Monday, March 31, 2008
Chicago Trip
This past Saturday we all loaded up the van and headed out to Chicago. William did wonderfully on the 3 hour car ride. Our first stop was the Field Museum. We power-viewed almost all the exhibits, with William taking his am and pm naps in the stroller. Around 4 we left the museum and went another hour to Waukegan, Ill., where Terry lives. I've never seen his new condo; it was cute as ever! He keeps it remarkably clean, too. After finding there was an hour wait at Outback, we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. We dropped Terry off after dinner, then headed back for GR. William cranked a little on the way home, but then slept. We had a great day!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Family Time
William and I have been having a great time here in Michigan visiting family. Today William and I hung out with my long-time friend Kristi, who will be getting married this Friday. Every night we've been on Skype with John, and William goes absolutely nuts when he sees his Daddy! It's almost like he wants to jump into the computer. He can't quite understand why Dad isn't picking him up for hugs and kisses. I think he's slowly adjusting to the time change (finally!) as he went down for his afternoon nap at his normal time, instead of like yesterday at 6pm. Hopefully he'll go to bed a little earlier, too, tonight.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Air Travel - with a 6 month baby!
William and I left for Michigan a day later than originally planned....LONG story about that! But after getting to the airport Saturday and finding the airline had canceled our ticket, we had no choice. This trip I had an umbrella stroller, which made transporting William much easier. But this trip was much harder than the Christmas flight I made with him at 3 months old. I think his ears were bothering him, because he cried and cried, pulling on his ears. I fed him, played with all the toys I brought, handed him to the flight attendants for awhile, walked the aisles, and just stood with him all in an attempt to keep him happy. For being such a little guy he did pretty well....I was just exhausted...and we were only in Chicago! 3.5 more hours of waiting for the next 30 minute flight to GRR. In Chicago he screamed even more, since he was so tired. When we finally landed in Grand Rapids he was more than happy to see his Grandma and Grandpa! I was happy to hand him off to someone else for a little bit!
Sunday, March 9, 2008
5th Anniversary Trip
I love traveling...we both do. It's become a "tradition" (well....this is only the 2nd year of doing this, so maybe it doesn't count as a tradition yet...) to travel to Tempe, AZ, around the time of our anniversary to watch an Angel pre-season baseball game. We're sorta like groupies. Last year this time I was 12 weeks preggo with our little William and traveling went great! We made it Phoenix in 6-7 hours. This year...yeah...this year things went a little differently.
Our anniversary weekend started out GREAT! My awesome hubby surprised me with an outing to get a Swedish massage. THAT was the most wonderful thing in the world! I highly recommend it. That was Thursday. Friday we threw some clothes in a bag, I carefully and thoughtfully packed William's things (clothes, food, diapers, wipes, etc.) into the car and John fastened the car seat in. We left at the perfect time - nap time! We figured we would get to Cabazon, CA, by the time he woke up from his nap....we'd do a little shopping at the outlet mall there, grab a bit to eat, and by that time he'd be ready for another nap. Not so. We made it to Rancho Cuchamunga (about an hour in) before we had to stop. At least there was an Old Spaghetti Factory, so we were both ok with the unplanned stop.
After lunch we crossed our fingers that he'd go back to sleep so we could make it to Cabazon. I think he did, because the ride there was blissful. We did a little outlet shopping, and William was the model child. On the way out we grabbed a date shake at Hadley's. Since we spent several hours shopping, we finally made it to our hotel in Blythe, CA (on the Colorado River) by 9-10pm. When we got to the hotel William was more than ready to get out of his car seat. He wasn't crying....he actually didn't cry much at all in the car...he was just tired of not being able to move around very much. He's also used to being in the truck and being able to look out the windows. In John's car he can't see much at all! In the hotel he was all giggles and laughs! It was SO much fun with him there!! John set up the pack-n-play, and before long he was sawing logs.
The next morning we got up bright and early because we wanted to be there when the stadium doors opened, at 10:30. (We had an additional 4 hours to go, game time 1:05.) By the time we got William cleaned up, fed, and the car all packed up, we were a "tad" behind schedule....then we realized that Arizona doesn't observe daylight savings!! SO....needless to say, we were already an additional hour behind. We were ok with that revelation...we wouldn't be there for the opening of the doors but at least we'd get there in time to get our hats signed. Yeah right. We hit some major traffic on the way there - at one point it took us 45 minutes to go 8 miles. We finally got to the park during the 3rd inning. Sheesh! We travel over 7 hours to watch a game and we show up late. Oh well....half the fun is the anticipation and the travel, right?
Once we got there and found our seats William decided that sitting was NOT what he wanted to do. (He had screamed a solid 45 minutes on the way there, so he didn't get much of a nap...therefore was quite cranky.) We both took turns walking with him around the stadium, which made him quite happy. Ok...I'm not kidding here...I was standing in the walkway, behind the seats, William was in full Angel garb and this complete stranger comes up to us, cell phone in hand and asks if he can "have his picture taken with the cutest baby on earth"! I didn't know what to say! Then he proceeds to put his arm around William and take a picture with his cell phone! William, who loves getting his picture take, smiles a huge smile. The guy thanks William and walks away! I was in shock! I know he's cute (cutest baby I've ever seen!) but really!?! People the entire time were constantly telling us how cute he was. :-)
After the game we were able to get Dino Ebel's signature on William's hat. His was the only autograph we got, since we were so late getting to the game, but that's ok....we still had fun!
