Monday, June 30, 2014

Summer: Week 5

This week was a little bit crazy. Jake & I got back from Fairhope Sunday afternoon. I left Monday morning for Chattanooga to work in our corporate office for a few days. Thankfully Jake's summer camp has early enough drop off times & late enough pick up times that wouldn't interfere with Rob's work schedule too much. 

On Monday, Jake's YMCA summer baseball team had their first game. I was so sad I had to miss it! Thankfully Rob was there helping coach & Mimi & Granddad were there in the stands to cheer him on. YMCA baseball is a lot more laid back then the city league baseball we finished up in May. And from the 2 practices I've watched, it seems like the Y players are a little more on Jake's level. Y baseball is coach pitch for 3 tries and then the batter can hit from a tee. And the games only last 50 minutes (YAHOO!!) so they basically just play 2 innings. Jake got a hit from the coach's pitch both times up to bat. Way to go Jake!
They had their team pictures taken before the 1st game.
I swiped this picture from another mom's facebook page.
On Tuesday night, Robbie had a business dinner, so we are so thankful to the Bush's for helping us out! Granddad went & picked Jake up from camp on Tuesday and Jake just spent the night with them. 

I got back Wednesday night and then Robbie left Thursday for a business trip. 

While he was gone, I got these in the mail. A big thank you to my sister for picking up these curtains from Ikea for me (they were not available for purchase online). I am using them for 4 different projects in 3 different rooms.

Finally on Saturday, for the first day in over a week, we were all together. I got a few more things for the nursery (the rocking chair will be painted & have a seat cover made for it).
And we are STILL going through boxes of toys & stuff to get rid of!
Excuse the mess all around!
 We spent Saturday from lunchtime to dinner time at the pool. Several kids from Jake's baseball team live in our neighborhood, so Jake has had fun having other kids to play with at the pool. (As opposed to the very fun & exciting play times he usually has when it is just him & mom!)



The boys invented this fun (& very safe) game of
jump over Coach Robert's head into the water
On Sunday, we dropped Jake off at the Bush's as they are taking him & their other grandson Jackson on vacation to Gatlinburg this week. Jake is so excited!! 

Monday, June 23, 2014

Summer: Week 4 / Weekend in Fairhope (updated with a few new pictures)

We started the week with our ongoing nursery paint color saga. Finally after 20 trips to Lowe's, 4 different paint color samples and a picture of myself behind the Lowe's paint counter for the employees to throw darts at, I finally found the color I was looking for that I was still happy with even after on the actual walls. 
Nursery beginning of the week
On Monday, mom & dad got great news & Jake got very sad news. Daddy's old childhood toy - Voltron - had sold for full asking price on ebay. (We had decided that since Jake loved playing with it so much, that if we didn't get full asking price, we were not going to sell it.) Of course at the 11th hour, we got the asking price, so we had to break it to Jake that Voltron had to leave. It was the saddest thing telling Jake. He cried & cried. Thankfully, each day since we mailed Voltron off, it has gotten better.
His happy face showing how much he loved Voltron

His sad face when saying good-bye to Voltron
 Several kids from Jake's baseball team live in our neighborhood, so Jake has had fun playing with them at the pool. That has been a nice cheer up.

On Wednesday Jake had his Kindergarten screening & school tour. 

Nursery mid-week
 On Friday, Jake & I headed down to Fairhope to visit my best friend Stephanie. They moved into a new house earlier this year, so I was excited to see the new house. Stephanie & I see each other several times a year, but our boys only get to see each other once or twice a year, so I was excited for them to get together. (Stephanie & I were both pregnant at the same time with the boys, our due dates were 2 days apart. So the boys have been friends since the womb!)

When we got into town Friday night, we took the boys to a pizza restaurant with an arcade in the back. It was a win-win. At this point, the boys were excited to see each other, playing & sharing well & the best of friends.
Playing the Batman video game


Sweet Elizabeth!
I've got a playmate coming for her soon!

This little girl has the longest lashes, sweetest curls
& is such a best dressed girl!

