Tuesday, June 29, 2010

jinx

Boy did I jinx myself with the last post...
Early Sat. morning, after a fun filled day at Adventureland (post to come) the little man starts wailing. About 2:00 am, I go in a check on him, he is wicked hot to the touch, I get to use my new temporal thermometer (why I didn't by one of those years ago!) His temp was 103.4F. I give him the max. dosage of Motrin and his paci. Yes I gave his paci back. He looked so miserable and I imagine had a heck of a headache with that temp, I figure he could use some comfort. We continue to check on him every couple hours, keeping him jazzed up on Motrin, for two days he ran a temperature between 99F and 103 F. All along he has no other really symptoms besides being a little extra cranky and clingy, and wouldn't you be! We keep checking his ears, they have certainly looked worse; ie. more red, and he hasn't had an ear infection.
Sunday evening we are having a popcorn and cheese dinner, and Rob instantly gets super nauseous. He is full out sick within the hour, unable to leave the bathroom or the bed. I feel decent, my plan was to make some food for a BBQ we were invited to on Monday and some muffins for the morning. I get all my stuff done and enjoy the quite house, and go to bed (in the guest room, I don't want those germs!) By 4:00 am I am in the same state as Rob!

This is my third bout with this flu/sickness during this pregnancy. It worries me to get so dehydrated while pregnant, what can you do when you can't keep down any liquids. After sleep most of Monday we are tons better, kids seem to not be affected!

Anyway today was the day of taking the paci's back. Let me say it has not been as easy as the first time around. 20 minutes of screaming at naptime, followed by 30 minutes at betime. I know it is all my fault, all that mommy guilt!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Paci's, stinkee's and manners...

A lot has been developing in Dallas's little world. He had his 18 month well visit last week. He has gained some length, and is now in the 70% for height, remaining in the 50% for weight and head circumference.

He barely passed all the hearing tests they administered. It figures that the first time he doesn't have fluid, infected or not, in his ears is his well visit. He had more than enough words that he says well enough that we are not too concerned with his hearing affecting his speech. I think it is hard for Rob and I to discern "normal", I think Emily had really great speech development, and said most things correctly without a lot of baby talk. I asked the Dr. his opinion about moving Dallas into Em's room, taking his paci, and moving him to a different bed, as we need to free up the crib at some point.



On Monday, I put him to nap without his pacifier and he went right to sleep. I was amazed! That night we tried to put him to bed without it, he was doing fine, then we had the commotion with the "lost kid" I think he heard us downstairs and got a little worked up. Since then he has been doing great. The hard part is waking up, he misses it most, and then wails until we appear in the doorway.



Another new development in the last couple of weeks has been in the bathroom department. Dallas will indicate that he has just gone poop. He comes up and says stinky, and points to his diaper. I don't think he is ready for potty training, and really had not desire to start that before the baby came, but I know he is starting to put things together. When he tells me before hand, I think I will need to act.



He has also become a very polite little boy. He will say/sign thank you and please, and has really slowed down his tossing of the food off his high chair.

Happy Birthday Robert


Happy Birthday! We love and appreciate everything you do to serve our family. You are the greatest.

Monday, June 21, 2010

lost kid

Tonight I had just finished putting Dallas to bed. Emily and Rob were putting away the outside toys, working their way inside for bedtime routine. I hear Rob call for me to come down and help, which I thought was unusual because usually that accompanies a screaming kid. Then I hear another kiddo's voice, I thought maybe some of our friends had dropped by during a walk.

I came down and boy was I surprised. Rob and Em had picked up a shoeless neighbor kid. Rob said he was staying at his Grandparents house, while his mom worked, but they were not home, but playing golf. What!!!! Thank goodness Rob was still in the driveway so this kiddo could find someone. Rob took him out to see if he knew which way to go, or which way was home. I tried putting Emily to bed. 10 minutes later, they come back, I ask his name, and Rob had determined that we knew his grandparents and that the kid could get in and out of the house. I commence an Internet search to try to get a phone number while he plays with Emily. I imagine he is about Em's age, but his speech wasn't quite as clear. Rob couldn't understand anything. The boy told Em his name was Sam, I thought he said Hunter, so I had been calling him that. He did tell me his mom's name too, which I will protect because one of my readers is facebook friends with her. You won't believe how much I figured out in three minutes on the Internet, but it also only yielded home numbers, not cell numbers.
Rob went back to his grandparents house and searched just to make sure, you know, no one wasa passed out or really injured in there. Turns out there was some people in his grandparents house, in the basement and didn't know he was gone. His Aunt was outside waiting for him.

