Day 3 in DC - play ball!

I had a whole post written out, and lost it :( so, this will have to be very short! Boys played in the pool at the hotel this am, then we had a great breakfast with Chandler and Amir at Eastern Market and a great visit. Alex fell asleep on the bus ride back and I stayed with him while he napped and Andrew and Johnny went on to the game.

Johnny and his giant bucket of popcorn!

Nationals park was really really nice!

See! Alex and I did make it there!

Alex and I finally arrived in the 7th inning, and the Nationals lost 7-1.

Boys played in the wading pool after the game, then we had dinner by the park with the splash pad, where the boys played afterwards. 

Andrew took Alex on up for bath and bed and I may or may not have taken Johnny out for frozen yogurt and allowed him to make this concoction: :)

Chocolate and vanilla swirl with gummi worms, fruity pebbles, chocolate chips, m&ms, and a cherry :)

We have had an awesome trip, and I think we are all almost ready to go back home tomorrow.

Day 2 in DC

Too tired to write much today - up a little later this morning. Swam in the pool in the hotel after breakfast. Took the Metro in to Union Station and rode the tour bus all around DC - an open topped double decker bus, and Alex took a nap on Andrew :). Then hit the Natural History museum to first have some lunch, And then to check out the insects, the butterflies, the gems, the dinosaurs and the whales. Had a great time and Johnny fell asleep in the stroller as we were about to leave the museum, so we carried the stroller down the steps and parked it on the mall and let Alex play and wrestle and run while Johnny napped for a good while. Then we got back on the open topped tour bus and rode around a little more, during which Alex took a nap :) then had dinner at Pizzaria UNO (Chicago style) followed by ice cream before taking the metro back to the hotel and crashing! Big day! Tomorrow is Brunch with Chandler and Amir followed by the baseball game.

Alex LOVED these fish skeletons for some reason!

He also love the shrimp and crabs that were in these bubbles

Crawling in the "termite tunnel"

Soft bear holding the shark tooth one of the employees gave Johnny

Johnny liked the wool larvae and moths best in the butterfly room :)

Alex absolutely loved these tropical fish and cried when we had to leave them.

Pooped! 

Day 1 in DC

It was a good, very full first day in DC today! We had a great day and the boys are both snoring away as I type. They were both exhausted and ready for bed. Overall the train ride went well yesterday. Even though it was late leaving Raleigh, it made up some time one the way. The only big problem is that Alex didn't want to fall asleep on the train. He finally fell asleep late in the afternoon, around 2:30 or so, but not until he had cried some, unfortunately. He slept for most of the rest of the train ride.

We did well taking the subway from Union Station to the hotel, except that we hit the Metro during rush hour and weren't quite prepared for the number of people or how fast we would need to board the train. We missed the first train because the doors shut on us right as we were about to board! This surprised me and really upset Johnny, and all the noise of the subway trains and the number of people were a lot for him at first. We ended up putting him in the stroller and Alex in the carrier to make it through the train rides!

The hotel is very nice, and though it was not where we originally wanted to be, it is a really nice area, with plenty of restaurants and lots of outdoor park and play space, which has been awesome for the boys! We went to Gordon Biersch for dinner last night, which was good, and then took a walk down to the waterfront where we discovered a great boardwalk and then a huge wading pool and waterfall, and another splash pad closer to the hotel. Johnny and I went back out when Andrew was putting Alex to bed and took the metro one stop up to buy some snacks and drinks. That metro ride went much better since it was less crowded and he was used to it by then. Today he really enjoyed going on the metro.

This morning the boys woke bright and early and we went down and had breakfast in the hotel. We came back up and the boys played in the room while Andrew went and worked out. The Smithsonian doesn't open until 10, so I got the boys ready and we went down to the waterfront wading pool this morning, and they had a great time! The water was really cold, but it didn't seem to bother them. Andrew joined us, and after a while we went back to the hotel to get dry clothes on and head to the Air and Space Museum.

We had a great time at the Air and Space museum, and I think Johnny really enjoyed it. They had an interactive area about all the science concepts behind flight, and while I don't know how much of all that Johnny took in, he really enjoyed pushing all the buttons! We had lunch there in by far the most efficient food court I have ever seen.

I had forgotten our pass for the U.S. Capitol Tour back at the hotel, and we weren't allowed to take any food or drink at all into the Capitol, so I went back to the hotel to get the pass and drop the food off, and Andrew took Johnny and Alex to the Art Museum (National Gallery, I think?). Alex took a nap, finally during that, and we met up (after some confusion about where it was) at the east side of the Capitol Building where the Visitors Center is. The tour was OK. We were losing Alex at this point, and Johnny was getting tired. And we really only got to see the Rotunda and the Statue Room. But, it was still pretty interesting. Afterwards, we had ice cream and let the boys run around on the Mall for a while, which was much needed :)

We came back near the hotel and picked up a picnic dinner, which we ate at the little park right by the hotel. It had two water features - a splash fountain - for lack of a better description. It was just a puddle-depth amount of water running kind of like a stream. And then a splash pad. So, we played there for a while before calling it a night. Whew!

Tomorrow I think we are planning to go to the Natural History Museum and then we have passes to an open-topped bus tour. The weather was glorious today - sunny but not hot at all.

Having trouble getting all the pictures uploaded - just a few more below- more to come later! Off to bed to rest after all of the walking today!

Johnny at the north end of the wading pool

Johnny checking out the rotunda in the capitol building :)

Alex enjoying the wading pool :)

Time to ride!

