Return from the Land of the Still and Quiet

X-man and I returned home from our five-day excursion to St. John in the U.S.V.I. It's his second trip down there in a year, and we were encouraged to visit again thanks to a wedding invitation for my cousin. Destination weddings are expensive, and our family plus my parents were the only ones able to really make it down. But the three of us don't turn down beach time in crystal blue waters -- ever.

This year was actually more exciting than last because my child who cannot float at the pool by himself without first somehow filling his swim shorts with air was able to float in salt water just find. He was a buoyant baby. Want to know how I know... perhaps the cutest thing I've ever seen him do (besides when he got his eyes tested for kindergarten) was throw on fins, a mask and a snorkel, dive into water head first, kicking his way out into sea. We stayed closed to shore, but some of the beaches easily got over his head. And he totally didn't care. When he had enough, rather than standing up, he swam back to shallower waters. Except the one time we saw a puffer fish eating a dead crab underwater. He was so excited at the size of it that he stood up, grabbed on to me shouting and pulled me under. Doh. I'm a pretty okay swimmer, so I got him calmed down and back into shore without too much trouble (that's why we didn't venture more than 40 feet away from the beach or over any coral with him).

I have pictures to show you, but they're in a camera in some luggage that didn't make the drastic gate change from D49 at one end of Miami airport (still my least favorite airport) to E-5. So, we're waiting on them to come home. One of these days, I'll be rich enough to afford a ticket from ORD to STT direct without having to make transfers. But since airfare for three was $1,800 and we got to go for free with MacTroll's miles, I'm not complaining. Our whole trip was maybe $800.

The wedding was lovely. We couldn't stay too much for the party, but X-man was full of his 1,000 questions at the wedding ceremony, which my parents found very entertaining. X-man went swimming at the pool at my Aunt's resort with MacTroll while I got some exercise walking around town. Then we dried them off and got them to the reception at Rhumb Lines. (Self service rum available. I made myself a coconut raspberry martini.) But you could also make use of the open bar.

Also, turns out my kid has the sweetest blood ever. Every night he'd emerge from his room at the house we were staying in with giant welts from mosquito bites all over his body. I sprayed him with some mosquito repellent but that stuff only lasts 3 hours, and, of course, the first night I got his arms and legs but forgot his feet... and no one likes bites on their feet.

The house itself was on the south side of the island, but it was at one dead end on top of a cliff -- great for cool breezes, but a kind of a distance to drive to the beach. The road this house was on didn't connect to our normal south end beach, so you had to drive all the way around the other side of the island and come back to visit any of our usual places. But the house was free thanks to a family friend, and we were very grateful for their hospitality and that X-man got to see my dad and stepmother for a few days. He's had the honor of vacationing with all of his grandparents this summer.

Our 18-hour trip home yesterday was very taxing. My child had enough brains to wake up at 7 a.m., pee and go back to sleep. His mother did not. I was was up at 6:15 a.m. I've showered, done some laundry and opened the mail. Wait, I even ate some oatmeal. MacTroll on the other hand, never made it to Austin. His day of travel stopped short in Dallas.

Mother nature really screwed us yesterday. But today, today is going to be a wonderfully productive day.

If I Were My Husband...

I would totally spend the ample amount of time I spend in airports writing down weird ass things people say and then I'd sell it as some kind of coffee table quote book. I visited four airports today flying back from Montreal (hey, it was a free ticket... I don't get to argue about free when gas is $4 a gallon). Anyway, Montreal was obviously the most normal airport. It was the start of a long holiday weekend in Canada so families were everywhere. They've done a lot of restructuring of the airport inside and out, so there are more food choices than there used to be where American Airlines flies out. It was nice to walk in and get a yogurt parfait and a San Pellegrino at 7 a.m. It was nicer that at 6 a.m. when I left the W hotel by cab, it was bright and sunny outside.

Anyway, Montreal's airport has, since I was last there in October, gotten free wifi. No more Boingo Hotspot for $6.95. It would be really nice if LaGuardia and O'Hare had the same option. It was an hour flight into New York, and the pilot took us on a nice cruise over the Empire State Building and then over Ground Zero. I haven't been to NYC since 1999. I keep thinking MacTroll and I should go for a long weekend, but then the moment passes. (By the way, my husband who hates to shop anywhere that's not the Gap Outlet Store in Tuscola, CLEANED up shopping on Fifth Avenue in 1999. I was shocked. I guess when you have store after store after store you're excited about new duds. I don't know what the difference was between that and the fact that we lived two miles from Tyson's Corner in Northern Virginia with most of the same stores, but hey, I'm all for people finding things they like in stores.)

