May 21

After getting Aiden all shipped off to grandma's the evening before and spending all night packing, we left our apartment around 3:30am. We were leaving our car with Dwight and Karla, so Karla drove us to the airport. We arrived there around 4:45am and just barely got in line at security when about 50 people got in line behind us. Yikes! We got through and met up with cousin Hannah and her little one. Their flight to Texas left 30 minutes before ours, so it was fun to pass a little time with them.

Once we parted ways with Hannah and Grace, we headed to our gate. I immediately noticed that every person waiting for our flight was in a business suit. The counter attendant started the pre-boarding call for people with small children (she had seen us, so she kindly waited for us to get to the counter). As we walked up, you could hear the almost silent, yet collective groan of the early morning business flyers when they saw that we had a small baby. Nathan was the only child on the whole flight. I don't even think there was anyone below the age of 20.

We got settled in our seats (me in a window seat and John in the middle) and I immediately began nursing Nathan. There was an older gentleman sitting next to John who asked many questions about Nathan. He was in town to see his daughter and son-in-law, who just had their first baby - his first grandchild, he said. I was glad we had someone who didn't seem to mind Nathan's presence, but before the plane took off, the flight attendants moved him to another seat. They said they wanted to give us more room for the baby.

As we started down the runway, I began frantically praying that Nathan would handle it well. As I kept repeating, "Please God, please God, please God...", Nathan fell sound asleep in my arms and didn't move a muscle for the entire flight. I was even able to doze for about 20 minutes.

We arrived in San Jose at 8:10am. This was surprisingly early, as our itinerary said we would be arriving at 8:43am. Oh well. It's not like we had to wait for anyone to pick us up. We headed to the baggage claim and got our bags right away. I think most business flyers just take their stuff in a carry-on unless it's a longer trip, so there wasn't much checked baggage.
We were immediately able to hop on the bus for rental cars and headed over to Hertz. The driver of the bus made me take Nathan out of the stroller and hold him. This seemed silly to me....if something were to happen, wouldn't he be safer strapped into his stroller rather than sitting in my lap (me with no seatbelt)?

We got our rental car, which was a Hyundai Elantra; one step up from our Hyundai Accent. It came with a baby seat for Nathan, a sunroof, and XM satellite radio (fun!). We then headed off to Sunnyvale. We quickly found a McDonald's for breakfast (we hadn't eaten since dinner the night before) and then decided to call Caleb (the groom) to see if we could crash at his place in Mountain View, since our hotel wouldn't let us check in until 3pm.
He kindly waited to go to work until we got there and we promptly fell asleep after he left. Nathan and I on the couch, John on the floor. You'd sleep on the floor too if you'd been awake for 27 hours.

Around 2:30pm, we left Caleb's apartment, grabbed a light snack and headed to our hotel in Sunnyvale. We were staying at the Wild Palms Hotel off of El Camino Real. It was very nice and I would absolutely stay there again. The king size bed had a canopy and our bathroom sink was very modern looking.

Nathan having some tummy time on the big bed!
Our really cool sink!

We freshened up a bit and then Caleb called to meet up with us for dinner. He took us to a very authentic Mexican place in Palo Alto. If you want authentic Mexican, California is a good place to get it! It was very noisy in the restaurant and Caleb was concerned that Nathan might not handle it well, but the little guy surprised us and slept soundly in his stroller after a good nursing. After dinner, we took a small walk, had a talk about possible careers for me, and got some Starbucks. We all ended up with leaky cups for some reason and I ended up dribbling my caramel mocha on Nathan's head, but he didn't seem to mind.

We went back to Caleb's apartment and happened to catch Candy (the bride) and her bridesmaids there working on the centerpieces for the reception. We all had a good time catching up and all us girls hovered over Nathan, cooing and giggling at him. We finally left sometime between 11 and midnight. We definitely slept VERY soundly that night.

Just a little busy

I apologize for not getting any posts up yet about our trip. It's been interesting trying to get back into daily life and I still haven't completely unpacked. Aiden is trying his best to remind us why we needed a break in the first place. :^) I am hoping to get the stories in my head out to you all this weekend.

