Sunday, June 21, 2009

Fathers Day Tribute (by Luke)

Happy Fathers Day to all the great men in my life! First, and foremost, dadada.



Super fun Papa:


Fellow dog-lover Grandpa:


My Godfather, Uncle Tim:


My Beatles song singing Uncle Aaron:


And my future legos partner, Uncle Mike:

(We seriously need to get a newer photo!)

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Luke's first flight

How was Luke's first flight, you ask? Millikenbaby.blogspot caught up with Lucas Orlando at his home on Wednesday morning in Waltham, Massachusetts. Luke was casually dressed in a Carters 12 Month Fireman one piece and nibbled on a foam alphabet play mat as the reporter conducted this interview.



Reporter: So, how was the flight out?
Luke: Pretty good, pretty good. I mean, the engines roaring at lift off scared the crap out of me, but other than that, I just enjoyed wiggling all over the place. Confined places lend themselves to a whole new kind of fun.

R: Was your mom well prepared for your first flight?
L: Yea, she asked her friends for advice and she tried to entertain me with new toys she purchased especially for the flight, but I just kind of dropped those and decided it was more fun to gnaw on her water bottle, spill her drink, and sit in Sprite. Oh and listen to her whine to my dad about how Jet Blue doesn't hand out "first flight" certificates.

R: Inside sources tell us that the return trip was even more eventful. Is that true?
L: Absolutely. When we got to check-in, we discovered that our return flight was delayed two hours, and my parents just kind of looked at each other, communicating in that married couple silent language, I guess. Then saying something about how the flight was already planned during my witching hour/bedtime, and now it was being pushed to my precious REM sleep, and how would they get me to sleep without my bathtub, sleep sheep, and Dreamland CD? That's when I started scheming.

R: Scheming? You mean, intending to make things difficult?
L: Right on. Not at first, but as the time wore on, I thought I'd keep them on their toes. I'm in the business of making memories.

R: So how did your parents occupy you for three hours at the airport?
L: Well, first we went to the food court, where I stayed with my dad and happily threw tortilla pieces to the ground while my mom pretended to be waiting in line at QDoba the whole time, but in actuality spent part of it browsing in Clinique.

Then, we headed over to the KidZone, which was a giant closed off room with a map of the United States printed on the carpet and a couple of things to climb on. I crawled from Florida to Maine, and then headed out to Michigan. There were a bunch of bigger kids running around, "blowing off steam" as they say, and I probably made things more difficult for their parents, who now had to caution, "Watch out for the baby." YES! Why only bother two parents when you can bother five?



Finally, it was a little past my bedtime, so mom put me in the Baby Hawk front carrier with hopes that walking around the airport with our hearts beating together might soothe me to sleep. Yea right! That might work for my friends Rose, Ezra, and Josie, who fall asleep in carriers all the time, but this would be my first time falling asleep that way. She was going to have to work a little harder than that.

R: So, did you, eventually, fall asleep?

L: Yea, I gave in finally. Mom decided to ride the walkway to simulate car travel. A couple laps on that and I crashed. Then I had this dream where my mom went back to the gate to sit with my dad and they talked about how they might be able to watch the Pens after all, and hopefully I would stay asleep the whole time, and what should they do about take-off and landing, should they wake me so my ears wouldn't pop? Wait, did that actually happen?

The next thing I know, I'm awake again! It's bright, the kind man is talking (although I don't see him...where IS he?) , and the kind lady is about to do her puppet show again. There's that puppet that looks like the straps on my carseat! And my favorite, the one that goes over her mouth! This is so exciting! And she's smiling at me! Why is no one else watching this great show?

R: It's clear this moment meant a lot to you. Would you say that this was a pivotal moment in your trip? As in, where it all went wrong?
L: Maybe for my parents. As for me, I had a blast.

R: We're running out of time. Perhaps you could summarize the remainder of the trip before our readers lose interest, if they haven't already?
L: Ok, wiggle, wiggle, to dad, back to mom, to dad, back to mom, play with water bottle, back to dad, walk with dad, wow that was short, whimper, back to mom. Repeat 10 times. Land in Boston, get bags, conk out in car seat...I don't remember the rest.

R: This certainly sounds exhausting. Do you think your parents will ever have the energy to travel again?
L: Well, I could get better...or I could get worse. I think at $60 roundtrip, my parents will just buy me a seat next time.

Why didn't I think of that?

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Oil City visit

Man, I miss this swing already...



We visited Nanny and Papa this past week in Oil City, PA. What a relaxing trip! Jamie and I were spoiled by Nanny's cooking, yoga classes, massages, date night, and not having to be Luke's constant source of entertainment. We also looked at a beautiful Victorian home while we were there...5 bedrooms, huge kitchen, two parlors, artist/yoga studio in the attic...and it cost less than half what we paid for our cozy three bedroom cape in Massachusetts. Too bad there are no engineering jobs in Oil City.