Five, six, pick up sticks...

We had two straight days of gusty winds, Sunday accompanied by rain, and last night the news said that Winston-Salem had recorded gusts of 58 mph. It was a good educational experience, because now Seth can make the sound of wind. One tiny dead tree broke in our backyard, so we were very lucky. The first house on our street lost a tree that was over two feet in diameter, pulled up by the roots! Last night while dinner was cooking, Nathan and his little helper did some limb clean-up...

Clemmons Azalea Festival

I took these pictures Good Friday, prior to our unseasonably cold temperatures that have since made the azaleas shrivel up. They were pretty while they lasted!

This is why I do what I do...

I meant to put in my "misc." post that although the babies in the NICU are wearing me out this week, I've had a really great week. After working there almost seven (yes, SEVEN!) years, I must admit I have had favorites over the years. And this week I was lucky enough to hear from my top three...Annie's mom has a blog, and I am amazed at the things she is learning to do. Jonathan (a dad), stopped by Monday just to say hello since he was in Winston (he lives about two hours away...although it was a little disconcerting at first to get a message that there was a man asking for me at the front desk!), and yesterday I got a picture of Jenna riding her pony. For every time I complain about ungrateful families, I'm thankful that I've met these people and they have stayed in my life. I just saw this clip on cnn.com...I've never had a patient stay this long, I think close to a year is the longest I've seen so far. But I won't deny that I teared up watching this... BEST part of the job, by far.

Misc., Spring 2007 edition

We spent Easter weekend in Kings Mountain, and Seth delighted his Auntie Elise by calling her "E" when he wanted her attention. The best is when he would say "E" and then sign "more""please" after she'd give him a raspberry on the belly. I actually had to work Friday, Sunday, and Monday, so the boys went down a day ahead of me, and Seth did great sleeping on the air mattress next to daddy's side of the bed. Yesterday the carpet was replaced at the condo, so Seth went over to Case's so I could supervise that, and then we went to the mall playground so I could watch Jake and Cami while their parents did their taxes. (Jakey gem: Cami, see that big "S" up there (the SEARS sign)? Mommy and Daddy are behind that. In TEXAS (or doing taxes...). I thought it was cute!)


Seth has been able to undress his bottom half for a while now. He's been trying to figure out the top half this week...not quite there yet....

Most of you know I like to be a crafty mouse every once in awhile...this is my latest project, a diaper cake for baby Blair (her room is pink with dragonflies). It was a lot of fun, I plan to make many more the next time a baby boom hits work (which inevitably will happen)!

Spoiled Rotten

Yes, that would be Seth. Seth got not one, but two baskets full of goodies yesterday, and the Easter bunny isn't supposed to come until Sunday morning! Ashley had brought him a bunch of new toys, and then Seth got a big box in the mail from his Grandpa and Grandma B. Grandma B requested pictures, so here they are.

Colette had to see if there was anything for her in there....

Loves to color...

Seth decided the Curious George washcloth was a great place to store crayons...

Seth's first egg hunt...

Seth's version of an egg hunt (we did his version and our version all evening...)

Hop Hop

Here is Seth's first encounter with a live bunny. The photographer was not very toddler-friendly, and this was not the best picture of Seth taken during his seven minute photo session, but it was the best picture of him with the bunny. Seth said "hop hop hop" the whole time the bunny was sitting by him. The photographer really didn't like that, but I did! Happy Easter, everyone!

An Announcement

I got an unexpected phone call from Lisa last night at work. She wanted to tell me that they found out yesterday that Michael received the big scholarship at Southern Seminary. I guess they had already decided to go to Southern, but this was the icing on the cake. Very excited for them, and also excited that they will be living less than 3 hours away!

Dog Tired

No, he didn't fall asleep with his head on the toilet seat, but he was pretty darn close. It all started with one of his late night shout-outs Friday night when I told him to go back to sleep because he needed lots of rest to play with his cousins the next day. He woke up ready to go to Hickory, and it took a lot of entertaining to keep him happy all morning. His nap barely lasted a hour, and then we hit the road. I was hoping he'd fall back to sleep on the car ride, but no such luck. Seth had a couple hours of playtime with his cousins before we went to Mary Margaret and Wes's baby shower. Seth made it until 8, but then we had to put on pj's and head back this way. He had a very restless night last night, and fell asleep before 10 am on our way home from early church. He did not nap long enough, and then was busy helping his daddy with yardwork most of the afternoon, so he was ready for bed at about 5. This picture was from 6pm, as I was running a bath so we could get all the pollen off. He made it until 7:30, but it wasn't pretty. Hopefully he sleeps like a rock so we all can get a good night's rest.

Oh, Darn!