We are on our way to DC this morning! The boys are sooo excited. This morning I was explaining to Johnny how he needed to bring just his backpack, soft bear, and only 1 blanket because we would be riding on the train, then walking, and then taking the subway and that I would be pushing the stroller and Daddy would be pulling the big bag. I told him "everything you bring you have to carry yourself", and then I pointed to Alex and said "everything you bring I have to carry", and then Johnny said "and everything you bring, Mommy, Daddy has to carry!" We thought that was really funny. We made it to the train station in Raleigh in plenty of time. Unfortunately, the train was about an hour late. We are on our way now, though, and the boys seem to be enjoying the train ride. 

Alex on the train

Johnny playing Angry Birds Star Wars in Daddy's phone

Reading Mr. Brown can moo. :)

Alex's 6-month & Family Pictures

We just got the link from Gretchen for our new family pictures!

http://gretchenmathisonphotography.com/viewing/?slideshowID=350035

It will only be up for a week, so enjoy!

Prague update from Andrew

I've been working off and on to write about my trip here in Prague, but I haven't had a whole lot of free time. I finally got a chance to finish things up this afternoon and post it. So here goes a summary of my trip so far...

Day 1 (Saturday)
Travel to Prague was an adventure. It was Friday the 13th when I took off. I didn't sleep very well the night before I left so I wasn't exactly running on all cylinders all day on Friday. On the way to the airport I told Liz that I felt a little nervous and that I didn't normally feel that way before trips. Maybe it was a premonition. All in all, the trip over went fine. I'm making it sound like the plane crashed and I had to paddle a row boat to Europe. In reality, I forgot to check my bag all the way to Prague originally and the plane was very uncomfortable from RDU to London. They were able to find my bag and check it to Prague before I left RDU so that was awesome. There wasn't much to do about the uncomfortable plane except to grin and bear it. Just meant that I didn't get much sleep on the way to London. And airplane sleep is never good sleep, at least for me. Maybe 30 or 40 minutes at a stretch before you wake up confused and sore.

We had a long layover in London and it was uneventful. We did have to go through security again after we landed even though we had just gotten off the plane and never left a secure zone. But it was just walking through a metal detector and having your bag scanned. We didn't have to change terminals at Heathrow which was nice. The strangest thing was that they had a huge waiting area in the middle of the terminal where you had to wait until they posted the gate for your flight. They posted the gate right before boarding time so that was kind of strange. I did get to eat a Bounty bar for breakfast so that was pretty awesome!

I slept pretty hard on the flight to Prague from London. It was only an hour and a half flight but I ended up sleeing for about half of it. I got my bag with no problem from baggage claim. Transportation to the hotel had been arranged so there was a guy holding a SchoolDude sign outside baggage claim. We ran into about half of the KL team at the gate in London so we had a pretty good group of us on the flight.

After checking in we walked around down on the square for a little bit and took in some of the sights. There were street vendors with little stands where they were cooking ham, sausages, and bread that also sold beer. I had a beer and then went back to the room and took a nap for about an hour.

A group of us, I guess 11 or 12 in total, went out to supper. We found a place that was recommended and had an awesome meal. I got to drink Pilsner Uquell which was one of my goals here. It was good! One of the unique things they eat here is what they call pig's knee. It's essentially the leg of pig from the joint down. They do cut off the hoof so you don't have to see that. They slow roast it and it's really good! I didn't get that this time but a lot of people in the group did. I ended up getting a schnitzel that was really good.

After supper we went to a place called the Propaganda Bar. It had a lot of propaganda posters from the Communist days. Kind of interesting. We had a beer and then called it a night.

Day 2 (Sunday)
Sunday the only thing we were doing was a half day city tour. I thought it was going to be a walking tour but we ended up riding a bus for most of it. We walked around the square here in Old Town and the tour guide told us about the clock and the church here in the square. Then we got on a bus and rode to Prague Castle. On the way the guide would tell us about various famous buildings that we passed. We walked around Prague Castle for about an hour. I tried to take a lot of pictures on Monday but the battery in the camera died after a while.

The tour included lunch and we went to an awesome place to eat. I hope we can find it again because I'd love to eat there some more. They brewed their own beer and it was a really good dark beer. We had a really good soup as a first course, then some smoked pork with dumplings (which are like pieces of bread, really), and an apple strudel for dessert.

After the tour I took a nap and then we meet to go get some drinks. We went to a place that was a boat on the river. It was permanently docked. I had some more Pilsner Urquell and then we went to dinner.

We went to supper at an Italian place called Club Architecture. At least that was the English name. I can't begin to say or spell the Czech name. Czech is a really hard language. Nothing sounds like it reads. After supper I headed to bed.

Day 3 (Monday)
Monday was the first day of meetings. Our meeting room was in a restaurant. It was an old wine celler (built in the 14th century) that had the most uncomfortable chairs in it. It was like going down to the dungeon and sitting on a medieval torture device. The meetings were fine, but it was a long day. We started at 7:30 AM and went until 6:00 PM, although we did get a 2 hour lunch.

We ate supper on another boat restaurant. It was an Italian place again. I had a really good pizza but it took a really long time to get my food. The service was really, really slow. Then on top of that, they messed up my order so they had to go back and cook my pizza after everyone else got their food.

We went out after supper and bought some cigars. I got a nice Cuban Montecristo #2. We were going to go to a bar and smoke them and have some beer but we were all tired so we lost momentum and went back to the hotel.

Day 4 (Tuesday)
Another long day of meetings. 7:30 AM to 6 PM again.

After the meetings we went out to supper and found a place that had cheap beer and awesome food. I should say that they beer here is really cheap anyway. Usually on the order of $2 to $3 for .5 liters of beer. This place had .5 liters of beer for 29 crowns which is about $1.50. I got one of the pig's knees here and it was awesome. There's a good amount of meat on there.

