Wordless Wednesday - Sippy Cup Success

Another Day at the Farm

We packed up and headed to Davis' Farmland again today. I really thought that we would get there and it would start pouring on us. Surprisingly, the weather held out. Just a few sprinkles around lunch time but we were eating by the water park anyway so it was hardly noticeable.

Sean LOVED the water park. Meghan was just as timid as she was last year. Avoiding the big sprinklers and playing the the water tables she could control. Sean ran through the park without a care in the world. Giggling as he got sprayed with the water.

I had an extremely difficult time getting pictures this time. Hats got in the way, I got a lot of "back of the head shots", oh and then my memory card was full because I forgot to remove the zoo pictures. Here are a few of the better shots.

And some video.

Farmland Water Park from Dorene on Vimeo.

So now we can cross this off our summer to do list. Just under the wire. We do plan on returning in a month or so. And, if we are feeling adventurous, we will walk the maze this time.

Shameless Plug

I entered Sean in a cutest baby contest.

http://www.amuso.com/invite/2an3gu

How can you resist voting for such a cutie?

I was not the only one who thought it was a good idea

The weather was awesome yesterday. It was warm but not too warm. Sunny. NOT raining. Around 9:30 I decided we should get out of the house. But, what to do? Of course! The Zoo!

At this point of the morning no one was dressed yet, bags were not packed, lunches not made. So I quickly packed everything together including snacks and lunches that Sean could eat, got everyone dressed and loaded into the car. We left the house about 20 minutes after 10 and arrived at the zoo around 10:50 ish.

This is when I realized that I was not the only one with this brilliant idea. The line stretched across the parking lot. Thankfully it moved pretty quickly and we were inside in no time.

Meghan and Sean were really good the entire time. Meghan did tend wander and I felt like I was constantly yelling at her to stay close. But overall, she was great. Sean thought every animal was a kitty cat. Meghan got to feed the deer.

They even posed for a few pictures for me.

I was really glad I packed a lunch because the place was so busy. (I could just imagine myself asking the people behind the counter for the ingredients in their chicken nuggets as I tried to find something not made with milk.) We found a picnic table by the monkey cages and ate there. Sean started screeching his high pitched scream and the monkeys were answering back. I swear he sounded like he belonged there.

All in all it was a great day. Meghan managed to go the entire time without having to go potty. Which was incredible and made things sooo much easier. The line for the bathroom was scary. I'd like to take them back again soon. Maybe in early fall when kids are back in school and it won't be so insanely busy there.

I uploaded the entire set of photos to webshots. Sorry for the blurry deer pictures. I did take a few videos but have not had a chance to look at them yet.



Southwick’s Zoo - Aug ’08

Wordless Wednesday - Irresistible

Meghan Speak

boogers = burgers

muse-kit = music

bamote = remote

biking = viking

cat puke = Jon & Kate plus 8 (don't ask)

I'm happily sitting

Today seemed pretty busy. I am more exhausted than usual. I'm not sure I sat very long today. And the day is not over. Meghan is now informing me that there is a robot chasing her.

Meghan: The robot might see me

Me: That's okay.

Meghan: It's not okay the robot might hit me. He may be a bad robot.

Meghan (as the robot): That's right, I am a bad robot.

And this is still going on. That child has quite the imagination. And can jump from one role to another in the blink of an eye. That, my friends, is talent.

I actually tried to stay on top of things today. Dished, laundry, making sure you can see the floor, you know, normal stuff. Plus we went food shopping. It was a bigger than normal trip today. we had to return some cans and stock up on a bunch of stuff (we now have 8 boxes of Cheerios in various flavors). Of course Meghan had to go potty there. And we had so much stuff in the cart Sean could reach around, grab things and throw them out of the cart. After about halfway through I sped things up and only got what was absolutely necessary.

When we got home it was lunch and then a swim in the pool. I was determined to tire Sean out enough so he would take a good nap. And if Meghan naps too, then bonus.

Sean did take a good nap (almost 2 hours). But not Meghan, she was wired all afternoon. We took another quick dip in the pool (and I say quick because Sean decided to poo about 5 minutes later) and then it was time to make dinner. Tacos, yum.

So now it is after 8 PM and I am pretty much ready to go to bed now. But here is the video to prove that, yer, we did get in the pool today.