This is what I saw when I let the dog out this morning. Just add it to the unexpected expenses for March (although I think this one will end up on the April spreadsheet...) It could be a LOT worse. No one got hurt. Our house didn't get hurt. And I think the fence will just need two new slats, hopefully the chicken wire is salvageable. Nathan says the tree is full of woodpecker holes. So Nathan will be refreshing his chainsaw skills this weekend...too bad we have a gas log fireplace!

Spring has sprung

Nathan's new toy...
This tree was the first to bloom on the block...Seth takes the time to stop to smell the blooms. Our trees are so pretty right now!


Seth would spend every waking minute outside right now if I'd let him!

Swedish Mafia, generations 2 and 3

Since news always travels so fast on my mom's side of the family, my dad affectionately coined the term "Swedish Mafia" for them years ago. Here are the 10 of us Meek grandkids, and all but one of the great-grands. I think we range in age from 22-40, and as you can see, we've run a special on great-grandbabies the past 2 years. I'll give you a lollipop if you can guess age order, and bonus if you can guess whose kid Lisa is holding!

Minnesota Pics

What did parents do before portable DVD players were invented? Seth, Sam, and Zander watching Curious George Sunday morning.

Let me introduce you to Seth Bear and Zander Moose...Zander is 5 months younger than Seth, they were instant buddies!

This is the snow pile that is still waiting to melt beside the driveway, it was our makeshift slide.

Seth really did like being outside, even though he wiped out a couple times on the icy driveway!

March 18th, people...

Seth and his Grandpa B

Goodbye, Grandpa

For those of you who have missed us, Seth and I made a last minute trip to Minnesota over the weekend. My Grandpa Meek passed away Thursday night after two months of declining health. It's never easy to say goodbye, but I'm very grateful that I had him for almost 29 years. Seth and I got the last seat on flights to Chicago and then Minneapolis, where we met up with Bryan and made the 6+ hour trip to Warroad. All 10 of the grandkids were able to make it up, and 7 of the 8 great-grands, so it was quite the family reunion. There was a visitation at the funeral home Sunday night, and Monday the funeral. The grandkids were pallbearers, and it was quite the moment, the 10 of us being the last to say goodbye. Monday afternoon we made the 6 hour drive back to the Cities and flew home yesterday. I am travel-weary, but decided it was best to get back into a routine and go back to work today as originally planned. I took a ton of pictures of Seth playing with his Minnesota cousins, I'll post them soon.

Tuesdays are for playdates

It's probably just coincidence, but Seth has had some fun stuff to do on Tuesdays lately. Yesterday his buddy, Case, came over so his mommy could go to an appointment without a toddler in tow. Seth and Case are great pals, and they played great for 2 hours straight! Seth has been sleeping better, but tried real hard to get our attention before 4 this morning. After 45 minutes of bossiness I went up there (there is a NASTY stomach virus going around, I wanted to make sure it hadn't found it's way to our house), and ended up reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear", but at least that let everyone go back to sleep until a decent hour. He woke up this morning with two new words..."book" and "banana".

Party time in HKY

Yesterday I went to Hickory for a bridal shower for Sabrena. It was so nice to get together with the girls again, however briefly. We only get to see each other usually about every six months, but we're the type of friends that just take up where we left off. Seth got to play with his cousins at his Great Aunt Maggie's house. He got a good report card, and I can tell he had fun, he was exhausted once we got home, and is sleeping in (which in addition to daylight savings time is nice that I'm getting a little down-time first thing this morning!)

Seth is loving the warming temperatures. We went to the playground twice during the week, and he played outside with his daddy yesterday morning and with his cousins all afternoon. Here's a picture from earlier in the week. He loves to swing right now, and I either sing silly songs or quiz him on his vocabulary.

First trip to the library!

Seth has shown renewed interest in his books over the last week, and I've been looking for inexpensive activities for him to enjoy, so it made sense to check out our local library, which is very close to our house. Toddler story hour is at 10:30 every Tuesday. We got there a little early to check out the children's section and we checked out two books to read this week, one about boats and the other about ducks. Then we went to storytime. I stopped counting at 35 parents, and most parents had more than one child with them. Over the next 45 minutes Seth didn't stop smiling. The librarian read three books, the kids danced to three songs, and they were offered a snack and a craft. Seth got a star stamp on each hand, which he thinks is the greatest thing ever. I think I have just found a new way to spend our Tuesday mornings!

Wish us luck!

After a week of Seth fighting sleeping in his own bed, and another night of very little sleep for me after working, we have decided to make the transition to big boy bed tonight. I've heard horror stories, but other than having him sleep with us, I think it's our only option. We made a big deal out of changing the crib into the toddler daybed, with repetition of things like "Seth's big boy bed" and "big like Evan and Ryan". We had a slight bump in the road when we couldn't find Floppy for naptime, but once found, Seth slept about an hour in his bed, then took the rest of his nap on Nathan's chest on the couch. Seth and I just read three stories and I said goodnight...it's been 10 minutes now, and he's out like a light! (by the way, my camera has a great flash, because his room is very dark!) We'll be keeping our fingers crossed.....

