…and off to the Plane;
Flying with 2 toddlers and an infant??
We must be insane!

We had a wonderful trip to Buffalo to celebrate Christmas with Grandma and Grampa Jaromin and my sister’s families. Getting there, however, was another story.

Mad Dash

The children were nestled all snug in their bed,
Blissfully unaware of the drama ahead,

First there was the thrice-delayed flight. While the delay itself wasn’t all that long (~2.5hours), the timing was rather inconvenient. It meant that instead of heading out around 10:30am for a 1:25pm flight, we were left anxiously watching southwest.com for flight updates until around 1:30 — which was an hour into the kids naps. It suddenly became clear that there was going to be a flight afterall, sometime after 3:00pm. With this realization we immediately snatched groggy kids from their comfy beds, strapped them into their car seats and made a mad dash to Midway. With less than an hour to go, we arrived at the airport. Thanks to curbside check-in and family security gates, we made it to the gate with 15 minutes to spare…only to find that the flight had again been delayed by about an hour.

In this case the delay provided a bit of welcome “breathing room.”

Musical Chairs

With Annalise buckled in her seat and Sean in my lap,
Mama and I hoping that Nathan would nap!

There are 4 overhead air masks per seat section on your typical MD80. We acquired this tidbit many months ago when traveling with 2 “lap children.” On a very full flight, a helpful attendant informed us that we’d need to split up since the four of us plus the stranger in the third seat made 5. Now that we were five all on our own, we knew we couldn’t sit together. Through a difficult-to-reconstruct-and-even-harder-to-convey process, somehow each of us wound up sitting with the opposite of the kid(s) we began the flight with.

The Descent

When from the row behind mine, there arose such a wailin’
I knew the descent would not be smooth sailin’

Then, it was time to land. At this point, Annalise and Sean were sitting in the row behind me with their Mother, while I was content cradling a sleeping Nathan. This is when Annalise broke down. And by “broke down,” I mean that she began screaming “Daddy” so loudly that I’m not entirely uncertain the pilots couldn’t hear her. Being the perceptive person that I am, I knew that something must be done. I bravely pressed the “call” button. The response was swift and decisive — If you’ve accidentally pressed the call button, please turn it off now, thank you. I looked around to see nothing but other travelers, women mainly, looking at me with mostly empathetic eyes, at least one of them mouthing something about wanting to help.

In all fairness, the flight attendant did continue on over the intercom with something to the effect that you should press it again if it was a true emergency, but by that point, I had already propped up a now stirring Nathan in the seat next to mine, twisted around and pulled Annalise over the seat back and onto my lap. And that was how we landed, with Annalise, eyes closed and silent, on one knee and Nathan on the other.

Turns out we were lucky, for even as we were lining up for take off, the rapidly rising temperatures gave birth to fog and extremely poor visibility.

Midway was closed by 7:00pm that evening.

A Grand Visit

Then down the jet-way, our nerves raw and fried,
Well-met at the gate, Papa! Grandma! they cried;
So up to Grandma’s house- Nathan’s sleeping anew,
With the house full of new toys — and Papa!, Papa! too:

The weekend was great fun. It primarily consisted of ~3-year olds Annalise and cousin Samantha playing very enthusiastically together, while Sean tried to keep up with his much older cousins Shea and Josh. High winds off the lake resulted in an hours long power outage at G&G’s house, necessitating the move to my sister’s in Hamburg. In spite of this very minor inconvenience, a grand time was had by all!

The Cousins with Grandma

An (Thankfully) Uneventful Return

Nearly everyone slept for the entire flight home. Whew!

With the view out my window all winter-y and white,
I reflect on a great trip, and hair-raising flight!

Merry Christmas Everybody!

...and to All a Good Night!

It’s been rather busy around the house, and I’ve been trying to find the time to create this new, consolidated blog. Consequently, we’ve yet to post an entry to say that — we’re expecting our third! The due date is November 10th. A couple weeks ago, after returning from Las Vegas, we went in for our “20 week” ultrasound. Grandma and Aunt Bethie were there when we learned … it’s a boy and here he is:

I had a great time this weekend, visiting with my Grandma and Grandpa. They took Annalise and I for walks every day, and we played all the time! Here I am practicing my sippy cup with Grandma. I can’t wait to see them again. What’s this “Christmas” thing they keep talking about? It sounds like fun.