The CEO went out with us that night and ended up picking up the tab at supper. We came back to the hotel and had some beer and he picked up that tab, too. That was cool!

Day 5 (Wednesday)
Wednesday I went for a run with one of my co-workers. Felt nice to get some exercise after just eating all this good food and drinking beer. We just ran for 30 minutes. Then it was back to meetings all day.

After the meetings we went back to supper at the place we went the night before. We thought it was so good then that we wanted to try it again. The food was still really good but about halfway through the meal a tour group came and sat in the room we were in. They were really, really loud. They were Spanish and were yelling Spanish back and forth to each other and had some really loud toasts. Somebody had a decibel measuring app on their iPhone and pulled it out. It was over 100 decibels in that room!

After supper we decided to walk around and find a place that served Budvar. It's the original Budweiser. We found a place pretty close to the hotel and had a couple of Budweisers. Definitely better than the US version but it wasn't the best beer I've had since I've been here.

Day 6 (Thursday)
Today I went running by myself in the morning. Did another 30 minutes, although I didn't have a watch and didn't really know how long I had been gone. I guess my internal clock is pretty good!

Today was the last day of meetings and we wrapped up around 5 PM. We're meeting for supper at 7 PM so I finally had some time to write about my trip.

Good Morning - mostly the backlog of pictures ;)

Good morning! I didn't take the time to blog last night because I went walking with Elizabeth. We actually each pushed one of her kids in strollers since Leslie was gone, so it was a great workout. When I got back, I talked with Mom and Dad, and the next thing you know, it was 10:00! So, I went on to bed. The biggest news is that Alex slept all night last night! Went down around 6:45, and slept until a little after 5:00, so that was awesome. We also had a much better evening last night. Tuesday night did not go well, as you will see in the pictures. I am at work, so I will write more tonight to let you know what has been going on.

Andrew says that he went for another run this morning and that was really good, and that today is the last day of meetings! Tomorrow is either a free day or sightseeing.

More tonight, but here are some pictures - I finally found the red camera and downloaded the ones from it and from Mom and Dad's camera...:

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday

Videos and pics of Alex from yesterday

I got a couple of pictures of Alex yesterday and some video. There were some pictures of Johnny, but they are all on Mom and Dad's camera. I still can't find the camera, so these were all taken with the iPod. Johnny seemed to have had a good day at school yesterday, and Alex's fever was totally gone, and he seemed to feel much better, but really didn't nap well at all. I think he may be ready to drop to just 2 naps a day. I'm going to try that on Friday, maybe. Mimi and Gramps came mid-day and went to pick Johnny up from school. Johnny and Alex both had fun with them, and we had a good afternoon, overall. We love you, Andrew/Daddy! The videos are at the bottom :) The second one is a little less exciting if you are pinched for time :)

These were tricky, but I managed to eat a few of them!!

This is fun! :)

  

Mmmmm

 Videos:

Update from Andrew

I got this update from Andrew this morning about his Tuesday night. The trip seems to be going well!

From Andrew's e-mail sent his Wednesday morning:

I'm up [early] this morning because I'm going to go for a run!  We'll see how it goes.  There are a lot of cobblestone streets and narrow alleys in this town so I'm exactly sure how running will be.  There is a group of 3 or 4 of us going running this morning.

We had a pretty good time last night.  We went to a really good restaurant we stumbled across that had awesome food and amazingly cheap beer.  Beer was 29 crowns for .5 liter.  The exchange rate is around 20 crowns to 1 dollar so that beer was about $1.10!  I ate a pig's knee last night and it was awesome!  I forgot my camera but I got Steve to take a picture of it.  Hopefully I'll be able to get a copy of that picture.  The food was really good and it came a lot faster than the night before so that was cool.  Kent was with us last night and he ended up picking up the tab for supper.  That was very nice!

After supper we came back to the hotel and had a few beers here.  We didn't really do anything exciting, but we still had a good time talking and laughing.

I hope you sleep really good tonight.  I need to head downstairs to meet for our run.  I think we're just going to try and run for 30 minutes and see how that goes.  I love you very much!

Love,
Andrew

Monday, monday..

Hi there! Did I promise a picture today? Hmmm.... well I took a couple of pictures, but I can't find the camera now. I'm sorry! So, here is a picture, it's just not from today. These were on the other camera, and I downloaded all of those yesterday. This was from December 11th, so Alex would have been 3 days old :) Yes - I cropped my unshowered self right out of these pictures!

Johnny and Alex - Johnny 2, Alex 3 days

Today was a pretty crazy day, mostly because Alex was sick. He did not feel good almost all day and needed lots of holding and attention. He was up several times last night, and I re-dosed him with ibuprofen at 2 am because he was so hot. I fed him at 5:30 am, and he went back to sleep until almost 8:00! His temp seemed to max out at 102.7, and stayed there pretty much all day when he didn't have Tylenol. He took some OK naps, and didn't really seem to have any other symptoms besides the fever and being fussy. He did get really upset about me trying to check his ears using the scope and trying to use the ear thermometer, so I started to wonder if it might be an ear infection. He also was really fussy this afternoon even when his temperature was low, so I ended up bringing him to the pediatrician's office late this afternoon just to get them to check his ears. They said the ears were totally clear, and couldn't find anything else wrong, so they took a blood draw - from his heel - he was NOT happy about that, poor fella!! and checked his white blood count to rule out a UTI. The white blood count seemed low enough to rule out the UTI, and the doc said she thought it was viral. She said to bring him back if he developed any non-viral rashes (and told me how to know the difference) or if he still had a fever on Thursday. He had a really hard time settling at bedtime, but seemed happy that Johnny was home and had some fun playing this evening. He won't be going to daycare tomorrow of course, and maybe not the next day. Really hoping he feels better tomorrow!

