Wisconsin Vacation Day 6: Swingers

I know the plan was to swim it up on Friday, but I should have looked at the weather.  It was 70 degrees and rained on and off all day.  For July, it was brilliant.

Instead of going swimming today, D and I went to an enchanting little dream park called McKee Farms Park in Fitchburg, WI (about 20 min from Madison).

Pretty cute, right? 

There were just enough kids there to make the playground more interesting, although D was totally captivated by the swings and spent the majority of the morning asking for “more peas, wing.”  And so that is what we did:

“wing! Fee…dex…aight….ten!”  (3,6,8,10…David had no use for the numbers 1,2,4,5,7 or 9).

I even swung with him for a little while, in the big-kid play area.  After a few minutes, I remembered how nice it was to swing outdoors in perfect weather and thought of how completely impractical but relaxant/satisfying it would be to have a hammock in our back yard.  Maybe during residency…assuming we have a backyard.

Anyway, we played at the park in the morning, swinging and listening to all of the other moms and kids with their mid-western accents.  It was great.  

The afternoon looked the same as the other afternoons: back to the apartment for lunch and nap, then we made our daily pilgrimage to Target to get more diapers and wipes. 

We celebrated the fact that it was Friday night and that Jon would be off for the weekend by going to the Great Dane Pub for dinner.  We both had a yen for a good burger and they didn’t disappoint.  This was followed by truffles that left us both speechless.  They do beautiful, delicious work there.

A beautiful end to another beautiful day in Madison. 

Tomorrow we head to Minocqua to visit the Jasters!

Wisconsin Vacation Days 4 and 5: The Rockford Files

Wednesday:

Headache. 

We were out of commission most of the day.  Managed to make it to the zoo again and Target, but other than that, nothing too exciting to report.

Thursday:

Did you know that Madison, WI doesn’t have a Bank of America?  True story.

Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal, but we had a couple of work/student loan checks to deposit that arrived the night before D and I left for WI.  I thought, ‘No problem, I’ll just deposit them once we get to Madison.  Every state has a B of A, right?’  WRONG.  Long story short, D and I drove to Rockford, IL on Thursday morning (closest bank was 56 miles away).

D traveled like a champ!  We had a nice drive down to Rockford, found the bank without any problems, completed our transaction and then left.  The thought of getting right back on the road seemed almost cruel, so I decided to make the morning of our time in Rockford.

We found a great, kid-friendly place called Monkey Joe’s that was filled with giant, inflatable play equipment (something like eight ‘bouncy houses’ in total). 

Refueling, like a winner 

D was a little reluctant at first, but once a few more kids joined, he was a bouncing machine.  It was so fun!  And inexpensive!  And after an hour I was exhausted!  Conveniently enough, it was lunch time, so I coerced D out (“bye, monkey…”) and grabbed some noms with him before we hit the road again.

And now he is asleep, with his three lovies and his train.  Tuckered out from a long morning of bouncing and car singing. 

I think tomorrow we’ll look for a place to swim.  This little fish needs a pond.  

Wisconsin Vacation Days 2 and 3: A Zoo for Hobbits and Toddler City Planning

My, my, but I am LOVING this not having to go to work business.  “But Jenn,” you ask, “doesn’t work add structure and consistency to your week?”  And my response would be, “Yes, in the same way Spanxx add structure and consistency to a person’s shape.”  But no one wants to wear spandex all day in the same way no one, I would hope, wants to work without having a vacation to anticipate.  This trip has provided a glimpse into what life will look like once Jon is in residency and it is so very, very excitingJ  My retrospective about working for the man as a med school wife and mother can (and must) wait for another post, let’s get on with the Madison run-down:

Madison Days 2 and 3:

On Sunday, Jon and I took D to the Madison Zoo.  Not only is the zoo nice and kid-friendly, it’s FREE (parent friendly).  Some highlights:

We got to see animals like lions and seals and a polar bear and Meer cats.  And a badger, of course.

Jon and D got to play in a giant play structure that looked like something out of Middle Earth. 

Jon and D also rode the carosel, which proved to be more exciting from a distance and more terrifying up close… 

D insisted that Jon feed the goats.

On Monday, Jon had to go back to work, so D and I were left to explore the city on our own.  We hit up Target first, because Target is always a fun place to visit and we needed paper towels.

Next, we went to the Madison Children’s Museum, where I remembered that I had forgotten my good camera back at the apartment.  Jenn!  I did manage to capture some cute David moments on my phone when he wasn’t darting from one exhibit to the next. 

Fun zebras for climbing

Super cool water system, complete with red, plastic balls that shot from one fountain to another.

And an equally cool water table/green house area with cups and pitchers and a fountain that sat on the roof, letting gravity pull the water down through a system of intricate tubes.

Indigenous mud hut and play garden with fabric beets  and carrots.

And the piece de resistance, the ‘build a city’ table.

