Okay so going to depart from the doom and gloom and talk about our time over in Ireland. What a great trip we had. I completely enjoyed spending lots of quality time with the kiddos. Posting some pre-wedding pics here. P in his tux, which he was really into wearing, and Noely getting his wedding onesie on. Flight over was really uneventful even with Noel having an ear infection. He fell asleep before we took off and stayed that way until we were about to land. P was super pumped to be on the airplane. He and John were sitting behind me and I could hear some meltdown type whining etc. but couldn't really intervene or help due to sleeping baba so John had to manage on his own - anyhoo P ended up sleeping about half the flight and had lots of energy when we landed at 6 AM local time. Ugh. He managed to basically stay awake all day that first day - between the cows and his uncle's construction site next to his Nana's house where we were staying, there was just too much action to take in. Me, I crashed. But we all seemed to recover from the jetlag well. They were both super sleepers. P would stay up to midnight most nights and sleep till about 11 each morning.
We had Noely baptized at the church John went to as a child with his whole family present (about 35 aunts, uncles and cousins) with Noel wearing the antique baptismal gown that his grandfather was baptized in as well as his two brothers and most of his cousins. OMG, it barely fit him. So tight on his chunky arms. I was so half assed with his attire for the day that he wore brown cotton pants under the gown with blue/yellow striped socks. Whatever. He was still not feeling great - had the runs from the antibiotics - and I just couldn't get my act together to get him something fancy to wear. I think God or Jesus Christ or whomever removed Noel's original sin that day was okay with his look. Anyways the baptism was no nonsense - love that. Very fast, no messing. I had to laugh because it really was the first time P has been in church since he was baptized himself and he was running around it like a madman before we got down to business - fascinated with the alter and the candles. Once the service started I could tell he was a little out of sorts about the attention Noel was getting. So he came up to stand with us, then announced he had to go to the bathroom - said it about 3 times, each time a bit louder and more crassly than the previous declaration, and ended with a crotch grab. Good stuff. His uncle whisked him away and saw to the need.
After the baptism we had a little party to celebrate Noel, then a big party later that night for John's sister's 40th birthday. It started at 9 PM at a hotel and things were getting ugly with P before we even left the house. He was out of control at the hotel. There was a grand staircase that he was obsessed with playing on, climbing up. I figured there were about 10 cousins keeping an eye on him so I let things go more than I would usually - until I couldn't find him. My heart. He was up on the third floor by himself. !!! So we had to reign him in. Then Noel got a big case of the runs again and I'd forgotten extra clothes. I won't even get into what he was wearing at that point because it wasn't much at all. White trash baby why yes. Then he fell asleep on a couch outside the function room. Then Paudie had a complete and utter meltdown on the stairs - I was trying to get him back up the stairs when he went into dead weight mode so I was pulling him up the stairs and threatening that I'd call the police. God what a hag I must have sounded like. Then I had my version of a complete and utter meltdown. "WE ARE LEAVING NOW." It was about 12:30 at this point so can you blame us really?
The next few days we laid low. Noel started to come around, P did more construction work up at the site. It was like he really thought he was going to work. Left one day with his sandwich and his wellies and come home covered in cement. But really had the time of his life. Ireland is a great place for little boys. Lots of tractors, animals, sports. And in John's family, 12 out of the 15 cousins are boys. It brought me such joy to see him playing with his cousins, they all got on like a house on fire. Only the third time he's seen them all so I worried about his loner/introvert attributes coming to the surface, but he was mostly engaged.
One day a friend of mine working in London flew over to Cork so we could tour around. We ended up in Kinsale at a really lousy Irish pub for lunch. P demanded Spaghetti and Meatballs which I knew would be sketchy in an Irish pub but he was so persistent I didn't argue. Well when a plate of pasta showed up with brown sauce on it, I wasn't exactly surprised. BBQ sauce. Grody. He wouldn't touch it. So we were offered a replacement dish... of ice cream. That about sums up how he ate for two weeks. Another day he was offered his first taste ever of soda - 7-Up. I figured why not, we're on vacation. You should have seen the eyes as he tasted it. He passed the glass over to John and exclaimed, "TRY IT!" The next day he had orange soda and coke. Good god. As I told him, enjoy it while you can my friend because they don't have this in America. I know it's bad to lie but it's also kind of fun sometimes.
Next up... the wedding.
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