After much agonizing, I decided to take Thomas to Yakima to meet the new baby. His cold appears to be wrapping up, and he's looking better all the time. It was difficult leaving John behind for many reasons, and the thought of all the "what ifs" is enough to send a person over the edge. At one point I even considered the clothing we were wearing in case of a crash landing in the Cascades and I had to walk Thomas out. Uhhhhh.....just a little crazy you might think! Aside from a very sick stomach due to nerves, the trip out of Bellingham was wonderful. We shared our area with a flight attendant stationed in Alaska and she was great to sit and chat with. I didn't even have to take out our new portable DVD player, as Thomas was very content to eat his snacks and watch out the window. He seemed to enjoy pointing out the ships that dotted the coastline as we flew to Seattle. Thomas cried pretty good during landing and clawed at his ears and face, but he made it through it all and pulled it together on the landing. You can try all the tricks to help on landing, but the drink, the binkie, the candy and the crackers-nothing worked this time.
Once at Seatac, a very intuitive employee read the look on my face as absolute confusion, and quickly hussled Thomas and I back down an elevator, down an outdoor tunnel and pointed us to the shuttle bus that we needed to take. Without her guidance Thomas and I would probably still be walking around the terminal wondering why we couldn't find our gate. I asked the shuttle driver where I should have looked to see that I had to go outside the terminal to ride the bus to get to another gate, and he smiled at me and told me that I could have also taken the inside tram. Uhhhh....that didn't quite answer my question, but I'll let my ignorance go at this point. Good thing for helpful terminal employees.
The flight to Yakima was fantastic. There was an open seat next to me and I was able to strap Thomas in to the seat and sit back while he ate his Goldfish and watched Elmo. Thanks God for Elmo. What a wonderful creature. The whole family met us at the airport, and that was a lot of fun. In 30 years I've never flown into or out of Yakima, and this was a fun experience. So much better than the 4 plus hour drive it takes to get there by car.
And Baby Grace! What a beautiful little girl she is, and I'm NOT one of those people who thinks every baby is cute. Oh, no! They are not ALL cute, but I think Baby Grace is Beautiful! And the rumors about her big toe are true. Sad, but true. Poor thing. It's gonna be rough!
While there, we played a lot at the house, as the weather was quite cold. Drew is big into card and board games, and Jake and Thomas continue to play well together. Thomas isn't too thrilled about the dogs as he was rushed by a couple of dogs at the park the week before we came, and he is quite good at saying, "Go" and "Bite" whenever the dogs would come near him. Mother is not thrilled let me tell you, but neither was John as these two crazy dogs nearly took Thomas out at the park. I don't have a problem with this as the neighbor dog near us is a big Great Dane that bites, the gardener next door brings her Rottweiler with her and the neighbors on the other side of us have two out of control springer spaniels that have lost their minds. Of course, it's the Weener dog on the corner that gets called on. Go figure!
I am very impressed and proud of Andrea, as if she needs my opinions, though. Baby Grace is such a wonderful little girl, but Andrea is already out and about, going to church, going out and shopping, and while I napped and lounged around, Andrea was up cooking and cleaning house. I do believe I was in a hormonal, sleep deprived coma at two weeks post partum and that must have lasted for a good six months. I still haven't gone to church.....well, not quite true, but close! I take her for granted, as I realized when I left. I just expected she'd be like normal, and then when I thought about it and realized how remarkable it really is to me that life is running just normally for them, if a little bit more hectic. I could not do it, and I question whether or not I want to add another little one to my life. I really enjoy the peace and quiet of our day to day routine here in Bellingham, and in a family of 3 little children, life is anything but peaceful and quiet. Best birth control ever, let me tell you! We enjoyed busy trips to the store, to Sears to take pictures, a couple side trips to Starbucks to kill my caffeine withdrawal headaches and a fabulous lunch from Miners, my absolute favorite place to eat in Yakima. Thomas wasn't down with sledding behind the three wheeler, unfortunately, so I missed out on a little action. That's okay, though. Plenty of time to teach Thomas how to get down and dirty on the big toys!
Some funny events for me to remember.....sleeping in the Aerobed Taco, eating a bag of chocolates, Bronco ride to Ft Simcoe, watching the boys sledding with Dad, words with the grumpy santa in the Mall, Thomas throwing up pink chunks at the mall due to coughing, elevator incident (did I pass the discipline test, Mom?) showdown at the Sears portrait studio and watching Billy try to figure out if I was going to blow, Thomas sleeping in my arms on the plane from Yakima to Seattle
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