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| lots and lots of crawfish! photo credit: caitlin fitzwater |
alas ... no such luck. whether we set a pattern by waking up early for the flight, or whether the time change threw him off, or whether he just felt like rising early, at 4:30am i heard a little voice from the pack n play next to me. "mommy? daddy?"
i leaned over and pulled him into bed with me, grabbing his milk so he could maybe drink and snuggle and drift back to sleep. instead, he sat on me, laid on me, cuddled me, and periodically said things like, "grandpa, where are you?" ("he's sleeping baby. go back night night.") or "get up, mommy. go on airplaine." ("no, sweetie, we're not going on an airplane until tuesday. go back to sleep.") after about an hour of this, he finally said, "go night night with kitty." which is our family code for getting into his bed and snuggling with his stuffed kitty. so i laid him back in his bed and we slept ... for an hour. oh well.
since everyone else in the house was still asleep, i decided we'd go to the park to play for a little while. at 7:30 on a sunday morning, the park was pretty empty - a few folks walking dogs or on morning strolls, but we had the place to ourselves. john surprised me by climbing right up on the little bouncy horse - you know, the ones with the spring that bobs back and forth? i thought for sure it was too tall for him but he was on it in the blink of an eye. "riding horse, mommy! neigh!!"
we drove back to the house, and as we pulled into the parking lot across from my dad's house, john exclaimed with glee: "grandpa's house!"
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after a quiet morning - john and his daddy napped - of helping my dad clean up the house for the party, my friends from back in the day began to arrive. first were two of my best girl friends from high school, with their kiddos in tow - one with an almost 13-year-old boy, a nine-year-old-girl, and a 2.5-year-old boy; the other brought "only" her week-old baby girl, leaving the older three home with dad so she could hang out with the baby. soon other guests arrived. other high-school-era friends, friends of my dad, friends of my brother, a lifelong friend who is as close as i've ever gotten to having a sister. at one point i looked around us in the living room and saw that five of us were there with two spouses present, but more noticeably, seven kids running around us. in the same living room where we used to hang out when we were younger. VERY surreal!
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| controlled chaos - look at all those kids!! |
john spent time climbing the decrepit old swingset in the back yard - he and the other two-year-old boy took wonderful turns climbing to the top and leaping off into my arms. he also met two of his future girlfriends/prom dates, two beautiful young ladies just a little younger than him who i promise he will be a perfect gentleman to a little later in life!
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| kids, mess, dogpiles on the floor: a great day |
and of course, what's a crawfish boil without some crawfish. john ate ... and ate and ate and ate. if you've never eaten crawfish before, you may not realize that they are a little bit high-effort. it takes some peeling to get each bite. by the time i would peel one for john, he was ready for the next one - i couldn't even get any! that kid loves some spicy food, and to hear him say, "more crawfish" every time he had a bite does wonders for this crawfish-loving mommy's heart.
one of the craziest things about a trip back to western maryland is actually seeing my brother's friends. while i am well aware that they are all grownups now - after all, my "baby" brother will be 28 on saturday - i still think of them as punky nine-year-old boys running around the house. catching up with them and discovering the various weddings/engagements/jobs/etc. is almost as much fun as catching up with my own motley crew of friends. one of my brother's friends paid me a pretty high compliment - that he actually reads and enjoys this blog! he is not what i would call my target demographic ... so i am thrilled that it's still readable, even to unmarried twenty-something men! ha!
after a very full day, john was ready for bedtime. but no sooner did i get him upstairs than he started HOLLERING for my brother. "uncle nick! uncle nick! night night! uncle nick! where are you, uncle nick!" so uncle nick had to come upstairs and give john a kiss goodnight. i guess he made an impression ...
i confess that not too much later, i was ready to turn into a pumpkin myself. what an amazing, long, full, awesome day of catching up with old friends and spending time with people i love ...
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| three of our group of four who were best of friends our junior and senior years. you can't see the baby on the end, but we've each got a wee one in our arms. my, how times change ... photo credit: holly conrad |
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