late July misc

Just wanted to share a couple of pictures from the past week. Nathan has started running again, so last week at Walmart we bought an el-cheapo watch so he could time himself. Seth used it as a cell phone all through the store. He wanted Daddy's watch so bad that night that we had to find one with a dead battery for him to wear, too.

Thursday Melissa and I took the boys to the pool. I set Seth's stuff at the bottom of the stairs and went to change into my suit. This is what I found when I came out of my room...Seth had taken off his shorts and diaper, and had his swim diaper up to his knees...he REALLY wanted to go swimming!

Friday we went to the Hickory Science Center with Evan, Ryan, and Marie. The have a neat butterfly exhibit. Here is a picture of Evan with a butterfly on his finger!

Golden Birthday

This is my Dairy Queen cake...yum!

My parents called at 4:48 yesterday, right on time. I'm the only Blackorby kid that didn't make an early AM arrival, so I don't get my birthday call until late afternoon. (birth time was 3:48 central time) We were walking into Texas Roadhouse. Mom and Dad said it was my golden birthday, 29 on the 29th. Had they been with us, I probably would have been embarrassed at dinner. Nathan was nice to me and didn't make a scene. Which was great, because I had to go to work from 7-11, so I was in scrubs. So what made my birthday golden? I got my second consecutive Cookie Monster card from the little guy. I am going to be able to be a book snob for the next six months and read whatever I want to (I'm going to be like the kid in the candy store). I stayed in my pj's until 4pm. I got to spend an hour on the phone with Stephanie. And I got a very fantastic phone call at work, but I don't want to jinx that, I'll tell you more when I can. Work could have been better, four screaming kids in intermediate, but all it all, it was a good day...

Now I have 365 more days (next year is a leap year) for the big 3-0....

Sad day for the Demon Deacons

Skip Prosser, the head of the Wake Forest men's basketball team died from an apparent heart attack yesterday. I was in the know before it became public knowledge. See, two of my best friends' husbands work for the athletic department at Wake. Steve was home doing daddy duty while Chris was at work when he got the call. I was home today, so Seth and I went over to watch the girls. After another hour or so the local and national news were reporting that Prosser had passed. Coincidently, Melissa's husband, Ken, was also doing daddy duty, but his mother was able to help him. Good thing, but I don't think I could handle five kiddos under the age of three!

Coach Prosser was a good man. I think he taught life skills to those boys, and not just basketball skills. We would always listen to post-game reports laugh about the players starting most sentences with, "coach says". Going to the games just won't be the same next fall. I just saw a nice photo montage online. (For you UNC fans, there is a good picture of Skip and Roy.) They say people rolled the quad in his honor last night (something he used to help do), Chris Paul and Justin Gray were there.

Please pray for Coach Prosser's family. In the press conference last night they said his wife was on the road in Ohio without a cell phone, that they had the highway patrol looking for her to know avail, and they finally got ahold of her at the Cincinnati airport.

Mr. Modesty

Today was Seth's annual hip appointment. Unlike the last two appointments, at which I was told "His hips are not normal, but there's nothing we need to do about it" (oh yeah, and thanks for your money), this time his hips ARE perfect, now the excuse is that kids with developmental dysplasia need to be followed up to make sure their limbs lengthen at the same rate. Please. Maybe I'm cynical, but I see the kids in the waiting room that are having fractures checked, or chronic problems, and I feel like we are wasting a time slot by being there. At work, I tell parents to look at the baby, and let me worry about the numbers on the monitor. At the same time, I can't use that monitor to make all my decisions. Ever since our first visit, I have felt like the scans on the computer meant more than the whole of Seth. (At our very first appointment 2 years ago I had to remind the doctor to actually assess my child...yes, they have psycho mom on my chart there.) He's running, he's climbing. I feel like we should be cleared to just have our pediatrician evaluate his gait/skin folds etc, and hello, I know what to look for. I voiced my opinion, but to no avail.

Now, onto the reason for today's title. Seth was appalled that he had to undress for his appointment. His x-ray took a long time because he kept trying to pull his shorts back up. And the nurse asked me to take off his shorts while we were waiting for the nurse practitioner, and that caused a scene. He ended up having to hold his shorts in one hand and his flops in the other while sitting in my lap as the practitioner assessed him. He thought it was very cool to look at his x-ray on the computer. He understood that it was the picture he took of his legs. He kept saying "knee" and "toe" and pointing them out.

Quiet Weekend

Sorry, nothing exciting going on here. I worked three days last week and we had a Little Gym trip. They had the gym set up very toddler-safe this time, so Seth was able to do most of the equipment by himself. Saturday morning we had a family trip to the grocery store and then Nathan and I tackled the yard. Seth was such a good boy playing outside while we did that. Yesterday morning Seth played with his buddies at church and then took a 4-hour nap. Nathan and I got hooked on "True Stories from the ER" (only impressive because Nathan, my favorite hospital-phobe, CHOSE to watch it). More of the same this week, although we do have a fun trip to visit the cousins planned for Friday!

