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Visit to Bubbe & Grandpa – Day 3 & trip home

Posted on January 7, 2008 6:49 pm by TheAngelForever

Tuesday morning we were ~~told~~ ~~begged~~ asked to let Bubbe and Grandpa sleep in to at least 9. Both boys slept a little later than normal (so 7-ish or so). JSL nursed and then we all went to watch television and check e-mail and things on the computer in the room NHL was sleeping in.

JSL was really tired from being very restless all night (teething is evil I tell you). He and I went back to rest for a little while. When we got back up everyone was getting ready for breakfast. Bubbe was making pancakes for everyone. JSL was content at first just eating his Gerber Graduate Wagon Wheels and things:

This did not last. Soon after this JSL was very vocal about wanting more. JL and I decided trying pancake in small pieces could not hurt. He had a few bites of JL’s and LOVED it. He was quite upset when it was all gone. Bubbe was great and whipped up another batch so JSL could have his own. The little monkey ate the entire thing. Here is a study of JSL eating his first pancake:

After pancake time we all got dressed. Here is JSL learning how to be a boy with JL:

We were all pretty tired and decided to stay in during the day. JL working on my father-in-laws computer and the boys and I just played and rested. Lunch was left over Greek and Chinese – very fun combo.

Then at about 3:30 JL’s friend and his fiance came over to visit for a little while. G & L have been engaged for quite some time. Just before we left an envelope was in our mailbox from them. We had already received a holiday card, so I guessed maybe it was a wedding invitation. Sure enough it was. However, this was not just a wedding invitation, it was amazing. All 4 of us were invited to be their guests for a week long event around their wedding in SC late this year and it included transportation and accommodations!!!

We had to congratulate them, thank them and ask some questions. JL and I both wanted to make sure they were positive about the kids coming. They said they were. We found out from talking with them that there are only 30 or so people invited to this destination wedding. We were beyond honored. G later e-mailed JL and said he forgot to ask him a question. He wanted JL to be in the wedding party. G was JL’s best man in our wedding. There are a ton of things going on with the wedding. The actual ceremony is going to be early in the day on Halloween. We just have to figure out how many days we will be going for, but we are going to be there for G & L on their special day.

When G & L left it was time to think about dinner. JSL was attacking me for milk, so we went to nurse in another room. This is the result:

My mother-in-law was making her delicious chicken cutlets, lentil/tomato soup, potato kugel, and challah. Everything was delicious! Soon after this the boys went to sleep and we said goodbye and thank you to my father-in-law (he had to leave VERY early for work).

The next morning we woke up and I started to pack our things up. To complicate matters it was snowing outside, but nothing to even coat the ground. My thought was to get on the road at 10:00 to avoid rush hour traffic. This did not happen. We finally hit the road at 11:00. We made great time to the halfway point in our trip. Stopping to stretch and check out a store (Disney Store) at the outlets there was good, but man it was windy. Rather than eat lunch there, we went over to Pizza Uno nearby. BIG MISTAKE!! We were finally back on the road two hours after we stopped.

Driving was not bad, we made great time and pulled up to our house to see there was no way we could get into the driveway. After we were plowed out from the initial storm, another 4-5 inches of snow fell and the city had plowed us in. JL got out and helped to get a path to head in.

All-in-all it was a very nice visit with Bubbe and Grandpa. I never had an allergic reaction to their dog Lacey, which is a first. A few things were said that bothered me, but such is life. JSL never wanted to be held by them much thanks to being so grumpy from teething, plus he has only seen them 4 other times (when he was born, his bris, NHL’s B-day, and Great-grandma’s B-day).

Sorry this took so long to finish. I was busy trying out a new photo editing program. I used it to make the collages up above.

