C is for Carving

This morning we carved our first pumpkin (or at least our first pumpkin as adults). We found a Cookie Monster pumpkin in Seth's Sesame Street Halloween coloring book, and Nathan used that for inspiration. This was mostly Daddy's project, although I did scrape some of the guts out. Seth was very excited about the end result. I'll try to get an illuminated shot on Wednesday.

We also did some home decorating today. We finally bought curtains for the living room, and came home with a painting as well. I will post pictures once the wrinkles fall out of the drapes. I can tell Nathan is feeeling better, he was on the move all day!

A lawyer in the family

Just wanted to let everyone know that we found out last night that Chad passed the bar exam...congratulations!!!

Seth's first costume party

Today our NICU playgroup had our first annual costume party. Everyone did great, considering our oldest participant doesn't celebrate his third birthday for another six weeks. I don't think they were all ever in their costumes at the same time;I know for a fact Seth alternated between Seth-the-pirate and Seth-the-kid-in-the-diaper-commerical at least three times. In attendance were: a pirate, Thomas the train, BamBam, Spiderman, a fireman, a Carolina Panther, a fairy princess, a witch, a spider witch, a ballerina, a ladybug, and a baby brother dressed in a festive sleeper. We were expecting 4-6 more kids, that's how big our playgroup is! The kids played in the dining room, and then we did trick-or-treating in the living room. (Yea! Seth can now say "trick or treat!")

When Landon and Case come over to play, the boys LOVE to play upstairs. I caught this candid, which reminded me of some other pirates behind bars....

I do?

Tonight I called home during the tail-end of bathtime. Nathan told Seth he had to clean up his bath toys, to which Seth responded, "I do?" I think it's his first true question, and we both heard it.

Not much exciting has gone on this past week...Nathan is doing well with his pulled muscle. Good thing, too, because I spent most of Saturday night up with a freak food poisoning/stomach bug situation. Blah.

Monday night Seth and I went over to the Adams' so Chris and Steve could have a dinner date/business dinner. Seth found one of Cami's baby dolls. This is his first attempt at bottle feeding...

My Little Trooper

Yesterday was a busy day for us...Kindermusic, grocery store, nap, pumpkin patch...I had dinner in the crock pot so we could eat once we got home. Seth is doing better every week in Kindermusic, but inevitably there's always one thing he doesn't like. We ate a quick lunch and then hit the grocery store across the street. Later in the afternoon we met most of our Winston buddies at the pumpkin patch. Seth was so busy either trying to pick up pumpkins, climbing in the wagons, or carrying around bags of apples. We beat Nathan home and washed Seth's pumpkin. About that time Nathan got home, and it was clear his booboo from Saturday needed some medical attention. We went to urgent care, and 90 minutes there bought us a diagnosis of "I think you should go to Baptist." So Nathan gets checked in at Baptist, and lucky for us, he was a candidate for Fasttrack. Seth and I went up to the nursery to socialize, and when we got back, Nathan had just been taken back to a room (9pm at this point). At 10, after many trips through the automatic doors and up the hall, the doctor had me come back. Nathan's booboo impressed the ER staff, but we were already doing the right things (although he is not allowed to lift Seth until further notice, THAT should be interesting). He has a referral to a sports medicine doctor next week, so he can start the rehabbing process. Seth did a really good job keeping me company yesterday, even though we were over two hours late for bedtime. Here are some pictures from our pumpkin patch trip.

Homecoming 2007

Lenoir-Rhyne's Homecoming was this past weekend. Seth and I went up Saturday morning and spent the day. As always, it was a family reunion on the Mayse side. Seth loves getting to play with his cousins! The parade was better than I remember it being in recent years, and Seth enjoyed his birds-eye view from Granddad's shoulders (who, by the way, Seth now calls "dad", Nathan is still "nee"). Nathan stayed in Winston for a morning soccer game, and came to join us after getting a booboo during his game. Seth fell asleep at 5pm on the ride home, and slept until 6:30 the next morning! Nathan is on the mend after a weekend of ice, ace wraps, and Motrin. I've never seen a healthy adult bruise so ugly!