I did get to Skype with Andrew twice today - once this morning with no sound,  and once this afternoon after Johnny and Annette had arrived - with sound! That was awesome. It was really good to see him and talk to him and it was fun for Johnny to get to talk to him that way. Alex even gave him a grin of recognition this morning, despite feeling so bad! Looked like a nice hotel right in the middle of everything. He had done his presentation today and had felt like that had gone well :) He noted that beer is cheaper than water there! :)

Annette and Johnny arrived a little before lunchtime bearing a wonderful gift - lunch from Chick-fil-a!! I hadn't really had much breakfast since Alex had been so fussy, so I was really excited about that. It was also really good to see Johnny. He had a great time at Grammy and Grampy's and was still talking about getting the ice cream last night at church, lol :) He was also doing a lot of wooshing around the house acting like a Transformer. Pretty funny. Grammy stayed all afternoon and evening and was a huge help since Alex needed lots of attention still. We moved the sand table in to the porch (with plastic under it - don't worry) so that Johnny could play on it even though it was raining. He also got some swinging time, which he was very happy about.

We had Daniel's for dinner - Grammy went and picked it up after we got back from the late afternoon doctor's appointment, and since we got pizza, we let Johnny watch Thomas and Friends while he ate it. The evening sort of turned in to a disaster. Johnny was pretty tired and fussy about going to bath and bed, and I thought I had Alex down for the night, but about the time I was going to bathe Johnny, Alex woke back up and cried hard for a while. Poor Grammy had the duty of calming him down. I wondered if he wasn't re-living the heel stick or something like that? Or maybe he was just overtired. Who knows? Anyway, I had to forgo laying with Johnny to go in and relieve Grammy. Alex finally calmed down and went on to sleep, but it was almost 8:00. Thank goodness Grammy was here, I really needed her help! It will be interesting to see how he does tonight. Speaking of that, time to go to bed!

Hope you have a great Tuesday in Prague, Andrew! We love you!

Andrew in Prague

Before Andrew left, he, Johnny and I built Johnny a "spaceship", so I had to take this opportunity to show that off: :)

Where's Johnny?

There he is!! Wait - if his eyes are closed is he still hiding?

Andrew made it to Prague on Saturday with no problems! We have heard from him a few times, and I think he is settling in nicely. He has been on a tour of Prague, and one of the wives that is with them spent part of last summer there, so knows her way around, which is helpful. I tried to Skype with him this morning, but his connection was so bad we never did even talk, just did some asynchronous messaging...

 The boys and I have been doing well. We all three went to the airport to drop Andrew off, and I intended to take them to the observation park at the airport to let them "watch Daddy's plane take off", but they fell asleep on the way up there! So, they didn't really get to say goodbye at the airport to Andrew :(. I drove to a park closer to home, and we played there for a while and even found a really nice family with three cute little boys to play "fish, fish, crab" with, which was a lot of fun. Johnny really liked the oldest boy, who was 5. Next we headed to pick up pizza for Johnny and I to have pizza and a movie night! I got Johnny all set up with the movie and pizza and got Alex ready for bed. I ate and watched the movie with Johnny once I got Alex in bed. Even after the 50th time, probably, Cars is a good movie. Love that Mater. To top off a good night, I went to bed early expecting to be up in the night with Alex, and he slept all the way until 5:20 Saturday morning! I know that is an early wakeup, but no interruptions in the sleep made that a great wakeup time :)

Saturday morning we got ready and headed on down to Carthage to spend the day. Johnny drew a couple of pictures on the way down. I thought the second one was especially good!

Ummm - Hope we don't need these directions anymore!

A Dinosaur! Roar!

Johnny went to VBS at Eureka, and Alex and I hung out there with him until Alex was about ready for his second nap. Johnny was a little shy at first, but warmed up and was having a great time. The kids made some really cute crafts, and were listening intently to the Bible story when I left.

After VBS, we all went swimming, even Alex! He really seemed to like the water and getting pulled around in it. The boys had a great time playing with the water balloons that you bought, Andrew. They were very long lasting in and around the water!

I actually did like this - but Mommy didn't get pictures of me grinning :)

Would you like some "ice cream"?

The boys were seriously wiped out from swimming. But managed to stay awake long enough to watch some Transformers.

Tired bunnies

 Alex and I headed on home after dinner. We did not get pictures of it, but he did NOT like peas, lol - lots of shivers and funny faces :) He fell asleep on the way home.

If you look closely, you can see Alex asleep on the way home

Alex didn't have as good of a night last night. He did sleep all the way until 4:30 am, which was pretty good, but then he would not fall back asleep and I finally gave up a little after 5 and got him up for the day and fed him, except he fell back asleep after I fed him. He slept until 8:00, and I noticed he was warm, and checked, and sure enough he had a fever of 101.1. Gave him ibuprofen later in the day when he was fussy and still feverish and it helped, but then he wouldn't nap much because he felt so good! Only slept for about 30 minutes around 2:00, so I did another stroller ride around 4:00, and he catnapped a bit. He was in a really good mood most of the afternoon, and did a lot of exploring around the house and crawling. And pulling up on the red ottoman :) Managed to delay bedtime a bit by giving him a bath, which he enjoyed, but he was asleep a little after 6:00. I gave him a bit more ibuprofen, as his temp was up to 101.5. He didn't have any other symptoms except the fever today, and being a little bit fussy, so we will see how he is tomorrow...