Categories:
allergies family food glorious food jsl milestone photos road trip sleep teething

Visit to Bubbe & Grandpa – Day 2

Posted on January 4, 2008 1:01 am by TheAngelForever

Monday morning we woke up and went to have breakfast. My father-in-law went to get bagels and made anyone eggs that wanted them. I had a lox in my eggs and it was very good. While waiting to eat I decided to call my father to find out how much snow we got at home. As I previously noted in part one, when we left we were only supposed to get 3-5 inches. My father answered the phone with the following:

We got at least 9 inches!

I thought he was kidding and did not believe him. UGH! Now what were we supposed to do? There was no way that our neighbors should shovel what we later found out was 11 inches of heavy, wet snow. I made a bunch of calls to neighbors, my father, and our friends to try to find someone to plow us out. JL then decided to call his boss. He owns several rental properties near us. He called us back as I was still in the process of calling people. He said he would plow us out. The nicest part – he said there was no charge! Thanks to him and our neighbor’s doing the walkway and sidewalk we were in good shape. The problem – storm two was heading their way AGAIN with 3-5 more inches the next day. YUCK!!!!

Once this was taken care of we all took turns showering and eventually made it out to lunch. JL and I insisted that we have lunch at the amazing Greek restaurant that is located there. We have no good Greek places here that are close enough with good parking, so this is very important to us. We had an amazing lunch and took leftovers back for the next day. After this we stopped back at the house quickly to put food away and head over to Radio Shack and Trader Joe’s again. Yes, we had to head there again. I wanted to get some gifts for people that were helping us out with the snow removal.

Next we decided to head back home for a little while before going to Chuck E Cheese (wanted to change diapers and nurse JSL). NHL wanted to take Bubbe and Grandpa there to play. We were not too sure about this since he has been very skittish there in the past (thanks to the costumes). Unfortunately, he did not do well this time. We used a coupon and had 100 tokens and barely used any. NHL was very upset that this Chuck E Cheese was not the same as the one at home. *sigh* He started to flip out quickly and we finally left. Here are some photos from the few things that we did while there.

After we got back from Chuck E Cheese JSL fell asleep from all of the fun and excitement. Not to worry it did not last long. Soon after this he was up and eating dinner with everyone else.

After the "fun" at Chuck E Cheese we went back home and ordered Chinese Food for New Years Eve. My in-law’s friend S came over and once the kids were in bed we started to watch a movie. JL and I were left at about 11:00 and we were not able to finish the movie. JSL kept waking up crying. The poor little guy just could not catch a break.

JL and I watched the ball drop and then we were up for a while after taking care of JSL and listening to illegal fireworks that were shaking the house.

Day 3 and the return trip home coming soon.

Categories:
family photos sleep weather winter

Visit to Bubbe & Grandpa – Day 1

Posted on January 4, 2008 12:41 am by TheAngelForever

Sunday morning at 9:30 we hit the road to go and visit Bubbe and Grandpa (JL’s parents). We had not been there in a LONG time. JL only had to use one day of vacation time since he worked Christmas and had New Years Day off. Not too shabby. Before we left I e-mailed our neighbors next door to see if they would keep an eye on our house and help us shovel the little storm that we were supposed to get that evening. At that time they were predicting 3-5 inches. . . recall this amount.

Both of the boys fell asleep quickly. At the half way point in the trip we arrived at the point where there are no more rest areas on the crazy roads. We stopped took NHL to the bathroom, changed JSL’s diaper and went back into the car with a snack so I could nurse JSL. NHL spent a lot of the trip asking "Are we there yet?" Who knew that kids started this at 4?!?!

We quickly arrived at my in-laws in good time, even without two kids. The boys were happy to be out of the car. After unpacking the car we went to eat lunch at a new hamburger place called American Roadside Burger. The food was good and perfect for a lighter lunch since it was late. Next we went to Trader Joe’s. *sigh* I so wish we had one of these by us. If you have ever been to one than you know what I mean. There just is nothing else quite like a Trader Joe’s and we had a list from people to get things to bring home. Here is the result of the first of two trips to TJ.