LaGuardia Airport is also undergoing renovations. It's an armpit of an airport. I hate any airport where you have to LEAVE security to get to another terminal. That's just asking for trouble. Plus, the gate agent and the people leaving on the 11:55 a.m. flight to Chicago (I went out on the next one), were extremely rude. They were calling people by their group numbers to board, but people kept trying to bud in and board out of order, and the agent kept sending them away to wait their turns. Plus, then they'd all crowd in so the people being called couldn't get to the jetbridge. MacTroll informs me that these people are called "gate lice."

So the AA agent gets on and in much nicer words than these admonishes the folks for not listening and basically calls them stupid and impatient. It was awesome. There was also some psycho girl who kept talking about all the stars her Dad helps out because he runs a bodyguard business in Manhattan. An older man who was taking a call about my hometown Rockford and then realized the entire gate could hear him and suddenly got all paranoid -- while he was being super loud. Then there was the drug user, former Harvard student who was sitting next to me talking to her brother in Chicago about a mess of dumb ass things. It was awesome. I put some of the quotes up on Facebook. It had been awhile since that much random crazy had been within 10 feet of me.

As it turns out my 1:35 flight to Chicago was much less crazy. Although it did have a couple assholes on it who were, not a surprise, both sitting next to me. You know the kind. The plane door has closed, we're taxiing to the runway, the announcement has been made to put away electronic devices -- and one asshole is still texting and the other is still talking -- loudly on his phone. So the flight attendant has to ask -- twice. And then just before we're turning to take off has to literally scold them into putting them away.

In Chicago, it was business as usual. I picked up a salad at CIBO Express with some flavored water and sat down at G19A to eat it. Then we boarded the plane to Champaign. Again, nothing special, until we were getting out bags off the baggage claim and suddenly shouting happens. A young man had just returned from two weeks in some kind of military program. A group of people were there to meet him (although he was really confused as to how to exit the Champaign airport from the gates -- which is weird because there are only 4 gates and one security hallway in the whole airport). Anyway, down at the baggage claim the kid's mother starts SCREAMING that this girl that she doesn't know is trying to turn her son against his own mother. The son is walking away from her embarrassed. Then the girl starts to shout at the mother. The mother shouts back. Then the son says, "I'm gone for two weeks and this shit is still going on?" And he walks out of the airport. Everyone at the baggage claim looks dumbfounded and then they start to laugh, because what the hell else do you do when weird talk-show-esque fights erupt in public. How odd.

Tonight, we have a special guest at our house. Bubba came over and he and X-man have been playing cars and Batman and Transformers all night while they eat pizza, watch movies and share 3D Super Mario Gummis. Bubba was totally awesome about clean up, and he only admonished MacTroll a bit when he missed a spot of pizza sauce during his wipe down of the table. But he was ever so polite about it.

Quigs will also be glad to know that it's God that saves Hiccup in How to Save Your Dragon. :-) Toothless is apparently part of the Lord's Army.

I'll have pre-school graduation show movies at some point, but MacTroll apparently didn't move his butt to the right side of the room when he filmed it with his iPhone (He took the camera, but didn't realize the battery was in the charger.) and so most of the films and photos are of the rest of the class and the top of X-man's head on the other side of the room.

But getting back to where I started from -- MacTroll travels 10-13 days a month. Do you know how much crazy he could capture at airports during that time? He could totally put a book together and sell it on Amazon.

Oh, and still no definitive word on Riley. Our vet had some questions that she didn't get from the radiologist, so we'll find out on Monday, or if she calls/e-mails earlier once she hears from him. He's eaten by himself today and is able to walk around okay on flat surfaces. I'll be spending the night on the couch downstairs just in case he needs to get up in the middle of the night. MacTroll's been doing it since I was gone, so it's only fair that it's my turn.

Birthday Adventures

Tomorrow is X-man's fifth birthday. I'm excited. He's excited. MacTroll's excited.

We're heading up to Chicago to go to the Children's Museum at Navy Pier again. We haven't been there since X-man was 2 and a half. I wonder how that review of mine will stand up to a 5 year old.