What a wake up call. Em and I had a big discussion about why it is important that she knows our names and our address, which she does! I haven't taught her our cell phone numbers yet but I guess I should. We also talked about not leaving the house without telling someone and staying close to the grown-up you are with, how scary it is to be lost. Although this kid didn't seem to worried.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Montreal Part 3



Montreal Day three...
We slept in again, love vacation! I wanted to visit an outdoor market I had read about. Robert figured out how to get to the market using the Metro. That was fun, we walked to the nearest station, bought tickets and rode to almost the end of the stop and then walked to the market. I loved the Market, it is defiantly a good visit for a foodie. We walked past tons of fresh fruit, baked goods, fish, smoked meats, and pastries. Plus lots of jarred sauces and jams. I really could have bought lots of souvenirs but we only brought carry-ons and the flying regulations would not allow it. If I could have brought anything back it would have been these frozen ready to bake croissants. They looked so yummy, defiantly not Pillsbury. After brunch at the Market, we shopped a little and headed back to the hotel. We decided to head back to the Old Montreal area. I wanted to go into The Notre Dame Basilica. The Basilica was amazing, we took the English speaking tour, given by a trained Historian. I think that learning about places by a professional is a great thing to do on vacation. After the tour, we ventured out to find some Poutine. Putine is French Fries with gravy on top, and cheese curds. It was yummy, I wish I could have washed it down with a beer!
After our little snack we ventured down to the Port to grab a boat tour. The tour was amazing, really neat to see everything and hear the history from the water's prospective.

I was really hot after the tour, I get over-heated easily, and especially when pregnant. I was sucking down water, but was ready for a dose of air conditioning. We walked the mile or so back to the hotel and bought a movie "Hot Tub Time Machine" on the tv. It was perfectly relaxing and gave my body time to recoup. Pretty funny movie too.

After the movie, we freshened up and went out to find a fancy-last-night-on -vacation meal. Rob wanted to take me to a steak place he was thinking of. We wandered out and walked down to Old Montreal to the restaurant. It was gorgeous in the restaurant. One of the only meals we ate inside, instead of on a patio. We both ordered a steak, it was so good. I think mine was grilled in butter. I am so glad I didn't get an appetiser, because dessert was worth the wait. I had a really delicious apple tart.
After dinner we walked around and took in the wonderful evening one last time.

It was a perfect vacation. It was raining the next morning when we caught a cab to back to the airport. I can't imagine better weather, it would have been horrible if it would have rained the entire time we were there since we walked everywhere. The flights home went really well, I purchased a book at the airport, as I had finished the one I had brought. I think Rob and I realized how important it is for us to get away together. I wish it wasn't so hard logistically to get kid watchers lined up, but it is definitely worth it. Perhaps I should start planning for next year, it will be our tenth year of marriage...

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Anniversary Cookie

This post is a little late. I was trying to think of something sweet and special to do for our Anniversary. Things were really busy, Rob was working 19 hours a day, and we really didn't have time to stop and celebrate, plus we knew we were leaving in a couple of days for vacation. Em suggested we make daddy cookies. I upped the ante, and we made a giant cookie, heart shaped. We frosted it, with purple and wrote friends on it, both were Emily's suggestions!

Grandpa's birthday



Grandpa came over Sat to spend the night so we could all meet up Sunday at Adventureland. We were going celebrate his birthday and Rob's. Turns out it decided to rain all day Sunday and we canceled. It was alright with me. I ended up with a day and a half virus or food poisoning, I am still not sure which. I woke up at 4:00 am, with similar symptoms of the epic sickness over Christmas. I swapped the bathroom for the bed all day, sleeping probably 20 hours or so. By Monday I was mostly myself again, just tired from not eating, drinking, and or moving. I seem to be the only afflicted person, perhaps it was food poisoning. I am thankful that my husband wastes no time and ran for my comforting orange Gatorade at 6:00 am, and he took care of the kids all day. He said it was nice to spend time with them too!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

laundy bandit

I caught my little laundry bandit in the act today. I heard the laundry shoot opening and shutting, which is not too unusual because Em uses it. I walked into the hallway and noticed all the clean wet clothes I had just hung to dry were missing. There was a sweet little boy standing in front of the shoot with a wet pair of shorts!
He got away with it that time because he lifted his shirt and pointed to his belly and said belly, so cute!

1. This might partially explain why I feel like I do endless laundry...
2. This also explains why occasionally I get a dirty diaper down there among other strange things

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

100 days

I am under 100 days to go with this pregnancy. I have to say it has been really easy again this time, I have heard what some women have to go through and I am super thankful I have never had morning sickness!

I am trying to keep things busy around here with Rob gone. We went to a church picnic on Sunday night. They had lots of blow up inflatable "rides" that really wore the kiddo's out + I didn't have to cook!
Monday we got up early (we did breakfast in the car-early) and drove to see my Grandma which is almost 3 hours away. We had a really nice visit. I wish I lived closer. I missed growth group somehow for Monday night, but I guess it was ok since the kids were really tired, I think Dallas was asleep by 7:00.

