Journey of a Kumquat: Week 203 and Week 115.5 - Back in Macau (but all the commentary is from Wisconsin)

Greetings from 5AM at Casa Drake. Jet lag has hit our house pretty hard today. The girls want to play and we are all awake (save Matt - I hope).

Our last week in Wisconsin was great - catching up with the Bizjaks and DB and Laura, eating many cinnamon rolls, skating (Sophia stood up on Matt's little skates her wore when he was little - on her first try!), sledding, eating at the Jet Room (a great busy breakfast place where you can watch airplanes -a super bonus with distractable toddlers) hanging out with grandparents, and readying for our long journey back.

And a long journey it was - 28 hours in transit with two kids is not for the faint of heart. Travel days like those are pretty difficult for me - of course for the logistics (I mean the car seats - I have a mental block against moving those darn things) - transiting with them through the airport with a hundred coloring books and two kids who would rather chase wet wipes then follow you around. I think that the hardest thing for me is the mental aloneness under such conditions. I sort of psyche myself out into thinking I am on some sort of perilous white collar journey. In the future I will try to maintain some sort of neutrality as I think optimism is a bit of a stretch. Nonetheless, the kids were remarkably well behaved. And thankfully United had screens on the way back. I sat next to Karen, who was remarkably patient and ended up to be a mom friend of my good friend Jenny Liu. Small world - indeed a very small the world that flies the O'Hare - Hong Kong route. I was happy to get a few hours of sleep en route. Thankfully the kids got more (5 hours for those who are counting).

I am happy to say that Sophia has graduated from crib sleeping - she was violently opposed to it in Atlanta and as of yesterday we have taken the rail off her crib. She also can sleep with a pillow and blanket. Big transitions in just a few weeks' time.

I forgot to mention last week that when we went to Wausau we stopped at McDonald's to try these fabled Shamrock Shakes (Dan F was raving about them). The McDonald's by Highway 19 is the nicest McDonald's I have ever been in - it had a fireplace (which is related to hygge - sort of the warm glow of winter) and calories on the beautiful menu (argh - since when do they post calories? I have been outside of America for too long). We accidentally ordered a medium (but since it is America it was easily 30 ounces) Shamrock Shake which I think was a bazillion calories (but it was good!). Charlotte had her usual disinterest but Sophia was game. I did not know and I accidentally threw it away before we embarked on our frigid journey north. Sophia asked me about the ice cream in the car so I bought her a small vanilla shake. This was an ENORMOUS mistake as she got ice cream everywhere and was a complaining chatterbox the whole time! It was so dark and Charlotte passed out before we pulled out of the parking lot, and Sophia complained about her socks, her shoes, how she could not reach the handle, about having her ice cream, about not having her ice cream.... she finally fell asleep as we were five minutes away from Matt's dad's house. She was a bitter old lady high on vanilla shake!

The other thing that was funny was when we went skiing I had excitedly asked Matt and DB how the Apres Ski would be. They both looked at me as if I had grown a second head as they had never heard of such a word. I described the after ski, huddling around the fireplace, traversing cute villages to drink and hang out and socialize like they do in the Alps (very hygge I suspect). Once we arrived at Cascade Mountain, Matt pointed to the pedestrian little league caliber snack bar and said 'there is your apres ski.' We did end up eating at said snack bar, but we ate upstairs (negotiating ski boots and stairs is not fun), and watching the slopes over chalet-large windows. No fireplace but a very respectable substitute.

Char announced to me yesterday (which looking at our wedding picture) that she and Brooks are going to get married in 20 months! So funny!

The static in Wisconsin was incredible!