(no subject)
I think I'm unduly interested in this little city's growth. I want to see what happens when I actually get enough people to have crime and stuff. :) I guess it just reminds me of SimCity (which is why I keep clicking things that don't respond).
http://mybackyard.myminicity.com/
So on Friday SAM and I flew out to Texas for my cousin&'s wedding. She's my only cousin who's older than I am (only by a year), and until now I was the only one who was married. Maybe someday SAM can even get some second cousins. :) We had to hurry out to the airport in the icy cold, but we made it in good time. I had sent our luggage ahead with my parents and only had a diaper bag and SAM to deal with, which was nice. I'd checked the diaper bag for forbidden objects before packing - I even took out the juice box in case it was filled with gasoline or something... but they still found a pocketknife when it went through the x-ray. *sigh* Apparently it was under the lining in the bottom. Felt silly for that, but oh well.
Our flight to Memphis went well. The seat next to us was empty, so SAM got to sit there. He wore his seatbelt the whole time and seemed perfectly happy to ride like a grown-up. :) He was really interested in the takeoff and landing, and looking out the windows. :) He's a good traveler. Plus it was a short flight. :)
We were supposed to have 38 minutes to make our connecting flight in Memphis, but we were 10 minutes late getting there, so we had to hurry somewhat. We did pause for SAM to walk on the moving sidewalks, which he thought were the best things ever, even after he tried to step on the non-moving side and got rolled over a few times. Oops. :) Then I put him in the sling and we walked quickly, but he was mad because he saw a mom and two girls running all-out down the hall and wanted to run too, but I made him stay in the sling until we were within sight of the gate. We made it with a few minutes to spare, so then he got to run around and sit in the rocking chairs that were by the big windows.
Once we got on the plane we sat there for a while, and I wished we'd walked more slowly. :) But that flight went well too. SAM slept for about 45 minutes, but then he roused a bit and couldn't get back to sleep. There was someone sitting behind us who had a mental problem of some kind, so he kept reaching up between the seats to get SAM to give him five, and saying, "How are you? How are you?" So SAM didn't really get as much nap as he needed, but at least he and the man were entertained for the rest of the flight. And just before landing, someone who had gotten on the plane with us at Knoxville switched seats with us, because she had an empty seat next to her, so SAM had his own seat" again. :)
And we made it to Austin! My dad picked us up and we ate lunch at an interesting Vietnamese place. I got pho, because I always hear people talking about it. It was pretty tasty. :) There was something on the menu called "jellyfish salad with shrimp chips" but we didn't try it, sadly. :) I also discovered that jalapeños are much hotter in Texas! I thought I was getting tougher all these years, because when I was young and we lived in Texas I remembered them as being the hottest thing ever, burning my mouth for ours after I barely touched a piece of one. But up here in TN, they aren't so bad. I can almost eat food with jalapeños. But there were some on our bean sprout plate, and when I ate a sprout that had touched a pepper, it burned! Even after the meal, driving to the hotel, my lips were still burning.
SAM wouldn't nap any more, so my dad took him off to walk around in a dry riverbed, and I got a nap. :) It's nice to have babysitting - and SAM always has fun getting to be outdoors with my dad. There was a nice garden area at the hotel too, enclosed by a wall, and we spent a lot of time walking around out there, picking little ornamental berries ("Don't put berries in a mouth! For a birds! Birds eat berries.") and messing with the fountains. SAM discovered that he could stick his finger in the fountain and make it spray everyehwere, so that was hours of fun.
In the evening my parents went off to the rehearsal dinner, which was only for the people in the wedding, so we were left alone. I was a bit lonely and bored, but I ordered pizza and it was very tasty. We also got soup, and they didn't bring a spoon, so that was our challenge and excitement for the evening. :) SAM went to sleep fairly easily in the hotel bed, but woke up for two hours during the night. Could have been worse.
The next morning was mostly spent by me wandering around trying to find everyone else, since my dad had taken SAM off somewhere and didn'g bring his cell phone, so I had no idea where they went. We had a good lunch at an apparently famous Mexican place called Chuy's, with hubcaps all over the ceiling. It was quite tasty, since I managed to avoid the spicy dishes. :)
In the afternoon it was so warm that my dad took SAM swimming in the outdoor hot tub. He looked funny in his onesie since we didn't bring bathing suits, but he was having lots of fun. Swimming in January...
Then it was time for the wedding! My grandmother had brought me some jewelery to wear, adn there was a metallic "pearl" necklace that went well with my dress, but we were completely unable to make the clasp work. We ended up wiring it on with some wire that my dad had in the back of his truck. :)
There was a "crying room" in the church, with a big soundproof window in to the sanctuary, and where we were supposed to still be able to hear. But at first we couldn't hear anything, and then after one of the husbands went and got the sound turned on, it was too quiet for us to hear much. But we assumed that everyone who was supposed to said, "I do." :) SAM had a fun time playing with the other babies, and it was nice not to have to try to keep him still and quiet.