Every Other Day

Today is the halfway point of my weird, working every other day, schedule. And get this, Seth is letting me get less than 6 hours of sleep the nights I work, but then sleeps great the nights I'm off...conspiracy! So I feel like I haven't gotten nearly as much accomplished this week as I usually do, but I was pretty darn constructive last week, so hopefully it comes out in a wash. There have also been two additional nuances to our schedule. First of all, this week I started precepting a LRC nursing student at work. Love her! It is so nice to be teaching someone who wants to learn NICU! Also, after much anticipation, Lisa and Michael spent the night here Tuesday night. It seems like February flew by, but it seems like we've been waiting for their visit forever! Seth took right to them , which was really good, since he hasn't seen Lisa since September and Michael since July! He had a blast having two more people to play with that let him do whatever he wants. Lisa will be back again in mid-April...she told Seth she wanted him using his words the next time we see her...we'll see! One picture is of Seth and our visitors, the other is of Seth's new (daddy-created) game, throwing bouncy balls over the landing. It's all fun and games until Mommy's cell phone gets broken (and on that note I'll be going to Cingular tomorrow morning to get a new one...)

At the carwash

Friday Seth and I ran errands in the morning. The outside of my car was a mess but the inside was okay, so I did something I never do and went through a drive-through car wash. Seth was not impressed. Then we went out to lunch with Case and Melissa. Fun! Saturday we went on a long walk and then checked out the neighborhood playground. Seth gave it a big WHEE!!! Then my parents spent the night, so Seth had a great time playing with them. Sunday was a rainy, yucky day. The guys took big naps, and a took a nice long bubble bath. We all crashed early last night, but maybe for good reason...Seth was ready to go this morning at 5:42!

Sunshiney Day

Wow, for the last two days the weather has been fantastic! Yesterday Seth and I took a long walk and then played with Colette in the backyard. Picture is from a game of peekaboo hiding under the deck.Today our agenda was a repeat walk and a trip to the neighborhood playground after naptime, but I had to run into work for a bit, so Seth went over to Case's house while I did that. That messed up my afternoon, but as I was picking Seth up, Pam called and invited us to her neighborhood playground. We were only a few minutes away, so we took her up on it. It was very windy, there were times I thought Seth might fly away! Seth and Bennett thought they were BIG BOYS being able to climb up the steps and go down the slides by themselves (with one mommy at the top and another mommy at the bottom to supervise! )

My job

As a NICU nurse, I take care of a lot of preemies. This article is about the smallest preemie ever who just got to go home yesterday in Florida. The smallest I've seen is 13 oz. If someone asks you to donate to March of Dimes' WalkAmerica this spring, please do! It will go to helping my little patients...you'd be amazed at the number of changes I've seen, and I've been doing this less than seven years!

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2890242&page=1

New skill

Seth has learned how to jump this past week, while saying his rendition of "hop" at the same time. Saturday we went to Chapel Hill and had pizza with my parents and Bryan, who was in town to "watch a handball tournament". Seth was too excited to eat. In the picture with Bryan he is showing off his biggest laugh, he thought everything was so funny. In the picture with me, he is showing off his hopping skills. Ha! Nathan had a cold over the weekend, but he seemed back to normal Monday. He took a vacation day because I had to work, but we had a relaxing family morning. I have to work again today, so Seth and I are spending the morning doing laundry. He thinks that is a boring way to spend his 20 month birthday! He got a big boy haircut Sunday, I'll try to get a picture of that soon!

Phone Call from Evan

We have two wonderful nephews, Evan and Ryan. These boys LOVE their Uncle Nay-Nay, but every once in awhile I get a sweet moment all my own, like this picture of Ryan and Evan calling last July to sing Happy Birthday. Well, Thursday Nathan had just left to go play basketball and Seth had just gotten in the tub. The phone rang, and the conversation started something like this:

Hey Aunt Sara.
Hey Evan!
We just read Curious George book.
What did Curious George do?
Well, my mommy has a baby in her tummy in September.

Nathan and I had been suspicious, and we are so excited that we're going to become an aunt and uncle again in September!

Seth's on the mend

There must be one nasty bug in Forsyth County. I thought Seth would get a day or two of antibiotics in his system and we'd be back to normal, but by Wednesday I was threatening him with a pediatrician's appointment today if he wasn't better. He still has an intermittently snotty nose and a rare cough, and he has slept through the night two of the last three nights. (Yea!) His activity level still isn't back to normal, but his appetite is back. The picture is from yesterday morning, he wanted sweet potatoes for breakfast and he was wearing his big boy (a small 2T) Cars jammies for the first time. Our new trick of the week is that he has learned how to take his pants off. I hear him giggling in his crib, that's when I know he's done it. I think he thinks he's getting away with something!

