Big Family Weekend

Finally, Stephen had a weekend off and we had plans to go somewhere and be around PEOPLE. What a concept! Granted, our plans were to go to Dayton to attend Grammy's 90th birthday party - maybe not the craziest, most exciting or exotic plans in the world - but it still counts as being social, dammit. We actually had a really good time, and Asher was SUCH a wonderful boy. I was so worried he'd freak out, being confined in the small club house with about 70 people, but he really seemed to thoroughly enjoy all of the attention, noise and hubbub and didn't get fussy until toward the end, after we'd been there for like five hours.

It's hard to believe Grammy is 90. It's hard to believe anyone could be 90 and still functioning so well. It was just barely over a year ago that she had her stroke and the doctors were fairly certain she wasn't going to make it. Ha! She's undergone lots of rehabilitation, but she's doing so well it's almost as if it never happened. If I make it to 70, I hope to be doing as well as she is at 90.

We stayed overnight with Angela, Jeff, and Rowan afterward, and, as usual, had a grand time visiting with them. It sucks living so far away from them...well, really we only live two hours away, but, with Stephen working on the weekends, visiting has become pretty much a rarity. There was lots of mommy talk, geek talk, and baby talk, and we even took a jaunt over to "Faketown" for lunch and ice cream.

Another big event was meeting Rowan's infamous girlfriend, Lola, and her mom, Emilee. It's funny how many of us bloggers scope out our friends' links to other people's blogs...there have been times I'll find myself on a complete stranger's blog, confused as to how I even got there...a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend...But I think it's so cool, getting to "know" these people you've never even met before. In a weird way, it kind of makes the world seem a little smaller and friendlier. Anyway, it was really great getting to finally meet Emilee and Lola, since, I'll be honest, I've been reading their blog on a regular basis since they were first linked to The Daily Squink, which was...well, I think around the time Lola and Rowan were born. That probably makes me sound pretty creepy, watching a stranger's kid grow up online, but I promise I'm a completely harmless crazy person.

So Asher got to spend a little time around some babies this weekend; albeit, they were all older then he is. He seems to be much more aware and interested in other babies than he was just a month or two ago. This means we really need to make an effort to arrange some play dates for him. Asher also got to hang out with some elders at Grammy's party, and I think he was just as fascinated with them as he was with the babies. So, I guess this also means we need to be making more trips to Dayton to visit Grammy and her friends. Baby needs friends, young and old!

Here are a few pics of our lovely family visit.