Minnesota

I ended up going to Minnesota for Labor Day weekend with Ronan. Unfortunately, Tom was working, so he couldn't come with us, but we had a good time anyway. It was good to see my family - several relatives were in town as well, so I got to see them too. Seeing my cousin, his wife, and their 17-month-old daughter was a lot of fun. Their daughter was so cute with Ronan - she would try to give him his sippy cup and asked about him after I put him to bed. It was adorable. I also got to see a friend of mine and her nearly 2-year-old daughter. Basically, it was a weekend of cute babies/toddlers.

For his part, Ronan did very well. He didn't sleep much on the plane, but thankfully he didn't cry. He liked standing on my lap and looking at the people behind us or else staring out the window. I wondered what he thought about the whole thing and whether he had any idea what was going on or that we were up in the air. It's always funny to me that often we as adults try to figure out what's going through our kids' minds, and yet we all shared that experience; we just can't remember.

And though I usually don't do advertisements, I have to say something about Southwest. I wasn't 100% sure about flying with them, since they don't have a direct flight from Cleveland to the Twin Cities (there was a layover in Chicago). However, the layover was entirely worth it and I would wholeheartedly recommend Southwest to anyone. First, it was so nice to be in a big plane rather than the little regional sardine cans that pass as planes that I normally get stuck with (I'm looking at you, Continental and Northwest). When I flew in June, when Ronan was 4 months old, I was on one of those little planes and when I nursed, his head was mashed against the bulkhead and his legs were sticking into the other person's seat. I don't even want to think what it would've been like this time, since he's so much longer. As it is, his feet still draped a bit into the next seat, but it wasn't nearly as cramped. Plus, since Southwest has open seating, we had an open seat next to us on the Cleveland-Chicago route (the Twin Cities-Chicago leg was always full). Second, in a total blonde moment, when I purchased my tickets, I accidentally selected Sunday for my return, not Monday as I intended. I didn't discover my mistake until right before I left on Friday. However, when I called to see if I could change it, they were very nice, switched it without a problem, and more importantly, didn't charge me for it. In fact, I got a cheaper flight and thus have a credit for my next trip. I'm pretty sure that would not be the case with Northwest.

So overall, it was a good trip and now we're back, trying to get settled into our routine once more. Ronan was in daycare yesterday, which I guess was a little rough. I was expecting that, though, since it had been a full week since he was last there. Hopefully, he'll quickly bounce back, but we'll see. As for me, I'm trying to make sure I have a handle on all my school work. On that note, I should probably get back to it!