One Month in America

It's taken me a while to sit down and actually write a little about our trip to the USA. Now that the Xmas cards are done, the new year cards are sent out, new toys are almost organized, and things are getting back to normal, I suppose I should really give a brief rundown of how our trip went.

Originally, I had wanted to post one photo a day through out our trip, but that didn't work out so well. The internet connection was too slow and it became a low priority for me.

So, here are the highlights:
1. It was great being home for such a long time.
2. We took a 2-night trip to Door County with my friend Amy and her two boys.
3. Jill and her husband Bill came up for Thanksgiving and spent one night at our house.
4. Shannon came and stayed for about 4 or 5 days.
5. Sara and her husband Scott stopped by for a couple hours with their new baby on the way back to Milwaukee.
6. Thanksgiving was celebrated in full - it was my first thanksgiving in the USA in about 8 years!
7. Shopping, shopping and more shopping.
8. Luka had a dedication ceremony (like a baptism) at my sister's Unitarian church - she and her husband are the godparents.
9. Ailin went to daycare 3 times while we were there.
10. We attended storytime at the local library a few times.
11. We attended a playgroup once.
12. Ailin played with Andy's kids (Jill's brother) one day.
13. It snowed once while we were there and Ailin got to go outside and play with her cousin and relatives.

And, the happenings:
1. I had to spend every day with Ailin in a big, open house where I couldn't really keep an eye on her while taking care of a baby. That was stressful.
2. There wasn't much to do for kids and it was kind of cold so we couldn't go outside a lot.
3. I had a hard time getting both kids to nap at the same time and often had to resort to taking rides in the car until they both fell asleep and then parking somewhere until they had both gotten a good rest.
4. Ailin dumped a bunch of laundry soap (one cup at a time) into the dog food storage bin.  Needless to say, all that dog food had to be thrown out.
5. There is more, but I am not at liberty to write about it.

Okay, so what about the benefits?
1. Ailin's English did improve quite a bit.
2. I got to eat a real Thanksgiving meal.
3. The family sent me home with Xmas presents so there was minimal shipping of goods across the ocean.
4. Ailin got used to eating sandwiches every day, sort of.
5. Ailin and Luka definitely bonded more with their grandparents and other relatives.
6. There were usually lots of people to play with, lots of space to run and jump around, and someone was almost always available to hand Luka off to when I needed to do something else.

I am not going to write much more about the trip, but I did do a few scrapbook pages and will work on posting those within a few days.