Charlotte is in Belgium

And I'm not.
(This part written Saturday afternoon.)
I wasn’t allowed to get on the plane. Turns out that Belgium has a law requiring that a US passport be valid for 6 months after one’s return from Belgium. My passport expires in June, so American Airlines couldn’t let me on the plane. I have to go downtown on Monday (May 1 during the Immigration Protest hoo ha) and get an emergency passport renewal. Then, I leave at 4:30 pm on Monday afternoon.

Philippe and Charlotte are off on their first big father-daughter adventure. He’s overloaded with way too many carry-ons b/c of her medical stuff and his computer, but seems to be doing okay. He’s got Charlotte in the Baby Bjorn, the car seat for the flight. I’ll bring the stroller. She slept all the way to Newark. His biggest problem so far is how to go to the bathroom w/baby strapped on to him and no where to put her. Finger’s crossed that this will remain his biggest issue. She’s still got "diaper doozies," either from the new food or from the antibiotic, so he could have some messy times. I hope not.

Sunday's update:
Charlotte slept most of the way to Belgium. Philippe lives a charmed life! She was greeted by her grandmother, her Aunt Mich and Uncle Pol. I'm so sorry that I wasn't able to see their faces when the met our vivacious little Charlotte for the very first time. Her Nenen (did I spell that right?) had lots of toys, baby food and a playpen all ready for her.

From my several conversations with Philippe today, I've learned that she's only vomited once. That's impressive given that travel usually exacerbates the reflux. She's not really eating. She's enjoying her Tante Mich's bracelets, babbling to her grandmother, and posing for pictures. She took two decent naps and went down at around 8 pm GMT. At 11:30 pm (in Belgium), Philippe was pretty sure she was out for the night. Finger's crossed.

Thanks to Tonton Pol I can share some photos of Charlotte's first day in Leuven. Enjoy!

That’s it. I’m home alone until Monday. I'm quite nervous about getting downtown and back and to the airport with the immigration rally going on.

It’s eerily quiet here.