What will you be watching this fall?

My TV addiction is back again starting September 24th. Click the link below to see this fall's cast. ABC did not consult my calendar when they scheduled showtimes this year. The dancing will take place on Mondays, the results show on Tuesdays. Which means Nathan and I will spend 1-2 hours on separate TVs Monday nights, and Seth will have to bear with watching the results shows on Wednesday mornings (I work every Tuesday!) Seth liked it last season, hopefully he'll like it again this time.


http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/DancingStars/popup?id=3533142

Shopping with Cousins!

Wednesday we made a trip to Concord Mills and met Marie and the boys for a day of shopping. Marie's school took a two-week hiatus before the fall schedule starts. Her boys were getting restless from being home so much, and you know I'm always up for shopping. JoEllen, Jake, and Josie met up with us for a while at the mall, and the kids had a great time pretend-driving the rides and playing in the playground. I got some great deals, but didn't go overboard. I'll be ready to shop more once colder weather makes it's way here...hard to shop for fall when it's been over 90 degrees for weeks!

Sorry this has taken so long to post. When I tried to upload my pictures, it was no dice, and when I put the memory card back in the camera, it said it needed to be reformatted and lost all the pictures on it! Luckily I didn't lose anything too important. The picture above is one of Marie's.

Thursday I had a dentist apopintment and was told I have pregnancy gums. Add that to the list of things that are different this time. Friday I had to work, and Saturday Seth and I made a quick trip to Cary. Seth went to WBU to feed the birds and then we went to a Chik-fil-a with an indoor playground. Sunday we went to church, then made a family grocery run. We almost had to make a trip to Hickory, but Will has decided he's not quite ready to come yet. Seth has bought Will some Sesame Street binkies, he is ready to give up the "little guy" title!

I Drank the Water

As many of you know, Seth was born during a baby boom at work. There is always SOMEBODY pregnant there. It appears Baby Mayse #2 is going to come in the midst of the next boom. We are due March 1st, which means I was 12 weeks last Saturday. I didn't get a first trimester ultrasound, so we had to wait until last week to hear the heartbeat. I saw a new-to-me OB whose first question for me was which NICU I work in, so I guess they still have my chart flagged (patient is a NICU nurse...will worry obsessively). It very weird how different this time is than last. With Seth I lost 6 lbs, not the case this time! I eat all the time! Ready to start feeling a little less tired, but no real complaints. Now as for that baby boom, I know of two current coworkers and four former coworkers that are also expecting, as well as a handful that are trying. #2 is set to have as many playmates at Seth does!

Well, isn't that strange?

I can see my pics on the digital camera. "My computer" won't let me visualize them. HP Image Zone won't upload them. Kodakgallery.com won't upload them. My dad can't figure out the problem over the phone. Defiantly, I looked up the pictures I wanted to upload, inserted the memory card, and they uploaded to blogger fine, at least it looks that way on the draft!

Anyways, I was right, it was a busy week. Tuesday was an appointment and work, Wednesday I was laid out with a headache and then worked four hours, Thursday was a Little Gym playdate and then I had to drop Seth off at Chris's after a major baby-sitting issue. Tardy for the second time in my career, but at least I had a better excuse than last time (last time I was still working days and dreamt I was cancelled and turned off the alarm clock in my sleep!). Friday was frantic cleaning in preparation for that afternoon's baby shower, as well as finally booking our Phoenix trip. The baby shower was fantastic. I think for the first time ever there was an even split of boys and girls, we're usually pretty heavy on boys when we get together. Saturday I worked a 12 hour day shift...it's funny, that still feels normal to me, even after all this time, and though I'm tired today, it didn't kick my butt nearly as bad as I thought it would. The boys had a great day together, and Seth was ridiculously excited to see me when I got home.

Seth got a package in the mail Wednesday from Mama B and Pops (aka Grandpa and Grandma B), I made the mistake of opening it in the car on the way to the grocery store. He had to carry the top of his new Elmo pajamas all through the store:


This is my second diaper cake attempt, made for Christy's shower. Allison is expecting a little brother in early October.
Enjoying some cake at the baby shower.... Seth made some big leaps in development this week. He started his first two word phrase, "thank you", and has become very polite all of the sudden. He also learned how to catch a ball at the Little Gym. He has become quite the chatterbox on the telephone. When I called to say good morning yesterday, he got mad when Nathan took the phone away, and went upstairs and brought down the handset from the computer room. And he pretty much told Nathan every time he was going to use the bathroom, and then would demand a diaper change immediately after (baby steps towards potty training, I hope).

Go Camp!

