Weekend in Wisconsin

Noah and I had a grand adventure last weekend, visiting my sister, Jen, in Wisconsin. She lives in a little town outside of Madison with her hubbie, Chris, and their three (!) boys—Andrew, 8; Brendan, 6; Evan, 3.

We left Mount Vernon/Columbus Friday night in muggy, 80-degree heat, and said goodbye to David at the airport (too sad, by the way... we're not good at goodbyes!).

Noah and I got to the Midwest Airlines gate just as they called our row, so onto the plane we went. This was not his first plane ride; he went on FIVE flights in fall when he traveled with my mom and I to San Antonio for my company's annual conference. But, he was also 3 months old at the time and was perfectly content to hang out on my lap and play with "Leap" the ABC frog.

I knew this trip would be a different story. Noah rarely likes to be lap-bound these days as his world is so much more mobile—crawling and walking (wobbling) anywhere he can manage. So when we sat down I stuffed my giant activity backpack under the seat in front of me, yanked out a few books and toys, and buckled in.

Noah immediately had to check out his surroundings. He found the window shade first, pushing it down, pulling it up. Repeat. Repeat. Pinch finger. Cry one second. Move on. And then he discovered (lunged at) the man sitting next to us. That nice man immediately reassured me that he had two girls at home and Noah wouldn't be a bother. Whew.

And so it went. We managed to get through the nearly one-hour flight without so much as a whimper (including some VERY quiet moments when the flight attendant delivered warm chocolate chip cookies to our row—a Midwest signature snack). But when we landed in Wisconsin, we arrived just ahead of a massive thunderstorm (the same one my poor sister and nephew had been maneuvering on their way to the airport). Our one-hour flight turned into one hour and 40 minutes. Rats.

That was about 15 minutes longer than Noah was interested in being on a plane. But he really did great. He fussed a little, but I managed to keep him distracted between calls to my sister and David. And once the thunderstorm passed, we were finally able to deboard and meet up with Jen and Evan, our official welcoming committee.

Hugs all around, we rounded up our luggage, loaded into Jen's minivan and drove the 75 minutes to Jen's house.

When we arrived, her boys had waited up past their bedtime, but they were still excited to see us. Noah had just napped for an hour, so he was wide-eyed (aka: afraid) and refreshed. He stayed up until 11 PM (midnight eastern time) that night, and we were BOTH exhausted the next day.

It was a laid-back day on Saturday, with everyone just enjoying one another's company. Noah took a giant, three-hour nap that day, no doubt just trying to catch up from the sleep he protested the night prior. It was too cold outside (barely 50) to do much playing or outside fun, so we stuck to the cozy indoors.

The boys were so eager to share with Noah and I all of their favorite things. That day I had a whirlwind tour of their favorite Wii games, High School Musical 2, the toys in their rooms, their favorite treats, the house, etc. It was all utterly cute, and their excitement was infectious. In fact, I think it kept me awake since I was running on empty.

All went well right up to the point when Evan said, "My tummy hurts." Uh-oh. What we hoped was one Twizzler too many turned out to be a classic case of the stomach flu. The poor little man was in and out of the bathroom more than a half-dozen times that day/night. Knowing that Evan and Noah had been playing together just minutes before the first projectiles flew, my sister looked defeatedly at me and said, "sorry." Oh boy... nothing like waiting for the stomach flu to arrive!

So it was a bit of a restless night. I would hear Evers in his bed starting to moan or calling for his mom. I would run into the boys' bedroom and race Ev to the bathroom, then call down to Jen in the process. Good stuff!

We all survived the night, and Sunday morning Noah and I began preparations to head home already.

This time, the plane ride was picture-perfect. We didn't even have anyone sitting next to us, so big guy had plenty of room to groove. By 2 p.m., we were back in Columbus, and Noah was happily babbling in a relieved David's arms. David had a prior painting engagement, so Noah and I drove home and crashed for a few hours.

All in all, the trip was MUCH too short. It wasn't even a 48-hour visit! But, I am so grateful that my sister paid for Noah and I to come visit. It was the first time I've ever seen her house (and she's lived there two? years or so), and I've missed her tremendously since she moved from Cleveland. And I learned a lot while I was there too...

What I learned about being the parent of three boys

1. They are rough and rowdy, and that's just the way it is. Giving them dolls, or playing dress up will not serve any purpose in hoping to not "influence" them into loving little-boy toys like trucks and video games. As it turns out, they are hard wired to be BOYS, and it shows.

2. And for all the moments they are rough and rowdy, they are equally as sweet. I felt my heart lift at the sight of my 3-, 6- and 8-year-old nephews cuddling with their mom and dad and with me (Noah too!). I feel a little panicky every time Noah pushes off my lap to go exploring, and this helped me realize that my little boy might still want to hang out with his mom for a few more years.

3. You just can't prepare for the standard noise level when you have three boys. Even watching a movie is loud, because the sound effects and lines in the movie must be repeated—louder and more boisterously than I ever thought possible. If I had three boys, I would own stock in Advil.

4. It is the neatest thing to watch boys work together. Normally you would think that little girls are the ones that play well together, but it turns out that boys can manage this from time to time too. And it's neat. Jen's boys did this a few times over the weekend (I'm sure to show off for me), and I just had to smile about it.

5. The food they eat is insane!! Since I never got to experience my older brothers at that age (they are 7 and 6 years older than me), I wasn't prepared to watch them scarf down a stack of seven pancakes with ease. After all, these guys aren't teenagers, they're not even TWEENagers... but they have appetites. Funny thing is, Noah fit right in with him. On Saturday morning he ate 1.5 pancakes and two-thirds of a banana. Wow.

What I learned about how much I miss NON-Nutrisystem food

1. Good old-fashioned white bread never tasted so good as to when I ate a grilled cheese (with yummy, melty Velveeta) for lunch, and peanut-butter toast for breakfast. YUM!!

2. The inventor of plain potato chips is a genius.

3. Pizza larger than a cup saucer is extraordinary, particularly when it's oozing extra cheese, sausage and sweet garlic.

4. Have you had a real pancake lately? They are visions of fluffy, buttery goodness.

5. Full-flavor beer is neat too. After just one I felt a little silly. So fun.

What I learned through my camera lense (thanks, Tim & Ni for sending back my camera!):

Noah's FAVORITE person in Wisconsin was Uncle Chris, who hates having his picture taken. So you'll have to take my word for it that Noah is thrilled to be hanging out on Uncle Chris' lap in this picture after his giant pancake breakfast.



Brendan did not appreciate Noah wrecking his game of Scrabble, but Evs was having a grand time being Spiderman before the puking began.



Auntie Tif LOVES her nephews (L-R: Evan, Brendan, Tif, Noah, Andrew):



This is one way to entertain a nearly 11-month-old in the airport. Buy him a big bottle of water and let him zoom around. Noah thought it was great...



Noah never slept a second on the airplane, but getting his picture taken with mommy must have exhausted him.



It was a GREAT trip! See how happy Noah is, sitting up like a big boy in the seat? Thanks, Auntie Jen & Uncle Chris!