A Trip to Rochester!

Last week Emma, my mom, and I drove to Rochester, NY to visit my brother and his family. We had an amazing time! Emma did so great on the 9 hour drive. She was a real trooper. She had so much fun with her cousins, Jade and Sidney, that she is now incredibly bored with me at home. She played with their 2 siamese cats and ran around the house naming everyone to make sure we were all there. One day, we went to the Rochester National Museum of Play. It was so fun! They have Sesame Street and Elmo's World there so Emma was in Heaven. The grocery store was a huge hit, too. Jade is in the swim club at her school and we were able to go to one of her meets. She did such a great job! We are all so proud of her. We had to wait about an hour before Jade's first race so I took Emma and Sidney out to walk the halls of the school. She was doing great at first. The halls were colorful and covered with art and trophies. Then we kept walking and the farther we got from the gym and the pool the more sterile and white everything became. It was really quiet and a little creepy even for me. All of a sudden Emma started looking around really carefully. She was staring at all the walls and started to get a nervous look on her face. She was getting upset and wanted me to pick her up. She started to just grab on to me so tightly. then she started to say, "car. car." I didn't get it at first but then it hit me that the halls looked just like the halls in the background of her referral update pictures that were taken at the orphanage. I couldn't even believe it. She was so scared. I took her back to the pool and she was upset for the next 1/2 hour or so. Then after Jade swam her first race, I took her back out in the lobby. I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk and we went over to the edge of the hallway. She started shaking her head and saying , "no, no, car, car" and wanting me to pick her up. It was so crazy. I eventually had to just take her and sidney back to the house early. It was the weirdest thing. She totally had a flashback. That is the only explanation. I was worried that she wouldn't sleep well that night but she was fine once we got home and for the rest of the week. I guess now that she is getting older she will actually be able to communicate some of those things that she is feeling better to us. We actually drove through Canada because it is a straight shot from Muskegon. We stopped at Niagara Falls on our way home because it was such a gorgeous day...just freezing! We took a quick picture and grabbed some Tim Horton's coffee before heading back on the road. So, Emma has now in her 8 months of being an American visited California, Texas, Illinois, Indiana, New York, Canada and of course Michigan. She is really becoming a great little traveler which is a good thing since she has us two crazy travelers for parents.