On 22 October we flew out of NYC for Chicago. This trip was eventful. We think the ride to LaGuardia made Augie feel carsick. As we were checking in for our flight, just minutes before we handed over our luggage to the ground crew, Augie had an ENORMOUS vomit all over Grandma Carma, who happened to be holding him at the time. Before it was over both Mick and Grandma Carma were covered in rancid-smelling vomit. It was on the floor, it was chunky, it was everywhere. Everywhere except me and how I managed that, I have no idea. We had to pull our bags aside and dig out a full change of clothes for all three of them. We got lucky - sitting on that flight reeking of vomit would've been just awful. I have no photos of this event as crisis-mode does not lend itself to the collection of happy-snaps. Fortunately that's the last we saw of the vomit for that trip.
We had collected all our luggage from the O'Hare airport and were waiting for the train to the long-term parking lot when we happened upon a woman travelling with two young (under the age of 3) children in a twin-stroller. Mick helped her in and out of the elevator and then I started talking to her when we were waiting for the train. Long story short, she was making her way from Bloomington (in Southern Indiana) to Bosnia, via Italy. Storms in Bloomington had delayed her flight to Chicago and she had missed her international flight on Alitalia. She was beside herself because the domestic airline were telling her it was Alitalia's problem and Alitalia were telling here it was the domestic airline's problem and both of them were telling her she was just out the money for the international flight and would have to re-book at her own expense. So this poor woman was standing there, on the train platform, with two very small children and only her carry-on luggage (meaning maybe 24-hours' worth at best of diapers/nappies and baby food supplies) feeling solution-less and completely stuck. I suspected that, because of her thick Bosnian accent, something may be getting lost in translation or, worse, that she may be getting fobbed off by the airlines because of her mild nature and immigrant status. I have lived now for 7.5 years in The Land That Service Forgot and I have resolved myself to receiving poor and sometimes downright abysmal service here in Aus. But this lack of service is just something I CANNOT TOLERATE in the US and it aroused in me a highly motivating anger. That, and I could see that this woman was on the verge of completely losing it and she needed someone to take charge of the situation. Mick and I knew there was no way we could walk away and leave her and two small children on that platform. I give her much credit because I would've gone over the edge into completely-lost-it well before the time that I encountered her. So Mick, Augie (who was tired and hungry and unwell having just vomited his guts up not 3 hours before), Grandma Carma and I took up this woman's cause. I marched up to the Alitalia service desk battle-ready and willing to take out on them all 7.5 years of my pent-up annoyance at service deprivation. Fortunately I did not need any of this arsenal of fury as she was able to achieve a solution, with only a bit of gentle support from me, which was to be put on an Air France flight immediately. So immediately in fact that I had to run - literally run - between the Alitalia and Air France service desks with her and her children's passports. We heard a few weeks later via e-mail that she'd made it back to her family in Bosnia safely and that her luggage took a few days longer that she would've liked but all was well that ends well. I was extremely proud of Augie during this whole event, which took about an hour or so all-up, as he managed it with a maturity beyond his years. He was tired, he was hungry, he was unwell and yet he waited fairly patiently with Grandma Carma while Mick and I lent a helping hand. The only time he dropped his bundle was when I held her 10-month old baby for her as she was retrieving her passports from her bag. Poor little Augie started crying and saying "Augie's Mom, Augie's Mom, Augie's Mom" but Mick was able to talk him down even from that ledge, explaining that we were helping someone who really needed help, and then he sat patiently waiting with Grandma Carma.
This delay put us straight in Chicago rush hour traffic, which put us in double-jeopardy with a tired, hungry toddler. Luckily, traffic moved along and once we were out of the thick of it we stopped at a Midwestern institution, Steak n' Shake. Home of 'The Original Steakburger', as you can tell by our hats in the following two photos.
We ended up getting to Grandpa Doug's (where we were staying) very late (around 11pm) that evening. Grandpa Doug was waiting for us and even had a few fun toys ready and waiting for Augie. This is a photo of Augie helping Grandpa Doug cook breakfast the following morning.
After some initial confusion that we were waiting for his babysitter Imogen (Imi), he realises we're waiting on Gamp'a Doug because we are in his truck (which Augie loved and later claimed was Augie's truck). At this point, he also liked making the observation that the red recording light was on.