I talked to Johnny a couple of times today. He was really tired last night and got upset when I left Saturday night, but calmed down quick and Annette said he went right out after we left, and was in a much better mood this morning when I talked to him. He was very chatty this morning, which was nice. It always amazes me how little he sounds on the phone - so sweet! She said they swam some more, and then tonight they did some songs and things from VBS at church. Johnny was most excited about the ice cream that they had with chocolate syrup! He was excited about that and about going out to play with Klay, so I didn't talk to him long tonight. Sorry about no pictures from today. I'll try harder to take some tomorrow!

Oh - and here are all the pics above and a few more in a Picasa album:

For Andrew in Prague

Fall, Santa Train, and Andrew's Birthday

Here are pictures - a few just random fall ones, but mostly from our trip on the "Santa Train" yesterday and from Andrew's birthday today - enjoy!

Fall Random, Santa Train, and Andrew's Birthday

Halloween and Picture update!

It's been entirely too long since I posted anything on here, but Johnny's Halloween party at school inspired me to upload the pictures - get this - the SAME day I took them!! Who knows, maybe I will make this a regular Friday night activity....


Halloween Pics!:

Halloween 2011

Here are some random pics from October and the State Fair:

State Fair 2011 and October

We went to LEGO fest in downtown Raleigh in early October - this was SOOO cool!:

LEGO Fest!

And, the very next day, we happened upon the Fire Station Open House in Fuquay-Varina:

Fire Station Open House

7/17/2011 - Liz in Oregon Day 2

Happy anniversary, Liz! We've had 12 wonderful years together and I can't wait to have many, many more.

Johnny and I had a really good day today. He woke up around 6:30 this morning. I brought him into bed with me for a while, mainly because I was still sleepy. He played with Mater in my bed and had a great ol' time!

We ate cereal for breakfast this morning and then went to the 8:30 service at church. The lady who keeps the nursery wasn't there right at 8:30 so I took Johnny into the sanctuary with me. I told him that if he wanted to go downstairs to play at any time to let me know and that I would take him. He made it all the way to the sermon and decided he wanted to go downstairs so I had to get up and carry him out in the middle of the sermon. :)

After church we ran a few errands. I wanted to change the oil and rotate the tires in Liz's car so we ran by the auto parts store. Kroger had a good deal on ribeye steaks so we ran by there and got some steaks. We came home, had lunch, and went outside to swing for a while.

Then it was time for nap. He did pretty good at nap time today. He called out for me within 30 seconds of me leaving the room so I went back in to see what was wrong. He had found a toy in his bed and wanted me to take it out. He called out again after I left, but got quiet after a bit and went on to sleep. He slept about 1.5 hours.

While Johnny was asleep, I changed the oil and rotated the tires on Liz's car. I was pretty hot and tired after that so Johnny and I just sat around and played and watched TV when he woke up from nap.

We talked to Liz on Skype this evening and that was really nice. I had already started cooking supper so we didn't get to talk for long. We had more squash and onions, left over potatoes from yesterday, and corn and steak cooked on the grill. It was delicious! Johnny likes corn on the cob!

After supper, Johnny played with his trains. He talked me into letting him watch some Cars movie instead of reading our books tonight. We took a quick bath, brushed our teeth, then watched 5 minutes of the movie. We went to his room and sang our songs while he was laying in bed. He fell right out as soon as I left the room tonight.

I did a better job of taking pictures today.

July 17th, 2011

7/16/2011 - Liz in Oregon Day 1

Liz is on her way to Portland for a week long conference. Johnny and I are living it up as bachelors while she's away. Liz left around noon to head to the airport while Johnny and I were eating lunch. He ate a great lunch. He had a piece of pizza, some cantaloupe, half a turkey sandwich, some chips, and some of my bologna and egg sandwich. I didn't think he was ever going to stop eating!

After lunch, Johnny played with his puzzles and cars while I chopped up a watermelon. Liz texted and then later called saying her flight to Minneapolis was delayed and that would cause her to miss her flight from Minneapolis to Portland. The airline booked her on another route through JFK to Portland, but she didn't leave RDU until 4:45 (instead of 2:15) and wasn't going to land in Portland until 11:30 Pacific time (which will feel like 2:30 AM to her body). Now she's going to spend the night in Portland and then catch a shuttle to Eugene in the morning.

I put Johnny down for his first nap in his big boy bed this afternoon. He talked me into letting him sleep in his underwear (and nothing else) so I moved his little potty into his room and told him that if he needed to potty that he could get out of bed and go. We read "If You Take a Mouse To School" and "I Am a Bunny" and sang our songs and then he went to bed. He called out for me about 5 minutes after I left the room so I went back in. He had pooped his underwear. So I changed him and rocked with him for a while and then he went back to bed. He went to sleep around 2 PM and slept until almost 4 PM! I was pretty amazed. I looked in on him at one time and he had his knees on the floor and his head in the bed.

After he got up, we didn't do too much. We piddled around and then watched the Cars movie for a while. OK, I admit. I had the TV babysit my child while I tried to get supper ready. We had grilled salmon, squash with onions, and some roasted potatoes for supper. It was pretty good if I say so myself. And Johnny ate more salmon that I thought was possible for a 2.5 year old. I told him he was going to turn into a fish and swim away. He thought that was hilarious.

We talked to Liz after she arrived in JFK. In typical toddler fashion Johnny didn't really want to talk to Liz after asking about her all afternoon long. He really does miss Liz because after our call we went to the bathroom for bath and he had a melt down. He just started crying and screaming that he wanted his Mommy. But bath went good and he went down to sleep as pretty as you please. Hopefully we'll both sleep good tonight.