Feelin' HOT HOT HOT

Seth woke up Friday with the snuffles, then woke up from his nap with a cough, a low-grade temp by bedtime, and spent most of the night in the guest room with me. We thought it was a cold Saturday and that we had it under control, so I went into work. By 5pm it was clear that that was a bad decision, and my relief came an hour early so I could get home to my boys. A snotty, coughy, high-temp sleepless night ensued, meaning except for an hour when I got home, Seth and I went to sleep at 7am. I decided to call in to work (which I can still count on one hand the number of times I have done that it six and a half years) and took Seth to PrimeCare instead. He looked so bad by the time we got in to see the doctor that they ran a flu on him, which was negative. They didn't have the RSV test, but he has a double ear infection, so I guess we'll find out soon enough if the antibiotics will help, or if he also has a virus that needs to run its course.

Nathan and I decided to take advantage of my unexpected night off and watch "You, Me, and Dupree" on demand. Seth chose to join us about 5 minutes into the movie, but he slept on our chests the entire time. We broke our rule and let him sleep in our bed last night, although that only lasted an hour and then Seth and I were back up in the guest room. He still had a temp of 104+ at 1 am, but hasn't had another one so far today. So after 13 hours of sleep last night, he spent 2 hours in my bed dozing/watching cartoons this morning, played briefly in the playroom, and is now snoring on my lap as I type this. The only thing on the agenda for today is my hair appointment, so he can nap the day away for all I care...as long as he promises to sleep again tonight!

Bad Hair Day

Seth went to bed last night within minutes of putting his pj's on after bathtime...his hair could have stood a few more minutes of drying time before bedtime. This picture doesn't do justice to how wild his hair was this morning...he wore his hat to Target today, and good thing, since I ran into someone I knew!

Vocabulary update: our new words for this week are "apple" and "moo" whenever he sees a cow or horse. And he gets out his jazz hands if you say "Blues Clues" and gestures if you sing the thinking chair ditty, it's so cute!

Inaugural playdate

Yesterday was a playdate of epic proportions. I know I've mentioned that Seth was born during the middle of a baby boom at my work. Nichole and Mary coordinated a trip to the Children's Museum, and almost all of us were able to attend. I tried to do a head count, I THINK there were 16 kids. They all had a blast. Seth was having so much fun, we stayed almost 5 hours! It makes me wonder why we didn't think about doing something like this earlier! Hopefully it will be the first of many group outings.

Play therapy, Mayse style

We went to the mall Saturday and Nathan found Seth a 10 pack of wooden puzzles. Also new this weekend are speakers for the iPod, so we can have music on the main and upper levels. Very nice. We're going to add all Seth's music, because he has really gotten into his CDs lately. The cookie monster jar is supposed to help Seth learn how to pretend. (mostly he just points at all the characters). There is a whole lot more babble and less grunting, but we still have a limited vocabulary. Over the weekend he added "hi" and "bye" to his repertoire, but he will only say them to Nathan. The word of the day today is "hop". There is a Backyardigans video that repeats "hop" and one of his puzzles has a bunny, which he points to and says "hop hop hop". So for $24 we have made a big "hop" towards getting Seth to talk, we just had to figure out how he wanted to do it. We have puzzles in his room, the computer room, and the playroom, his train is now in the dining room, he uses the air mattress to practice his tumbling, and now he dances in the living room to the iPod. Who needs play therapy when you can have free reign in your house?

This should warm you up...

For all of us here in NC, it's been darn cold this past week, and it sounds like it's only going to get colder as we get into next week. Remember my sister Lisa in Minnesota? This is what her thermometer said this morning when she got up for work. Yes, everyone. That is a MINUS SIGN in front of the temperature. YIKES!!!

Playroom Luxury

Our playroom is finally complete...for now. Our futon was delivered yesterday morning and after minimal assembly, the boys had it up and running in no time. It is VERY comfortable, and unlike a regular futon, it adjusts into a reclining position as well, which I think is how it will stay unless we're expecting company. We are supposedly in for bad weather today, right now we have less snow on the ground than we did with the last storm, but it has just started snowing again. I have declared tonight on-demand movie night...I don't think we've watched a movie since before Thanksgiving. If I get ambitious, I'll start oganizing Seth's toys in the back of the playroom and the closet, but that is a lofty goal. I was VERY busy at work last night, and Seth wasn't a good sleeper last night (but really, is he ever?) I really just want to curl up with a good book!