He gets it right as far as who we're waiting on and throws his whole self into blowing kisses.
My niece Katelyn and her goat, Selena.
Katelyn introducing animal-lover Augie to Selena.
My nephew Brett introducing Augie to Grandma Carma's llama, Louie.
Augie loved being on the farm for many reasons, one of which was there are just so many things to climb.
Mick and my Mom's brothers, Uncle Gary and Uncle Harland (Huck) (L to R)
Louie the Llama maintained his distance, much to Augie's dismay.
Luckily there was a fantastic little mudhole, perfect for stomping just near Louie the aloof llama.
Katelyn, who looks a lot like my brother in this picture.
It's a Mick-wich!
Stems are Augie's kryptonite. They must be removed from his apples before he eats them. In the above and below photos, he is coming to an understanding of pumpkin stems.
These are the steps next to the Wolcott Theatre Cafe, the local diner in Wolcott. Every day we'd go in for lunch with my uncles and every day Augie would rearrange the pumpkins. One day we happened upon the man who lives in this apartment and he was quite surprised to know Augie was the cause of his pumpkin shuffle...he had blamed one of his friends for messing with him.
The bike repair crew.
Monkey-see, monkey-do!
Two bike repair crews on the go: Augie and his cousin Katelyn and Mick and Augie's cousin Brett.
Happy chappy. The first half of the week we were in Indiana was unseasonably warm. So we took advantage of the weather by going over to Grandma Carma's for a bike ride with Jordan, Katelyn and Brett after they got off the bus from school.
Action shots of the bike riding (there seemed to be a lot of chasing bikes as well!).
A helping hand from Dad.
Trying to go it alone (but not getting too far).
Little farmer boy.
Later in the week, the weather cooled right off. So we still went over to Grandma Carma's for post-school visits with the cousins but we stayed with the indoor activities instead. Some were civilised, like a piano recital.
And some were uncivilised, like wrestling. Here Mick is tickling Brett. Augie jumps right in!
In the nice-weather part of the week, we also had some lawnmower rides with Grandpa Doug.
Action shots of the lawnmower rides. For those readers who aren't from this part of the world...yep, the wind blows like that the majority of the time.
Mickey and me.
Jumping lessons from Grandpa Doug.
Last year Mick and Augie carved some pumpkins. When those jack-o-lanterns were done, Grandpa Doug threw them in the firepit in his front yard. There must have been just a few seeds left in them and some volunteer pumpkin vines came crawling out of Grandpa Doug's firepit this past spring. Here Augie is helping Grandpa Doug harvest those volunteer pumpkins.
Helping Dad de-seed the pumpkins.
Second year in a row for this pumpkin-carver.
One of the end products.
The other one, which Mick modified slightly to be the map of Australia. Awesome for someone who only just picked this up last year, hey?
Pushing boundaries at Grandpa Doug's house.
Cuddles for Will Kinsell (I went to high school with Will's lovely Mom, Emily).
Augie's a bit bigger than Will so eventually the cuddle got the best of Will. Luckily they fell back onto a beanbag!
Having some snacks with Will, who seems a bit dubious about sharing his cheese.
My Uncles have an equipment shed, which is just heaven for little boys. Here Augie is 'driving' my late Grandfather's tractor.
Climbing onto his great-grandfather's tractor.
An early-morning jaunt through the cow pasture with Grandpa Doug.
At the time I took the photo above, I thought they were just strolling through the cow pasture. Turns out, Augie was stomping dandelions.
Peering in Grandpa Doug's pig feeder.
Feeding the cows - one of Augie's morning rituals and favourite chores. The cows felt the same as they were getting so much extra feed... Augie could never just feed them once and walk away. He had to go back for seconds, thirds, fourths, and on and on.
They'd been in the tractor shed looking at Grandpa Doug's tractors when Augie got his hands dirty and wanted them washed. So Grandpa Doug got him a shop rag and they both did their chores that afternoon with their white shop rags in their back pockets.
Augustus Henry: farm hand - no task too big...
Happy little Augie off to feed 'Augie's cows'
Getting a helping hand from Grandpa Doug to have a look in the cow feeder.
Grandpa Doug has traffic lights on his front patio. Once discovered by Augie, they had to be turned on every night.