I didn't do a good job with the camera today. The only picture I took was this one of Johnny with my cell phone. He said he wanted to call his Mommy!

Big Boy Bed!

Our new adventure this week has been to move Johnny to a "big boy bed". It is really a low toddler bed that was actually Annette's (Grammy's) when she was a girl. We have been a little nervous about this, but felt like he was ready. We also wanted to go ahead and do it since he would need to sleep on an air mattress at the beach, and because I am not supposed to be lifting him so much. I was also not so sure how it was going to go, because when he saw the bed frame in the garage before we had it set up, he said "I don't like it", and that first night he told us at bedtime that he wanted his crib. We told him we would try the big boy bed for a few nights and if it wasn't going well, we could move him back in his crib. Although, I don't think Andrew really was wanting to take it back apart and move it back into his room!

We started on Sunday night, and so far he has done great! The first few nights he took a long time to fall asleep, and it was funny to watch him go on and off screen on the video monitor as he explored his new-found freedom. But, he stayed in his room, although we did have to go check on him a time or two. On Tuesday night he fell out of the bed and I found him asleep in the middle of the floor in the morning, which was pretty funny, but he did not seem upset about it! In the morning, he still calls for us so far and wants us to come get him. This morning, specifically, he yelled "Mama! I need a nose wipe!!" LOL...

Tonight he told us "I love my big boy bed!" as we were getting him ready for bed - so I think Andrew is safe on that having to take the crib back apart and moving it thing :)

Big Boy Bed

A Good Saturday

Well, since I didn't write last night, I suppose I should tell you a little about yesterday. It was a long day - work and then I had the pre-op appointment at the OB's office. It was a 3:30 appointment, but they seemed to be running behind, as I had to wait a long time once I got into the examining room. Had a long talk with Dr. Beatty about the cerclage procedure, and left feeling very upset and confused. The best thing about the appointment was that I did get to hear the baby's heartbeat, and it sounded wonderful. That is so reassuring and nice to hear :) I get the feeling that Dr. Beatty doesn't think I should do the cerclage, but maybe she is just trying to make sure that I understand the risks so we don't sue them and such. She had talked with Dr. Goodnight, the doctor that had treated me at UNC, and told me that there was a new study out saying that the progesterone treatments I had done were just as effective as cerclage, and was talking about how we could wait and start that at 16 weeks, and could do a cerclage as late as 20 weeks if needed. I looked up the papers later, and it was actually just progesterone versus no progesterone, and the progesterone did give improved outcomes. They never mention if the women were on bedrest or not, but all had cervical lengths between 10 and 20 mm, so I am assuming they were. Women who elected to have cerclages were excluded from the study. The thing I found interesting was that several women were given emergency cerclages. Everything I see says that emergency cerclages are way less effective and more prone to infection and problems, which makes sense really. The outcomes of the studies all concern the outcome of the baby, which is of course the most important thing, but never mention what the mom is doing during the pregnancy, how much time is spent in the hospital, etc. After all my reading, it brought me back to the cerclage and doing it now, when it is not in an emergency situation, before anything has a chance to start moving. I am going to pray on it, and to read about it a little more, but I still feel like it is the best option. I really hope I am not wrong.

Because I didn't leave the doctor's office until right at 5:00, and traffic was AWFUL in Fuquay, I got to Johnny's day care pretty late - around 5:40. He was still doing good, though, and was outside in the wagon when I got there. I had ordered a pizza from J&S before I picked him up, so we headed over to Varina. I then found out the reason for the bad traffic - Broad street was closed through downtown Varina for a block party concert later on - which meant no parking near the Pizza place either! So, we parked by the CVS and walked all the way down there. I decided that since we walked so far, we should just eat there, but forgot how slow the service was there! We ate outside, though, and had a pretty good dinner. Johnny really enjoyed watching all the cars, trucks, and motorcycles go by. I think he was pretty tired, though. I didn't realize his nap had been pretty short that day until later on after he went to bed. He wanted to play so bad when we got home, but I hurried him on to bath and bed since it was late. It was probably after 8 when he got in bed, but I don't think he fell asleep until after 9! I guess it was just such an unusual day, and maybe he knew I was upset about something. I had to go in there a couple of times, the last time I left his door open and told him I was going to sleep (because I was!)

He didn't really sleep late this morning, though. We had a pretty good breakfast, but he was clingy all day - wanted lots of hugs and to sit on my lap a whole lot and such. And he was tired all morning morning. I think he is really missing Andrew, and yesterday was an unusually long day. Not sure - but I tried to give him all the hugs he wanted, unless I was driving, lol :) We talked to Andrew on Skype this morning after his trip to Macau "yesterday" - he said it was interesting, but he was exhausted! It was great to talk to him and see him, though!

I took my shower this morning after Johnny was up, and he was playing in our room when I went in, and I just took a real quick one. When I came out, though, it was quiet - too quiet - so I called for him, and he came running in and said "I went pee pee ALL BY MYSELF" I said "you did? Good for you! Do you need Mama to empty the cup for you?" "NO - I went in the big potty! Standing up!" I went in to see him and sure enough he was standing by the big potty - and the lights were even out in there. I was really impressed and he was really cute :) He went on his own, even #2 several times today, and was just so proud of himself. I also heard "ALL BY MYSELF" several other times today about other things :) Trying to let him do what I can!

