My brother-in-law suggested that I title this post the “Best Blog Post Ever!!!!,” but I’ll refrain. 😉
This past weekend, Finn took his third trip requiring air travel–and his first to where it all began: Tennessee. (And by “it,” I mean our little family.) (But I might also mean really good fried chicken and barbecue.)
We went to celebrate a couple of things: my sister-in-law, Ionee’s, graduation from Centre College and my nephew, Max’s, 5th birthday!
One of the things I miss most about living away from family is the chance to celebrate the smaller, picnic-oriented holidays: Memorial Day, July 4th, etc. Those are the holidays that I associate with family and backyards and swimming pools and barbecues and really bad (but really good) jello casseroles. And, since most of our family lives far away, we don’t usually get to join in those festivities, ourselves.
So, it was nice to have an excuse to get together. Things are so hectic this summer–what with the house-buying, the moving, and other stuff; we won’t get many timeouts as a family, and this one was much-needed.
While in Tennessee, Finn got to meet a lot of Sona’s family for the first time: his grandpa, Yogesh; his cousin, Max; and his aunt, Sarah.
My parents also came to town for a couple of nights. Cause, you know, there’s no way that they were going to let Finn be in the same state without their seeing him.
Traveling with Finn is, as you might expect, a little more challenging than when it was just the two of us. He did pretty well on the flights, again, sleeping through both of them. But he was a holy terror the first day and a half we were away.
We couldn’t figure out what it was: a general lack of sleep, residual discomfort from his ear infection, his being overwhelmed by all of the family that kept begging for his attention. Likely, all three of those things were factors, but we woke up early Saturday morning to find that his first tooth had finally broken through. And Monday, tooth #2 joined the party.
So, while he was a bit of a cranky pants for some of our time, he rallied during the last half of the weekend and seemed to really warm up to everyone, especially Max.
(Can’t you tell?)
Finn really seems to love older kids, and he spent much of the weekend being happily entertained by Max, who was a very patient and gracious big cousin.
We also got our southern food fix. Nashville has some good eats now, y’all! We didn’t get to try everything we wanted. So, we’ll have to plan another trip again, soon. We did get to eat some hot chicken (which the Indians thought was too hot), a good southern brunch (tomato pie, cornbread and chicken, pineapple and cheese casserole–yeah, I went there), some seafood, a few helpings of grits, and some gourmet popsicles, which Finn was a fan of.
me & the graduate
the Patel siblings
We ended the weekend with an afternoon at the pool, which is just what everyone needed after a busy–and hot–weekend. If you allow me to tap into my southern side for just a second: it was hotter than a billy goat’s butt in a pepper patch. But that didn’t stop Finn from having any fun. He stayed in the pool until sundown, ate pizza with the rest of us, and chowed down on an ice cream bar before saying goodbye to his TN family.
We’re home, now, and we close on our new place this Friday. There are a thousand things that need done over the course of the next month, and I better go get on it! (Where’s the fried chicken when you need it?)