A Visit Home to Pennsylvania

Last month Mila took her first plane trip we visited my parents and grandma in Pennsylvania.  My family is from near the middle of the state so we flew into State College, where Penn State is located, and had about a 40 minute drive from there.

For whatever reason, flying really freaked Max out this trip.  He has been on over a dozen flights, but hadn’t flown since we went to the Bahamas in August, so I think the combination of not flying for a while and growing awareness that it could in some way be dangerous scared him.  He kept trying to convince us to drive or take a bus or train, but I was sure that once he got on the flight Max would be fine.  While Mila was a champ and slept the whole time, Max cried when we got on the first leg of our trip up, continued crying for what seemed to be a twenty minute taxi out to the runway (why does it seem like we drive halfway there anymore), and screamed when we took off.  Luckily some headphones and Mikey Mouse Clubhouse finally calmed him down, but the second leg of the trip wasn’t much better.

When our family finally arrived in Pennsylvania, Max was excited to see snow.  The temperatures reached nearly 60 degrees that day, but we quickly took advantage of the remnants of the winter season and Max’s PapPap was able to take him sled riding and make snowballs before it melted.

While we were there, we visited with my 95 year old grandma, Dorothy, and she got to meet and hold Mila for the very first time.  Max usually bounces off the walls with energy but was very polite and respectful when my mom took him to pick my grandma up for the day, and was charming and engaging all day.  He’s a wild man with us a lot of the time, but it really encourages me to see him being sweet and kind to his elders and acting so grown up in many ways.  I noticed that Mila’s eyes are the same color of blue as my grandma’s, so I know I will always see a little piece of my grandma when I look at her face.

Mila was content to hang out wherever she was taken and was pretty low maintenance the whole trip.  Maxwell never took to nursing as a baby, so I always pumped and used formula with him. Feeding Mila in very public spaces took some getting used to this trip, but that being said, it was much easier to be able to just start feeding her in an instant on the flight than having to find water to dump in the bottle, shake the bottle, hold the bottle, figure out what to do with the half drank bottle, (all while helping a 3 year old with his Kindle Fire and holding a half drank cup of juice).

Max’s favorite part of the trip was exploring the area around my dad’s cabin. With the help of a few friends along the way, my dad built a log cabin on a few acres near the top of a mountain about a half an hour from my parent’s house.  Over the years he’s added outdoor fire places, a playground, bridges, damns, an outdoor shower and scenic lookout.  The cabin in dad’s hobby, and it is a young boy’s wonderland.

We are hoping to go back this summer so Max and Mila can enjoy being out in the countryside at MeeMa and PapPap’s house, where they can catch lightning bugs by night.