Germany Bound

Tomorrow we leave for our trip to Germany. We are basically all packed, which I think is a challenge with a baby. Miss O has become even more active in the past couple of weeks. Since she has improved her crawling form considerably, she has become pretty fast. We are making good use of our baby gate so that she doesn't tumble down the stairs she is always so curious about. We are pretty nervous about how we are going to keep Olivia contained and entertained on the plane. Even when we hold her she's all over the place. It can be pretty exhausting. We are still hoping we can get her to sleep some in her little crib provided by the airlines. I'm sure the other passengers hope so too. I've been surprised at how tolerant the cats have been with Livi chasing them around. Cyrus, the black cat, was an adult when I adopted him, which was before I met Yale. As I have mentioned before, he can be kind of a jerk. He has been known to bite and scratch. So when Oli was born, I fully expected having to find him a new home as a result of him hurting her. Both Yale and I have been pleasantly surprised at how patient he has been. Just yesterday Olivia leaned over on top of him, grabbed two fistfuls of fur and gave him a great big hug. I was shocked when he just sat there. This is the kind of thing that would have led to him at least snapping and then running away. I thought it was pretty funny when Olivia was chasing him around the office a few days ago and Cyrus stopped to smell her breath (she thought that was pretty funny). He then proceeded to turn around and put his rear end directly in her face. Now, much to my surprise, this didn't seem to bother her a bit. At first I thought it was a little rude of him, but then I wondered if this was some kind of friendship cat gesture. You let me smell your breath and I'll let you smell my butt. I know, it's kind of weird, but it truly seemed to be a bonding experience for the two of them. I do hope that their friendship can continue to blossom, minus the butt-sniffing. The next entry will be filled with stories of our adventures in Germany. Hopefully most of them will be pleasant ones. Hopefully I won't be describing fellow passengers throwing tomatoes at us on the plane because we couldn't control our screaming child, or about me getting seriously lost walking around Frankfurt with Olivia while Yale is at work. We will soon see.