Yesterday, Lisa's former boss and head of Agape/Kure Beach Outdoor Ministries preached our sermon. He did a good job incorporating the gospel lesson with what he really wanted to talk about...the importance of the retreat centers. I learned a lot of fun facts that were new to me, but Lisa says Randy likes to share them a lot.

• There are 146 Lutheran camps in the U.S.
• There are 237 ELCA congregations in NC (I wonder how many in MN? Ha!)
• Agape has only been open for 10 years, but is the fastest growing business in the synod
• The #1 reason young adults stay involved in church is a faithful mom, #2 is camps/retreat experiences
• 40% of Agape staff end up working in a church (the highest percentage in the US!)

I was very interested in what Randy had to stay. I was confirmed in Minnesota, so I never went to Agape, but I went down to Kure Beach a few times with the church youth group, and we always had a blast. Lisa worked at Agape for four summers, and met Michael there, and now they have helped Randy's statistic by going to seminary this fall (By the way, they both passed Greek School). And I'm sure some day Seth will go to one of the camps.

And this all ties in to the first part of the weekend...Seth's favorite former camp counselors came to spend Friday and Saturday with us. Seth has Michael wrapped around his little finger. Whatever game Seth wants to play, Michael is up for it. That gave me and Lisa a lot of time to catch up. Seth loves letting the dog in and out, and he clicks his tongue to call her. One time he went outside with the dog, and I hooked my finger telling him to come back, and he started wiggling his finger right side up, it was so funny. He also likes to run away from her with her treat and make her chase him. He finally started to say "dog" this weekend (it used to just be oof! oof!), and he was trying really hard to say Lisa and Michael, it just didn't sound like anything. His new physical feat is that he can put his flip flops on all by himself.

I am at the end of a six day stretch off of work. Then insanity returns...this week is probably going to be a busy one.

Boys will be boys, Vol. 3

Tonight we went out to dinner. While we were waiting for our food, Seth took the lid off his cup and SPIT in his drink. Our jaws hit the table; where did he learn this? He has been reprimanded several times for it since. Hopefully the novelty wears off soon. I guess he's been watching too much baseball?

How about them tan lines?

Warning: naked tooshie pictures....

Seth has been a lot of fun the past few days. He and I have been making lots of runs to the condo, and he has been very patient with me. This morning he wanted me to take a bath, I wanted to take a shower, but he settled for a couple of inches of water in the tub to splash in while I got cleaned up. I'm impressed with his tan, it's not so noticeable until you see the skin color he was born with...and that's with SPF 45 every time we're at the pool!



Seth was so excited to play with Ashley yesterday that he never got around to taking a nap. This is 10:30 this morning, on our way home from the condo (with his new friend the paint stick he found in the linen closet at the condo). BONUS: the new word of the day is stick!

Anniversary Playdate

Yesterday was our sixth anniversary. Marie offered to come over and watch Seth so we could have a date night. Marie and the boys arrived around 10:30, and our first stop was Tanglewood pool. Ryan has had a tough week, and was pretty tired (see above), but Evan and Seth had a blast and the three adults enjoyed being in the water to cool off. Next on the agenda was naptime, with the mommies sneaking out for some tax-free shopping. But a little blonde was too excited to sleep, so he came along for the ride (and conveniently fell asleep on the ten minute ride to the mall). Marie and I are doing a stroller swap for once little Will arrives, so we test drove the new stroller in the mall yesterday and Seth took a fabulous nap all through Old Navy and The Children's Place. He thinks we only got Evan a new pair of shoes! We found some great deals, and I even bought two Christmas presents!

Once we got home, Ryan woke up with a fever that hopefully was mostly sun/heat related, he seemed to be much better after a dose of Motrin. Nathan and I got cleaned up and went to a new-ish restaurant in town called Bleu. It came highly recommended from Melissa and Ken, who celebrated their anniversary there last weekend. It was SO GOOD. Seth got a good report card from Auntie Marie...Colette not so much. She stole Seth's pizza right off the table! One day this week I caught her standing in the middle of the kitchen table, some dog is getting pretty daring in her old age!

This morning the boys had a ball playing and watching cartoons. Seth did some puzzles after his cousins left and opted for an early nap. We did our monthly shoe fashion show and he became obsessed with his green crocs. I had to put his thick socks on to keep the crocs from falling off. So he's napping with them on right now!

Need more nap!

Seth woke up N-A-S-T-Y from his nap, and spent 3o minutes telling me off as only he can. Finally, he left in a huff and sat on the loveseat, pretending to sleep (it's a new game of his) and ignoring me. So I went into my room to dust, and this is what I found 5 minutes later: