Our trip to Ohio - March 18-20

I can't believe it's been over a week since I last blogged! It was very hectic last week as I was winding up at my old job. I had to stay late on St. Patrick's Day to finish cleaning out my office, then when I got home we had to pack for our trip to Ohio. We flew to Dayton on Saturday, March 18. It was a 9:30 flight, so Ian was in a good mood when we got there and he fell asleep soon after we took off (which wasn't surprising since he woke up at 5:00 a.m. that morning). He slept for about an hour and then spent the last half hour of the flight looking out the window, playing with the shade and playing with the light. This was the first time he seemed to really enjoy the flight. He was so curious about everything and he really stared at all the planes as we were sitting on the runway waiting to take off.

Once we arrived in Dayton, we picked up the rental car and drove to my friends Susan and Stephen's house, about 30 minutes from the airport. They have two children, Lane, who is about 3 years old, and William, who is 5 months old. Ian fell asleep in the car on the way over, and he woke up when we tried to move him inside, so he was a bit groggy and clingy at first. But he was quite fascinated by Lane's toys and he seemed to like Lane. As he became more comfortable, it was clear that he wanted to play with her. At one point, Susan was holding William in her lap and he had fallen asleep. Ian stood there staring at William, then leaned over and touched his mouth to Williams little hand. After lunch (Ian ate half of my vegetable lasagna and had some raw cauliflower that was in the salad), the kids played for a bit while we talked, and then it was time for Lane to go for her nap. Ian very eagerly gave her a kiss and seemed quite pleased with himself about it. After Stephen put Lane down, he reported that Lane said that she liked "Mr. Jeff" very much. Stephen asked, "What about Miss Flora?" and Lane corrected him, saying, "Her name is Mrs. Slater!"

(An interesting note that has nothing to do with Ian: We passed by many, many places of worship during our brief stay in Ohio, but nothing compared to the Solid Rock Church, which we passed on our way to Susan & Stephen's place. It is on the side of Route 75. Just check out the picture and you'll understand why we had to capture the image on our way back to the airport.)

We left Dayton in the late afternoon and drove to Uncle Evan's place in West Chester to meet up with him and Jeff's cousins, Eric and Brooke, for dinner. Ian fell asleep again during the 40 minute ride, but woke up when we arrived. Considering the fact that he barely napped, he was great. He seemed to enjoy exploring Uncle Evan's condo. He really took to Brooke and by the end of dinner, he was all over her. He was great and gave everyone besitos. Of course, Ian always enjoys eating out, so he was very well-behaved at the restaurant and just couldn't get enough of looking at all the people there.

Our friend Jen lives in Cincinnati and she came by on Saturday evening with her boyfriend, but by the time she came, Ian was down for the night. He was just so wiped out by a very busy day and not enough naps. But he got to meet her on Sunday when we met up for brunch. We went to a very cute little place called "The Grand Finale", which I suppose is ironic since they serve a great brunch. Ian ate entire plateful of strawberries. After brunch, he went with Jeff to go pick up Grandpa at the airport while Jen and I caught up and chatted.

The wedding was at 5:00 p.m., so we got back to the condo in the afternoon and got ready to go. I am happy to say that Ian has gotten quite a bit of use out of the blue blazer. Who knew he would have to attend so many formal events? The ceremony and reception were at a golf course nearby and it was a very nice, intimate ceremony with just a few close friends and family. Ian did fuss a little bit during the ceremony, but mostly because he wanted to run around. He thought the clubhouse was a very cool place and was interested in trying out a set of new clubs.

Ian looked very dapper. There was a buffet dinner with prime rib and fish, so the servers offered to get Ian a hot dog. HA! Hot dog? Are you kidding? This kid snarfed up two slices of prime rib! And he ate all of the cucumber slices out of the salad, so I had to ask for more. He never really ate cucumber before, but he ate about 8 slices. You can see how much he was enjoying it!

He was in a great mood. Look how he was giving kisses to Grandpa! And there's a photo of us with the happy couple, Janet and Evan. Janet is a grandmother, too, and her granddaughter is around the same age as Ian. Things were starting to wind down around 8:00, so we changed him into his PJs. Good thing, too, because he fell asleep on the short ride back to the condo.

We got up early the next morning to drive back to Dayton to catch our flight and we were back in New York by lunchtime (where we picked up Wai-Po and had lunch with her in Flushing, but that's the next blog entry...).

We had a great time out there and it was really nice to see our friends and family, and especially nice for Ian!