Sorry I’ve been so quiet lately – with the trip and catching up on work, it has been a crazy few weeks. We are back and settled in at home. Our trip back from Emerald Isle was not as easy as our trip down. First, Micah had fallen and bumped his head on our spa day, so our last night at the beach, we did not sleep well. I was worried about Micah, so I was continually going in and poking him all night to make sure he was okay. We both finally drifted off to sleep . . . until about 6:30 am. My father started loading up the car for them to leave, and Micah heard everything and woke up, so our day started a bit early. My parents left around 8:00 am, and Micah and I were exhausted and we crawled back into bed with Elliot and we all napped together for a few hours.
By the time we got up and going, it was late. We started to get ready to go to the beach, and on the way there, we learned my parents had stopped at a hospital in Richmond because my father wasn’t feeling well. It was just the recurrence of a minor problem he had dealt with in the past, but we were worried about him all the same. We went to the beach while we waited for news about my father. We headed back to the house around 3 to start packing up. It took us a long time to pack up the car, and we finally got out the door and tried putting Micah to sleep in the car. Unfortunately, Micah was not interested in going to sleep. He cried most of the first 1 1/2 hours home. We had to pull over several times to try and calm him, and I quickly realized that he stopped crying every time we stopped – not because he was hungry, but because he wanted to play. After that, we just worked on singing him to sleep. He finally went out, but he was quite restless the entire trip home. Along the way, we got word that my father had been released from the hospital and was feeling better. We also ran into some bad weather on the trip back, so the driving was a bit tense.
Thursday was our first music class! In between episodes of crabbiness, Micah had a really good time. He smiled at the singing, and he squealed with pleasure at being danced around, and he loved banging (and chewing) the instruments. The only problem was that Micah was in a “hold me mommy” mood, and any time I put him down (even for a second) he started to cry. After music class, Micah finally took a nice long nap, and seemed much better when he woke up.
This weekend, Elliot & I took Micah to the pool on Saturday during the day. The water was a bit cold, so he was not thrilled to be in the pool. I didn’t even get to swim my laps this time. We stayed for a few hours, then headed home to get ready for our “big night” – the Billy Joel/Elton John concert!! It was an amazing concert. It was held at Nationals Stadium, and we were worried it would rain. We were lucky – the rain bypassed us, and the evening was gorgeous. Unfortunately, there were several technical difficulties with the concert. First, Elton John’s piano was sticking, so he walked off during the first set and refused to finish. Billy Joel had to take over and entertain, and then just went into his solo set. He was amazing! He is entertaining, full of energy, and I just love his music. When he played We Didn’t Start the Fire, he had a slide show playing, showing pictures of the events/people to illustrate the words of his song. Elliot and I were hysterical because a picture of Elton John flashed up on the screen for “England’s got a new queen.” We don’t think most of the crowd picked up on that. The biggest issue was a speaker on the field – it was poorly wired and it had a HUGE delay that was garbling the sound. The entire section was complaining, but we could not get them to fix the problem. It was unfortunate that it marred the evening. Elton John finally came back up for his solo set – a slow start, but he ended strong. Pretty amazing for a couple of guys in their 60s. After Elton’s set, the two of them did a set together. I’ve decided that Billy Joel does a better job singing Elton John’s songs than Elton does of singing Billy (which, I have to say, kind of surprised me). They ended with Piano Man, and we awaited the encore. Much to our disappointment, there was no encore. All-in-all, it was a wonderful concert, and I’m so glad I was able to see the two of them play together again. If they come through again, I’d go again in a heartbeat.