I did have an interesting day with Aiden today. He is acting very much like an adventurous toddler. His vocabulary continues to grow and he amazes me all the time with the things he says.

At certain points today, he was not pleased with the way things were going (he was getting scolded, or the baby needed more attention than him at that moment, etc). He would then say to me, "It's time to go to church" or "I'd like to go to grandma's now". Basically, he didn't want to be home with me.
He tried to eat paper at some point during the afternoon. I told him not to and he took a bite out of a coloring page, then says, "Mmm, paper!". Yes, how yummy....
I was finishing up feeding Nathan this evening when Aiden came over to me. He watched me cover back up and said, "Good job, mommy!". I'm glad he approved.

Well, Nathan just popped awake. Something I really didn't want to happen.... Oh well, time to deal with it anyway. Sleep would be really great right now.

Home again, home again

Wow, we're tired. We had to wake up at 5am to be at the airport around 6:45am and it's been a very long day in getting adjusted to being back home. Aiden is having some trouble. I think he's mad at us for leaving. I just hope tomorrow goes much better. He did say something really cute today though. We took him to McDonalds for lunch and asked him if he would like chicken nuggets. He asked, "Chicken nuffets?". We laughed and said yes. Then he said, "They are fried and breaded.". Oh, we laughed and laughed. It was too cute!

Anyway, so we're home and the trip was wonderful. I have so much to write about and over 350 pictures of the whole adventure. For now, I'll get some rest and write some tomorrow.

Sunny California!

We arrived safely in San Jose this morning. We were awake for over 24 hours, so we were extremely exhausted by the time we got here. But we were very thankful that everything went as perfectly as it possibly could. I nursed Nathan right before take-off, he fell asleep in my arms, and slept the entire flight! He only woke up because I needed to move him in order to get off the plane. It was fantastic! I spent the whole time between boarding and take-off praying that he would handle the flight ok. Actually, it was probably more like begging than praying, but it seemed to pay off!

We had a fun treat once we got the airport. Hannah and Grace (John's cousin and her baby) were flying out at 6am, so we were in the same gate area at the same time! We only had about 15 minutes to spend together, but it helped the time pass a little faster.

Since we are now in our hotel and I have had 2 hours of sleep in the past 34 hours, I'm going to take a small nap before we meet up with our friend Caleb (the groom) for dinner in Palo Alto. I will take lots of pictures and hopefully have time to keep posting small updates. Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts regarding our first experience in flying with a baby! God certainly listened!!

This isn't how it's supposed to go!

Side note before I begin: I hit my 100th post yesterday! Yet another sign that I will write about anything and everything.

As I mentioned about 2 months ago, John is a groomsman in our friends' wedding this coming Saturday. We are flying down to California on Wednesday and we'll be there until Monday. We both really need this break from everything. Since I'm nursing, Nathan will be coming with us, but Aiden will be staying with grandma. We have to be at the airport at 4:30am Wednesday morning, because John had the great idea that an early morning flight would be best. So, needless to say, I really need to be preparing for this trip today. I do have tomorrow, but I have some errands to run, so I won't have a ton of time here at home.

Let's just say that today isn't going the way I need it to go. I have two small children, so it's a little silly to expect things to go perfectly, but I would like them to go at least somewhat according to plan. I won't go into a ton of details as to why my day isn't working. There have just been numerous diaper incidents. One of them is so bad, I'm actually going to have to look up online how to deal with the property damage that has resulted from it.

I think children can very easily tell when the at-home parent is busy and doesn't have a whole lot of time to spend interacting with them. I'm trying my best to keep him out of trouble and in my line of vision as much as possible. I have so much to do.... Once we get down to California, I will be heading straight for one of the hotel's poolside cabanas!

Our cover model

Some of you may have received an email about this, but for those of you who didn't, we want to share this with you!

