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Missing Arizona....
Never thought I would. I'm a fan of cool, rain, wind, storms. I love Oregon weather in fall/winter/spring, in other words. But when it's almost-freezing (yeah, I know, half the US is now muttering "cry me a river" - at least, the more polite ones are) here, I admit a trip to Arizona was far more lovely than I'd expected.
We were visiting my in-laws, taking Drew down for pre-Christmas celebration. His grandparents have met him before, but Scott's brother and his wife also live in that area and had not met Drew before, so getting to introduce him to them was part of the point. (Only part; seeing family again was also part of it, and a direct flight to Phoenix is not too bad, scheduling-wise.)
Five days seemed like a good balance when we scheduled it, and it probably was, but coming back it seemed far too short. It was a VERY good visit, with good food (my parents-in-law are amazing cooks), good conversation and company, a trip to see the local ZooLights (we still may make it to our local as well, but we may miss it - it's chilly here, and dragging Drew through it may not be so kind), and an early Christmas celebration.
We all got nice things and the gift exchange was much fun, but Drew of course made out like a bandit. As soon as it arrives up here, I think I'm going to get very tired of the dump truck - it's a walk/ride dump truck that has buttons to make horn and engine and lift noises - or maybe I won't. Because I remember Drew's absolute glee when he hit the button and it made noise. He loved that truck from the instant he smacked that button. And baby glee? Baby glee counters a lot of "gee, not that noise again" (plus the noises are actually tastefully quiet - I won't go deaf or anything listening to them over and over). He got quite a few things he liked, though, and several more that I think he will come to like over the next year but that he has to explore or figure out first. (The baby-safe lego-like blocks being one of those things. Currently, tearing them apart is fun, banging them together is fun, but when he decides he wants to do something else he gets frustrated. Sometimes he's clearly trying to put them together and not quite achieving it; others I'm not sure what he's trying to accomplish.)
Oranges. Fresh oranges, right from the tree, and juice from them. Oh man. I will miss those. (And I'm sensitive to oranges, so I couldn't even indulge as much as I wanted to! One glass of OJ once in a while is okay, but oh how I wanted more than I could reasonably have. Oh well, I was good. So was the orange juice.)
The trip home was...interesting. Very, very interesting. We were in PHOENIX ARIZONA. We were flying out. Our plane was late arriving which, as we had a direct flight, I didn't care about. Meanwhile, a storm rolled in with lightning and pouring rain. (Yes, Phoenix.) For reasons not clear to me, since the storm had been forecast, they had brought a cart of luggage out and it was in the open and not covered - and when the ground crew got called in due to the lightning, the luggage sat out there. And got DRENCHED. Several of us were watching and wondering if it included our suitcases; one looked like ours. After some observation I decided it wasn't because I didn't remember a leather piece visible on it being on ours.
More fool I. We got to Portland and it had, indeed, been ours. Soaked. The name/address tag was pretty illegible. What worried me was the contents, though - I'd packed several books (including three gifts not yet really looked at!) in that suitcase. ACK. Most everything else in there was water-safe or water-proof (although I was glad I hadn't done the laundry before we left; that way I didn't have to debate between just drying it or washing and drying to be safe, since it needed washed anyway). Opened it quickly - books were okay. A more thorough check when I got home and was unpacking turned up two books that I hadn't spotted at the airport - both wet. Both were, however, ones we'd brought along thinking we might read, and then not read; smaller paper-backs. And the water damage was minimal; still totally readable, just some crinkled pages. I opened them out to dry and they're as fine now as they'll be, a bit of staining and crinkling.
So in the end, nothing major, just some minor aggravation. And we're home. And Drew? Drew is sleeping the sleep of the exhausted, having returned to his at-home routine (with the addition of some fun new toys and books) with nary a problem.
We were visiting my in-laws, taking Drew down for pre-Christmas celebration. His grandparents have met him before, but Scott's brother and his wife also live in that area and had not met Drew before, so getting to introduce him to them was part of the point. (Only part; seeing family again was also part of it, and a direct flight to Phoenix is not too bad, scheduling-wise.)
Five days seemed like a good balance when we scheduled it, and it probably was, but coming back it seemed far too short. It was a VERY good visit, with good food (my parents-in-law are amazing cooks), good conversation and company, a trip to see the local ZooLights (we still may make it to our local as well, but we may miss it - it's chilly here, and dragging Drew through it may not be so kind), and an early Christmas celebration.
