A Hot One

So, today is Memorial Day. Yeah, for Holidays- Daddy is home! Yeah, for "forced vacation" days- Uncle Mike is also off. That means we're spending the afternoon at Uncle Mike's swimming... except for brief nursing breaks for myself and Blaise. Which brings me to my title line... Blaise is a hot one. It's in the 80's outside, and he's been napping in his shaded car seat, while we take turns swimming with his brother. I just picked him up to feed him and he is so SWEATY. He was pretty sweaty last night too, during the night. It seems that our second son is going to take after his daddy and be much more hot-natured than Scott and I. Scott always seems a bit chilly... kinda like me.

Today, since we're at the pool for the first time this year, we've discovered that Scott is a fish... or "fsssss" as he would say. He absolutely LOVES it. He likes to spash, kick, and dunk his face in the water to blow bubbles (he is actually mostly blowing bubbles and only drinking a small amount of pool water.) He's also enjoying getting to "jump" into the water, and playing in his floating ring thingy.

Speed Post

We're visiting Cullen's office today, so I'm taking advantage of an internet opportunity. Cullen's parents are in town and wanted to see what he does. Maybe someday I'll finally get the 3 projects in PA straight... I always get confused which is which.

This past week was a good one for us, Cullen only traveled one night. Next week will be very chaotic on the other hand... we're all traveling with Cullen to Charleston for a conference Monday to Wednesday, then Cullen will be flying out to PA on Wednesday shortly after we get home. He'll be home Friday night and hopefully we'll have a very restful weekend. The busyness at work is starting to wear on him and he's been rather exhausted lately. We went to bed at the same time as Scott on Thursday. I'm hoping it will pass as the PA projects all pass their peaks.

Scott is growing fast. It's hard to believe he's over 2 months old now. He's starting to want to do things a lot more and that seems to be frustrating him some. I think his hair is getting a bit thicker, though a couple of people have mentioned they think it's thinner... who knows. This past week we got to have some friends from church over for an afternoon. Maddie is almost 3 months older than Scott, so it was interesting to let them "play" together. They laid on a blanket and stared at each other... well Scott stared at Maddie and smiled like crazy at her. Maddie mostly tried to turn away, but when she did face him she grabbed his arm. Julie and I said they were holding hands. It was cute. Maddie obviously has quite a bit more large motor control than Scott does, since she's a bit older.

I'm donig good. Feeling better after I had an infection a couple of weeks ago and another rather painful nursing problem last week. I also managed to get back to running this week. Jogging strollers are a pain in the arms/shoulders. (Yes, Scott is still too young to run... but I wedged his head with a towel, so he was fine and rather enjoyed the ride.)

Well... time to get going as I think the tour is over.

One-Handed

Long time, no post. And of course today Scott has decided to try to be awake at the library, so I only have one hand... slows things down a bit.

We have had several good visits with various out of town family over the past few weeks. It's been fun "meeting" everyone, but I think Scott and I are both glad to be back to just us. On the other hand we wouldn't mind if the Daddy man didn't have to travel so much. At least this week he'll be home in the am- tomorrow. Yeah.

Scott is still growing fast. It's fun to watch him everyday as he's so observant- always watching. He also likes to talk and is fun to listen to. He gets a little fussy now and then and like every baby he loves being to me and being held. He also doesn't like to fall asleep, but once he does he's a great sleeper.

Tomorrow morning I go in for my 6-week appt. Which means that I will be "allowed" to exercise again. We'll see how long it takes me to get back into running... I do have a really nice jogging stroller!

Cullen is 27 now. I like to say he's 2 years older than me now. Haha. He had a good birthday. Enjoyed a meal at Outback and Hot Fudge Sundae cake later in the week. He's planning to get a new tent with his birthday money. We can't wait to take Scott camping - though we'll probably buy us a pack of disposable diapers for that adventure... hopefully sometime in May or June. Anyway, Cullen is traveling a lot for work now. We're looking forward to late April, because we'll get to go with him to Charleston! He has his performance review tomorrow, so we're hoping for good things out of that...

Patience is the same... but we're not sure that's good enough. :(

Struggles With An Elderly Dog

Well this past week was a bit tough on Patience... and me I suppose. Patience had another vestibular episode on Thursday morning. It was rather scary for me and of course required a lot of energy and time from me. (She had a vestibular thing last April- it's almost like a seizure, because she doesn't know up from down and flails herself all over the place but can't stand up or anything like that.) Anyway, she was like that when we (or I should say Cullen) got up on Thursday morning. He put her in the kitchen and I got up of course. We decided to wait it out (since they really couldn't do anything for her at the emergency clinic last year other than administer IV fluids.) We left her in the kitchen with the lights out and Scott and I stayed at the other end of the house for a few hours. By 9am the vestibular thing had passed. She messed herself and was still having a hard time with standing up and walking... but it all got progressively better through out the afternoon and by the time Cullen got home from work she was her same old self. Thankfully. For a while I was worried it was the end- even called Mike to find out what the best (and least expensive) options are for when that time comes. Ah the excitement.

Scott is doing great. Still growing amazingly fast, though no doctors visit for the official weight gain for another couple of weeks. He's starting to get himself into something of a routine, so that is nice. On Friday I got to clean the house- well part of it. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get to clean the other part of it :) I could have done it today, but he's napping at the library instead of in his crib. On Saturday we took him to his first baseball game - Go Jackets! We watched one of the youth from church play in his first JV game for Fort Mill High. It was fun. I enjoyed the game and the time out of the house talking with friends and just hanging out. Scott got a little pink from the sun, but since he was covered well and shaded he didn't get nearly as pink as his daddy. Maybe next time Cullen will remember to wear a baseball cap like I did... I didn't get pink :) On Sunday we returned to our Sunday evening small group. It was very good to be back. Abby was absolutely facinated by Scott, it was really cute. She's 3 and soon to be a big sister herself, so it was fun to watch.