Then was the reception, which was much later for SAM than I had counted on. I had thought that with the wedding at 5, he wouldn't have to stay up too late. But that's 6 our time, and the reception took quite a while to drive to. We had assigned tables and a sit-down meal, but by the time the dinner came, it was well past SAM's bedtime. Luckily, he continued is theme for the weekend of behaving perfectly. :) A glass of ice and a spoon kept him (and everyone watching) occupied for a good 20 minutes. :)
The food was excellent, when it finally arrived, and we got to see lots of relatives that we never visit. I even managed to recognize most of them. :) There were lots of people there. After we were finished eating, SAM ran around like a crazy child on the dance floor. He was having a great time with his two-hours-past-my-bedtime energy. Even when the other little boy (who I think had some developmental problems, sadly) came up and punched him in the face and knocked him down, he was only upset for a minute or two. Plus my dad took him out behind the hall, and we saw a possum wandering around! He was ever so excited, and he and my dad wandered off towards the forest while I stood in line for cake. By the time I got it they had disappeared, but luckily they came around from the other direction before I set off into the woods to look for them. :)
After that, we skipped out on the rest of the party and took SAM home. He even stayed awake for the long drive back to the hotel! It was 11 by the time he got to sleep, and he stayed good the whole time. *boggle* I'm so fortunate. :)
I felt less fortunate in the morning, when he woke up at 4:30 local time and wouldn't go back to sleep. I tried to get him down again utnil 6:30, then we gave up and went down to breakfast. Unfortunately, our flight didn't leave until noon, so we had a long time ahead of us to try to keep a very tired boy from falling asleep and ruining his chances of napping on on of the flights. It was a long morning. He was pretty fussy and tired.
We went out to my aunt's house briefly, where SAM was amazed to find cats that didn't run away from him. He wasn't quite sure what to think about that at first, btu then he had a great time ruffling up their fur and following them around. They were very nice cats, tolerating him even when he tried to crawl on top of the big fluffy pillow-like one. :)
Then off to the airport! SAM fell asleep the second the runways came into view, sigh. We couldn't get him to keep his eyes open, so we let him sleep the few minutes until we parked the car, then woke him up. Thank goodness, he didn't decide to throw a fit. (The escalator rides in the terminal had something to do with that, I think.) We made it to our gate with about twenty minutes to spare, so we went back and had lunch at a little chinese place down the hall. It was unusual - it was set up like a buffet, then they charged you based on how much your plate weighed. There was some really tasty fresh fruit, too.
We had to rush back to the plane, but we got ourselves installed in time. No seat for SAM this time (we were sitting next to a very helpful guy who was reading a Dresden Files book, so there was chatting mterial, and in the other seat was a young blind woman). SAM went to sleep instantly and slep the whole flight, so it was okay. :) In Memphis we had about an hour to wait this time, so we moseyed around, got some snacks at the littel store, drove a truck around on the chairs, and generally provided amusement for the other people waiting. When we did get on, for some reason, they had decided that everyone only got one carry-on, INCLUDING purses. Luckily, I was able to stuff my purse into the top of the diaper bag, and that counted.
Thank goodness, I had switched seats using the little computer thing in the morning, so we had an empty seat next to us for SAM, since once we got on the plane they told us that all the luggage had been sent accidentally to the other end of the terminal, and they were short on baggage handlers, and it would be a few extra minutes. We ended up waiting about an hour before we took off, and then when we landed in Knoxville we sat on the runway for a while, so the flight ended up being at least twice as long as it was supposed to be. I was glad we didn't have a connection to make! SAM got a bit squirmy on this flight, but we walked up and down the aisles a bit, and he did okay. BTW, getting a not-quite-two-year-old (who is really saying he has to go just because he wants to play in the sink) pottied and changed in the tiny little airplane bathrooms is difficult. How do people do it with an older, bigger child who still needs help? Madness.
Anyway, we survived my first flight with no other adults, adn SAM's second set of plane trips, with flying colors. (Ugh, just noticed the little wordplay there.) :) It was a pretty good weekend, and now I'm all excited about the prospect of not having to travel until March, if all goes as planned. Moving will fill in the stress-gap nicely, if we manage to buy a house in that time period. :)
I need to post December pictures still... But I want to look at more houses instead. Not to mention, I'm supposed to be putting away the Christmas decorations today, and there is still laundry all over the laundry room needing to be folded. :) Oh well, I got all the ornaments off the tree this morning, and one of the nativities put away, so that's a start.