We all got nice things and the gift exchange was much fun, but Drew of course made out like a bandit. As soon as it arrives up here, I think I'm going to get very tired of the dump truck - it's a walk/ride dump truck that has buttons to make horn and engine and lift noises - or maybe I won't. Because I remember Drew's absolute glee when he hit the button and it made noise. He loved that truck from the instant he smacked that button. And baby glee? Baby glee counters a lot of "gee, not that noise again" (plus the noises are actually tastefully quiet - I won't go deaf or anything listening to them over and over). He got quite a few things he liked, though, and several more that I think he will come to like over the next year but that he has to explore or figure out first. (The baby-safe lego-like blocks being one of those things. Currently, tearing them apart is fun, banging them together is fun, but when he decides he wants to do something else he gets frustrated. Sometimes he's clearly trying to put them together and not quite achieving it; others I'm not sure what he's trying to accomplish.)
Oranges. Fresh oranges, right from the tree, and juice from them. Oh man. I will miss those. (And I'm sensitive to oranges, so I couldn't even indulge as much as I wanted to! One glass of OJ once in a while is okay, but oh how I wanted more than I could reasonably have. Oh well, I was good. So was the orange juice.)
The trip home was...interesting. Very, very interesting. We were in PHOENIX ARIZONA. We were flying out. Our plane was late arriving which, as we had a direct flight, I didn't care about. Meanwhile, a storm rolled in with lightning and pouring rain. (Yes, Phoenix.) For reasons not clear to me, since the storm had been forecast, they had brought a cart of luggage out and it was in the open and not covered - and when the ground crew got called in due to the lightning, the luggage sat out there. And got DRENCHED. Several of us were watching and wondering if it included our suitcases; one looked like ours. After some observation I decided it wasn't because I didn't remember a leather piece visible on it being on ours.
More fool I. We got to Portland and it had, indeed, been ours. Soaked. The name/address tag was pretty illegible. What worried me was the contents, though - I'd packed several books (including three gifts not yet really looked at!) in that suitcase. ACK. Most everything else in there was water-safe or water-proof (although I was glad I hadn't done the laundry before we left; that way I didn't have to debate between just drying it or washing and drying to be safe, since it needed washed anyway). Opened it quickly - books were okay. A more thorough check when I got home and was unpacking turned up two books that I hadn't spotted at the airport - both wet. Both were, however, ones we'd brought along thinking we might read, and then not read; smaller paper-backs. And the water damage was minimal; still totally readable, just some crinkled pages. I opened them out to dry and they're as fine now as they'll be, a bit of staining and crinkling.
So in the end, nothing major, just some minor aggravation. And we're home. And Drew? Drew is sleeping the sleep of the exhausted, having returned to his at-home routine (with the addition of some fun new toys and books) with nary a problem.
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But it sounds like all in all, the trip was a rousing success and I'm glad Drew did so well on the prezzie front. I wish I could see a picture of this baby glee you write of! :)
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Zoo Lights is very cool, we went once a few years back. We have a much smaller version of that here, not nearly so impressive.
The OJ bit reminds me of visiting my cousin in San Diego several years ago. He had orange, tangerine, grapefruit and avocado trees growing in his yard... lots of them. We would go out ever morning and pick fruit for breakfast juice and once picked fresh avocado for the most amazing guacamole ever. He also raised chickens and always had a fresh supply of eggs. Nothing like it! Sadly he has moved from there now as the place was just taking too much upkeep and he is getting up there in years.
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So glad Drew got to see lights. I took my boys on Solstice Eve, and Leo's reaction when we got out of the car? "If I had known it was going to be like this, I would have said yes!" (This after a long discussion trying to decide if we were going at all.)
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noisy toys
I so loathe electronic noise toys that I have gone out of my way to give every one that enters our house a speakerectomy. However, if Drew so enjoys the noise, then it's pretty hard to argue with that! My suggestion: if you come across another toy that is annoyingly loud, give it a partial speakerectomy with a soldering iron and a 8-16 ohm resistor. I hope some day to be recognized as a pioneer in the field of plastic toy surgery.
Also, I am now eight months into building my son a toy with electronic noises and air-powered blasters. I am a giant hypocrite.
Re: noisy toys