Once we got back to the house JSL was VERY hungry and wanted to nurse. We went to the bedroom to take care of business. A little while later he unlatched, rolled over and went to sleep. As you will see this became a pattern throughout the visit thanks to teething. Here is the little guy resting peacefully:

Soon after I went to check on everyone else. NHL and JL had already found out where Noggin was located at Bubbe and Grandpa’s house.

NHL would not admit that he was tired. He was zoning badly. Thanks to this we opted to stay home and get pizza for dinner. Check out these tired eyes:

Even Lacey (Bubbe and Grandpa’s 15 year old dog) was tired. Side note: I am horribly allergic to Lacey. Most times I get so sick that even my allergy medication does not help and I end up using my rescue inhaler to breathe. Thanks to nursing I was only allowed to take an over the counter product and was very afraid of how sick I would get.

Here is Lacey resting on the couch:

Meanwhile back in the bedroom JSL continued to nap – something others of us should have been doing!

JL and his father went to pick up the pizza. We all ate and then NHL had a tub. Before bed we had to set up the futon. Our fear was NHL falling off since he did not have a bedrail that would work on it. Here was our solution thanks to lots of regular and body pillows:

Meanwhile in our room JSL attempted to sleep in a Pack N Play. He always started off there and then would end up in bed with us. The poor little monkey was SO miserable from those pesky two top front teeth refusing to cut through. He even whimpered when he was in bed with us. Teething is EVIL I tell you!!!!

Once the boys were sleeping, JL and his father went out to get things for breakfast.

I am going to break off now since I may not finish this tonight.

Categories:
allergies animals family my boys photos road trip teething

Is there a “right” way to sleep?

Posted on December 29, 2007 11:56 pm by TheAngelForever

If there is a "right" way to sleep my 4 year old seriously does not understand it.

Exhibit A – The way I found NHL yesterday night when I went in to check on the boys.

Please note that the blue body pillow (MINE – which he now believes to be his) is on the wall the long way. The planet pillow is actually at the top of his bed where he SHOULD be sleeping.

Exhibit B – NHL all twisted up. A closer view of how he has his body positioned on the bed. Also notice why we MUST put him in a PJ sleeper since blankets do not stay on the child.

Exhibit C – Even Curious George is not curious enough to sleep like his friend NHL and is at the correct part of the bed. OK – sure he is not on the pillow right, but at least he is closer to the so called "normal" way of doing things.

Tonight he was sleeping on the side bar of the bed. Thank goodness that was there. Hopefully he will not fall out of bed at Bubbe and Grandpa’s house the next few nights.

Sweet dreams! I am off to pack and sleep. We are off to visit JL’s parents tomorrow and have a long trip ahead. I shall try to post from there, but no promises.

*sigh*

Categories:
nhl photos sleep

Sleep . . . the final frontier!

Posted on December 28, 2007 11:54 pm by TheAngelForever

We all had sleep last night. . . . WAHOO BABY!

Yes, you read that correctly. Even the teething baby slept through the night. He actually fell asleep on JL early. He went into his crib and only fussed twice early on. Both times a binky and tucking his blanket buddy under his arm to snuggle did the trick. So he basically slept from 7:30 to almost 7:00. Not too shabby.

When the boys woke up they came into our cloudy warm wonderland of fun flannel sheets.

NHL petting JSL’s hand:

And now a kiss:

A certain 7 1/2 month old was VERY serious. We have been worried since he just has not been his smiling/laughing self. Teething is just evil I tell you. Here is Mr. Serious:

Meanwhile Daddy is making funny faces and saying silly things. JSL thinks about smiling:

Yes Houston. . . we finally have a smile:

It was so nice to see that sweet little smile after the last few miserable days without it. Meanwhile a certain little person was devising his own plan.

Seconds later he went for a sneak tickle attack on his little brother. NHL knows that JSL is super ticklish on his neck if he kisses it. So that is exactly what he did.