The First Half of Our "Vacation"

On Friday, I took the kids over to Grammy and Poppy's house in the morning. They were still runny-nosed, so I decided it best not to take them to daycare. I think that it was in morning before we left that Henry was playing on the floor with his puzzles and putting the pieces into their proper places. Henry has found puzzles difficult in the past, so it was nice seeing him play with them on his own w/o prompting and doing well.

Jeff and I cleaned, did laundry, and packed. It was a productive but crazy-busy day. We left the house at 4:15PM. We picked up the kids at 4:45PM and were on the road to Phoenix. It was raining in the mountains during our drive.


We got to Sky Harbor Airport by 6:30PM, which was better than we had anticipated given our late departure from Tucson. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:15PM. It turned out that it was late b/c of lightening storms in the Phoenix area. Luckily, there was virtually no one in the security area when we arrived at the airport. Very good news b/c we had to take off our shoes and the kids' shoes, take out the laptops, detach the car seats from the suitcases, and make sure that Henry and Miss R didn't run off. We had time for Round Table Pizza. Jeff got four slices of veggie pizza. Henry didn't want to eat. Miss R ate all of the black olives off of all four of the pizzas. It was a LOT of olives. Our gate was at the end of the terminal. We had an excellent view of the runway. The kids got to watch the planes take off.

Things went about as well as we could be expected. Henry drank his bottle when the plane took off. He fell asleep right away. Definitely my boy. I managed to stay awake b/c Miss R had a panic attack on my lap. She refused her bottle, which probably made the situation worse on her ears than it should have been. She panicked but then jumped into Daddy's lap and then passed out for the rest of the flight until the decent into Portland. Both kids didn't like the decent; luckily, it was short. The flight was OK except for the intoxicated, loud people doing shots with mystery liquids behind us. They spent a good part of the trip trying to get the person next to them to do shots too but refused to tell him what they were drinking. The gal had the mouth of a sailor; we were glad that the kids were asleep.

We arrived around midnight. Jeff's sister Jennifer and his dad Joe picked us up. We got to Joe's house around 1AM or so. Marley was excited to see us. She looks fabulous. Jennifer and her son's Charlie and Wyatt took to her right away. There are two double beds on the first floor. Jennifer offered her room to us, but we decided to cram into the bed in Jeff's old room. Henry usually cuddles up to Jeff, and lately, Miss R has been sleep on top of me. Miss R was riled up and didn't settle down until 3AM.

On Saturday, the 4th of July, we slept in until 9AM or so. Got up. Got to see Jeff's handsome nephews, Charlie and Wyatt. Jennifer, Charlie, and Wyatt got the kids gifts: crayons, coloring books, the DVD The Land Before Time, Little Foot (the dinosaur from TLBT), bubbles, and balls. Wyatt had a neat, glittery top hat for his birthday hat (as he was born on the 4th of July). Both Henry and Miss R were fascinated by it.




We went to Jeff's Aunt Kay's house for lunch. We visited with Jeff's mom Gwen and her sisters (Kay, Gail, and Jean). Henry slept a good part of the time. He wasn't feeling well. Gail brought the kids beautiful presents. Henry got a nice new outfit, and Miss R got a swim suit. Wyatt broke out the bubbles for the kids, which entertained them. Henry had been very clingy to Jeff in the morning. The bubbles were Jeff's one reprieve. Miss R had a mega temper tantrum when I changed her diaper. That was followed by a second temper tantrum when I took off her shoe after she indicated that she wanted to go to the pool. Ah, the joys of parenthood!

Around 4PM, we returned to Jeff's dad's house and had a sumptuous dinner made by Joe's friend Diane. Excellent homemade salsa and chocolate-dipped cherries and strawberries. All of the traditional BBQ dishes plus excellent veggies. The buns for the burgers and veggies burgers were homemade. Miss R liked the buns. Jeff's brothers Andrew and Cooper were at Joe's house when we arrived. It was a great family get together. Henry was in Daddy-cling mode, and Miss R was in Mommy-cling mode. If Jeff moved 2 feet away from Henry, he'd whine.

Miss R was clingy, but she took to her Aunt Jennifer right away. That gave me a chance to rest my arms in-between holding sessions. For Henry, there was no one but Jeff. He said "go home" a couple times...just like he did in San Diego. That's one disadvantage about keeping Henry home so much as a baby. He isn't particularly flexible about being away from home. That was compounded by the fact that he didn't take a nap on Friday and didn't quite get enough sleep Friday night.

After Jeff's brother's left, we watched the first half of Happy Feet. Then, the kids went to bed.

