Swan Song

The big night out for the Jones family--this was it--all those years ago. This time we were a party of 9.
Sean and Erica always go play in the pool when visiting g'ma and g'pa Wisc., so Eddie joined in the tradition. Den said Eddie clung to him like a koala to a tree.

This is Cousin Sean and Eddie. Both Sean and Erica spent lots of time playing with Eddie.

Just returned from a quick trip to g'ma and g'pa Wisc's house. G'pa Wisconsin was retiring as Choir Director at his church after 35 years (and several more years at other churches). This was the first and last time I'd ever seen the choir at their church, as he either re-arranges his calendar, or we come at non choir times of the year.

It's not really a quick trip. We took a direct flight and it still took us 7.5 hours door to door on the way there and 8 hours on the way back (thanks to a delayed flight). They live in a rural community surrounded by farms, about 2 hours from the airport. There is another airport an hour from their home, but the flight goes through the airport that is 2 hours away, so one might as well drive from the 2-hour airport.

After reading a fellow blogger's post about travel with her 16 month old, I was especially nervous about how our lap baby would do. Den had wanted to avoid getting him a ticket, despite my misgivings. Fortunately, we had very understanding seat mates--and it didn't hurt that Eddie kept flashing his smile. It was his naptime and he was a force to reckon with. Didn't want to sit still, wouldn't relax into a nap--until we were 20 minutes from landing and he collapsed on Den's shoulder. Great, nothing like a 20 minute nap to mess up your whole day.

Not only did he sleep through the landing, but managed a transfer from Den to me and back to Den again, as we deplaned. Then, he stayed asleep while we waited for his carseat to pop out of the luggage abyss, as we wheeled him to the car, took our little "go go kidz" contraption off the car seat (see a Feb. post for this discussion), and put him in the car, still in the carseat. He woke up an hour into the trip, just as we pulled into the local A & W for lunch--with a diaper so wet the sheer weight of it was pulling his pants off too.

Eddie got to see his cousins, Sean and Erica, whom he hadn't seen in 8 months as they do not live near G'ma and G'pa Wisc. either. Near as we can tell, they had a great time. Eddie honed in on his walking skills--I swear we are close. The nanny thinks he will walk within the month.