This week it turns out that Cullen will be out of town for 2 nights, Wednesday and Thursday- getting home late on Friday night. I am very thankful that Grandma and Grandpa will be here. Though I guess I have to start calling them Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa... or not... we'll see. I'm wondering if they will be willing to stay in the church nursery with Scott on Wednesday night so I can go to the women's bible study. (We're planning to start leaving Scott in the nursery after he's a month old, but for now we'd rather avoid the germs and just hang onto him ourselves.)

Guess that's all the news from our world. It's getting later in the afternoon than I anticipated, because I actually had to wait for a computer today... so we'd better get going on our other errands before Scott gets hungry again :)

Growing Like A Weed

Cullen says Scott is growing like a weed. It's what Andrew (who was his Best Man) always said about his daughter Rebekah when she was little. Scott is growing fast though. He's up to 9lbs and 7oz already. That's up 2 lbs from his birth weight. (Sorry, but I have no idea what percentile that is... the doctor didn't say and I really didn't care enough to ask.)

Today Scott and I are having our first library adventure. So far, he is sleeping well. He tends to sleep pretty well between 9 and noon everyday though, so it's not really surprising. I just have to make sure we're finished with the errands before he wakes up in another half hour or so.

This past weekend Scott got to meet his Grandma and Granddad. Cullen's parents were in town for a quick visit. I think he likes them :) Although, I also think I discovered that company of any kind after dinner time for Cullen and I seems to mess with Scott's ability to sleep. Meaning, it's harder for him to fall asleep and he wakes up more. Guess we'll try and limit evening visitors next weekend.

Next week we'll be having our first overnight visitors... Great Grandma and Grandpa Gardner. I can't wait to see them! They are going to be here at the perfect time too... besides the evening visitors thing, Cullen is going to be heading back to Lancaster for a business trip next week, about the same time Grandma and Grandpa get here. How convenient. Then on Friday, while they are still here, Patience goes for her yearly shots. It will be very nice to have an extra pair of hands at the vets office!

In other news... we grown ups, who had recently decided to retire from youth ministry are back. The youth director resigned a few weeks ago and another couple at church stepped up to take on that role. However, they left a hole where they had been teaching youth Sunday School. Cullen and I have agreed to help with youth Sunday School and we'll be switching off with another couple. We're all pretty excited about it right now and excited to get to know the youth at our new church better. Pray for us in this endeavor.

Last Day at Duke

The end is in sight... very close sight. I'm actually just waiting for my supervisor to get out of a meeting to sign something. Then I'll be meeting with HR and turning in my badge to security and leaving Catawba forever. I wonder what next week will be like. I signed up to bring a dish for Wednesday night dinner at church, since I'll be home rather than racing from work to home to let Patience out and feed her and back to church.

We are about ready for Leapfrog to get here too. Ready- can you ever really be ready for a new baby? At any rate, the carseat is in the van, the hospital bags are packed, and the anticipation is building. (Hm, guess I still need to type up instructions for the doggy sitter, but at least if I forget I can just call them or have Cullen call them and fill them in.)

Cullen is still busy at work. Looks like there might be a conference in Charleston that we'll all be able to travel with him for in April. He's working hard trying to keep all his work organized enough for his coworkers to be able to pick it up when he's out for a week starting any day now.

Earlier this month we enjoyed a visit from Jessica, while she was job-hunting. Or maybe job-thinking is a better way to describe. She is in our prayers now as she tries to figure out where to go from here after graduating in December. During her stay, she did note several times how annoying it is that we don't have internet at our house. I'm sure job-hunting would be somewhat easier if we did have internet, but I'm glad we don't have such ready access to the www from home. Now to see if I can keep saying that next week. It will be interesting to note if my posts get more frequent or less frequent as I am forced to go to the library to use the internet and as I start my new job as a SAHM.

Onward to outprocessing world...

20 Days til Christmas

Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is fast approaching already. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Maryland. We got to see Mom and Dad Keen, Grandma and Papa, Uncle Buddy, Aunt Laura, and the cousins, and Jason and Amanda and Elizabeth. Wow, Elizabeth has really grown since the last time we got to see her- which wasn't really surprising, just lots of fun! And so have Nick, Kelly and Trisha! It was a great couple of days with the whole family there and we enjoyed all the activity... though it did wear Cullen out a bit, which is why I have at least one picture of him yawning.

The ladies surprised me with a baby shower on Friday afternoon, which was the best. We had a good lunch out and I got some cute and some useful baby stuff. I really enjoyed the time with them and I'm glad they thought to do that.

Patience was lonely while we were gone... she survived, unfortunately, her bed did not. I don't plan on leaving her behind again. Poor old puppy.

We've spent the past week and weekend getting decorated for Christmas and making some good progress on the bathroom. New pictures have been posted to the House Renovations Album today. The tile is down and the walls are painted. Now to do the grout, seal it, and get the toilet and sink installed. Ah, to have 2 bathrooms again. That should be done by this weekend. Then we'll see how long it takes to get the walls tiled around the bathtub. (While Patience doesn't like water at all, it's much better for ME to give her a bath than a shower and probably for her too- so it will good to have a bathtub again!) Also started baking Christmas cookies yesterday and we've been working to get Christmas cards out... just a couple of more addresses to get a hold of.

Leapfrog has been very active in my ribs lately. That's not always comfortable, but it is fun. We go back to see the midwife again on Thursday. Should be a quick easy appointment. Cullen won't be able to come this time though, because he'll be out of town for business meetings. At least it's just a routine appointment.

On with my rainy Monday...