booked the tickets in early September (well-before any of the major life-changing events), so Grant was booked on the reservation as a lap child.  The flight attendants were in the back of the plane trying to find the elusive lap child that was included on the flight's manifest.  I had to tell them that originally my son was going to be flying with us but the plans had changed.  Argh. 

It is good to be home in St. Louis - Alexa's been in heaven with the attention she's receiving from her grandparents and godmother (Auntie Karen).  Alexa's teacher also helped to improve my mood, as she sent me one of the pictures from the pajama/cookie decorating party earlier this week (Thank you, Ms. LeAnna!) - - the picture is below.

One happy cookie decorator....looks like she
was also the official icing taste tester.