D played here for about 25 minutes.  I had to entice him away with a rocket ship:

The museum also had a rooftop garden with pond and animals to see (baby chicks, turtles, snakes, fish).

We played there all morning, then went back to the apt. for lunch and nap.

Hooray for vacations!!!  Seriously.

Wisconsin Vacation Day 1: It's Pronounced "Airmane"

Aaand, we’re back from beautiful Wisconsin!

I wanted to post earlier about our trip, but thought this would be a better option—write the posts as we go and rain down entries once we return home.

"Rain dance!"

So here it is, friends, an account of our much-anticipated visit to WI to see Jon during his away rotation:   

I set two alarms the night before our flight to be sure that D and I would get out of the house in time to make our flight.  TWO.  ALARMS.  I had two weeks of less than ideal sleep under my belt, so I knew, subconsciously, that my first instinct would be to non-maliciously sabotage our trip by sleepily silencing my alarm in order to consume more Z’s. 

That is exactly what happened.

Self aware?  Yes.  Helpful?  No.

I flew out of bed at 3:30am (half an hour late), knowing that I had 20 minutes to:

                          a)   get myself ready

                          b)   get David ready

                          c)    load our bags and D into the car

As you can imagine, D was completely discombobulated.  I gave him some milk as I changed his diaper and wrestled his clothes on, explaining, through his sleep tantrum, that we were leaving on an adventure to see daddy.  Read in wonder voice, “David P, we’re going to get on an airplane to go see daddy in Wisconsin!”  D was not amused and only managed to cry, “airmaaaaaaaane,” sadly in between slugs of milk.  “Yes baby, I know it’s early, but we’re going to have such a fun day today.  And we get to see daddy in just a few hours.”

If you’ve ever traveled with children, alone or otherwise, in an airport, I think you’ll agree that it requires the same amount of strength and stamina required to execute the “cliffs of insanity” scene from the Princess Bride:

In spite of tired airport arms, D traveled like a total champ.  We had two flights, both relatively short, and he did really, really well.  Only a couple moments of temporary fussing which were quelled by snacks, toys or iPad. 

In between flights, we rode the people movers, looked out the windows at the big airplanes and ate expensive airport food.  In spite of our late start, I couldn’t have asked for a better trip.

And then we landed in Madison, came down the escalators to baggage claim, and saw daddy waiting at the bottom of the stairs for us.  David, with his hawk eyes, spotted him, pointed and yelled, “DADDY!!!!”  He wanted to run down the escalator to get to him, it was so sweet.  So I let him down and he ran up to Jon and gave him a giant hug, then asked to be picked up.  And they mirthed out.

The rest of the day was spent getting supplies at Target and eating dinner at Noodles and Company, a place we discovered on the East Coast that doesn’t exist in the South.  D was exhausted, and he would have gone to bed without any issues, but there were two confounding factors to face:

                          1.     It’s hard for a little, curious person to fall asleep in a strange new place with strange,       new things to look at, and

                          2.     The devil skylight in the ceiling that poured light into the loft area where D’s pack-n-play was until 9:00pm.  We strategized the following day about how to fix this (the best we could come up with was a curtain to block out some of the light).

So that was day one, in a nutshell.  Long day, but very, very good.  I can’t tell you how great it was to see Jon after not seeing him for two weeks.  

Super Nani Visit

My mom came to visit a couple of weeks ago--playing the role of Super Nani to lend an extra set of hands for over a week, which was HUGELY helpful.  Here are a few pics from her trip:

We had to go to Dallas for a work-related conference.  D and my mom explored the galleria while I attended meetings.  D was fascinated with the phone and would pick it up repeatedly.  My mom: "David, who are you calling?"  David: "Daddy!"   

D wasted no time getting comfortable and familiarizing himself with his surroundings.

Playing in the play area with nani.

Back from  Dallas--made a trip to B&N to play with the trains.

And nani was there to witness his first (and much needed)...

big-boy haircut.  Thanks Trinity!  My mom was here for his first haircut as well--kind of cool.

Playing more with trains at home.  Are you noticing a pattern of priorities here?  Trains?  Check.  Pants off?  Check.  

A gift that nani sent in the mail before she arrived--these rain boots have quickly become D's favorite type of foot ware.  Fashionable and functional.

Unfortunately, I had to work the majority of the time my mom was out to visit, but we were able to break away and go to the zoo over the weekend!

A very candid shot...

Monkeys!

Jenn: "David, what are those?"
David: "Birrrrs!" 

"Big tiger!!!!" Pretty close... This lion got a few adoring pats from this little boy.  Very cute.

We had a great visit with my mom.  She was wonderful--keeping D safe and happy, keeping the house tidy and laundry done while I was working, navigating through unfamiliar states and choreographing innovative contact improv. to quirky children's songs.  Did I mention that she is a great listener?  Or that we watched the entire first season of Downton Abbey together?  

Seriously great:)  We're excited to see her again in February!