Our trip to Michigan

We're moving to Michigan this summer! I've got a job with a nephrology practice in my family's home town of St. Joseph. This was our weekend to fly up and find a house. As our time in Charlottesville winds up, we are very tightly scheduled. Chris graduated last weekend; the weekend before that was Alex's 100 days party, and I have to pay back two weeks of ward time in June. So this was a now-or-never event, and we were all set Friday morning to hop on a plane, make a tight connection in Detroit, and arrive with about fifteen hours over the next two days devoted to house-hunting.


It didn't quite work out like that. Here's a travel tip as you all head into the summer - when the airline say arrive an hour before, they mean it! We got to the airport thirty minutes before our flight and the ticket counter was closed. There wasn't even anyone there to ask if we could get on the plane. So we turned around and came home, waving to the plane as it flew overhead.

Well, poop. Chris set about feeding Jonathan some breakfast (we had gotten up at 4:30 AM) while I held Alex and hit the phones to explore our options. Northwest has one of those awful automated voicemails that are supposed to provide a human touch. Instead of pressing buttons, you can speak your options as you navigate through voicemail hell. I'm happy to announce that Alex is available to help anyone who is stuck in one of those never-ending menus. He let out an enormous grunt as he snuggled into my shoulder. It so alarmed the Northwest voicemail that I was instantly routed to a live person. Jonathan wasn't quite so helpful when I called back a short time later. Furious at having been denied his plane ride, he was contradicting everything I said. The voicemail got very confused at hearing my "Yes" followed a half second later by Jonathan's "No!" and put me on hold for several minutes.

There weren't any open flights for the next several weekends, so we decided to drive to Michigan. It wasn't fun, but it really didn't go that badly. Chris had received a portable DVD player for graduation, so we packed up the Sesame Street collection and some child-friendly headphones. Jonathan was content to watch trucks for a few hours, but as we hit Pennsylvania he kept telling us he was "all done!" with sitting. Ten minutes later, DVD up and running, we found ourselves forgetting he was in the car, he was so quiet. The only problem is that his headphones would fall off every twenty minutes or so, and he would fuss until I leaned into the backseat to rearrange them. By the end of the trip, however, he had learned to cross one leg over his knee to cradle the player in his lap, freeing his hands to hold the earphones in place.

We got to the hotel about ten hours after our anticipated check-in. Lakeland was wonderful, as always, and had notified them of our delay. There was another gift basket waiting, with animal crackers and dried blueberries marked "Especially for Jonathan." We got some takeout and collapsed into bed.

The next morning, Jonathan cracked us up by playing with the phone. He would pick it up and say "Hello? Hello? It's Jo-fan. Okay. Okay. Bye!" Alex was so delighted to see something beside the back of the car that he broke into grins any time we came into view. We ate breakfast at the hotel and then drove over to Tyler and Beth's house. We got a house tour and Jonathan discovered a couple of Sylvia's trucks. He was so absorbed with playing, I'm not sure he noticed when we left about an hour later.

Houses, houses, houses. I won't say much for fear of jinxing things, but we will be putting in an offer soon. Alex did well in the car and ate happily in the parking lot at Roxy's before I got to go in and attack my Cheeseburger Deluxe with onion rings. We finished seeing houses at about 5:30 and went over to Dale and Alice's for dinner. Jonathan greeted us pretty casually and it was clear he'd had a busy day playing. Once again, the apple trees at the Children's Museum were a big hit. Sylvia was a love as always and we picked up right where we'd left off in March. We are really looking forward to the kids all playing together in the years to come. Tucking Jonathan into his bunk bed that night, he gave me a hug and said "I love you" for the first time.

The next morning we had breakfast and got back in the car for the long ride home. We tried to coordinate everything at rest stops, but wound up hitting three in Ohio and two more in Pennsylvania. We had dinner in a small restaurant in the Shenandoah Valley and got back to Charlottesville late last night. We've had a day to recuperate now and tomorrow, holiday over, we'll be in touch with our realtor to put in an offer on our first choice. If it doesn't work out, we may need to make another trip up in the next few weeks. Fortunately, we've got plane tickets we can use - if only Alex can walk us through the voicemail again.

American Idol 2021

Jonathan has seen bits and snippets of this season's American Idol. Once daylight savings time started, it became a little harder to get him in bed starting at seven o'clock. (I tried, but after our snuggle he looked at me and said "It's still light out, Mommy.") So every now and then he's caught the first two or three performances.

He really liked Sanjaya, whom he dubbed "the orange man." (I knew Sanjaya was leaving when Jonathan wandered off, bored, during his last performance.) He's not fond of the divas or their power ballads - Jonathan likes a tune you can dance to. Since all the clips are available on YouTube, I thought it would be fun to show him some of the highlights.

Well, Jonathan loves them. He's especially fond of the beatboxing Blake and his version of "You Give Love a Bad Name." Jonathan calls the beatboxing "making the noise" and he asks me again and again during the first minute when the man will make the noise. When the bridge comes, Jonathan dances and tries his own version, saying "uhn shh shh uhn." At the end, when Blake is clapping his hands over his head like he's doing jumping jacks, Jonathan tries to copy him. Unfortunately, his arms are too short, and he winds up smacking the sides of his head repeatedly. It doesn't look quite as cool.

Still, Jonathan's determined to be a rock star. He likes to sit on the diaper box, hold the baby monitor in front of his mouth, and sing the ABC song. Yesterday, he picked up his popper, slung it across his hips, and told me it was his guitar. And he's seen Sanjaya's version of "Bathwater," featuring the infamous ponyhawk, about thirty times. He's starting to sing along, about half a measure behind, the same way he recited "Olivia" as he was memorizing it. His solo can't be far behind.

Alex is still sleeping well, but is a little cranky with what appears to be teething. Like Jonathan, he's started getting teeth before he's developed the means of getting anything to his mouth for relief. So once again, we're all offering our knuckles to be gnawed on.

Mommy and Daddy are easy to please

All it takes is a good night's sleep. Alex has been on his nebulizer steroids for little over a week now and we're seeing tons of improvement. We use albuterol every two days, if that. Also, his runny nose is getting better. Maybe it took getting those things cleared up to finally get us a good night's sleep. Two nights ago, we put him down at 10 pm and he slept until 4:30. Pretty good, right? We were also happy that he went right back to sleep after eating. Last night, we gave him a bath and again put him down around 10.

Every parent does it at least once. At 6:30 I snapped awake and before even drawing another breath, I was racing down to Alex's room, because I hadn't been up all night. I opened the door, heart in my mouth, willing him to be pink and happy-looking. He was lying still in his crib - I stopped breathing to listen. And he gave the tiniest snore, and a little shoulder wiggle.

I gently closed the door and went back to my room for another half hour of rest. I'm sure it's no coincidence that today, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the flowers are particularly beautiful. What a difference a night of sleep makes.