We left last Wednesday (the 29th) for Oriental, N.C. and just returned (Sunday the 2nd) from a great trip filled with celebration. We celebrated: a belated Christmas, New Year’s holiday, and two birthdays (Kevin’s, Jan. 1st, and mine, Jan. 6th)! Some highlights:
Impromtu dinner and visit with great friends!
— Christie and David (my college friends) and Steph and Mike (and Steph’s mom) hosted us for dinner and got to finally meet Will! (Christie and Steph were bridesmaids in our wedding.) We had a great time and were so happy to see them!
Playtime with Will!
— Grandpa George reading at story to Will about “Tinky-Winky’s skirt”
— Aunt Amy helping Will with all his presents (and maybe even having more energy than Will??)
— Everyone pitching in on diaper changes (we understand that Grandpa George managed at least two biggies!)
— Aunt Amy singing “Do your ears hang low?” over and over and over….
— Nana Nancy talking with Will and hearing all his wonderful words: thank you, good-bye, gato, moooo, hello!, hi!, uh-oh, and more!
Deciding that Will is especially special, both from biased and unbiased sources:
— Somewhat biased child development specialist’s (e.g.: Nana Wisneskey) opinion was that he was incredibly verbal, tons of fun, super curious, secure, and expressive.
— Totally unbiased stranger: she approached us in the airport to comment on Will. She had watched him play and came over to ask about him, introduced herself as a child development specialist, and got into conversation with us. When she learned his age, was very surprised and said that he was both remarkable skilled and impressively verbal and gave us suggestions on activities to continue his development in this regard.)
Christmas:
— Lasted four days. It took this long — Will opened a present or two a day!
— Was filled with great food and gifts: including a beautiful watch and flower pot for me, robe for Nana, Tulane gear for Amy, Kevin, and Grandpa, and house-work gear (like masks!) to go with his nail gun (!) for Paul.
New Year’s:
— Involved a big party where we met with Wisneskey family friends, put on party hats and gathered noise-makers and went to see the running of the Oriental dragon. The town has a Chinese dragon that locals (ie: anyone who wants to run under it and help) carry a few blocks back and forth downtown. It was GREAT fun!! We met lots of fun people, including a retired Michigan School of Public Health ameritus faculty who had lots of stories about my Michigan profs. We all touched the dragon for good luck and took lots of pictures. We did not stay downtown, though, for the dropping of the Croaker at midnight (think of the New Year’s party in Time Square, except with a fish on a dock.)
Birthdays:
— Found out Kevin was the first baby born in his county shortly after midnight. Celebrated the afternoon with walks downtown, lunch at the marina, coffee at The Bean (where we saw Paul and Amy’s parents in a photograph on the wall!), and tours of the many boats in the dock
— Hummingbird cake: heavenly white cake filled with amazing things.
— Cool backpack and beautiful engraved silver bracelet for me, bamboo wind chimes and dress watch for Kevin.
— Playing lots and lots of “Apples to Apples”
Great trip…. until the end!!! Everyone (save me and Kevin) got very ill with some sort of stomache flu. All the Wisneskey’s— sick! Even Will threw up a couple of times in the car on the way to the airport this morning (a new challenge for us: digging clean clothes out of the car, cleaning out the carseat, and trying to not be puked on ourselves), Paul required many stops along the way as well. It was a long trip home and we are so happy to be back!