That's right, at this time in 2006, I'd been feeling regular contractions for about an hour. I remember being excited because I knew we were getting close. And let's face it, I was a miserable pregnant woman. I was at my wit's end six weeks earlier, so at this point I was sitting up letting MacTroll time my contractions when I should have been trying to sleep. Little did I know he wouldn't actually vacate my body until 24 hours later. Yup, I pushed that giant head and its 10.2 lb body outta me. And doing that once -- was quite enough. :-)

(And, although he's holding up five fingers in that last photo, it was taken a year ago, just after his 4th birthday.)

On Saturday, the whole family is leaving for Toronto for a conference where MacTroll is speaking. X-man and I will return on Tuesday, while MacTroll will fly from Canada to Seattle and then come back home again. But hopefully, we'll at least we'll get some time at the Science Center in Toronto and do some painting at the Paint Lounge in Markham. Plus, they have a pool, and a gym in the hotel with a daycare, so I can get some workouts in. Hooray!

When we return, Illinois will be on spring break, and hopefully the weather will allow us to get on the bike and pedal about. A girl can dream, can't she?

Christmas Makes Me Do Stupid Things

We're staying home for the holidays this year. My mom and her dog Coconut are headed down our way the Thursday before Christmas and are staying until that Monday. But we weren't going to see my father or stepmother or my sister, so we decided we'd meet up in Rockford on Sunday.

Sunday -- during the blizzard like conditions that existed between our home and theirs. And like crazy people, we piled in the car with our child and our dog and we drove to Rockford. We'd driven through crappy weather before. We remember one trip back from Chicago on our way to pick up the dog where we watched six semis, two RVs and four large pick ups fall off of Rt. 57 in the snow, while our plucky VW Golf got us home on the highway, and with some creative navigating got us out to pick up Riley at Doggies on the Farm and back home. That was a 4-hour drive from Chicago which was usually two  and a half.

Yesterday was the 4.5 hour drive to Rockford, which is usually 3. The worst of the trip was from Bloomington to Mendota. It's a long hour and 15 minute strip. Every time we went under an overpass, we'd lose any visibility. A couple times, we found ourselves a group of folks and just hung behind them using them to light our way like Rudolph. Then the wind would clear (because let's face it accumulation wasn't a problem the 50 mph wind was) and we'd pass them and then end up on our own again. If we pulled over, it was going to have to be at a hotel because we had the dog -- so we just kept going -- slow and steady.

MacTroll's response when we arrived in Rockford, "You're right -- we should have stayed home."

The one bright part of the trip, besides the fact that we still really love how our RAV-4 performs in winter weather was that I found the App called Glympse, which let me e-mail and facebook a live map of where I was so that family and friends could see it. I knew my mother would totally dig thing -- and she did. I can also apparently use it when I'm on my run routes, which could come in handy for things like running the half marathon in Florida next October with my friends Sara and Christa.

My sister gave Joel a book about sustainable meat for Christmas that he really likes. She also gave us some rabbit to go with it. I've never cooked rabbit, so I'm reading the book and looking in some of my other cookbooks for some ideas. Anyone know how rabbit tastes? It might help me decide how to prepare it.

Tomorrow is Errand Tuesday. You name it, I'm doing it. Recycling batteries at Anita Purves, donating towels to my vet, dropping off my petitions to be on the Tolono library board, finishing stocking shopping, donating some household things to Goodwill, buying a space heater... fixing the Christmas lights that the 50mph wind tore down from the front porch... and finishing MacTroll's Christmas gift, which requires a trip to the art store for a certain utensil.

Our possible trip to Calfornia in January just got canceled. The two-week gig MacTroll thought he might have to do got canceled. So, we're going to try to reschedule our 3-day Chicago trip (with trip to Ikea). I also bought a beginning climbing pass for the climbing place in Bloomington that I need to use. So we're looking at weekends to head that way. :-)

A special happy birthday to three of my favorite friends who are having birthdays this week. You're all younger than me, so you know, I'll save a place in hell for ya. :-P

Vacation Take 2

We showed up at the airport this morning ready to take off for California. Except the plane broke and the one they replaced it with had less seats than the original and because X-man and I were flying on free award tickets, we got bumped. But MacTroll, of course, was already checked in and ready to go. Since Delta pulled out of CMI, we've had a lot of problems at the little airport. They need more flights. Every flight in and out is oversold. It's been making problems for MacTroll and work, since he usually books his flight around 7-9 days in advance of when he goes, and often times, there aren't any seats.

