A few things I forgot to include in the last post

• Liza is finally picking up some of the useful skills I've been trying to show her for the past few months. For example, she figured out how to brush her hair while we were in Baltimore. Okay, it's more of a "brush at her hair and mess it up a lot" than it is a traditional brushing, but the intent is there. She has also demonstrated that she understands what I mean when I tell her it's clean-up time and ask her to put her toys back in the basket. She only puts away the toys I hand her, but at least it's a start.
• Jason and I have rented cars for business and vacations since 1995, but this trip was the first time I've ever been upgraded to a convertible. My mother's years of lecturing about the safety of convertibles kicked in, and I had visions of the car flipping over and snapping off my daughter's head. You can tell how far I've come since the PPD started that I didn't chortle with glee a that prospect ... I even briefly considered going back and getting a different car. Then I thought, yeah, let's drag the tired toddler and 900 pounds of luggage back into the rental car line and complain about how we got upgraded to a convertible. Screw that - and keep your head down, Liza! I never did have time to put the top down, and we spent most of the driving time either in my mother-in-law's car or driving along at a glacial 695-traffic-jam pace, so I didn't actually have much to worry about.
• When we had Liza in the rear-facing car seat we never uninstalled it - it was such a huge pain to get it installed properly in the van in the first place that I was afraid to take it out for fear of never getting it in again. But the forward-facing seat has now been in and out of both of our cars, plus the rental car, plus my mother-in-law's car, plus the Wendlingmobile. On this trip alone I've managed to cut my installation time to under five minutes, and that's while wearing a dress and high heels and not having anyone to hold Liza for me. I can even make that include that stupid locking clip if I have to (I heap curses upont the man who invented that thing ... stupid locking clip).
• While there are plenty of signs that tell you how to get to the aquarium in Baltimore, there are few that tell you how to get back to the interstates. After getting lost in the projects (no, not kidding - block after block of identical rectangular buildings with junk cars and laundry out back, and I was a distinct ethnic minority) for 10 minutes I finally retraced my steps and found some signs leading to the interstate I came in on. That interstate led to the exact opposite side of Baltimore from where I needed to be to get to the airport, but by then I had seen enough of the scenic inner city and was ready to roll anywhere, even the wrong direction. So what should have been a 20-minute drive to the airport was more of a 50-minute roundabout, but we got there in one piece.
• WHY IN GOD'S NAME IS THERE NO GAS STATION ANYWHERE NEAR THE RENTAL CAR RETURN AT THE BALTIMORE AIRPORT?????? We've been flying into that airport for more than 10 years, and I think we managed to stumble upon a gas station once. Either there's a huge conspiracy set up by the rental car companies, or somebody's missing out on a spectacular opportunity to make a lot of money. Stupid rental car companies - with today's gas prices, I bet I'll get charged like $50 for the 1/4 tank of gas I used.
• If you're going to be traveling by plane with a checked car seat, go ahead and spend the $20 to buy the bag to put it in. Not only does it help to have the shoulder strap when you're lugging the thing through the airport, but here's a packing tip - you can put a whole lot of stuff in with the car seat, strap it in, close the bag, and it's like you've got an extra suitcase that doesn't count toward your luggage allowance. My regular suitcase was pretty close to being over the weight limit, so I pulled out the packs of diapers and wipes and a couple of books and shoved them in with the car seat. They didn't seem any worse for the wear when we got where we were going, and I didn't have to pay extra for my heavy bag.
• Never buy airport snack food for yourself that you don't intend to share with your toddler and subsequently clean off of that same toddler and yourself and your luggage and sometimes tolerant strangers. York Peppermint Patty Popables - bad choice. 'Nuff said.