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!