Ohio visit

I've been meaning to get out to Ohio to visit one of my favorite people in the whole world, and of course her wonderful husband and beautiful baby boy.  We've been friends since we were 14 years old when we both tried out for the cross country team.  We've gone through a lot together and I've been like a proud parent watching her relationship with Matt grow...seriously, I went to their college graduation and snapped pictures of the two of them.  I love the two of them together and now I love their newest addition.

I hadn't made it out to visit since they were both in law school, so after Matt made some guilt-seeking comments to me when they came out to Maryland to show off their little one....we tentatively planned for sometime in June and then it was up to us to follow through.

So Adam and I discussed it and booked our flights to Ohio...Jackson, included.  I should mention that I'm not the best flyer.  I have a fear of the plane exploding or crashing down to our deaths that seems to get worse as I get older (I haven't flown since our honeymoon almost 4 years ago in which I was prescribed Valium for the flight...for the record, the Valium did nothing for me).

Playing with the seat-belt to his umbrella stroller while we waiting in the airport.

I packed our things carefully trying to minimize bags, etc. so we didn't have to worry about too many things traveling through the airport.  We smoothly made it through security, got a healthy lunch of fast food, and boarded the plane.  Jackson had a lot of stimulation looking around at the plane and his surroundings and was finding it very difficult to get settled.  We had heard to give a bottle on the plane and as his fussiness increased, we gave in and let him have one as we were taking off.  It took half the flight to get him settled and he slept for the last half of the flight (luckily the flight is a quick one).  I'm sure my blood pressure was elevated, but honestly, the flight out was pretty smooth...so I couldn't complain too badly.

We arrived in Ohio shortly and made the short trek to Bonnie and Matt's house.  We did the usual catching up on things over chips and guacamole.  I was giving Jackson some chips when Bonnie made a comment about the chips being too sharp for him.  I reassured her that he has lots of teeth and is good with chewing, when Adam chimed in that he's always worried about giving him too large of pieces of food and probably wouldn't give him as big of pieces that I give him... and then Jackson started to choke.  His eyes got wide, he wasn't making any noises and then he started to fall over.  I whipped him over to Adam he gave him the Heimlich maneuver and he let out a big cry.  It was over in about 5 seconds.

Drama over, baby Taylor arrived and Matt shortly afterwards.  They treated us to a big ol' steak dinner and drinks on the front porch.  It was a great start to the weekend.

Blurry iphone photo of the daddys and their little men!

The next day we headed over to the Community Festival or Comfest which was described to Adam and I as a hippie festival and the only time where women could be topless (they get their chests painted)...(for the record, we did not see any bare-chested women...).  We walked around doing a lot of people watching and munching on your classic festival foods.

Eating lavender berry ice cream...Yummy!

Bonnie, Matt and baby Taylor enjoying a moment in the park!

A rare picture of the 3 of us together, plus Baby Bennett #2 (at 31 weeks pregnant)

Jackson did really well interacting with Taylor.  I didn't know how he would handle being around a younger baby since he's usually around kids around his age or older.  With only one attempt at poking Taylor's eye, he did a good job.  In fact, Taylor seemed more interested in Jackson at times...

Adam: "There's a peacock in your yard." 

Why did the peacock cross the road?  :)

Our last day in Ohio we made a trip to a local community pool where the men played on the slide like they were little kids again...evidenced by their tsunami sized splashes into the pool.  We cooled off in the baby pool, splashing around and tossing Jackson in the air.  We met an older woman who approached us to meet Jackson.  Her son Eugene has DS and was in the big pool during adult swim (he was 20 years old).  She shared some stories with me and asked about Jackson and how he was doing.  Bonnie asked if that kind of thing happened a lot and I told her that it happened to me quite often (although I'm not sure if Adam has had the experience yet)...most of the time older people with a family member that has DS approach to comment on how adorable Jackson is (I know) and usually end their greeting with a comment about how well ____ is doing and how much their loved one has been a blessing to them.  It sometimes feels like they are passing on their wisdom to the younger generation of families with DS and letting us know that its going to be okay...luckily we already know this about our little blessing...

After getting cleaned up and having an early dinner we headed back to the airport for a late evening flight home to Baltimore.  Because it was late, Jackson slept the entire way home and even slept through the landing (I mean, come on...who does that??).  By the time we got home it was about 11pm and I managed to get Jackson into a pair of pajamas while still asleep.

Jackson slept like this the entire flight home

Thanks Matt and Bonnie for a wonderful visit!