After I got my chores done this morning, we headed up to Cary and got him some new swimsuits that actually fit at Old Navy - One has fish on it, and the other one has skateboards on it. They had a Cars one that I thought he would want, but he was not interested! He did like the Spiderman one, but they didn't have his size. There was not much left in the 2T and 3T sizes. We also got a couple of rash guards. He did NOT want another Blue flowered one, and put on a pretty good demonstration of that! I had him try on the fish one just to be sure the 3T wouldn't be too big, and he liked it so much he wanted to keep it on. I decided to let him, and just lifted him up at the cash register - :) Then we went by Whole Foods to get him more of his probiotics, and then on to the farm. By the end of all that, we were both pretty done, and I was very glad that I had bought some apples at Whole Foods - we both had one of those on the way home from the farm. He did a pretty good job on the whole apple with the skin! We had a good lunch, and he went on to nap pretty easy, as did I :) He took a good nap - probably a little over 1 1/2 hours - hopefully catching up from last night..

After nap, I needed to get some work done, so I graded notebooks, and he read some, and then watched Cars. That went pretty well for about an hour! He is totally mesmerized by that movie. He had a snack of cucumber (2nd one from our garden!) and cheez-its while he watched. I turned the movie off after I'd worked for about an hour, and we went outside and brought some shorts back to our neighbor Elizabeth's house (they were her son's - J had an accident at her house one day a few weeks ago). We got there, and Natalie and Luke (the kids) met us at the door and just started shouting "Johnny, Johnny, Johnny!" - I felt like I was with a rock star! They were really cute. We hung out there for a little while and the kids played while Elizabeth and I talked - she really is so sweet :) J and I came home and then played in the pool and watered the garden until it was dinner time. Had more leftovers for dinner, which was nice and easy, and I thought Johnny would want to go back out to the pool, but he didn't! So I worked on the kitchen a bit while he played, and then played with him some. He had done awesome with the potty all day today. He was naked or half naked most of the day - so that really helped and let him go without my help a whole lot. The only tragedy was that he tried to pee standing up at his little potty - I didn't find that until later - needless to say, the little potty needed a bath, and the floor needed some cleaning!!

After dinner we talked to Andrew, and he looked great! He said he had slept continually all night for the first time since he got there! I think it was only 6 1/2 hours - but it was more than he had been getting. He also said he slept on all the traveling yesterday to Macau and then even fell asleep for just a second during dinner last night!! He said they were all craving Western food last night and were on there own so had gone to an Italian restaurant. I hope he can get another good night tonight and can get rested up before he has to get turned around again. Tomorrow/Today they are having meetings, but also going to a horse race.

J did awesome at bedtime tonight. I tried to get him in bed a little early tonight since he seemed so tired today. He wanted to read "If I ran the Zoo" again tonight - and tonight we just read that, and so we read all of it in one sitting for the first time. We have been reading in the corner with all the pillows, and I swear I think he would sleep in that corner with just those pillows. I almost put his crib mattress on the floor tonight, but then got nervous it would end up being a long night! Maybe we will try that next weekend after Andrew gets home :) I got him in bed around 7:45, and he rolled around just a bit, and fell asleep shortly after 8, thankfully.

Tomorrow Mimi and Gramps come. I have a lot of work to get done tomorrow, so I am not sure if I will manage much of a blog post. I did not get any pictures today or yesterday, sadly. So, since I promised some pictures - here are some from March when we built the new garden bed by the driveway:

New Garden Bed

June 2nd

Well, today it will have to be no pictures, since I didn't take any today. I guess I got out of practice with Johnny being gone. Got Johnny in bed just before 8 last night, and he was zonked. I heard the little sigh he used to give all the time when he would finally calm down last night while we were reading before bed. You knew he wasn't done pitching his tantrum or being upset until you heard it. We talked to Andrew a little later than usual because he was having internet troubles. Johnny wanted to read the Pooh book Mimi and Gramps gave him AND the little engine that could. Both are a little longer, and I agreed, but told him just those two and no Bible story. We read the Pooh book, and then started on the Little Engine when I heard that sigh. I decided we could stop half-way through that book and finish it tonight. He did pretty well with that, and just wanted to read one more page. He gave me a nice long hug, and then went right to sleep.

Johnny woke up earlier than I expected this morning - 6:15! He really is cutting back on his sleep. I worry a little that he's getting how much he needs, but he really doesn't seem to be able to sleep much more than that. So, I guess we will roll with it for now as long as he is not too cranky. I forgot how tough it is getting out the door without Andrew here and for an 8 AM class! We were doing so good, and he wanted to read little engine that could, so I agreed, and then I looked up and it was after 7, and neither of us had shoes on! We managed to make it out of the house, but not without a bit of a roller-coaster ride. He wanted to put his shoes on himself, so I let him do that and went to get my shoes while he did that. He actually did a pretty good job! He didn't have the straps right, but that was easy to fix. I had so much stuff to carry that I handed him his milk cup to carry, and I think he didn't want any right then, but he just screamed and screamed all the way to the car. I told him I needed his help, but that didn't make any difference, so I decided to ignore him.... Didn't seem like too much to ask to have him carry his milk cup... The only true calamity was that we forgot his strawberries that I had cut up for his breakfast at home. I managed to make it a few minutes early, so I had a little breathing room to make it to class on time.

Had a good day at work. It is still so hot in the building even though the a/c is running. It starts out OK at around 75, but the temperature quickly goes up with warm bodies, projectors running, and the sun hitting the big east windows. It makes it tough in the afternoon to concentrate. I may start coming home to work on Tuesdays and Thursdays once I am pretty sure that the lab is going OK for the other lab instructor. I have a lot to do to get everything ready to leave it on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I will probably end up working this weekend some at night and during (please, please let there be) nap time, but I think I will be OK.