Jake thought she was pretty cute too
 On Saturday, Stephanie & I took the boys to the train depot. 
They got to tour a real caboose
And no, we did not coordinate the boys' clothes on purpose

See a huge model train setup
I love this picture of the boys

Play on a smaller train
They got to ride on a smaller train

And play on a real size train
We then went to Lulu's for lunch
Playing in the wind tunnel




Playing in the sand after eating lunch



We went out for ice cream after lunch and then just hung out. 
Walking to get ice cream in downtown Fairhope


We cooked out hotdogs for supper and then went to the pool for a swim (by this point, the boy's sharing/loving/excitement was getting dicey). 
Poor Jonathan got stuck pulling the boys in the wagon
with Elizabeth riding on his neck
By Sunday morning, the sharing/loving/best friends status was a little low. The boys got into the funniest fight and Stephanie & I were crying we were laughing so hard. They were basically each getting on to the each other, repeating what they get told all the time from their moms. I only wish I had a video of it. 

And because I love a good flashback:

 And when I returned, I came home to a newly painted nursery!
 And a changing table!
The changing table is my very sweet parent's gift to baby Charlotte/Hollon. It means so much to us, and we'll think of them each time we use it, just as we do the rocker they gave us when Jake was born. 
(And we have 7 days left to make our final decision on the name. She will have a name by July!)

Monday, June 16, 2014

Summer: Week 3 / Father's Day

This week at summer camp the theme was Super Heroes. Jake loves super heroes, so I knew he would enjoy this week. On Tuesday, they were encouraged to wear their favorite super hero shirt, so Jake happily obliged. 
Lately, when Jake smiles for the camera, he scrunches up his nose.
Makes for a lovely picture.
 On this particular day, they made super hero capes. I wanted to get a picture of Jake in his.


Getting mad at me for taking too many pictures
 On Wednesday, they went on their first field trip (to Pump It Up). This was the first field trip that Jake has been on, that I didn't attend. They got to ride a school bus from the camp to Pump It Up. Jake was so excited. I think he was more excited to get to ride a bus, then the actual field trip. He asked if the bus was going to pick him up at his house (like the bus picks up kids during the school year). He was a little disappointment that the Kindergarten campers had to ride the little white bus, and not the big yellow bus with the older kids, but he was still excited that he got to ride a bus.

His "silly" pose that he insists on doing if I'm going to take his picture

I cannot take a focused non-fuzzy picture with my iPhone if my life depended on it
Also on Wednesday, I had my 28 week check up. The baby is still doing good. We came up with a "tentative" plan leading up to her proposed due date. I'll see my doctor again in 3 weeks for another regular checkup. Starting then & alternating each week, one week will just be a checkup and the other week will be a fetal non-stress test (NST). Because of the placental abruption at 36 weeks with Jake, they will closely monitor the last 8 weeks of this pregnancy. They do not have a reason for why the placental abruption happened with Jake, so it's not like there is anything we can do to prevent it from happening again. But by doing the NST every other week, they can make sure that the baby is getting enough blood flow & oxygen (something that decreases if the placenta is starting to rupture). If it was to happen again, hopefully this time, we would know it was happening beforehand, and not be surprised at 10:30 at night like the last time it happened. Then at 35 weeks, I'll start seeing my doctor weekly and we'll set a c-section date for the week before her due date. Unfortunately, this baby cannot read yet (and even if she could, she would probably ignore it), so who knows if she'll follow the plan we've nicely laid out for her. But we will see. In the meantime, I'll just keep procrastinating starting her nursery or coming up with a name for her.

We did make a little progress on both fronts though. We got the bed out of the nursery & Robbie is moving the extra electronics out. So all that is in the room is baby stuff. We'll start painting the walls this week and we should get the crib paint samples this week. So slowly but surely! We also made a little progress on her name. We've narrowed it down to 2 and will decide between those 2:
Charlotte Elizabeth Bush or
Hollon Elizabeth Bush
I wish I had the patience to wait until she was born and decide on the name then, after we get to meet her. But I'm too impatient for that.    

