tfl: The Flatiron Life

We left for Knoxville after work on Wednesday last week.  I worked from home and we left for O’hare when Joscelynn returned from the office.

We have been trying to pack as light as possible when we go on trips.  For this one, we were shooting for all our things in just on carry on bag.  We made it, except we needed something to carry Jonah around in during the trip and the law of the land is that he must be strapped into a car seat when as much as thinking about being in the car.  So the giant captain’s chair of a car seat would need to come along.  We were planning on going hiking and had found a toddler backpack carrier on Craigslist and were going to use that in lieu of a stroller.

The backpack and the carry on bag would have been perfect and simple to take to the airport, even with Jonah in tow. How would we get the car seat to the airport? For the majority of people this is as simple driving to the airport. However for us the airport is only 12 miles away and the airport parking is 3 miles away. Also parking would be $40 at least at the farthest away lot. Even by car this would be an hour long trip to the terminal with traffic and the shuttle. Being city dwellers the CTA was the order of the day. An hour long journey on one bus and one train; all for only $4.50.

Back to how that car seat would travel with us. There are not enough hands between us to carry it, even if it were possible to carry it that long. An amazing little strap to the rescue. The Traveling Toddler Car Seat Travel Accessory may not have a name that tells you exactly what it does but what it does it does well. It is a T shaped strap with D-rings at each end and uses the LATCH connectors to strap the car seat to a rolling carry-on bag. It dramatically shifts the center of gravity for the bag and some adjustment to your pulling technique is needed but it works! Jonah rode through O’Hare with ease.

Our experience at O’Hare was typical. ORD is a city unto itself and there is rarely a moment when it is not rush hour there. At security the TSA employees acted as most public servants act: offended that they have to do their job and might have to speak to you. Twice we seem to have offended line workers by not reading their mind and knowing they were giving us special treatment for traveling with a child; speaking to us like people would have solved this problem. I also could have used some more advice when the car seat would not fit in the x-ray machine. The TSA agent just said “it does not fit” with out any guidance on how to get it through security. After looking around a while, possibly in a panic, he got the attention of someone, to prove it was not an explosive. My advice to all customer facing people stands firm: “You do this every day; I almost never do this. Talk to me like as if a were human.”

Finally through security and an hour before boarding, we had dinner at Chili’s. We paid captive prices, which was not unexpected. It took longer than an hour, which I did not expect but probably should have. What was more remarkable about this dinner was the lack of vegetarian options on the menu. O’Hare is a busy airport and I would think quite a few vegetarians would pass through. A tip if you are going meatless and eat at O’Hare’s Chili’s, there are hidden black bean burgers that can be used in place of beef burgers. According to Jos and Jonah they are quite tasty.

On the plane, Jonah did well. As is usually the case he was praised by all around for being just the best baby ever and so calm. About half way through the flight we started getting very antsy. This is usually a sign of sleepiness and in 10-15 min he was asleep in Jos’ arms.

After 90 min we had traveled from the big city of O’Hare to the small, sleepy town of McGee Tyson Airport. The Knoxville airport is a quaint little village with a single terminal and one baggage claim carousel. However we were forced to enjoy the inside of the airplane a while longer because, although they were allowing planes to land, the airport was closed due to lightning. After the storm passed, our friend picked us up and we were quickly to bed.

Jonah is the amazing learning monkey. Which is great; I love that he learns things. However when he is figuring something out he wants to do it all the time.

Friday night we had a backyard picnic and Jonah ate nearly all his yogurt all by himself. Saturday night and last night at dinner he threw tantrums (huge full-on temper tantrums) and only calmed down with a walk and some pudding he could feed himself. Tonight we let him play with a spoon before dinner and try to eat some with it at dinner. He was much calmer but this also might not have been why he was crazy at all the nights before.

Even if his tantrum was not because he wanted to practice eating, the video below is a great example of how our little primate is becoming a master of tools.

(Also ignore the bad habit I have of providing Jonah’s inner dialog with an odd voice.)

Last weekend the Tomaw family travelled to St. Louis.  Joscelynn’s cousin Rachel married and Joscelynn served as Matron of Honor.

While Joscelynn was busy attending to her duties, Jonah and I had some quality Daddy/Son time in the summer heat of the Near South.

Below is a slide show of the photo set from this weekend.  I would like to thank the groom and my new cousin-in-law, Tyler Craft, for TylrSlidr, a WordPress plug-in that is really easy to setup and use.

Final: In recovery we watched some weerd PBS cartoons for a while. The nurses went over discharge and then executed it. During recovery Jonah had not taken any juice; he refused it in fact. Once we put the juice in his own bottle he took it fine. We were out of the hospital in just over 3 hours.

Once home he was just fine but sleepy. Jos was sleepy too and they napped together. After their nap, Jonah was hungrey and we had lunch. He started with some left over mashed potatoes that he eat fine. Then he shared some grocery store sushi and pot stickers with us. He also had a little corn and a banana. In other words, he eat normally.
Here is the final update on Jonah’s surgery.

After lunch, we played in the back yard and he had a lot of energy. He started to look tired so we went in. After a diaper change (an amazingly full, wet diaper) he was back up and about. He played again until 1 when we put him down for a nap. A 4.5 hour nap! A silent nap!

