Mayne, Party of 3: Home Again, Home Again

On Monday, the three of us left to go to Oregon for a week. We were originally scheduled to go on Saturday, but since Seth's surgery got pushed back and he had to wait at least 14 days before traveling, we had to reschedule to Monday. We left Memphis at 7pm, switched planes in Denver, and landed at the Portland airport around 11pm local time which was 1am Central. Evie did amazingly well on the planes, and only took about a 20 minute snooze on the second flight. When we got to Portland we had to wait for our bags and then our shuttle to the hotel. We had the good sense to get a room for the night rather than try to drive at what felt like 1 am to us. Evie was so excited by the bus ride and the hotel room that it took her a while to settle down. We got a room with two queen beds and I asked her if she wanted to sleep in bed with Mama or Daddy or by herself and she chose to sleep alone. That lasted for all of 90 minutes before she was crying for me so I got in bed with her. She started getting restless as soon as the sun came up, so before long we went down for breakfast and then caught the shuttle to the airport to pick up our rental car. Our drive down to Gram's house was uneventful, though we did stop at Shari's for lunch and pie.

We got in at Gram's house around 4pm and settled in. We saw Louise, Gram's daughter-in-law's sister (i.e., Seth's uncle Ira's wife Brenda's sister if you followed that...) who is there part of the time helping to take care of Gram, and Evie and Louise hit it off immediately. I was concerned that Evie might be afraid of Gram or at least a little aloof, because Gram is in bed rather than up in her chair, but Evie wasn't bothered at all. She just stayed busy, but she did come and talk to Gram with no reservations. We went in to Roseburg that evening to say hi to Grampa and Evie had more reservations about being around him that evening solely because it was so dark in the room and Grampa's bed was so low to the ground. For a little girl who doesn't spend a lot of time visiting with people who aren't able to be up and around, I thought she did great understanding how to interact with Gram and Grampa.

We tried to get out and do something with Evie every day since she's used to being pretty active and engaged at school, but we did spend plenty of time just exploring the Mayne property. During the days at Gram's, Evie was thoroughly entertained with chasing turkeys, jack rabbits, and deer if they were on the property, and with having someone else feed apples to the cows next door. She did eventually get brave enough to put her arm through the fence and drop an apple over while the cow was busy eating another one, but we didn't ever get her to feed one by hand herself. She did enjoy pulling the apples down out of the trees and tossing them at the fence, though.

On Wednesday I had to work a half day so we started the day out with a drive around Wildlife Safari, which Evie loved. We let her get out of her carseat and roam around the backseat to look at the animals. She loved the hippos who were doing rolls in the water and she thought it was so funny when one of the ostriches approached the car and started pecking at its reflection on the glass. She was also very interested in the buffalo and the llamas. Then we got to feed the deer, but I couldn't quite convince Evie to feed them with us. They would come right up to the car and eat out of your hand. After the Safari, we went to visit Grampa and then drove back to Gram's where Evie had a nap and I worked my half day.

On Thursday we decided somewhat late in the morning to drive up the coast to Newport, OR to see their aquarium. We made several stops for bathrooms along the way and it was already 2pm by the time we got to Newport and we still hadn't had lunch. So we drove over to the fish market district and had a bite before going to the aquarium and unfortunately by the time we got there, they were going to close in 45 minutes. We were really disappointed because we went to the aquarium last year and Evie loved it. But there was a "Pirate Village" just down the street that had lots of play equipment for kids, so even though all the shops were closed we hung out there for a while. Then we found a place that had indoor bounce houses and toys and we let Evie play there for a long while so she could get some energy out. She really enjoyed that. Then we went to the beach where Evie, of course, wanted to get into the water as far as possible even though it was only 57 degrees and the wind was very strong. I went with her up to about my ankles and then told her she was on her own. Obviously we didn't let her go too far in. After about an hour we headed back south and got in incredibly late.

Friday we took Grampa to the fair and Evie really enjoyed seeing all the livestock. She kept asking why the cows were stuck, by which she meant tied to their posts in the barns. Much as we tried to explain that they were tied up so they wouldn't run off, it didn't quite make sense to her. Evie especially enjoyed watching the pigs get a bath. Then we saw the rabbits and chickens and then wandered over to the expo center where there were people from Wildlife Safari who were holding snakes and bugs. Evie was delighted; I was repulsed. Then before we left the fair Evie got to play with a bunch of other kids who were all chasing these enormous bubbles being put out by homemade nets strung between two fishing poles. The kids were running everywhere chasing bubbles bigger than their heads and Evie was right in the thick of it. Then Evie rode with Daddy and Grampa in the bus back to the nursing home and we headed back to Gram's where I finished my second half day of work.