He should be in a V-Smile Baby commercial

We bought Seth the V-Smile baby for Christmas, but all he really got out of it back then was how to sign for "more" and "milk". It's been taking up space in the basement pretty much since we moved. The afternoon of my fender bender, I brought it upstairs and Seth totally gets how to play it now. He will move the ottoman to the middle of the room and sit and work his way through the games. He is identifying shapes in the real world constantly now, especially circles and triangles.

We had a major meltdown in Target today...Seth did not want me to buy toilet paper. Seeing as we are on the last roll in every bathroom, that was not an option. It was ridiculous. Tears everywhere, snot everywhere, I thought we were going to be asked to leave. I only had a couple more things to pick up, but he wouldn't stop. I asked him if he remembered why he was crying and he said yes. I asked why, and he pointed to the toilet paper. It didn't stop until he was loaded in his car seat. It's never fun when you're that mom in the store that has the child in full tantrum mode.

Blast back to 1977

Last night was Tony and Carly's disco-themed 30th birthday party. It was very fun to dress up. Our baby-sitter thought we were a hoot. Nathan came out of our room saying "this shirt is wearing me!" We pinned one of my bracelets to the collar to make a faux gold chain, and his pants and my boots were last minute Goodwill purchases.
The full effect...Birthday boy at the grill...
Some things never change...get these three together, and there's sure to be some sort of shenanigans going on....
Everyone dressed in their 70s best...the funniest may have been Carly's mom, who dressed as she would have looked 30 years ago, very pregnant!

Nathan's new ride

Cami the Camry has served us well, but it was getting to the point where we were going to have to put a lot of money in on maintenance, or just let it be the first car we replaced. Nathan's soccer game for this weekend was cancelled, so Saturday became car shopping day. Mom and Dad offered to watch Seth, which was a huge help. We ended up going to Gastonia to get this used 2007 Nissan Xterra with less than 8500 miles on it. If you ever need a good used car, go see King James at Gastonia Carmax. So Nathan was one happy boy yesterday (this will probably be my mommymobile in a few months, but let him have his fun now). The kicker is that Seth thinks it is HIS truck. He thinks he's a big guy with his car seat in there, and now he has a window seat so he has an even better view. Nathan went golfing this morning, and Seth was not impressed with having to ride in my car. We had to promise a ride in the "truck" after naptime to get him to go to sleep!

Little Houdini

Nathan and I had a date night last night (more on that later), so Seth was put to bed by his sitter. I checked in on him when we got home and found no binky in sight. Yesterday was a busy day, so I think I was asleep moments after getting in bed. Flash forward to this morning: Seth's internal 6:05 alarm clock goes off. I head to the bathroom before making my way upstairs. 6:07 am: Seth is in our room, asking for me. How the heck did he get out? We have a doorknob cover on his door! Did I forget to close the door? Nope. Seth disassembled the doorknob cover. It was in two pieces on the floor. I'm hoping this is just a fluke, but we may have to turn the lock around. Or maybe there is a more durable cover I can buy.

It's fair time again!

The Dixie Classic Fair is in town again. Last night was the only weeknight we could go...lucky for us, it was Lowes Foods night, so ten cans of food bought us admission. I'd rather do that and help someone else out anyways. Our first stop was the animal exhibits, Seth did much better this year. I think he pointed out every sheep in the barn to us. We were going to just wander through the petting zoo, but Seth seemed interested, so we bought some carrot chips. He actually got brave enough to feed some of the little guys himself.
After washing our hands, we took a dinner break...roasted corn for me and a turkey leg for Nathan...to our surprise, Seth loved the turkey, just in time for the holidays! Seth enjoyed the lights on the midway, and would drag us to look at one ride after another. We knew there was no way we were getting out of there without spending some money. Seth's first fair ride was the kiddie train. We were so scared to let him ride by himself, but he LOVED it! As soon as Nathan got him out, Seth signed "more!" I'd have been dizzy the number of loops he made. He also rode a Donald Duck look-a-like, a jalopy, a dinosaur, a dump truck, and the carousel, all of which went in circles. On the carousel (which was the fastest carousel I've ever been on) he kept saying Ya-hoo!, due to the Backyardigans.

