UW IBIS #2

At 2 years old, it was time to take Blake for another visit to the University of Washington. He is enrolled in a research study there. After my experience at the 1 year visit, I knew that there was no way I could do this visit on my own with Blake. I am soooo grateful that my mom agreed to come along on the 36 hour trip, because it was a busy time.

Blake was certainly enthralled with the view out the terminal:

When we landed in Seattle, we had just a couple of hours to check in to our hotel and get to the CHDD for Blake's developmental evaluation. Blake squeezed in a 40 minute nap, but we had to keep to the schedule. By the time we arrived at the CHDD at 2pm, Blake had been in 5 different vehicles in two different states (truck, bus, airplane, car, shuttle) and was now expected to perform typically in 3 hours of developmental evaluations. Hah! But he did well, considering.

We went back to the hotel and walked to the adjacent shopping center with the goals of 1- dinner and 2-keep Blake awake. He was exhausted, but stayed happy(ish) and awake thanks to a cute little playground. And my mom found the BEST cookie EVER at Specialty's.

Then back in the shuttle, this time to the Children's Hospital for the MRI. Blake slept soundly all the way through the MRI, thanks to a crazy day and utter exhaustion. I, once again, found every moment with Dr. Dager extremely fascinating. What a wonderful man, doing wonderful research. The trip is worth it just to spend time with him.

The following morning my mom and I tried to get some tourist-ing in before our afternoon flight. But Blake was exhausted and a total pain to have along, so we managed just a short visit to the famous Pike Place Market. The flowers did not disappoint, but the quality of my phone camera did:

At the airport, we just made it in the doors before Blake flung himself on the floor for his first (of many) tantrums. Thankfully we had plenty of time to spare. We chatted for a few minutes then started walking to the bag check. He followed, of course, then promptly threw himself down again when his beloved rolling suitcase disappeared down the conveyor belt. And this is how it went. Let's just say he spent a lot of time on the airport floor (ew).

Blake's happiest moment of the airport-to-home experience was seeing this "Mickey airplane" as we taxied to the runway.

He definitely deserves a trip to Disneyland after enduring this quick, exhausting trip!