He had a good day at school - ate a good lunch, took an over 1 1/2 hour nap, and had no accidents! He was playing with some big plastic nuts and bolts when I got there, and had a wet shirt - I guess from washing his hands?

Was a little late leaving work and picking up Johnny, but I continued my tradition of setting a timer and spending 30 minutes with him when we get home before I start cooking dinner. We had a good time outside throwing and kicking balls. At first he just wanted to throw them into the yard and then go get them and do it over again. Then we would throw the balls at the other balls to see if we could get them to move. Later, I showed him the velcro mits, and we almost had a game of catch going there for a little while :). It was getting close to time to go in, so I told him we needed to water his flowers that he had started from seed at school, so we took his little watering can around to the rain barrel and watered the marigolds. We had the little can a little over half full, and as he was carrying it around the house, he said "I'm strong!" I thought that was really cute, and told him he was! Then he wanted to water more, so we got another canful and did the begonias that I'm pretty sure are in too much sun and aren't going to make it. He started losing it a bit just as I almost had dinner ready - I think he was pretty hungry.

We had a good dinner - hot dogs, mac and cheese, and green beans, and then we had some pudding that I had made. I had told him that we could go out and fill up the baby pool after dinner, so we did that. This time we put it in the back yard in a flatter spot. That will probably work well, except the grass is not so good there, so it's a little harder on the bare feet in that area. He had a good time splashing in the pool, and then we talked to Andrew for a little while! It was a good thing Andrew called when he did, because the mosquitoes were coming out en force at that point.

Andrew seemed more tired again - and disappointed that they had stayed up late to finish their project, but it still didn't work. He has to make a presentation today on it, and wasn't looking forward to that really. The only good news was that part would be over after today, and then he could sleep in tomorrow! So, we may not talk to him tomorrow night, but he really needs to sleep in, I think. He says his body has not quite figured out the time yet and he keeps waking up early in the morning, unable to sleep any more :( This weekend they are going to Macau - the Vegas of China and next week is Dale Carnegie training for them.

The bedtime routine went well tonight - Johnny loves throwing the football in the tub - and is pretty good at it! At bedtime he wanted to read Seuss' "If I Ran the Zoo" - which is a really long book, it turns out! We didn't finish it, but marked it for tomorrow night. Again, it was almost 8:00 when I put him to bed, and he seemed to fall right asleep! I am hoping he sleeps a little later in the morning - we will see! I may try putting him to bed a little earlier tomorrow night to see if he will sleep a little later.

OK - bedtime for me! So glad it's Friday tomorrow and class starts at 8:30 instead of 8! I promise there will be pictures tomorrow, even if they are from our backlog of unedited, unposted pictures! :)

June 1

I stayed up way too late last night, so I am just going to post pictures tonight. Not too many, since Johnny came back around 4:30 this afternoon. It was so good to see him again. Grammy and Klay had brought him up, so I got a little hug when he got here since he was busy playing with Klay (got a better one from Klay, actually), but then I got a sweet, good, long hug at bedtime :) He had a fantastic time playing with Klay, Grammy, and Grampy, I think.

Andrew said he is getting a little more sleep and starting to get adjusted and had duck feet with his dinner last night. He said he didn't eat much of them, and they tasted just about like you'd expect! More tomorrow, I promise.

June 1

Memorial Day and Tuesday(Monday?)

Yesterday Johnny and I went down to Carthage and had a fantastic time with the Blues and at the pool! I made the mistake of reminding Johnny that we were going to Grammy and Grampy's not long after he got up. So he was ready to go - right then! Unfortunately we still needed to eat breakfast and pack, and I still needed to shower. He kept his patience pretty well and found things to do or helped me as we did all we needed to do to get out the door. I thought he was going to fall asleep on the drive down there, but he fought it off. We played in the pool in the morning with Klay, Grammy, and Kerri.

He was pretty hesitant at first, as it had been so long since he'd been in the water, and would only "jump" into the pool if you were already touching him. In the afternoon, though, he was jumping away and he got so mad at me as I was helping him to the steps after a jump. I couldn't figure out what he was so mad about, and finally I realized that he wanted to swim by himself to the steps :) He drank a little water, but he did a really good job! He LOVED it :)

He would not nap after lunch, just kept running around in the crib and calling for me. Andy and Emily and their kids, Nick and Molly were there by that point out at the pool, and I think he was hearing them, or maybe he was just excited. Finally I gave up on the nap and he went back out to the pool. That's when he got really good at jumping and "swimming".

We spent all afternoon out at the pool, and then came in for dinner. I gave Johnny an early bath so he would be ready if he needed an early bedtime, and Grammy and Grampy made a great dinner. I left not long after dinner, and it was really hard to leave to go home to an empty house and work. But, I knew Johnny was in good hands and would have a good time with Grammy and Grampy and everyone.

And... I did get a whole lot of work done today. Stayed a little late at work and then started right back up after dinner at home. Trying to get everything all set so that I have it in order for the people that are covering for me next week when I am out for surgery and recovery. So, that was good! Still have a ways to go, but I feel like I have a pretty good handle on it.

I got to talk to Andrew, Annette, and Johnny on Skype tonight, so that was also good. Johnny seems to be having a really good time down in Carthage, and wasn't interested in talking on Skype once he found out I was just on the computer and not really there :) Back to running around screaming with Klay! He may be sad to come home and hang out with just me - but I will be glad to see him again. Andrew is still not quite turned around with the time - they keep having late nights, and then he gets up early to Skype. He says the meetings are going well overall.

I leave you with some pictures from the pool yesterday, and one video (too lazy to post it on you tube tonight):

Memorial Day