ETA: What madness was that with the cut? It looks like I forgot to close my tags, but was it really necessary to destroy all the interior text? That was really a weird thing to happen. *sigh* Anyway, fixed now. *keeps an eye on the post for any more misbehavior*
http://mybackyard.myminicity.com/
So on Friday SAM and I flew out to Texas for my cousin&'s wedding. She's my only cousin who's older than I am (only by a year), and until now I was the only one who was married. Maybe someday SAM can even get some second cousins. :) We had to hurry out to the airport in the icy cold, but we made it in good time. I had sent our luggage ahead with my parents and only had a diaper bag and SAM to deal with, which was nice. I'd checked the diaper bag for forbidden objects before packing - I even took out the juice box in case it was filled with gasoline or something... but they still found a pocketknife when it went through the x-ray. *sigh* Apparently it was under the lining in the bottom. Felt silly for that, but oh well.
Our flight to Memphis went well. The seat next to us was empty, so SAM got to sit there. He wore his seatbelt the whole time and seemed perfectly happy to ride like a grown-up. :) He was really interested in the takeoff and landing, and looking out the windows. :) He's a good traveler. Plus it was a short flight. :)
We were supposed to have 38 minutes to make our connecting flight in Memphis, but we were 10 minutes late getting there, so we had to hurry somewhat. We did pause for SAM to walk on the moving sidewalks, which he thought were the best things ever, even after he tried to step on the non-moving side and got rolled over a few times. Oops. :) Then I put him in the sling and we walked quickly, but he was mad because he saw a mom and two girls running all-out down the hall and wanted to run too, but I made him stay in the sling until we were within sight of the gate. We made it with a few minutes to spare, so then he got to run around and sit in the rocking chairs that were by the big windows.
Once we got on the plane we sat there for a while, and I wished we'd walked more slowly. :) But that flight went well too. SAM slept for about 45 minutes, but then he roused a bit and couldn't get back to sleep. There was someone sitting behind us who had a mental problem of some kind, so he kept reaching up between the seats to get SAM to give him five, and saying, "How are you? How are you?" So SAM didn't really get as much nap as he needed, but at least he and the man were entertained for the rest of the flight. And just before landing, someone who had gotten on the plane with us at Knoxville switched seats with us, because she had an empty seat next to her, so SAM had his own seat" again. :)
And we made it to Austin! My dad picked us up and we ate lunch at an interesting Vietnamese place. I got pho, because I always hear people talking about it. It was pretty tasty. :) There was something on the menu called "jellyfish salad with shrimp chips" but we didn't try it, sadly. :) I also discovered that jalapeños are much hotter in Texas! I thought I was getting tougher all these years, because when I was young and we lived in Texas I remembered them as being the hottest thing ever, burning my mouth for ours after I barely touched a piece of one. But up here in TN, they aren't so bad. I can almost eat food with jalapeños. But there were some on our bean sprout plate, and when I ate a sprout that had touched a pepper, it burned! Even after the meal, driving to the hotel, my lips were still burning.
SAM wouldn't nap any more, so my dad took him off to walk around in a dry riverbed, and I got a nap. :) It's nice to have babysitting - and SAM always has fun getting to be outdoors with my dad. There was a nice garden area at the hotel too, enclosed by a wall, and we spent a lot of time walking around out there, picking little ornamental berries ("Don't put berries in a mouth! For a birds! Birds eat berries.") and messing with the fountains. SAM discovered that he could stick his finger in the fountain and make it spray everyehwere, so that was hours of fun.
In the evening my parents went off to the rehearsal dinner, which was only for the people in the wedding, so we were left alone. I was a bit lonely and bored, but I ordered pizza and it was very tasty. We also got soup, and they didn't bring a spoon, so that was our challenge and excitement for the evening. :) SAM went to sleep fairly easily in the hotel bed, but woke up for two hours during the night. Could have been worse.
The next morning was mostly spent by me wandering around trying to find everyone else, since my dad had taken SAM off somewhere and didn'g bring his cell phone, so I had no idea where they went. We had a good lunch at an apparently famous Mexican place called Chuy's, with hubcaps all over the ceiling. It was quite tasty, since I managed to avoid the spicy dishes. :)
In the afternoon it was so warm that my dad took SAM swimming in the outdoor hot tub. He looked funny in his onesie since we didn't bring bathing suits, but he was having lots of fun. Swimming in January...
Then it was time for the wedding! My grandmother had brought me some jewelery to wear, adn there was a metallic "pearl" necklace that went well with my dress, but we were completely unable to make the clasp work. We ended up wiring it on with some wire that my dad had in the back of his truck. :)
There was a "crying room" in the church, with a big soundproof window in to the sanctuary, and where we were supposed to still be able to hear. But at first we couldn't hear anything, and then after one of the husbands went and got the sound turned on, it was too quiet for us to hear much. But we assumed that everyone who was supposed to said, "I do." :) SAM had a fun time playing with the other babies, and it was nice not to have to try to keep him still and quiet.