Helping Grandpa Doug dig up his horseradish bed.
Augie took this gardening task very seriously at first.
Then he got into a bit of a run-around-with-the-plastic-bag game with his cousin Brett.
The great thing, for Augie, about going to Indiana in the autumn is there is all manner of farm machinery moving around the country side. The horseradish-harvesting/tag-Brett activity all stopped to watch this combine harvester lumber by.
My nephew Brett.
A game of football in Grandpa Doug's yard.
At some point the game degenerating into screeching (Mick Jr. - Crazy I) and leg-gnawing (Mick Sr. - Crazy II).
Late hit!
Augie takes a break from football for a bit of climbing on Grandpa Doug's tomato trellises.
Happy Augie with Katelyn. They had been sitting in the grass moments before when Katelyn said "I love you, Augie." I told Augie he could respond with "I love you, Katelyn." Later that night, when he was having a shower with Mick, he said - out of the blue - "I love you, Dad." This was the first time he had ever said that. So, so, so sweet!
At some point, the game changed from American football to rugby. Here Mick is teaching Jordan and Brett how to pack a scrum.
We were in Indiana just before Halloween and were there for trick-or-treat night in Wolcott. We decided to give it a go and bought Augie a pirate costume. In the days before trick-or-treat night, he took to wearing the hat while he did his post-bath nudie runs (he calls them 'silly-billy' runs) around Grandpa Doug's place.
We did some last-minute Halloween costume shopping in the local Wal-Mart so things were relatively picked-over. Mick decided to be a hot dog.
And, of course, what hot dog is complete without a $5 Wal-Mart mullet wig?
Augie wasn't too sure about Brett's werewolf costume.
Not too sure about Scooby-Doo either!
It was cold, cold, cold on trick-or-treat night and, although we managed (not without some difficulty) to get Augie to wear his pirate costume, it didn't matter in the end because he had a giant coat on most of the time.
Jordan was a vampire and Augie definitely wasn't sure about her!
Of course, we had to look in the bins.
We took the coat off for a few photos. Oddly enough, after doing nudie runs in the hat every night before trick-or-treat, he flat refused to wear the hat on the day.
The Pirate and his Dad the Hot Dog
Yay! More Bins!
Augie soon got the idea of trick-or-treat and was loving putting his hand into the candy basket. Even though he didn't actually know the candy was for eating (we're keeping him off that stuff as long as humanly possible!).
We had some sliding following our trick-or-treat adventures.
We finally got the hat on when we were all finished and back at my brother's house.
A butterfly, a mulleted hot dog and a pirate!
Rocking out to Katelyn's favourite music, Justin Bieber. Then he gets licked in the face by my brother's family dog, Neo.
Did I mention it was cold on trick-or-treat night?
On our last night in Indiana, before flying out to California, we decided to go up to Chicago to see my dear friend Erin, whom I've known since college. This worked well since we were flying out of Chicago the following morning anyway. We were staying in a hotel out near O'Hare so we took the train into the city to meet up with Erin, her husband Sandy and their twins Ari and Ellie.
The train didn't go to Erin's so we had to get off part-way and wait for Sandy to come and pick us up. Luckily, there was a playground on exactly the streetcorner where he was meant to pick us up. Unluckily, it was bitterly cold and the Chicago traffic was a nightmare so we had to work to keep warm until our ride got there. Luckily again, the playground was attached to a little community centre, which was open and warm on the inside. Unluckily, with no regard for the bitter cold, Augie did NOT want to be inside so our warm-ups were short-lived at best.
Augie had a ball...Mick and I froze our extremities!
Due to the chaos that is an evening with three children under the age of two, I managed to only get two remotely decent photos from the visit with Erin and her family.
Erin and Ellie.
Erin (partially headless!), Ellie (foreground) and Ari (background).
Watching Bob the Builder on our iPad in our Chicago hotel room while Mick and I packed up.
Catching a lift on our carry-on ('Augie's suitcase') in Chicago's O'Hare airport.
So, so, so very tired on the Chicago to Los Angeles flight. In this photo, his eczema flare-up on his cheeks is evident as well (aggravated by the bitterly cold air in Chicago).
Finally - he succumbed to sleep!
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