Seth's newest word is "knock-knock". When we try to turn it into a knock-knock joke, it ends up being a game of peekaboo.

Atlantic Beach Weekend

We took a mini family vacation and made a long weekend out of last weekend. We decided to try Atlantic Beach, since we went to Wilmington a couple of times last year. We dropped Colette off in Cary on Thursday and were on our way. We got settled just in time for an early dinner at Amos Mosquitos. Seth tried calamari, and Nathan found a pearl in one of his oysters! Then we walked on the beach. The boy who showed no interest in the water in May wanted to swim in his clothes! We had beach access from the hotel, so Friday morning we went to that part of the beach. Seth kept taking Nathan on long beach walks and trips in the water. After nap time we went to the Pine Knoll Shores aquarium, by far the best of the three in NC. Seth LOVED looking at all the fish. Saturday we went to the Atlantic Beach public area, and little eagle eyes found a swing set in the sand, so he added that to his list of things to do with his dad at the beach. Seth took a HUGE nap, so we weren't able to go back to the beach, but we did get in another nice dinner. We had planned to get some beach time in Sunday morning, but it rained intermittently. We did get to walk the beach at Fort Macon and see some kites! We stopped at a McDonalds on the way home and Seth made it to the top of the playground for the first time; he was really proud of himself!

My first official phone conversation with Seth

Tonight while I was at work, I called home to check on Seth. He's been pretty excited the past few weeks when I've called, but the most I've gotten out of him is some audible breaths and a "mom" or two. Nathan was telling me that Seth had colored in his library book. Seth then got on the phone and said, "Mom? Mom? Mom?" And then he said, "book" I said, "What happened to the book?" and he said "Uh-oh!", then gave the phone back to Nathan. Counts as a conversation to me! He's been quite the snitch lately, but he hasn't figured out it's not an "uh-oh" if he's being naughty and does it on purpose!

HELLO, My Name is TROUBLE

Seth wore his t-shirt with the print above yesterday, and he tried to live up to the saying. Ironically, as soon as we took the shirt off, he started being good. Hmmm. We had a quiet Fourth...we made a family trip to the grocery store, Nathan did yardwork, we all took naps, had some outside time, and went to watch the fireworks. Seth actually stayed awake until we got home from fireworks. He wasn't scared of them, but halfway through he was ready to move on. We started heading to our car during the grand finale.

Seth has developed a few quirks the past few days. He's fascinated with the potty. Nathan said Tuesday he ran upstairs, wanted all his clothes off, and stood on his stool and went potty standing up. That morning, I got out of the shower to find he'd moved the lid just the slightest bit so he could watch what was happening as he played with the flusher. He's decided all matchbox cars work better without tires, so he has taken all the rubber tires off. And yesterday he made up a new game. He'd start on the deck where Nathan was grilling, walk down the stairs, through the side garage door, into the basement, up the stairs, through the kitchen, back on the deck, repeat, repeat, repeat. All this while only wearing a diaper. He was really mad when we locked the doors for dinnertime.

I'm off the next couple days...no real plans, those are the best kinds of days off....

Tempermental Two-Year-Old

Seth has been moody this past week, and it's not like it's been just the two of us after last weekend's excitement. Tuesday we went to storytime and Case and Bennett were both there. Wednesday the library offered Kindermusik, so the three boys went to that. Seth was very naughty and refused to participate; I guess he didn't like something different going on at the library. The highlight of the week was a trip to the pool that afternoon...90 minutes of good wholesome play. Thursday morning we made an uneventful grocery run, then I pressed my luck and tried to go to Walmart, too. That resulted in a clean-up in the card section because Seth chucked a bottle of shower gel out of the cart. Friday we met Mary, Melissa, and all the kids at the pool, which was fun, but was sandwiched between a 30 minute frantic hunt for my keys (Seth had moved them from upstairs to a drawer in the kitchen) and an awful night at work. Saturday we had a lazy morning, went out for BBQ for lunch, and then I went to work. Sunday Seth and I made a quick trip to church in Cary. My high school buddy, Jessica, was there having her little boy baptized. It was nice to see her, however briefly, and I think Seth and Lydia got to play together a little bit in the nursery. I had to take a picture of Seth's outfit...he thought he was big stuff, and I think that's the most compliments I've ever gotten on his clothes, ever. Sunday evening the sweet Seth went with us to the grocery store, played in his pool, and then went to the park. Cranky Seth woke up this morning and hasn't left yet.