Then was the reception, which was much later for SAM than I had counted on. I had thought that with the wedding at 5, he wouldn't have to stay up too late. But that's 6 our time, and the reception took quite a while to drive to. We had assigned tables and a sit-down meal, but by the time the dinner came, it was well past SAM's bedtime. Luckily, he continued is theme for the weekend of behaving perfectly. :) A glass of ice and a spoon kept him (and everyone watching) occupied for a good 20 minutes. :)
The food was excellent, when it finally arrived, and we got to see lots of relatives that we never visit. I even managed to recognize most of them. :) There were lots of people there. After we were finished eating, SAM ran around like a crazy child on the dance floor. He was having a great time with his two-hours-past-my-bedtime energy. Even when the other little boy (who I think had some developmental problems, sadly) came up and punched him in the face and knocked him down, he was only upset for a minute or two. Plus my dad took him out behind the hall, and we saw a possum wandering around! He was ever so excited, and he and my dad wandered off towards the forest while I stood in line for cake. By the time I got it they had disappeared, but luckily they came around from the other direction before I set off into the woods to look for them. :)
After that, we skipped out on the rest of the party and took SAM home. He even stayed awake for the long drive back to the hotel! It was 11 by the time he got to sleep, and he stayed good the whole time. *boggle* I'm so fortunate. :)
I felt less fortunate in the morning, when he woke up at 4:30 local time and wouldn't go back to sleep. I tried to get him down again utnil 6:30, then we gave up and went down to breakfast. Unfortunately, our flight didn't leave until noon, so we had a long time ahead of us to try to keep a very tired boy from falling asleep and ruining his chances of napping on on of the flights. It was a long morning. He was pretty fussy and tired.
We went out to my aunt's house briefly, where SAM was amazed to find cats that didn't run away from him. He wasn't quite sure what to think about that at first, btu then he had a great time ruffling up their fur and following them around. They were very nice cats, tolerating him even when he tried to crawl on top of the big fluffy pillow-like one. :)
Then off to the airport! SAM fell asleep the second the runways came into view, sigh. We couldn't get him to keep his eyes open, so we let him sleep the few minutes until we parked the car, then woke him up. Thank goodness, he didn't decide to throw a fit. (The escalator rides in the terminal had something to do with that, I think.) We made it to our gate with about twenty minutes to spare, so we went back and had lunch at a little chinese place down the hall. It was unusual - it was set up like a buffet, then they charged you based on how much your plate weighed. There was some really tasty fresh fruit, too.
We had to rush back to the plane, but we got ourselves installed in time. No seat for SAM this time (we were sitting next to a very helpful guy who was reading a Dresden Files book, so there was chatting mterial, and in the other seat was a young blind woman). SAM went to sleep instantly and slep the whole flight, so it was okay. :) In Memphis we had about an hour to wait this time, so we moseyed around, got some snacks at the littel store, drove a truck around on the chairs, and generally provided amusement for the other people waiting. When we did get on, for some reason, they had decided that everyone only got one carry-on, INCLUDING purses. Luckily, I was able to stuff my purse into the top of the diaper bag, and that counted.
Thank goodness, I had switched seats using the little computer thing in the morning, so we had an empty seat next to us for SAM, since once we got on the plane they told us that all the luggage had been sent accidentally to the other end of the terminal, and they were short on baggage handlers, and it would be a few extra minutes. We ended up waiting about an hour before we took off, and then when we landed in Knoxville we sat on the runway for a while, so the flight ended up being at least twice as long as it was supposed to be. I was glad we didn't have a connection to make! SAM got a bit squirmy on this flight, but we walked up and down the aisles a bit, and he did okay. BTW, getting a not-quite-two-year-old (who is really saying he has to go just because he wants to play in the sink) pottied and changed in the tiny little airplane bathrooms is difficult. How do people do it with an older, bigger child who still needs help? Madness.
Anyway, we survived my first flight with no other adults, adn SAM's second set of plane trips, with flying colors. (Ugh, just noticed the little wordplay there.) :) It was a pretty good weekend, and now I'm all excited about the prospect of not having to travel until March, if all goes as planned. Moving will fill in the stress-gap nicely, if we manage to buy a house in that time period. :)
I need to post December pictures still... But I want to look at more houses instead. Not to mention, I'm supposed to be putting away the Christmas decorations today, and there is still laundry all over the laundry room needing to be folded. :) Oh well, I got all the ornaments off the tree this morning, and one of the nativities put away, so that's a start.
ETA: What madness was that with the cut? It looks like I forgot to close my tags, but was it really necessary to destroy all the interior text? That was really a weird thing to happen. *sigh* Anyway, fixed now. *keeps an eye on the post for any more misbehavior*