Funky Town

The hardest part about being with my family for three weeks is the end when I have to say goodbye. It really sucks. After leaving home, it usually takes me a few days to get back into the swing of things here. I get into a few-day-funk where I don't really feel like doing much or seeing people. Emma had a fever the first couple days back so that gave me an excuse to be a hermit. I can be pretty moody during this window of time too. I've talked to other friends that live far from their families who generally experience the same thing. Those first few days back are just hard. I love where I live and the life Matt and I have made here, but at the same time there's always a piece missing. Emma can't get make-overs from her cousins or hugs from her grandparents. Jax can't spit up all over his aunts and uncles. My nieces and nephews will continue to look older each time I see them. When I think about it in these terms it makes me really sad, so I just can't go there. It doesn't do any good. Instead, I need to be thankful for the times I do get to spend with my family and enjoy all I have in FL too. I'd say I've been blessed more than I could even imagine in so many ways. So, why complain?

With that, my funk is officially over.

Maine '10

Emma took her first plane ride at the ripe old age of six weeks. Jax followed in his big sister's footsteps and also boarded his first plane at six weeks. This flight was kind of a big deal for Em too (And me!), as she sat in her own seat for the first time (Oh wait, I still have a child on my lap. Eeeh.). Both kids were great on the three hour flight. Of course, it made it a lot easier with grandparents and an aunt and uncle on the place as well. Emma sat between Wawa and Papa and played the whole time and Jax, well, he slept.

The first time Matt and I took a trip with his family to Maine, he held his head out the car window for much of the trip yelling, "I love Maine!" Yes, it was like the pure joy of a dog letting his ears flap in the breeze. Not saying that my husband is a dog, but for someone who loves nature as much as Matt, he's right in his element in Maine. This is one of the things that I love most about him. He can spend hours exploring tide pools, fishing in a lake, or hiking through the woods. I hope our children love being outside and exploring as much as we do. We start them young so I think our chances are good!

We were able to spend time with some of Matt's extended family that I'd never met before, which was a lot of fun. Hopefully we'll see a lot more of them though because it was hard to really engage in much conversation while running after a 2-year old and constantly feeding a 6-week old. I want to nurse for as long as my sanity allows, but times like this make me wish I could just give him a bottle. I mean, I could just give him a bottle, but I want to nurse for at least as long as I did with Emma, which was four months. Uuuug. But then again, formula can be a hassle as well. It's so expensive and makes for stinky spit up and poo. Who needs that? Plus, the boob's always available. I'm like my own Seven-Eleven.

Back to Maine. Pregnancy brain often leads me off track these days.

Except as soon as I wrote that I realized, I'm not pregnant anymore. Duuuh.

Newborn brain. See what I mean? Where's my mind? I think I left it back in the summer of 2009.

I digress.

Again.

While we were there we celebrated Matt's great-aunt's 80th birthday. The party was held at botanical gardens in Booth Bay. It was a gorgeous place with lots of space for all the kids to run around. Emma caught a bullfrog. Okay, not really. Her daddy caught a bullfrog and she chased after it a little and may have built up the courage to touch it once or twice. She did have a great time though, as did the rest of us. There were over sixty people there, and I think the birthday girl was the only one that could identify everyone by name. Aunt Clara not only sends out cards for birthdays and anniversaries of her immediate family, but with each of their children and children's children and as well as each person that marries into the family. With the sixty people that were at the party being only about half of the family, this is pretty impressive. She's quite the lady.

Our 5-year anniversary fell during this week as well. Where did the time go? I can't believe how much has happened in those five years. To celebrate, we went to Pemaquid Point for breakfast on the coast and to walk around the rocks together...until we had to be back to feed Jax. We spent the rest of the week hanging around the lakehouse, shopping in Freeport, picking blueberries on Mt. Battie, and walking around the quaint little towns that Maine's famous for. We also ate a lot of lobstah, which isn't my favorite with the beady little eyes and nasty green stuff inside, but I did eat a lobster roll from Red's Eats. I have to admit, it was pretty good. We also spent the week getting scolded by the natives. Shopkeepers and random motorists yelled at us for silly things that no one but miserable people would care about. When did Maine get so anal?? Apparently in the two years since we were there last.

Matt and I flew out of Logan so we could spend the day with our sweet little family in Boston. He had the day all planned out with maps and directions to each of our destinations. One thing we failed to plan for was parking though. Big oops. We spent a lot of the day exploring the city from the, ahem, comfort of our own car because we could never find a place to park. Boo. We were also planning to take a tour of Fenway, but weren't able to get there in time. Crazy city driving. Instead, we just walked around outside the ballpark. It was probably best with our two kiddos anyway. We made our way to Harvard, but got so annoyed with the whole parking thing that we just moved onto the next location where we ended up spending the rest of the day. Boston Commons was the perfect place to spend an afternoon (Plus there was plenty of parking!). After being on the move the week before, it was nice to just relax and sit by a pond and enjoy each other. We needed to relax before the airport mayhem that we were to encounter that night was well.

Matt purposefully booked a flight after mine and the kids so he could help me out in the airport. Except Logan isn't a user-friendly airport. Our airlines were in different terminals, which would be fine in a normal airport. In Logan though, you can't go between terminals. I've never heard of such nonsense. Matt helped me check-in, then ran to his check-in, realized that I had checked the wrong bag (whoops), ran back to me, got the right bag that had already been checked, ran back to check his bag, and then ran back again to go through security in my terminal with his escort pass...except he wasn't escorting anyone. HA. Finally we met up again at my gate with a few minutes to spare. Good thing we planned ahead. Upon landing, I also realized that we had left Em's carseat on the shuttle from the car rental place. It's now Wed. and we have yet to locate it. I'm not so impressed with Thrifty's customer service. Thankfully my parents had a carseat in their car when they picked us up. The blessing of multiple grandchildren. :)

Now I'm with the kids in NY for 2 weeks, hanging out with my family and hopefully catching up with some friends. I love summer in the Northeast. Florida's great the rest of the year but summer's are killer with the heat. Thank goodness for this month-long escape.