Pool 2008 08 18 from Dorene on Vimeo.

=================
In other news, Sean's pediatrician's office called and asked what the specialist said to us last week. Um, shouldn't you know that. Aren't these things recorded some where? Like, I don't know, his medical record?

We are still waiting for the results of the ultrasound and what needs to be done next, if anything.

The weekend wrap-up

I've not felt much like posting lately. It seemed like just more of the same here. We did have a relatively busy weekend (relative to our normal sit-on-our-butts marathon).

Friday:
Sean had his ultrasound appointment. He did a well as can be expected. A good portion of the test they needed him to lie on his stomach so they could look at his kidneys from behind. The last thing an 18 month old wants to do is lie still on his belly. So we struggled quite a bit with that. We are not expected to hear from the doctor on the results until sometime this week.

Saturday:
We had an appointment to see a financial advisor. This meant dragging the kids along to the office in Worcester. I brought snacks, games, drinks, and the DVD player hoping (praying) it would be enough to keep them busy. Umm, no, not really. I could not get the DVD player to work until we were almost done. Sean was leaving a trail of cheerios around his office. (Oh, and I totally expected to be meeting some underling who would ruin through the routine and send us away with paperwork. Instead it was like the VP or something there to meet us. They must have thought we had a LOT more money than we actually do.) Meghan was constantly yapping. Fun times.

Saturday was also the day I needed to get some shopping done. At Best Buy and BJs. During tax-free weekend. That's right, it was a bit crazy out there. At least I knew exactly what I needed. Meghan and I were in and out of Best Buy in like 10 minutes. BJs took a little longer. There were people walking out with flatbed carts fulled with multiple flat screen TVs. It was nuts.

Sunday:
Although this was yesterday I am kinda blanking on what we did. Let's see....Ryan mowed the lawn. I'm pretty sure I did laundry. Nope, don't remember. We did have someone stop by to discuss what we would need to do to sell our house. Her initial range for listing price was not what we were hoping for. So that kinda sucks.

Today:
So far, I am dressed, on my second latte and have filled the kids pool for later today. I am sitting here with my shopping list and hope to get there within the next hour or so, which means I need to stop typing soon.

Bloggy updates:
I added "Mad Men" to my Currently Watching list there on the left. It is a really go show but I am not sure I always have the attention span to watch it. I get a little lost sometime, forgetting people's names so I am not able to fully follow their story line unless they are on the screen. I blame the sound on the TV. Maybe it is just me but I always have to turn the volume WAY up to follow what is going on. Is there a sound problem? Do they mumble? Talk to fast? Or (more likely) did I doze off a bit?

If you are not looking at this through a reader you will notice I changed the background from the blue pattern to plain white. I think I like this much better. But, tell me if you miss the blue.

Okay, now I really need to get going.

Work with me here people

Meghan was always my morning sleeper. She would sleep until close to 9AM sometimes if you let her. Sean was the early riser. You could expect him to wake up anytime after 5:45AM. I was okay with that. If he woke too early he would sometimes go down for a morning nap before Meghan even woke up for the day.

Now, they seem to have reversed roles. Sean is sleeping until about 8AM. Meghan is waking before Ryan leaves for work (which I will say is much better than Sean's 6-ish risings). If only they would get on the same schedule. Just for a day or two. I know it will never happen but a girl can dream.

In other news, we went to the kidney specialist yesterday. She was really nice and spent a lot of time with Sean. He was so good at his appointment. He even gave the doctor a hug. Needless to say everyone there loved him.

After reviewing his history, looking him over and taking another urine test she said she does not believe he has any kidney issues. Which is great news! Just to be sure and to complete his workup we have an ultrasound appointment tomorrow to make sure everything look the way it is supposed to in there. She asked if we had been to a specialist to review his metabolism. Um, nope. So maybe there is another appointment in our future?

The good news is that he is starting to gain some weight. He passed 20lbs for the first time (Woo Hoo!). And developmentally he appears to be right on track. And he is a cutie pie.


Don't step on her head from Dorene on Vimeo.

Wordless Wednesday - "Resting"

Please send cheeseburgers

It is 7:30 pm and I just realized I am starving. And I thought, "Why? I ate today. Didn't I?"

Um, probably not enough.

