Goodbye and Hello

The peonies were trying to bloom while we were in Indiana. But the rain kept beating them up. A few were still closed up enough to resist the punches. They made for some pretty pictures this morning, complete with beads of moisture. We won't be seeing this house (or it's peonies) again since Tom's retiring and they'll be moving.

After breakfast and before we left of the airport for our never-ending trip home, I snuck out to take some photos. And when I returned I had someone waiting on me.

We took one last photo before we left for the airport and it's definitely a keeper!

The trip home was long and uneventful. John continued to make lots of friends on this journey through the airports. John just doesn't understand why we have to turn off our electronic devices (i.e., the DVD player and his Little Einsteins) during parts of the flight. And I guess I don't either. So I just explained that it was the airplane's rules and not mine. Didn't make the disappointment any easier. He did catch a short nap on the way home from the airport, but his mood was still somewhat volatile. We managed to make it out for some rice and beans and that improved the mood a lot. But, nonetheless, we made sure the bedtime was prompt tonight and he was in bed by 800p.

The connecting flights didn't turn out as painful as I thought they might be. We are so used to flying direct. I think we'll definitely try to stick with direct unless the fares can't be beat, which was the case for this flight. We'd waited too late to purchase tickets and to fly direct was going to cost another $150 per person. Ouch! But if we have to connect, I won't be so concerned next time.

-EBP-

Read more...

Another rainy day that started too early

Grandma and John came up with a new game. It's mixture of golf, baseball, and soccer. Great Grandpa gave JHP a small stuffed baseball that John was so enamored with. Using his ratchet, he pushed or hit it across the room. He had great fun.

These were the smiling faces after John's three hour nap. He'd gotten up at 630a or so local time. Since we are an hour ahead, that was 530a our time. So NOT fun! I took the bullet and let Daddy sleep. Even Great Grandpa and Grandma, the early risers of the family, were surprised that we were up that early. When I fetched from his bed, the first thing he asked me was "Can I go play?" Uh, no, it's still time to sleep. Unfortunately, he didn't buy into that. He did go down for an early nap and sleep a long time. I hope that he won't pull that again tonight, especially since we are travelling home tomorrow.

Out of the mouth of John: "I need to go check my email." Followed by "I'm checking my email." I'm not sure he knows exactly what it is, but I figured I'd set him up an email account anyway. For fun! So if you get an email from JHP, it's not spam!

-EBP-

Read more...

Rain, rain, go to Texas, please!

It rained here almost all day, relegating us to inside activities. We spent lots of time playing and visiting with Grandpa, Great-Grandpa, and Grandma. But we did sneak out for some lunch at a local Chick-Fil-A where John could burn some energy on the indoor play area. After that we went to Wal-mart to look for a travel potty seat. Since we've been here John has refused to use the big potty before bath. I didn't want to really get out of that habit (not that I think we are near potty training). So we found a CARS potty seat that is foldable and meant for traveling. I figured the $10 investment would repay itself in short order on this and future trips.

For dinner, Aunt Susan joined us again and we shared stories of time-out and other discipline while JHP was experiencing a time-out for spitting. I'm not sure he'll ever learn that we don't do that. I can't understand why he can remember lots of little details but he can't remember the simple fact that spitting is not allowed!

-EBP-

Read more...