We boarded yet another plane and prepared to head home to visit my family. Nolin seemed to already be enjoying his time at the airport, as he greeted everyone we passed. Once we were on the plane I tried my famous move where Jenn sits by the window, I sit in the aisle seat and we proudly display Nolin in the middle seat to ward off any would be travel companions.
Apparently I am not the first person to invent this trick, and the flight attendant knew what was up. I tried to bounce Nolin around, so that he would look like a handful and then the announcement came over the intercom, This is a completely full flight, so please make sure you leave room for passengers still getting on the plane.
Slightly defeated I slid over to the middle seat, but secretly hoped we would be afforded a little extra room on the flight. Then a lady nicely explained that she would sit by us because she has a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old, so she knew how rough flying can be. Well Nolin loves to fly so I was pretty sure she was in luck, but upon hearing the news of younger children, Jenn all of a sudden felt the need to come clean.
He typically doesn’t use a bottle, we just wanted to make the flight easy…
I immediately started laughing because first of all there was no need to explain it, secondly we haven’t been brave enough yet to try to stop the bottle completely (although I am proud to announce that his sippy cup use is up).
After a quick two-hour flight, Nolin ran out as we met my parents and sister at the airport. I think they were amazed to see how much he had grown. We then headed off to a quick lunch which doubled as Nolin’s nap.
That evening Nolin went to his second baseball game and absolutely loved it. He was so easy and just took in all the people and excitement around him. He also was a big fan of my brother’s friend Gordie who proceeded to teach Nolin Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance (which would haunt us later).
At 3 am that morning I woke up as Nolin wasn’t exactly familiar with his surroundings and got upset. Jenn followed shortly after, which to Nolin meant the start of play time. Finally I was able to get Nolin resting on my chest (aka The Pillow) and attempt to get back to sleep. Although until about 5am we were treated with Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra and Nolin informing us that he was shy as he put his head down on my chest (which is one of my favorite new things he does, but maybe not as much at 4:30 in the morning). At 7am Nolin was ready to get the day started…his parents decidedly were not.
Saturday, we took Nolin to see the goats and chickens at Stoney’s Produce and then get Jenn checked in for the Rock n’ Roll 1/2 Marathon. Later that day we visited my grandmother who had just gotten out of the hospital and spent time in the pool with my family, Nolin’s new best friend Gordie and his daughter Maggie. Nolin enjoyed his play date even though Maggie discovered she loves blueberries as much as Nolin and ate part of his stash…it didn’t matter because he likes to share (or it may have been the fact that he had a mouthful of goldfish, but I will go with his love for sharing).
From 3:30am until 5am I was once again up. This time it wasn’t because Nolin was upset he just wanted to be sleeping on my chest again. The frustration with the lack of sleep was easily overcome by enjoying a moment we rarely have anymore.
At 5:30am, I woke up to take Jenn down to the beach for the race. I dropped her off, and quickly made my way back home to pick up my parents and Nolin. I am proud to say that we got everyone up and out the door by 7am…not too shabby.
We missed Jenn at the 4 mile mark, but were able to catch her at the 12 mile mark and then again right by the finish. Unfortunately Nolin missed her (even as she continued to call out his name) because another spectator had an Elmo balloon which combined two of Nolin’s favorite things…Elmo and balloons (pronounced bow loon).
Sunday evening we had a cookout for my dad and uncle’s birthdays which was great. It was a chance to catch up with a lot of people at one time in a relaxing environment. This night, Jenn and I decided to sleep in another room so that Nolin could get his beauty sleep (or his parents could get theirs). And once again we were up from 3-5 finally ending with Nolin sleeping on my chest.
The long weekend went by way too fast and I will admit that I was sad to say goodbye to my family, but boy was I looking forward to sleeping. Nolin spent the flight home flirting with his fan club located amongst the back rows of the plane. We would come to find out that our A/C was broken when we got home, but it didn’t matter because we all slept good that night.
Our Modern Family 