Meeting the Family

Last week the kids and I ventured to Iowa to see my family. Big thanks to my in laws for riding up with me. They had come down for the weekend. We even got a night free to go out with our friends the Walters for a double date. We got to go out to dinner and see comedian Dave Attell. It was so much fun. I hope we get to do that again. At the end of the weekend, Gina and Tim drove up with me. It was so much easier to be able to ride in the back with Olivia. She actually did pretty good as long as she could see me and as long as I could give her back her pacifier and help her back to sleep. She has such a hard time staying asleep. When we got to Grandma's, my nieces Ashley and Michele were there. It was so good to see them. It had been a long time. Aidan instantly loved them, Ashley in particular. Michele loves babies and was inseparable from Olivia. It was kind of strange to see her hold and feed Olivia since Michele was the first diaper I ever changed 15 years ago. We had so much fun together during their time in Iowa. And I always enjoy spending time with Julie and I don't get to do that very often. After their visit, Aidan got to spend time with Sophie, Emma, and Sarah. It's neat how the older she gets the more Aidan will include her in his play. This time they played tag together and Aidan was very gentle with her. It was so cute. Although Sarah wasn't sure what to make of her mommy holding Olivia. I think there was a little jealousy as she climbed up in her mommy's lap while she was trying to see Olivia. It's hard not to be the baby in the family anymore. ;) Something else I noticed this trip was how much my niece Emma has grown. She's almost a teenager now and boy does she look like it. I don't know who gave all these kids the idea that they could grow up but it wasn't me. It makes me feel old. Liz will be 18, Ashley will be 17, Michele is 15 and now Emma is 11 1/2. It's only a matter of time before I say the same thing about my own kids. I can't hardly believe that Olivia is 11 weeks old now. She's smiling all the time and cooing. She had a 5 minute conversation with my mom. Apparently she had a lot to tell Grandma about. Of course she won't do that for me. While we were at my parents, Olivia got to meet her Great Grandma too. My grandmother and great aunt came down to visit. We were able to get a 4 generations picture with Aidan and Olivia in it. And I was able to get some pics of Ashley and Michele with their great grandma too. It was such a great trip and it was wonderful to see everyone and have everyone meet Olivia. Of course that meant the trip home would be terrible. Aidan was great on the ride home. He always is. This time I had a DVD player for him and he watched movies the whole way home which helped him tune out Olivia. As for her, she cried for 40 minutes before falling asleep. She did nap for a little over an hour. We had to stop for an hour for lunch for all of us, potty break (which Aidan refused to go and held it the whole way home), and gas. After that, it was a lot of crying and a little sleep here and there for her. Then, I decided to take the back way home when I got to St. Louis to avoid rush hour on the beltway and it backfired. It added 30 minutes to my trip. So that and the crying and my own fatigue really wore on me. By the time I got home I had to warn Julien that anything he said for the following hour would just be wrong and to expect me to be pissy. After an hour I calmed down a bit and was able to relax. Boy was I tired and enjoyed a full night of sleep. Now if I could just get Olivia to do the same thing. It was a great trip but I think we'll wait a while before we do it again.