Today I made some laundry soap and bottled it (hard to do with only two hands), worked out, voted, and then we all went to lay down for a little bit.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

vacation pt.2

This day started with us SLEEPING IN! Ahhh, it was so great, of course I rolled over and looked at the clock at 5:30, but I didn't have to do anything about it. We finally rolled out of bed somewhere after 9:00. Rob tried to hit up the hot tub, but it turns out our hotel only had a pool. We wandered out to get breakfast/lunch around 11:00. We headed towards St. Catherine's street. There was a little section that Rob wanted me to see that he remembers from a visit while he was in Drum Corp when they stopped in Montreal.
Everything was really dead, apparently people don't get going early on Sunday (and it wasn't early). Most of the cafes did not even open until 11:30 or Noon. The place we settled on offered Fresh Squeezed orange juice and a bread and fruit plate on Sundays. I had my first chocolate croissant, yummy! The French love their bread, every place we ate offered bread.

After lunch/brunch, we wandered around St. Catherine's some more. Rob took me into the the Underground. The Underground is 33 km of underground shopping malls, stores anchored by bigger stores. I can't believe how many people were shopping, and how many stores there were. We passed two stores strictly dedicated to selling men's underwear!
After the Underground and a stop to get some chocolate, we visited the Modern Art Museum. Sunday just happened to be free museum day, so why not! Rob and I are not big art people, I think we appreciate what we like/understand, but everything else doesn't seem to have much meaning to us. We did see a nice display of suburban items from the 80's. I guess we were feeling old seeing a Apple IIE in a display case.

After our museum visit, we went back to the hotel, rested a tad and waited for Ion to come pick us up. We had dinner at Rob's old co-workers house in a suburb of Montreal. He and his wife are from Romania, and are duel citizens. They live in Montreal, Ion works, and his wife stays home with there two kids. They were quite the hosts, we ate really well and got to explore more about what living in Canada is like.

Friday, June 4, 2010

One came off amoxicillin yesterday, the other starts her 10 days of the pink stuff today. I am very curious to know where we stand in the amount of $$$ we have paid in co-pays so far this year.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

vacation pt.1

We started out Friday evening. Rob was mowing the lawn one more time, and I helped train the sitters in all things nebulizer and amoxicillin, and all those other what-ifs... By 7:00 or so we headed North for MN, our flight was early in the morning, and casa de Petersen was waiting for us.
Saturday morning we freshened up and headed for the airport. We checked in, went through security and waited to board our flight for Chicago. Once at Chicago we had a little time to kill, so we had breakfast. We checked in at home and the kids were on the way to Story City Carousel for Princess and Pirate story time. We boarded the flight to Montreal, and a little less than two hours later we were there. An old co-worker of Rob's picked us up from the airport and dropped us downtown at our hotel, it was great, and saved a taxi fee.

We stayed at the Delta Centre Ville. It was on University, very close to Old Montreal, the old port and also close to Cathrine St. University is also the street Rob used to work on. After checking in we went out for the day. We walked down and through Old Montreal. Rob showed me his old office building, and pointed out some places he remembered eating or buying things. We had lunch/dinner at a cafe. We saw the port and then circled up towards St. Catherine Street. I have no idea how far we walked, but it seemed like miles. St. Catherine Street is so long, it is a major artery. We walked a bunch of it, just to give you and idea of the shopping in Montreal, in the stretch we walked I passed by three Guess stores, three Aldo shoes, two H&M's (probably all within a mile) After touring the street for a while we stopped at a ice cream/crepe hangout. We sat in the second story balcony and shared a treat. We decided to go see a movie. Rob was always talking about this mega theater when he lived here. We went to see Shrek. I think the theater itself had 20 stadium theaters in it, 1 was imax. It had more escalators in this movie theater than Jordan Creek Mall! After the movie, we walked back towards the hotel. The night life was fun to see, but being pregnant give me a good excuse not to spend the evening in a club!




You can click on the slideshow to make it bigger and read the captions

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

welcome home

We were welcomed home by one kid, one toddler, on happy dog, and because the house didn't want to be left out of things, the water heater decided to blow up and spray rusty water on three out of the four basement walls and stuff. Nothing says welcome home like cleaning rust water off stuff (Rob) and washing dishes by hand with water heated by the stove (Laura). We are very thankful we had people here to handle it, I can't imagine the mess it would have been if the water had not been shut off, also that I was not standing in front of it. You can often find me between the water heater and the washing machine daily during nap time. I am glad I don't know what it feels like to have a valve explode and then be sprayed with scalding water!

Thanks to all of our sitters! Everything was handled perfectly. Now I wait for the inspector to come approve that the plumber light the pilot light properly. I will soon get to back-blogging about our time away. But now, I have a vacation hangover...