I can't get this picture back in the right order....Seth started out brave in the poultry area, and then the roosters started talking, and he was ready to make his exit.
We didn't ride ALL the kiddie rides, got to save something new for next year, because it'll be a long time before we reach the 42 inch mark for the next step up in rides. On our way back out, we got a funnel cake (Seth takes after his daddy in liking those) and then I got a caramel apple for the road, which meant I ended up riding home in the back seat so I could share, and Seth required a shower the minute we got home. We all had a very good time.

It's a girl!

We had our ultrasound this morning and it looks like Seth is getting a little sister! She is currently breech, but hey, at least we've done that before if she decides she likes that position. At one point she was trying to suck her toes! All organ systems checked out okay, and her growth matches up with my due date. Today she weighed 9 oz. It was so nice to finally be able to see her.

Boo, Panthers

Yesterday I had to work an eight-hour day shift, but Eric asked Nathan to go to the Panthers game with him. Marie volunteered to watch Seth at the Charlotte condo. It was a 4pm game, so I drove down to Charlotte to hang out with Marie and the boys. The Panthers played terrible, not that we paid too much attention to the game. We went out to play in the courtyard during halftime, and somehow missed the whole third quarter, too. After the daddies and grandparents got back, the three big boys took a bath, and Seth made getting into his pjs a very fun game with his Grandma Sarah. The boy was asleep before we got out of Charlotte city limits.

Two big things this week: the Dixie Classic fair and my ultrasound. At the fair we want to see if Seth likes the animals better this year, and if he's tall enough to ride the kiddie rides. And I am past ready to see baby #2. This weekend they gave me two different genetic flukes at work, which were prenatally diagnosed, and of course now that's got me worrying. Oh the joys of being a pregnant NICU nurse!

Extra Fun Friday

Today we met mommy's friends at the park in Lewisville for playtime and a picnic. Sharon brought Mardi Gras beads. Seth and Bennett thought they were a big hit. In the past two weeks, Seth has gotten brave enough to cross playground bridges by himself, provided there aren't any "big" kids in the vicinity.
This is the two goofballs. Bryan was in Charlotte for a concert last night and drove up to spend the afternoon with us. Since Seth ate lunch at the picnic, we went to Dairy Queen for ice cream.
Maybe Bryan should consider being a horse for Halloween...
Seth was sad to see Bryan go. He tried to detour him on all three floors by bringing out different toys to play with. But by the time he wakes up from his nap, daddy will be home in jeans, and that means it is now the weekend. My guys will have a lot of time together this weekend...my weekend to work again.

Bink-free night!

I'm finally biting the bullet and Seth is going bink-free. We have had no binky at naptime since that two week fight in June, but then first trimester came and I valued my sleep too much to try fight bedtime, and things have been so hectic lately, it wasn't the time to try. So all day yesterday I told Seth he could have his bink for snuggle time in mommy's bed, but no bink in Seth's bed. We snuggled for 20 minutes, I put the bink in my nightstand, and we went on with our bedtime routine. Seth slept through the night. This morning he woke up happy, but boy he ran straight to my nightstand looking for that bink! I was able to hide it, but tonight I need to remember to relocate it after bedtime.

update: tonight when I said it was time for bed, Seth put his binky in my nightstand drawer and told it "nightnight". I don't want to jinx it, but this is going better than I expected.

Excuse me little puppy!

I know I've been posting a lot lately, but Seth has been pretty darn cute. Seth has taken to hiding under blankets and towels. He's so skinny, it really just looks like a crumpled blanket on the floor. Last night after bathtime, he was hiding under his doggy towel. I would say "Excuse me little puppy, have you seen Seth?" And Seth would pop up and either say "Here he is!" or "woof woof!"

Is it October yet?

There has been too much drama in September! In Seth's extended family, we have had a closing, a birth, a vacation, a business trip, outpatient surgery, and an engagement this month. All have been good things, but even good stress is stressful. This morning I was to get recertified in Neonatal Resuscitation. I reviewed the nine chapters yesterday. I mean really, if I don't know how to do it by now, I should choose a different career path. Anyways, I was driving to class this morning and got rear-ended not three miles from home. My car was fine, we exchanged info, and I told the man I wanted a police report. He thought it was overkill until I told him I was pregnant. By the time the highway patrol got there, I had talked to Nathan several times, told work I'd be very late for class, and called the doctor's office to get an appointment. The doctor I saw was the one who told me five years ago that NICU nurses do not have good pregnancies because they worry too much, so he knew I just needed some reassurance. I was satisfied to hear the heartbeat; we'll be back next week for our regularly scheduled ultrasound. I was told to take it easy this afternoon, and Seth has let me do that. As for the class, I guess I'll catch that in November. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that the rest of this month will be uneventful.