John and I have entered Aiden in a "cover model" contest with Parents magazine. The top 5 children chosen will be flown to New York for a photo shoot, yet only one will be shown on the cover of Parents November issue. Well, we obviously think Aiden is cute enough to be one of the 5 and we hope that you do too! The more recommendations that Aiden's photo gallery gets, the better his chances are of being chosen. So, to recommend Aiden to the editors of Parents magazine, click on the title of this post and it will take you to Aiden's gallery. There are 6 pictures there. And if any of you are wondering why we haven't entered Nathan as well, it's because the child has to be 6 months old or older. Darn it! :^)

This evening's madness

I am still reeling from the evening I just had. I don't know what to think.

Aiden is an adventurous little boy and gets into a lot of things. He ends up with the typical little boy bruises, but has never REALLY hurt himself. Sometimes, I think it's an absolute miracle that he's only had one ER visit and that was only for an eraser stuck up the nose.

Well, he decided to push the limits tonight. I was using the restroom, John was on the computer checking email, Aiden was playing in his room. Suddenly, I hear this huge crash and Aiden starts screaming. I run in and find Aiden trapped under his dresser!! He actually pulled it down onto himself! He was scared, but only ended up with a small scratch on his arm. Big deep breath for mommy... Jeez. Ok, back to normal life.

Not 15 minutes later, I'm cleaning up from dinner, and I thought Aiden was watching TV. I then hear this odd banging sound and Aiden crying. I look into the living room to see that our front door has been unlocked and opened and Aiden is gone. I run out onto our "porch" to see that Aiden has taken his little ride-along car and tried to ride it down the steps. We live in a 2nd floor apartment!!! He had tumbled most of the way down the cement stairs. He was standing when I got to him, but I grabbed him up and ran back into the apartment. He was crying, I was crying....John was just standing there in absolute shock. Aiden, amazingly, wasn't seriously hurt. He ended up with a scratched face, arm, and back, but that's it.

I just can't believe it. I had no idea that my 2 1/2 year old knew how to unlock and open our front door. I like to think of myself as a very attentive parent. He just moved so fast... I'm so frazzled. So, we spent the evening bolting all of Aiden's furniture to the wall and installing a door knob cover on the front door.

On the bright side of things, John set up babysitting for BOTH kids for tomorrow evening. I really, really, REALLY need a break. Life with a toddler is extremely challenging at times. I know that I can't keep him from hurting himself entirely, but I still keep thinking of what I could have done differently to keep these things from happening. Really, nothing. When the first thing happened, he was playing in his room like he usually does in the evening. When the second thing happened, he was watching TV while I cleaned up from dinner, as usual. Ugh....I should go to bed and just attempt to renew myself a little bit. There's no use in dwelling over everything.

4 months old today

We had Nathan's 4 month check - this is his last appointment with this pediatrician. Since we have very different views on vaccines (we want them, he doesn't), we decided it would be in our best interest to find a pediatrician that shares the same views. We told our current pediatrician of our choice for a new pediatrician and he was pleased with our decision. I guess they used to work together and they actually used each other for their children's doctors! So, thanks for the great recommendation Hannah! I'm glad it went so well. For some reason, I get nervous telling a doctor that I'm switching to someone else. It's like I'm afraid that they're going to be mad at me! John reminded me that they are professionals and people switch all the time. Still....for some reason, I hate doing it.

Nathan looked perfect and did great with his shots (5 pokes!). Sleeping heavily now, poor little guy. They want me to work on getting him to sleep through the night. Easier said than done, people! The nurse practitioner who did his examination was very impressed with how strong he is regarding head control and pushing himself up. She didn't believe me that he rarely gets any time on his tummy. How could he be that strong if he rarely works out those muscles? He started laughing at her while she was feeling of his tummy. She thought it was pretty cute.

Anyway, here's Nathan's stats:
Birth: 7 lbs, 2 oz. 20 1/2 inches
2 weeks: 7 lbs, 13 oz. No length.
2 months: 12 lbs, 3 oz (65th perct), 24 1/2 inches (93rd perct), 40 cm head
4 months: 14 lbs, 11 oz (50th perct), 25 3/4 inches (80th perct), 42 cm head (44th perct).

Rollin', rollin', rollin'....