I won't go on about our trip home, just that it took us an additional day to get back. We were able to meet up with Bill and Pat Dennistoun at a pizza place, which was fun. They're ushers at Angel Stadium, so we'll be seeing them lots this upcoming year.
Oh....once we were on our way home I asked John what the final score was...he said, "I think it was a tie...6-6...I think..." Man, how priorities have changed!
All in all we had a great time. We couldn't have asked for a better baby...We're SO thankful for him!!
Our anniversary weekend started out GREAT! My awesome hubby surprised me with an outing to get a Swedish massage. THAT was the most wonderful thing in the world! I highly recommend it. That was Thursday. Friday we threw some clothes in a bag, I carefully and thoughtfully packed William's things (clothes, food, diapers, wipes, etc.) into the car and John fastened the car seat in. We left at the perfect time - nap time! We figured we would get to Cabazon, CA, by the time he woke up from his nap....we'd do a little shopping at the outlet mall there, grab a bit to eat, and by that time he'd be ready for another nap. Not so. We made it to Rancho Cuchamunga (about an hour in) before we had to stop. At least there was an Old Spaghetti Factory, so we were both ok with the unplanned stop.
After lunch we crossed our fingers that he'd go back to sleep so we could make it to Cabazon. I think he did, because the ride there was blissful. We did a little outlet shopping, and William was the model child. On the way out we grabbed a date shake at Hadley's. Since we spent several hours shopping, we finally made it to our hotel in Blythe, CA (on the Colorado River) by 9-10pm. When we got to the hotel William was more than ready to get out of his car seat. He wasn't crying....he actually didn't cry much at all in the car...he was just tired of not being able to move around very much. He's also used to being in the truck and being able to look out the windows. In John's car he can't see much at all! In the hotel he was all giggles and laughs! It was SO much fun with him there!! John set up the pack-n-play, and before long he was sawing logs.
The next morning we got up bright and early because we wanted to be there when the stadium doors opened, at 10:30. (We had an additional 4 hours to go, game time 1:05.) By the time we got William cleaned up, fed, and the car all packed up, we were a "tad" behind schedule....then we realized that Arizona doesn't observe daylight savings!! SO....needless to say, we were already an additional hour behind. We were ok with that revelation...we wouldn't be there for the opening of the doors but at least we'd get there in time to get our hats signed. Yeah right. We hit some major traffic on the way there - at one point it took us 45 minutes to go 8 miles. We finally got to the park during the 3rd inning. Sheesh! We travel over 7 hours to watch a game and we show up late. Oh well....half the fun is the anticipation and the travel, right?
Once we got there and found our seats William decided that sitting was NOT what he wanted to do. (He had screamed a solid 45 minutes on the way there, so he didn't get much of a nap...therefore was quite cranky.) We both took turns walking with him around the stadium, which made him quite happy. Ok...I'm not kidding here...I was standing in the walkway, behind the seats, William was in full Angel garb and this complete stranger comes up to us, cell phone in hand and asks if he can "have his picture taken with the cutest baby on earth"! I didn't know what to say! Then he proceeds to put his arm around William and take a picture with his cell phone! William, who loves getting his picture take, smiles a huge smile. The guy thanks William and walks away! I was in shock! I know he's cute (cutest baby I've ever seen!) but really!?! People the entire time were constantly telling us how cute he was. :-)
After the game we were able to get Dino Ebel's signature on William's hat. His was the only autograph we got, since we were so late getting to the game, but that's ok....we still had fun!
I won't go on about our trip home, just that it took us an additional day to get back. We were able to meet up with Bill and Pat Dennistoun at a pizza place, which was fun. They're ushers at Angel Stadium, so we'll be seeing them lots this upcoming year.
Oh....once we were on our way home I asked John what the final score was...he said, "I think it was a tie...6-6...I think..." Man, how priorities have changed!
All in all we had a great time. We couldn't have asked for a better baby...We're SO thankful for him!!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Shoes
I never thought that putting shoes on a baby would require the teamwork of 2 grown adults! William just can't seem to keep socks on - is always moving his feet, kicking them off - and his feet are finally "big" enough for his darling WeeBoks Aunt Joanie got him. Since we were heading off to Long Beach yesterday for a visit with family, we thought we'd give the shoes a whirl. John was finishing getting ready, and I was sitting on the bed, Baby in lap, thinking I'd just "slip 'em on"....HA! What a joke! For some reason he thought he'd be "helpful" and curl his toes down while I tried putting the shoes on...I twisted and turned the shoes for a full 3 minutes, then, in triumph, I declared to John that I had been victorious with getting the right shoe on! Whatever. The moment I tried to put on the left one, William gave a small kick and the right one popped off....guess I forgot to secure the heal in the shoe. So I abandoned the left foot, and continued jamming the right one on. About this time John had finished getting ready and was wondering if we were ready to get into the truck. Yeah right. I quickly enlisted his help in this "fun" project. We decided that I'd hold William and distract him with little Geoffry (his giraffe) while John put the shoes on. 15 minutes later we had won the war with the curling toes, and both feet had been successfully shod! Due the incredible labor involved, John had to towel off the sweat that had beaded on his forehead before heading out the door! (Now where do we buy a baby shoe horn!?!)
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