We were warned ad infinitum that this procedure would not immediately fix the snoring, snot, and Vaderism. I am sure they get calls all the time about children sounding worse and want to cut down on that. We were also warned that he might be down for a while.

So far this has not been the case. Jonah has quickly returned to his normal activity level and seems to be able to breath easily. I am quite curious to see how he sounds after the swelling goes down, because he sounds great now.

I will post pictures tomorrow. (Mom, why are there no pictures of me after my surgery?)

8:45: we are with Jonah now. He is very drowsy but doing fine.

7:35: he has been taken back. We are stress eating breakfast 2.

7:05:: we are in the hospital and Jonah is in his gown.

By the time most of you are reading this tomorrow morning we will already be at Children’s. Jonah adenoidectomy is scheduled for 8am and we have to be at the hospital at 6:45.

He is unable to eat anything after midnight and can only have clear liquids until 5am. These restrictions will be easy to achieve because he will be asleep. However after 5 and until surgery he can not have anything. I am anxious to see how this goes. When Jonah wakes up he wants his milk and breakfast, now. I am hoping he flls back to sleep in the car and short stroller ride to the hospital. I am sure the staff have little trips for soothing monkeys who are too young to be reasoned with.

I will update this post when I have more information.

Have I ever stayed the night at your house and the next morning you thought, “did Jacob ferment this pillow in vinegar?” Have you ever been with me on a nice 70° day with a breeze and my head breaks into soaking sweat? Have you ever been Jos and nearly thrown up by turning the wrong direction in the middle of the night?

If any of those things are true, you have experienced my sweaty smelly head. I don’t know what is wrong with it. I think I have always had it. I know my pillows have always had that only-smells-good-to-me smell. I also have been in need of a second shirt due to soak-around-the-collar for a long time. Other than these embarrassing social consequences, this does not cause me any trouble.

I may not know what causes it, but sadly it is hereditary. Poor Jonah’s Boppy smells awful and needs to be washed often. We also need to undress him a little if he is going to be in the car long. It can be nice and cool in the car, but if he falls asleep he is going to be drenched. Jonah’s head has started to smell even after a bath!

I am curious to see if any of this changes for Jonah after his surgery on Wednesday. I am probably a lost cause. I have fruitlessly searched online for a cause. Do any of our fine readers have a similar affliction? Have you ever stumbled upon a cause?

This Sunday was Earth Day Sunday (or something like that). There was some unqualified promotion of eating organic during children’s indoctrination time. The message was thought provoking, but honestly I cannot remember what it was about and the tittle “The Queen of Heaven” does not jog my memory.

But the Hymns! I find I am drawn to the message of hymns more each Sunday.

The middle hymn was “All Things Bright and Beautiful” This is a lovely little song, originally for children I believe, stating the power of God in creation. It is so simple one can really sing out. Not much message, but a nice song to sing.

The closing hymn was a another simple hymn of creation, “For the Beauty of the Earth”. Just a little bit of theology in there about being united with friends and family in heaven. Also, there are some lines implying the church and grace being a furthering of God creation.

These two lightweights can be forgiven though. We started the day with a hymn that was new to me, but is a new favorite. “God, Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens” Generally my rule is hymns from the 19-hundreds are to be met with skepticism, but this is a true gift from our passed century. However being so new, it is under copyright and thus there are not very many resources for it online. Here you can find the music, played as MIDI, and the words of three verses (UMC Hymnal’s 1, 2, & 4), but you will need to go here for the fourth, but it is incomplete compared to what is in the UMC Hymnal as verse 2.

I enjoyed the whole thing, but the final verse is my highlight:

As each far horizon beckons,
may it challenge us anew,
children of creative purpose
serving others, honoring you.
May our dreams prove rich with promise,
each endeavor well begun.
Great Creator, give us guidance
till our goals and yours are one.

I have been thinking a lot about stewardship versus consumption lately. This verse acknowledges that we are created as in the image of the Creator. We could not stop ourselves from changing things if we tried. What we must strive for is using creation in a way that fulfills God’s Will.

You need yet another social networking site, right?

Well, I have another one for you. Josh Claybourn, who passionately hates twitter, shared this post about a new eternally-beta service from Google’s that might be the beginning of their foray into social networking.

Check out my Google Profile.

If you were interested in buying Connie, you are too late. After only a day on Craigslist she has found a new home.

So the story goes: I was almost born on Christmas 1980, in which case I was to be named Angela Noel (can you imagine?). In late December, I would have been over two months pre-term and so my mother’s labor was stopped and she spent the next several weeks on bed rest in the hospital until I was born on January 13th, 1981. Since the name Angela Noel no longer made sense, the search was on for a new name. My father was an avid Jeopardy viewer and one evening a contestant named Jocelyn (sp?) appeared on the show. Dad took a liking to the name, Mom tweaked the spelling, and the rest is history!

LIE! (I know, Mom, probably not a deliberate one.)

Today it occurred to me that the great oracle of the internet might reveal late 1980 Jeopardy contestant, Jocelyn, to me. I’d like to see a picture. Find out if she was any good. However, in my research, I find that the modern Jeopardy was not on the air until 1984. Yes, there is a chance he was watching a re-run of the older Art Flemming version, but I’m doubtful.

Not cool, parents.