It's better than it could be. At least Bloomington is relatively close by. But this morning their flight to Chicago was oversold. Sooooo -- American is having a Green Taxi pick us up at our place to drive us to Peoria to fly to Chicago. Then we get a later flight to San Francisco. So, we'll get in at 7:15 p.m. instead of 1:15 p.m. and will probably not be able to go see MacTroll's brother and his family.

X-man doesn't take well to sudden change. He felt upset that we were the only ones not getting on the airplane as they asked for volunteers to give up their seats for vouchers. A few people did, but not enough to get us at #4 and #5 spaces on the plane. Then the American Airlines agent made him an origami swan. X-man was so smitten he hugged her. Then he got picked up and carried behind the desk and she made him a jumping frog while the other agent worked on our issue. The crew at American at CMI is awesome. I know that with MacTroll's frequent travels he appreciates them a lot. And they like that when crazy stuff like this happens, we don't flip our lids.

So here we are at home for an extra hour and a half before the taxi comes... We'll see how this turns out for a short trip to California. On the plus side, we were given $1,200 worth of American vouchers, and now MacTroll and I are planning a trip to Paris... maybe for my 35th birthday.

Family

MacTroll has been traveling for work since 2002. It's been over eight years of him being gone at least two work weeks a month. And since we had a very long distance romance for six years before we moved in together, and he was a photojournalist (and news doesn't stop) for several years that we were in Northern Virginia, so we're used to having a lot of independence in our relationship.

He's gotten used to eating out, usually alone, for every meal. He's used to having someone pick up after him and wash his towels in hotels. He's used to adult activity. But when he comes home, he's superdad. And truthfully, X-man and I are the ones who have trouble adjusting our schedules to let him back in. Like MacTroll is used to a maid service, free wine and freshly baked cookies in business class and the airport folks in Savoy knowing him on sight and having his boarding pass preprinted for him, X-man and I are used to our own schedules. We know when the other one likes to eat, where we usually go, what's on the agenda for the week and how the bedtime routine is going to go. For the first 36 hours MacTroll is home there's an adjustment -- every time.

April was a crazy travel month. MacTroll's usual every other week got split up into traveling every week at least for three days, sometimes the full five. These situations usually make X-man and I go a bit nuts with each other. So, I start to plan meetups and invite people to dinner so that we're not totally in each other's faces all the time.

But the truth is that we miss MacTroll when he's gone. We don't want that period of adjustment to be there, but it is. And I wonder if we'll ever have a 8 to 5 situation where MacTroll goes to work and is home for dinner and to sleep in his own bed every night. I wonder if he'll ever be free to coach one of X-man's teams or help him with pre-algebra or to teach him to tie a tie. I wonder if I'll always have those kinds of duties because I'm the one who is consistently here.

I guess we're lucky that I'm not completely clueless regarding the characteristics that make a good man. But at the same time, I do not have the required gendered parts to really "model" those behaviors. I guess, he'll have to settle for modeling a good person. And that can't be entirely bad, right?

A New Experience

When I flew to Toronto last week I hadn't been on an airplane since my trip to Montreal in August. When I went to Montreal I was roughly 185 lbs and wore a size 12 Gap Long and Lean jeans. I noticed when I got on the little regional jet out of Savoy that I fit better in the seat in August. At my largest I fit into the seatbelt (even when I was 7 months pregnant) without an extender, but it was dangerously close -- and probably thanks to my husband flying me in business class at the time that I didn't have to ask for one.

For the thin people in the world, asking for a seatbelt extender is something a fat person is scared to death of. Mostly because you're afraid the airline will go all Southwest on you and throw you off like they did with Kevin Smith, but also because there's usually only one extender... if someone else has it, and you request it, you've drawn attention to yourself as needing one and then you don't meet the safety requirements for take off. It's also pretty much the walk of shame up the aisle to ask for it, because it's step number one of any 12-step program -- admitting you have a problem.

When I flew in August, I went from having the seatbelt at the very END of the regular connector and having my hips wedged in between the armrests to having 4-5 inches of space and having my hips just gently caress the armrests. It was much more comfortable. I could -- shock -- cross my legs without having to physically lift a leg up and help it over the other one.