Every day this week, Jake has had swimming lessons at our pool. His swim teacher this year has been awesome. (The one last year was good, but the one this year is great.) Not only by lesson 4 did he have Jake swimming across the pool, but by the last lesson, he got Jake to jump in & swim to him and swim with his face in the water. This is huge for Jake. He is terrified to put his face underwater, so he would never jump in or go underwater. I am so proud of him!
Overload of videos so the grandparents to see how much he has accomplished!

Swimming:


Jumping In:
(this was at the beginning of his lessons when it would take forever to convince him just to jump into the arms of his swim coach)


Swimming:


Swimming with his face underwater:


Jumping in & swimming to his coach:



On Saturday, we got out the sprinkler to let Jake play in the backyard.



Just relaxing later that afternoon
 We grilled out & ate outside on the patio. The weather was so perfect!

 I am not an ice cream person and I'm not a banana pudding person. I'm not really a desert person period. But pregnant? I am. And evidently I love banana pudding ice cream when pregnant. I saw this ice cream on a blog, and for some reason it looked so delicious. I had to have it. Rob picked up the groceries for dinner Saturday night, so when he saw this on this list, he wondered if I had lost my mind. He then decided if you can't understand beat them, join them! So he also picked up some chocolate reese's peanut butter cups ice cream. Needless to say, Jake is loving this pregnancy.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!
On Sunday we celebrated Father's Day. I'll celebrate with my dad in a few weeks. I missed seeing him on Father's Day. I hate I couldn't hug his neck & tell him I love him in person. I made up for it by calling him Sunday afternoon at wish him happy father's day. Of course he was taking a nap when I called so I woke him up. I'm just the gift that keeps on giving.

Sunday afternoon we went to a Birmingham Barons baseball game
In my mind, we'd go to the baseball game and sit together as a family. Jake would be so interested in the game, since he played baseball this year. He & Robbie would talk baseball and Rob would explain things to him. Jake would be entranced with game, loving watching every one of the players move. Maybe Jake & Robbie would even catch a foul ball (even though we had no glove & where we were sitting, it would be nearly impossible for a foul ball to get to us). It would be a perfect father/son/family outing. 

In reality, this is how it went:
Walking up to the stadium- Jake: I'm so excited!
Inning 1- Jake: I'm hot. How long is this going to last?
Inning 2- Jake: I'm thirsty. I've got to go to the bathroom.
Inning 3- Jake: Can we go home?
Inning 4- By this time, Chuck & Judy had joined us along with some of our friends that were at the game. Jake had stolen Mimi's iPhone to play games. But then he complained because he couldn't see the screen from the glare.
Inning 5- My friend Julie & I take the boys (Jake & Julie's son Jude who is 4) to the playground/inflatables area. Which of course cost $5 and looked like a complete germ circus. 
Top of Inning 6- Julie & I finally score a bench in the shade so we can watch the boys play on the germ circus.
Bottom of Inning 6 (basically 5 minutes later)- The boys decide they are done with the inflatables & want to go back to the seats. Julie & I give up said great seats. 
Top of Inning 7- I purchase Jake a snowcone in hopes it will hold him over to the end of the game. He of course picks blue. We return to our seats & the dads.  
Bottom of Inning 7- Said blue snowcone has spilled & made a mess.
Innings 8 & 9- Our friend Lance (who is happily unmarried with no children) teach Jake & Jude how to toss peanut shells through the little personal fan, so they shoot off in every direction. We got a lot of favorable looks from the people around us for that one.
Walking out: Jake: I had so much fun!

Robbie was so sweet about everything though. He thanked me for going & sitting out in the hot sun so he could go to a baseball game with his family on father's day. Even though it wasn't exactly how they show it on TV, I hope Robbie enjoyed the day with his son & family and knows how much we love him. Even if our outing it not textbook perfect, we have fun and we do together as a family.

Funny after story as we are walking back to our car after the game:
Jake: I hope I can go to Judy's house soon & play.
Me: Judy? Who is Judy?
Jake: Judy. You know that boy I was playing with at the baseball game.
Me: His name is Jude. Not Judy.

Happy Father's Day to all of the awesome father's and grandfathers that have touched and influenced our lives. We have been blessed so much and love these men with all our hearts.