Since our last post, we’ve been to Buffalo to help Grandma and Grandpa celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary…and Sean’s been getting closer and closer to crawling. He’s now easily rolling in both directions and frequently will arch his back with only his toes and hands on the floor for brief stints. It’s only a matter of time. It’s common now to put him on the floor, turn our back and find him a yard or more from where we left him, facing in a different direction. Annalise was walking just shy of 9mos…I’m thinking Sean won’t be too much later (if not earlier).

As for teeth, there are now two on the bottom with a third breaking through in the top. His last Dr. visit he weighed in at a whopping 20lbs 12oz. and is wearing (quite snuggly) 12 mos. clothes.
Mom managed to capture this video of Sean playing with an infant gym in a rather unique way…

Well, more like a plane to Florida…where Grandma and Grandpa spend the coldest part of the year. I spent most of my time hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa…they had the *coolest* toy that I just loved playing with…for hours at a time! I liked it so much, Grandma sent it home with me.

Mom and Dad say I was very good on this trip and even now I don’t act as “fussy” as I used to. I’m not sure what the big deal is, but it seems to make them very happy. My sister’s written more here.

Last weekend we went to Columbus, Ohio for Christmas! I know, that’s what I said….who ever heard of Christmas in October? In any case, as this was my very first “Christmas,” I wasn’t about to complain. It all started when Mommy and Daddy took me on another plane ride to visit my Aunt Amy and Uncle Chris and my cousins Zack and Addie – whom I met for the first time. Grandma and Grandpa were there with the rest of Daddy’s side of the family. I got my very own cell phone and car keys! They’re fun, but for some reason, I still prefer Mommys’. Zack and Addie’s new house is very nice and I had a great time crawling around with my cousin Samantha…but I didn’t get much sleep and by the end of weekend I was totally wiped out. The best part is I heard Mommy and Daddy say something about the next Christmas being in December in Naperville. If they have Christmas in Columbus in October and Naperville in December, where can we go to have Christmas in November? Maybe South Bend, Indianna?

We had a great time celebrating the 4th of July at the cabin with Gramma and Grampa Jaromin and all of the Laubenstein cousins. Everyone was so surprised when they saw the double stroller we bought for Daddy! (I see that Annalise has already written a blog about our big news.)

Annalise sure enjoyed visiting with Gramma and Grampa. They went swimming, out for walks and to the park.

Sorry it’s been so long since we’ve posted, but we’ve had a busy couple weeks. Annalise took her first plane ride to Buffalo, NY to see her Gramma and Grampa and and to meet her cousins, aunts, and uncles. She did great on the plane! No crying at all! We all had fun visiting out in Buffalo.

Annalise is getting so big! She was 15 lbs, 10 oz at her 4 month doctor’s appointment. She did better with her immunizations than Mommy did!

Annalise rolled from her back to her belly today (5/31/06). Unfortunately, we did not have the camera anywhere near us so you’ll just have to take our word on it!

It was a very busy weekend at the Jaromin household. Saturday (5/13/06) we had Annalise baptised at Alleluia Lutheran Church in Naperville. She did very well until the pastor wanted to walk her around the congregation. She started crying as soon as she was in his arms! She looked beautiful in the christening gown that Grammie (Laubenstein) made for Kaelin 15 years ago. The other cousins have worn it as well, so it was a nice tradition to continue. I think Grammie and Poppie would have been happy to see her wearing it. Everyone gathered at our house afterward for dinner and cake. Sunday was Mother’s Day. Annalise and Daddy did a very good job of spoiling me today. Apparently while I wasn’t looking, Annalise called Daddy and told him to order a Palm Pilot and two dozen roses for me for Mother’s Day. Daddy also gave me an early Mother’s Day gift by landscaping the backyard while Annalise and I were at the cabin last weekend with Aunt Bethie and Keara. It looks beautiful! The roses are beautiful too and I’m having a lot of fun learning about all the things I can do with the PalmOne. We are looking forward to going to Buffalo this week to see Gramma and Grandpa Jaromin and the rest of the Jaromin family!