This flight, I weighed 156 lbs. I wore my Lucky Jeans size 4/27. And this was what I found:

My thighs didn't touch the armrests. My seatbelt had around 8-10 inches of space at the end of it. In other words, to fit comfortably into an airline seat, you have to be less than 5'7" tall and be around a size 6 or less. How many people do you know that fit that description? And, really, should they? Is there not a more accommodating seat size?

I think everyone should be the person they want to be and love who they are. In my mind, you, dear reader, rock -- no matter what size you are.

Budgetary Changes in Effect Today

I have a long list of travels we're taking this year. I'm excited about all of them, but my usual annual travel is 1 week of family vacation and two long weekends. Usually all of these vacations are covered by MacTroll's mileage and hotel points, so we only have to pay for food. This year -- we're stretching points as far as they can go, but we have lots of places we want to go and to get there, we're having to cut back on many other things.

Today, I started living with my new budget that I made two weeks ago. It involves us using more cash rather than credit cards. We pay our visa bills in full every month. But I think my boys have this whole... "It's broke, we'll buy a new one" or "But I want this..." mentality. We have enough stuff. And really, I'd like my family not to be so wasteful.

Every week, I pull a particular amount of money out for groceries and spending cash. I separate it into envelopes. And when the cash is gone, we're done for the week. Any extra spending money goes into another envelope for items I'd like (like my the fact that I'll need a spring/summer wardrobe after losing the weight).

Tuesday's Baggage

Today, I ran over to pick up my bag from American Airlines. The gate agent smirked and said, "You'll need to come in the back with me. There's a lot to look through this week."

Usually, I just describe the bag and they bring it out... unless the gate agent is insisting the only small bag that meets my description isn't mine... (because they know it's MacTroll's from staring at it every other week and have no idea who the hell I am). 

Anyway, today, I jumped through the baggage area and went to the back. MacTroll's new bag has cowprint on it, so it's easy to spot. (Yeah, it's a big joke with the folks he works with at Apple. Apparently, it never occurred to him that Gateway had the cow image in the late 90s.) The gate agent seemed depressed that I wasn't taking more bags. The small room was FILLED with large black bags from all of the students moving back, who got screwed by Sunday's weather, too.

As it is, MacTroll had to take KTDID's bag this week, so I'm ordering us a second one... 

Ships by night -- passing

So, anyone within 100 miles of O'Hare airport knows that the storm yesterday really jacked the place up. I was stuck in Montreal for an extra 3 hours waiting for weather and traffic to clear for my plane to take off. They canceled the flight after me completely. 

When I arrived in O'Hare, I thought, at least I'll have options. LOL. OMG. I was met with a sea of confused activity like I have never seen outside those movies where the aliens have come to kill earthlings or a giant meteor is crashing toward the planet and giant tidal waves are knocking over NYC.

There's simply nothing you can do when the weather goes bad. Alas, the 6:25 p.m. flight to Champaign had not taken off on time, but my 7:20 p.m. one did. And the 8:55 p.m. one was left... but by the time I got there there were 17 people each on the standby list for both flights that only hold 40 people total.

At 10:15 p.m., I made my way down to the LEX terminal. MacTroll had purchased me the bus ticket online, and holy cow, am I glad I decided not to stay at a hotel because the first flight anyone could get booked back to Champaign today started at --- 8 p.m. Plus, the cab line and the congestion of friends and family members trying to get to the airport to pick up stranded folks was a couple miles long. As it was the big LEX bus was completely full. And I wondered, when we pulled into the Illinois Terminal, who in the hell is picking all these college kids up at 2 a.m. on a Monday morning. 

Yeah, so as it works out... it takes 15 hours to drive from Montreal to Champaign. Yesterday, it took American Airlines and LEX 14.5 hours to get me home... and I still ended up footing the $63 bus ticket because when delays are due to weather NOTHING is paid for. Because it's not anyone's fault. 

Still, I got home and KTDID, MacTroll and I had some random silly 15-minute conversation before we headed to bed. At 5:45 a.m., MacTroll got up, packed KTDID's suitcase (we'll see if mine finds its way back to me today) and took it with him on his 3-city tour of D.C., N.Y. and Minneapolis. 