On Sunday, Jennifer, Charlie, Wyatt, Jeff, Henry, and Miss R went back to Aunt Kay's house and spent time with "Grammy Gwen" at Henry's request. He said her name a couple times. I stayed behind and got some work done that I hadn't finished before I left. That was good for me. It sounded like Henry and Miss R took naps over at Aunt Kay's house, which were much needed.

On Sunday night, Jeff and I took Henry and Miss R to Tony and Kaylynn's house. Tony is Jeff's best friend from high school...maybe even middle school (I'll have to check with Jeff on that). Tony and Kaylynn have four beautiful children: Lexie, Phoenix, Brooklyn, and Colton. Lexie was a hit with Henry for showing him her rats. She has two of them. Phoenix did a wonderful job playing piano for us. Henry followed Brooklyn around. Brooklyn is a sweet heart who generously offered Jeff and I some of her pretty rocks. Colton is a handsome boy who is three years old. Miss R spent most of the time on my lap. Henry, however, enjoyed running around with the other children. The kids ate dinner together at the table. Jeff and I were surprised at how well the kids did...other than Henry talking through the blessing. He really liked the chicken a lot, and we were pleased to see him consume something other than starch this trip. We had a great time talking with Tony and Kaylynn. Kaylynn and I discussed the possibility of our families going to Disneyland together next year. That would be a lot of fun.













On Monday morning, the kids were in a mood. Both were clingy. I was desperately trying to send out my article reviews before we left for the zoo (I did it!). The kids did eat some pancakes for breakfast. Miss R said "yummy" as she ate them. Jeff and I are both coming down with whatever Miss R had a couple days ago and what Henry can't seem to shake. Every morning, he seems OK but then has a relapse by day's end. I think that Jeff is more stuffed up than I am. His voice began to change throughout dinner last night. I think that I'm actually having more allergy problems than anything. Needless to say, this hasn't exactly helped our moods...in addition to having two kids who scream when one of us isn't holding them. They don't seem to care that we might need to use the restroom or take a shower.

We went to the zoo today, hoping that the fresh air would distract Henry from wanting to go home. Portland has a fabulous zoo. And Henry did enjoy himself, but he did cling to Daddy the whole time. Jeff was getting tired at lugging around a 26 lb weight. Miss R had a fabulous time. She paid attention to the animals. She liked the fish. She enjoyed watching the penguins. She really liked running around on the grass and being silly. She shared my hummus plate. She ate some pita bread and, oddly enough, the lettuce. I didn't know that toddlers would actually eat lettuce. Turns out, at least one of them will. We had a good time in the lorakeets' aviary. Jennifer got us nectar to feed the birds. On the ride back home, the kids had a great time with cousin Wyatt. Jennifer bought Henry a toy Humboldt penguin, Miss R a giraffe, and Wyatt an owl. Miss R hugged her giraffe. She and Henry also took turns dropping their animals on the floor and saying "Uh-Oh!" and pointing at them for Wyatt to pick up. He was a good sport.

Once home, Henry was again clingy. Jeff was tired. Miss R needed a nap. On top of that, Jennifer, Charlie, and Wyatt had to leave to head back to Idaho, which was sad. I very much enjoyed talking with Jennifer about parenting. And, we loved seeing how handsome and kind Charlie and Wyatt are. They were so nice to The Twins during the trip, which we appreciate b/c our kids were in full-blown terrible two mode.

On Monday evening in the basement where we had set up Monsters, Inc. at Henry's request, Henry, after getting admonished for rifling through Grandpa Joe's things, stood up and said "Twinkle Twinkle Up Above" and had a little dance move to accompany his song. He was so cute. And as Jeff said, "That melted my heart." It was awfully sweet. Of course, the kids both then acted up. We decided that they needed to go to bed. They hadn't napped well. Jeff took Henry to the spare bedroom. I took Miss R to the usual room. Henry was almost asleep when Miss R had a major fit b/c I insisted on changing her very soggy diaper. Henry then got up and yelled out for "Miss R, Miss!" Jeff brought Henry into the room. We settled them into bed, where they fell asleep most unwillingly.

Well, that wraps up the first half of our "vacation." I can't say that it has been relaxing. We've been a little bit surprised by the amount of Henry's neediness. He really has been crying and whining more than we've ever seen him do so. To be fair, he isn't feeling his best. And we know that changes in routine are hard for him. But we had hoped to share more of the Happy Henry side of his personality to our family who don't get to see him often.

We are meeting our college friends Dave and BJ and their daughter Morganne tomorrow. Dave and BJ are our friends who set us up on our first date (blind date). We will be meeting them at The Enchanted Forest.