Theo's first Minne-sleepover

By Mom of TJB and MMB April 27, 2014

Snow in April? Only in Minne-snow-ta!

By Anne Weber

Back in January, Katie asked if I would be off work to meet her for dinner during her layovers in Minnesota as she flew from Seattle to Washington D.C. for the NHLBI Centers of Excellence Steering Committee Meeting. I told her that I would make it work, but suggested that in addition to the drop-in, she should drop-off Theo for the week to spend with me! Luckily, Seth agreed to our crazy plan and Theo went along with it. Dan couldn’t stand to let us have all of the fun, and since he had school off for Passover, so he flew in for the week, too!

All three arrived early Saturday morning after overnight flights, but Theo decided to only sleep for 30 minutes on the plane so instead of driving all over St. Paul with Theo sleeping in the car seat, we decided to hang out at mom and dad’s for Katie's short layover and got to have the five of us together for the first time since last July.

The Pastorius Family reunited for the first time since July.

Katie and her Peruvian colleagues at the NHLBI Centers of Excellence Steering Committee Meeting

We thought Theo would sleep for hours and tried to figure out how we would ever be able to stick to his schedule, but he decided to wake up early at 9am and so began our week of fun! We got Theo fed and changed, then jumped in the car to go to the Blaine Easter Egg hunt. Theo got to meet the Easter bunny and collect some eggs with Grandma, Dan and I.

Theo at the Blaine Easter Egg Hunt.

Afterwards, Theo got to play with his two favorite dogs, Winnie and Louie. Winnie wasn’t sure about all of the excitement, but Louie quickly gained a new best friend (and a couple of pounds too).

Theo feeding his cheerios to the dogs.

The next day we got to celebrate Easter with the Rocheford's (JoAnn’s side of the family). Eric and I hosted and we all had fun visiting with each other and eating good food. The Easter Bunny decided to stop by too, although Theo wasn’t so sure about him this time, saying “no, no, no” and clinging on to Grandma JoAnn.

Visit from the Easter Bunny

The rest of the week was mostly fun and games for Theo. We loved the time we spent playing together!

Playing in the ball pit at the Eagle’s Nest indoor playground

Escaping from Grandpa at naptime and bedtime!

TP!!! (Only Great Auntie Rita would teach him this trick)

Laughing at the balloons

Throwing bunny in the air

Theo in the train basket

Cousin Molly and Auntie Anne

We were sad to give Theo back to Katie, but agreed to hold-up our end of the deal and bring him to the airport Thursday for his return to Seattle. Katie’s assigned seat was in an exit row, and an infant in arms cannot sit there, so after realizing that the flight was overbooked and there nowhere else to put Katie and Theo, Delta offered them a $400 voucher to stay overnight in Minnesota! They happily accepted the voucher and spent the night with us! After our sleepover, we got to bring Theo to the playground to play in the snow one last time before going home. The week flew by too fast but we sure had fun! Hopefully this is only the first of many sleepovers in Minnesota!