And since X-man woke up at 6 a.m. -- I'm going to deposit him at school at 8:30 a.m. and sleep like crazy today... my brain tried momentarily to explain the 2 half empty bags of Tostitos, the full bag of blue corn chips I bought before I left, another new bag of blue corn chips and two full bags of Tostitos in the pantry. I so totally gave up on that.

Stimulation

We're back from Philadelphia! We had a short, but fun visit with our friends BNB and their little Peanut. I'll have reviews of the Please Touch Museum and the Philadelphia Zoo at some point this week. I've got a full schedule today and tomorrow, but I hope to get them typed up and uploaded with photos... and even a couple of movies. 

As for this post, I want to talk about something I always knew but which X-man illustrated in spades this week. My boy is a stimuli addict. He wants to see and do new things at all times, and if he doesn't do it when it's on his schedule, he gets a bored and unruly. 

I've noticed on days when we stay at home, if we've been at home too much lately, he starts to whine and misbehave. But if I take him over to a friend's house, or we go to a museum or even to the flipping grocery store, he usually adjusts his mood.

So yesterday was a huge day of stimuli. He woke up in a happy mood and went downstairs with me to play with the airplane and bus that I picked up for him at the museum store. B offered to make waffles (and she does a gorgeous job), but X-man, who usually LOVES waffles, made it clear he wasn't interested. And he turned really grumpy.

So, we helped clean up and got our stuff packed into the car and said our goodbyes and drove to the Philadelphia Zoo. The minute we were through the zoo gates he was a different child. He was running from exhibit to exhibit asking the names of all the animas that he didn't know (pygmy marmoset, etc.) and saying, "Hello!" And then describing everything in the animals' habitat and each animal's activity level. 

"Mommy, lemurs are sleeping!" 

"Mommy, bats are eating fruit!"

You get the idea.

After the zoo we went to the airport and checked in the rental car. X-man was describing the different cars. Then he helped lug his closed stroller over to the Hertz bus, handed it to me, climbed on board and sat down near the back of the bus. And he stayed seated the whole time.

The airport was deserted in mid-day. But he waited in line patiently while we did the self check-in and he was an ace about going through security, even when he had to put his shoes, coat, blanket and toy plane into a bin. 

We ate at a McDonald's that time forgot, which was in some kind of management upheaval. Huge drama going on with animated staff. But X-man had his hamburger and fries and chocolate milk and was STARING out the window at the airplanes. He'd count them in English and in Spanish. He'd announce when buses or trucks would arrive. He called the luggage carriers trains. 

Then we went to our gate where we had a LONG wait due to weather in O'Hare. But he and I played trains and airplanes and cars and buses for 2 hours. We listened to some military folks chat with some new recruits. It was frightening. There was an 18 year old kid who was on his way to basic training. And the more experienced members were telling him what to expect. The kid's eyes kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And I kept thinking, "Was he a victim of predatory recruiting?" Because this kid had NO idea what he was getting into. He asked what I thought were basic questions to know before signing away your life. 

He was upset about the getting up at 4:30 a.m. He was upset about taking classes. The guy told him that anything he saw on TV was sensationalized and that it's really easy and not scary to go through basic training. And then 5 minutes later he told the kid that when he got off the bus they would start screaming in his face and take his stuff and ridicule him and not to take it personally and to just let it happen. It was met to "shock him." 

And all I could picture was "An Officer and a Gentleman."

About 10 feet away were some active duty folks who were playing with kids in the terminal with a stuffed basketball. It was two men and a woman. They stuck together like a team, were very friendly with civilians, but also kind of quiet. Not at all boisterous like the guys taking in the young recruits. I kept wondering if they were going back to Iraq for a tour of duty. They were clinging to the life around them rather than boasting about the military.

Then we got on the plane... only to get to the end of the jetbridge and be told that O'Hare had just moved our flight time back two hours. So we turned around with an upset X-man saying, "Bring me a new plane! Bring me a new plane!"

So we found the children's play area and hung out there until we got back on the plane. He slept the whole way from Philadelphia to Chicago. And then we had 2 hours until our flight left (it was late) from Chicago to Champaign.

We got home at 10:30 p.m. last night. X-man was still wired, but MacTroll and I were pooped. I got him ready for bed, and we brought him in with us and all fell asleep.

Stimuli. All day. And our kid was an awesome traveler. 

X-man's Travels

X-man has been to 10 states and one district so far. We are still slow in getting him a passport, but we'll figure that out at some point. :-)

Wanna check out his travels?