Saturday Evie and I went out in the morning and drove around to look at the animals because Daddy needed a little longer nap and Evie was not interested in being quiet. When we got back, Seth's uncle Ira and aunt Brenda had arrived so we had a good time visiting with them before Evie was ready for a nap, and then visited more after she got up.

Sunday we drove into town and visited with Grampa while he ate lunch and then headed back to Gram's to say goodbye to Ira and Brenda. Then on Monday we went to the walking part of Wildlife Safari where we got to ride a camel and pet goats and donkeys and see all kinds of animals. Evie really enjoyed that. Then we went to tell Grampa goodbye, drove back to Gram's and packed our things (except that I managed to forgot our iPad...) and headed out for Portland. We were originally going to just get up very early Tuesday morning and try to get to the Portland airport by 8:30 am, but we realized that would mean getting up at 4:30 am and we're not morning people and we thought, Why do that to ourselves? So we got a hotel room on Monday night and were able to get up with plenty of time this morning. Evie was a little less well behaved on these plane rides, but considering we were entertaining her the old fashioned way (i.e., sans screen), she did pretty well.

Evie did a lot of singing on this trip. She continued with singing "Jesus Loves Me" in the car, which I always think is darling. She also entertained us with new lyrics to "Baa Baa Black Sheep":

Baa, Baa Black Sheep
Have you any war?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags, four.

She also made us laugh when she started singing a song from Sleeping Beauty. The actual lyrics are "Health to the Princess, Wealth to the Princess, Long live the Princess Aurora. Hail to the King, Hail to the Queen, Hail to the Princess Aurora." But Evie's version was "Help to the Princess, Help to the Princess, Help to the Princess Aurora. Hey to the King, Hey to the Queen, Heeeeeyyyyyy Princess Aurora."

A very sweet singing moment was when she, of her own accord, starting singing "Puppet on a String", which is a song I sang to her every day when she was in utero. I used to sing it to her more often when we lived in Nashville, but have done it less in the last year because she usually requests "Monkey and Tarzan" as she calls it. But I did sing "Puppet on a String" to her about 2 weeks ago. Then, as we were driving back from Newport this week, she just starts singing it, with pretty dead on melody and lyrics. I won't pretend I didn't start crying.

She's gotten very into telling secrets lately, by which she means she wants to whisper something in your ear and have you whisper something back. It's usually related to what we're about to do, like go to school or have dinner or take a bath. You always have to take big pauses between words for your secret to be accepted. This week she cracked me up when she whispered, "I... am... gonna... tatch (catch)... a... turteys (turkeys)."

Another funny that kicked off our week, as recounted by Granna, who I had asked to write this up since I knew I wouldn't remember it correctly by the time I could write it down:
Evie and I were riding in the back seat this evening on the way to the airport for the Maynes to fly to Oregon.

Evie pretended to call her Mama, then her Daddy, then me on her pretend phone. She had me call Grannadaddy on my pretend phone and after I talked to him, I let him talk to her.
Then she said, "Oh, I have to call my sister; she upset."Me - "Who is your sister?"Evie: "Addie."Me: "Why is she upset?"Evie: "Her Mama not listen to her."So Evie called her sister Addie and talked to her for a few minutes.Then she told me to call her sister Addie and "tell her" so I called her sister and asked her what was wrong and ended with "I hope you feel better soon" or something like that.As soon as I 'hung up' Evie said, "Oh, I need to call my brother."Me: "Who is your brother?"Evie: "Will."So she talked to him, and as you might guess he was upset, and I had to call him too.Evie: "Oh, I have to call my big sister. She upset."Me: "Who is your big sister?"Evie: "Aimee."So we go through the routine, only when she talks to Aimee she tells her, "I hope you better soon." And then she tells me to call Aimee, which I do.Evie: "Oh, I have to call my big brother. He upset."Me: "Who is your big brother?"Evie: "Untle Ryan." She calls him and tells me to call him. Meanwhile, her parents are laughing in the front seat and making comments about calling her big brother "Brother Untle Ryan." So I got started laughing.Me: "Sorry. They made me laugh."Evie to her parents: "Shhh. Granna got to call my big brother Untle Ryan."I did manage to talk to him after controlling my laughter.

This kid....