• 3 cups of coffee - with whole milk. So that totally counts as food.
• 1 slice of Hawaiian pizza
• handful of Reece's Pieces
• 3 sweet potato fries from Sean's tray

I believe that is all.

Oh, wait! I also had:

• 1 orange Tic Tac

I have no idea why my tummy is rumbling.

More Sesame Street Fabulous-ness

Embedding is not allowed but this is worth the click:

Neil Patrick Harris has Telly's New Shoes

You were expecting a post with some sort of substance?

Silly you.




Looking for more? Here's another:

Rainy Day

We have had a string of rainy days here wich means we have been stuck inside. There were a few short trips here and there but Meghan and Sean have not had a chance to play outside. And, I think they miss it.

Meme: How many of me?

I was short on topics today so I found this site that calculates how many people in the US have the same name as you.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 1 or fewer people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

See, I am unique.

Just for kicks (and to avoid cleaning for just a bit longer) I plugged my maiden name in and I got the same results.

What do you get?

Wordless Wednesday - Future All-Star

We have food and milk so why leave the house?

Today has been one of those lazy days. I could blame the fact that it has been raining or threatening to all day. But, to be honest, even if it was beautiful out, I am not sure the day would have gone any differently.

It is now almost 3:30 and beside the normal task of keeping the kids alive and fed I've gotten the following accomplished:

• I am dressed. Although I just changed from pjs into a pair of sweatpants. But that counts, right?
• Um, no, I did not shower. But I did brush my teeth.
• And the kids are clean AND dressed. They were both getting a bit...crunchy. So they had bath time after lunch.
• I moved wet clothes from the washer to the dryer.
• I left a message trying to get Sean's test results.
• I watched a cheesy Amanda Bynes movies while I ate lunch.

I suppose I should do the dishes at some point. And maybe get the mail.

A nurse did return my call with Sean's Celiac test results. Everything came back negative. So the previous wacky results were probably due to the bad test. Not sure what the next steps are because our doctor is not in the office (again) and won't be back until Monday.

Also, Sean has only had one bottle so far today. Everything else was in a sippy cup. So far so good....

This week's project - The Sippy Cup

Sean REFUSES to drink out of a sippy cup. Well, that is not entirely true. On occasion, he may drink out of one type of sippy cup, maybe. I've tried just about every type of cup out there. My cabinet is proof.

I think the kid is just too lazy to suck the soy milk out of the cup. At this point the nipples on his bottle are so worn that the stuff probably just flows out. In fact, the one cup he will use has not stopper in it, so basically you turn it upside down and out comes the liquid.

Starting today, I am going to try and force the sippy cup on him. I have been hesitant to do this before because of his weight and eating issues. But, it needs to happen sometime. We are going on vacation the beginning of next month and I would rather not bring bottles if at all possible.

Let the challenge begin!

(Before I could even post this Sean won the first battle. I gave him a sippy cup with his breakfast at 7:30. By 9:00, the cup was still full. And he was crying for his "ba ba". So, he now has his bottle. I'll try again at lunch.)

The last few days...in bulleted form

I have limited creativity today and limited time. Here is our life as of late:

• Meghan always wants to help. For example, if Sean is supposed to be napping and she hears him, she says "Sean's awake!", runs in his room, turns on the light and starts giving him toys. Even if he was only put down 15 minutes ago. Even if I NEED him to nap longer. W
• We've left the house every day this week. Even if only for a quick trip to the store.
• One trip was to the mall. Sean and Meghan got to go on a little ride.

• Last night we met Ryan at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. That's right, the Cheesecake Factory. Where they serve just about nothing Sean can eat. Needless to say I packed his food. But our meal was yummy.
• As we were waling to the restaurant, Meghan said "Mmmm, something smells delicious".
• I called Doctor yesterday to try and get test results for Sean. Only part of them were in (everything but Celiac) and those all came back normal. I was told the other may not be in until Monday.

Time's up. Sean is awake. Off to run some more errands. See, leaving the house again.

Give a blogger some love

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Kristen over at Motherhood Uncensored has started a little movement for the moth of August called "Blog the Recession". The idea? If you use a feed reader, click through to view the actual blog site. And, even better, when you get there, click around. See what you can find. You can get started by clicking the link above to learn all you need to know and, if you have your own site, grab a button.

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