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.