Lisa got a sparkly!

Even though we've expected this for awhile, I was a little surprised when Lisa called yesterday to say she was engaged. Mostly because we'd been on the phone almost half an hour before she told me. I think an August 2008 wedding is in the works, but that's not official yet. She looks a little excited, huh?

Thursday at the Children's Museum

Today we met Landon, Case, Ethan, and Samantha at the Children's Museum. I didn't take a lot of pictures, because we were busy trying new things today, like matching dominos (with animals on them) and climbing through the secret passageway out of the house. As always, the air tube and grocery store were big hits. Afterwards we went to the McD's playground. You'd think that would make a little guy sleepy, but nap has been boycotted. That's okay, it'll be an early bedtime tonight!

You may not believe this, but his shoes are almost too small...

Row, row, row your boat...(his idea to wear the life jacket...)

It's been a big day for words

It started out today with "plane"....at lunch, he put my sunglasses on and said "cool dude"...a trip to the park produced "stop" and "ready set go" (major points for three words in a row!), along with a string of counting (which goes like this "two...three...two....two..." Then while winding our way through the neighborhood, we saw two fawns, so I said "Seth, look, deer!" We had seen horses and dogs at the park, so I thought he'd say it was one of those. But when I asked him what it was, he said "Deer!" Then we saw the Canadian geese, to which he said "knock knock"...which is close, because they are known as honk-a-honks in our house, because that's what I called them when we lived in Rochester the first time. He has been chattering non-stop since I left last week, so hopefully we're on the brink of a normal vocubulary! I bought him these bath letters today, he babbled his letters and numbers all through bathtime. It's been a great day!

Hottest place in the continental USA

Nathan is taking a certification course this week in Phoenix. Last year he had to go to Denver for a week and hated being there alone for so long. We waited patiently for a fun location to come up. Neither one of us had been to Phoenix in over a decade. My parents were able to come watch Seth. Sounded like a perfect long weekend. As the rest of the country cooled off last week, NC was still in the 90s, and my pregnancy thermostat kicked in. We flew over Humberto (not something this already nervous mommy enjoyed), which dropped the temp in NC. When we landed in Phoenix, the pilot told us it was 32 degrees....Celsius, which roughly translates to 89 F, but our rental car never saw below 100 degrees when within the Phoenix vicinity. And that dry heat stuff is nonsense, it was still HOT! We got to Phoenix around 10am local time, but for us, it'd already been a 10-hour day. The hotel let us check in early, and we napped and then toured the area. That night we ate at a restaurant in Old Town Scottsdale. For my Minnesota readers, Nathan ordered walleye! In Arizona! Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the hotel (a nice hot breakfast is complimentary every morning...internet connection is not...weird) and then headed north to Sedona. We didn't pack for hiking, but it was nice to see the infamous Red Rocks. Back to the hotel for another nap, and then we took a wrong turn that put us on Mill St in downtown Tempe, Arizona State's equivalent to Franklin or Hillsborough St. There was a home football game that night, so we got to see the fans hoofing it to the stadium. It might have been fun to go to the game, but again....HOT. So we got back on course and finally found Gardunos, a Mexican eatery recommended by the hotel. I have attached a link, it had great ambience. They're known for they're margaritas....oh well. Maybe next time. They have a female mariachi band, the food was great, and we had fun watching all the kids in the restaurant, since we weren't preoccupied with our own. That night we watched Knocked Up, which was really funny. (And nice to see someone else have a hormonal tirade worse than mine...too bad hers was acting!) Sunday back to the buffet, and then we hit the local Target to stock up on snacks and Gatorade. Nathan ordered the NFL package at the hotel so he could watch the Panthers game, I caught a nap during the game, and by the time Nathan was ready to nap, I was antzy, so I headed to Arizona Mills. It was not a successful shopping trip...I need WINTER maternity clothes, Nathan doesn't NEED anything, Seth probably has his whole winter wardrobe already put away, although I did buy him a $4 pair of track pants, and I wanted to buy Baby #2 a gender neutral sleeper, but no such thing existed at the Carters outlet. (Don't feel too sorry for me...Old Navy is having their baby/kids/maternity sale right now with free shipping, I will be hitting that up.) That night we headed back to Tempe, ate dinner, and saw The Bourne Ultimatum at the campus theater. There was a total of five people in the theater. One of the men fell asleep during the movie, and was audibly snoring while chaos ensued onscreen. It was so funny. Monday morning was the start of Nathan's classes, so I had the morning to myself. I spent an hour poolside, the water was so nice. I took the shuttle to the airport, then flew from Phoenix to Dallas, and Dallas to Greensboro, with about 90 minutes on my hands before each flight. That is a LONG time to travel solo. I read The Nanny Diaries from cover to cover, the in-flight magazine, and an UsWeekly magazine I bought in Dallas. Dad picked me up at the airport at midnight. Seth woke up this morning happy to see me, but more interested in playing with his Grandpa B (who he now either calls "Pops" or "Om-pa"). We went to Cracker Barrel and Seth ate half my apple pancakes (imitating Cookie Monster with most bites) and then we played in the driveway for a long time. Mom and Dad left around noon, so I had a sad little boy on my hands for a few minutes, but it was nothing flying his new Tonka airplane around for a few minutes couldn't fix.