He rolled!! He doesn't get very much tummy time at all, so this was a big surprise. Aiden always hated tummy time (didn't roll over until 5-6 months), so I've never been in the habit of doing it. I had JUST put him on his tummy and I looked away for a second. I looked back just in time to see him going onto his back! I was so shocked! He did it like he's been doing it forever. If I'd only gotten the video camera out sooner. We put him back on his tummy to see if he'd do it again, but instead he just attempted to crawl. I guess he thinks he's mastered rolling, so why not move on to the next thing? I'll try harder to get a picture of it from now on.

My strange little children

Yesterday was my 3rd Mother's Day and my children reminded me that I am very lucky to have such.....unique offspring. Take a look (click on any photo to enlarge):

We awoke to find Aiden asleep on his floor amongst his typical destruction.

Nathan spent some time on Grandpa's lap making weird little faces while he watched everyone talk.

Any time Nathan is in my bed, he will grab my pillow and pull it over his face. He sometimes does this with blankets in his swing and has done it since he was about 2 weeks old. I guess he likes it. And yes, I do have a Johnny Depp pillow (thanks Laura!!).

We spent Mother's Day at the in-laws with lots of family. We had lots of very yummy food (the burgers were fantastic!) and fun conversation. Aiden had spent about an hour the day before making Mother's Day cards for all the mommies and grandmas, so those were fun to give to everyone. We gave grandma a picture frame of a few photos of the kids. Later in the day, we went to Baskin Robbins to get me a Mother's Day ice cream cake (oreo!) and I bought myself another ringtone for my cell phone (I have a hard time justifying spending $3 on one ringtone, so it was good to make it a small gift since John pays for it anyway). I also received a pair of gorgeous Coach shoes from Laura! Very 1940s - I love it!

I hope all the other mommies had a great Mother's Day!

Aiden's way of decorating

When I went into Aiden's room this morning to get him up, this is what I found. And yes, his dresser IS tipped over. I was wondering whether or not we needed to get stabilizing hooks for his furniture. I guess he's given me my answer. To those of you who haven't yet had the joy of being a parent to a 2 1/2 year old, you're certainly in for a treat.

Can't I just get a new one?

Ever since I was about halfway through the pregnancy with Nathan, my back has been a source of daily pain. After he was born, it was really bad. I figured it was from going through such an intense birth, not to mention that it was all back labor anyway. But even after my 6 week post-partum visit, during which I was told that everything was A-OK, my back still hurt. Over the past few weeks, it's gotten to the point where I'm in tears at the end of the day. I figured I was just in need of a good professional massage. But at the beginning of last week, it hit the point where I couldn't even have John rub my back without being unable to move afterwards. My spine was sensitive to touch. I tried to get my back to pop and when it did, I blacked out. Only for a few seconds, but that still can't be normal.

I finally got the nerve up to call a doctor and make an appointment. For some reason, I felt like not knowing was better than possibly finding out that I needed surgery or something drastic like that. But my kids need me in good shape, so I went.
I told her everything and she felt of my spine and had me do some movements for her. It turns out that I do have some muscle damage in my back, mainly from the pregnancy. It's not permanent - yet. However, if I'm not proactive in treating it, the damage will continue further and further up my back and then it will be permanent and I'll need specialized treatment. Basically, I'm just injuring my back more and more each day by, well, doing mom stuff.
She said that typically, she'd give me heavy painkillers and tell me to take a week off to lay in bed and let the muscle begin to heal. But I have two small children at home and I'm nursing, so that plan won't work. That means I'm going to have to do a little more work in order to fix my back. Here's the at-home treatment plan I was given:

Take ibuprofen with every meal for two weeks, use a heating pad (or thermacare heatpads that stick to the body) during the day as much as possible, and practice the nine pages (!!) of back exercises created for sports injury/trauma. At the end of two weeks, the pain should be easing up. At that time, I am to do yoga three times weekly to begin to build the muscles up in my back. After I've been doing that for two weeks, I am to incorporate aerobic core exercises to build up my abdominal muscles. She said that if I follow this plan, I should be able to basically reverse the muscle damage and get rid of most, if not all, of the pain.

A lot of work, but I think I can do it. Although, I'm thinking that narcotics and a week in bed sounds really good right about now!