So long story short, we had a (much-needed) relaxing weekend in Phoenix, I survived my first more than one night away from Seth, Seth had fun with his grandparents, and I think my parents would do it again in a heartbeat. Nathan will be back late Friday, and it will be back to the grind again, but until then Seth and I have three more full days to play play play. I can't wait! Being paid to stay home and play with my kid! Gotta love that!

More stimulation, please!

After spending a couple of days with his cousins, Seth has taken it up a notch with his activity level. Luckily, I already had his first BounceU playdate scheduled for Friday. He really liked certain parts of it, but didn't test himself too much. Mary took him down the big slide once and he didn't want to do it again (it went pretty fast). Sunday we made a quick trip to Newton so Nathan could meet Will (and I'm pretty sure the little guy already knows that Nay-Nay is the family favorite!). Yesterday Seth had his first Kindermusic class. She had given the kids books and balls to play with, so he got mad when she took them away to start class. But once she took out the rhythm sticks he was ready to participate. He got a take home bag and showed daddy all the things he'd learned as soon as he got home. Nathan is going to upload the CD onto our iPod so Seth and I can work on them here. The class goes until mid-December.

William Henry Johnston

After giving his mom grief for about a week and a half, Will is here! I had talked to Marie Tuesday on my way into work and she was having contractions five minutes apart, but since that has happened before, she said, I'll call you tomorrow afternoon after my appointment. Well, it was about 9pm when Nathan called me at work and said she was at the hospital to stay. Our new nephew was born at 2:59 am on Wednesday morning, weighing in at 7 lbs 14 oz and 20.5 inches (and he was over 2 weeks early!!!). Seth and I got on the road early Wednesday and spent until Thursday night with the cousins. Seth was very worried about his Auntie Marie while she was in the hospital. By Thursday morning, he was asking to hold the baby. Seth is very happy to give up the little guy status...if you ask him if he is a big cousin, he gets a big grin and says "yeah!

End of summer playdates

Labor Day has come and gone, and that's supposed to signify the end of summer, right? Hard to believe when it's still over 90 degrees. Seth had a lot of playdates last week. Tuesday morning Jake and Cami came over for a couple hours. Wednesday morning first Landon came over, and then Case. That afternoon we went to the mall and met baby Addison for the first time. Friday was an evening shift lunch date, and Seth got to see a lot of his buddies there. He was in rare form that day...we were sitting near a tableless booth, and after lunch he JUMPED off one bench, like he was trying to jump across to the other one. Luckily he landed on his feet, but he caught me off-guard, what made him try to do that? Saturday we spent the afternoon in Newton for Marie's baby shower, so Seth got to play with his cousins and hang out with the men all afternoon. Will got very excited at his party and it seemed like he might make his grand entrance, but he decided to hang out for a little while longer. The twins were at church on Sunday, and that always means Seth is a happy boy when I pick him up in the nursery.