Random Photo

Here is a picture of Jenny (Kristian's fiance), me and Abby at our friends' Christmas party earlier this month. Cute! You'll notice the bottle of Blue Moon in front of me. I've been drinking Blue Moon for a couple months now for some reason. Tis good.

Disney update

I booked two of our meals for our Disney trip today. That might sound a bit premature, but one of the highlights of going to Disney are the character breakfasts. Basically, you can have breakfast at a restaurant inside one of the resorts or parks where some of the characters are guaranteed to be. Otherwise, it's a crap shoot as to whether you'll see the characters that you really want to see. So, on June 15, we will have breakfast at Mickey's Buffet, where we will see Mickey and many of his pals. On June 17, we will have breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table, which is located inside Cinderella's castle in the Magic Kingdom. There, we will have the chance to meet Cinderella, other members of the Royal Family, and other princesses. Abby is going to love it! And Adam will be excited about Mickey. And he'll also probably be excited any time Abby is excited about anything because he thinks that's what he's supposed to do. Now, all we have to do is book our flights. Flights are pricey right now - over $400 to Orlando - so we're going to hold off for a while. Surely we can get something cheaper.

Girl Scouts was cancelled tonight due to the weather. It was kind of nice not to have to do anything tonight, but I have a ton of Christmas presents to wrap. Thanks to my mom for watching Adam today and tomorrow. He was a little crabby tonight and felt hot before we put him to bed, so I'm not entirely sure he'll be ready to go back to school on Thursday. Hopefully, Seth can work from home and watch him if he's not ready.

Flu? What flu?

I thought I'd post an update on Adam real quick. I guess the flu really is serious because the urgent care center that I took him to yesterday called twice to check on him - last night and tonight - and his pediatrician's office called first thing this morning. But don't tell Adam that, because he has been running around the house chasing after Abby as if everything's fine. I stayed home from work today to take care of the sick boy, which worked out well since Abby's school was canceled due to the ice, but you would haver know he was sick. He had a mild temperature today - around 99 - but he was perfectly fine. So, my mom will stay home with him Tuesday and Wednesday and then he should be able to go back to day care on Thursday.

Hopefully no one else gets it!

The flu + Christmas = bad

It has been a busy week. Friday night, Abby's school held a Winter Wonderland event where they hosted a "store" where the kids could go and pick out presents for their family members. A volunteer took Abby in to the store and helped her pick out gifts. I thought she was going to take forever, but she was in and out really fast. She's very proud of her gifts and I can't wait to see what she picked out.


The real reason Abby wanted to go to Winter Wonderland, though, was to see Santa. We always try to see Santa somehow every year and this was a good way to fit it in. Last year was the first year she wasn't afraid to sit on Santa's lap. This year, she knew the deal. She went right up to him and started telling him exactly what she wanted - some of which "Santa" was hearing about for the very first time.


Adam and I saw Santa at Wal-mart a couple weeks ago and he didn't cry when he saw him, but he buried his face and wasn't interested in talking to him. It was pretty much the same situation here, except Santa invited Seth and Adam to sit in Santa's chair so Adam could still get his picture with Santa. Abby thought that was pretty cool. I'm not sure Seth did.

Seth, Adam, Santa and Abby.

Abby and Santa.

Abby telling Santa what she wanted for Christmas.

Adam finally did wave at Santa and I told Santa Adam wanted Diego so that Santa would know what he wanted. After that, we took the kids to dinner at Pasta House. Every month, Abby has to read 10 books for school and if she does, she gets a gift certificate to Pasta House. They expire at the end of the year, so we've been trying to use them up. I actually like Pasta House, but twice in two weeks is a bit much.

Saturday, I had lunch with Dawn. Dawn and I have been trying to meet at least once a month since her wedding in September just to make sure we're staying close and seeing each other as often as we would like. It's so hard to do that and it works so much better for me if we actually put something on our calendars. So, we went to a breakfast/brunch/lunch place called First Watch. It was pretty good and I had a good time as always. Love Dawn!

After lunch I went home to get ready for Abby's first dance recital. Abby has been taking dance lessons that are offered through her day care. It works out great because the teacher comes to the day care on Tuesday afternoons and I don't have to take her anywhere. She really likes dance and I do think we'll continue with it. She did a really good job. They did four dances with four costume changes. It's impressive that kids that young can remember that many dance moves. I'm still having trouble with YouTube, but I think I've almost got it figured out. We did videotape all four of the dances and plan to post them soon.

This is Abby before the recital.
This is Abby in her costume for a song from High School Musical 2.

This is her costume for a song from Lilo & Stitch.

A country song called "Little Bitty."

In between songs, Adam was mingling with two little girls from his class, who were also at the recital. This is Sarah (left) and Lily. Lily gives Adam a stuffed Barney every morning when we get there so that he doesn't cry when we drop him off. Very sweet. Adam also just got invited to his very first birthday party. Adam talks about a little boy named Logan at school quite a bit and I think it makes him a lot more comfortable at school now that he has a friend. He still tears up a little, but not nearly like it had been. I think Logan has a lot to do with it. So, Logan is having his 3rd birthday party and Adam is invited. How cute is that? :)

This is Abby's costume for the song from the Nutcracker. She did a great job and wasn't intimidated at all by the crowd. It was just held in the gym at a nearby elementary school. She'll have another recital in May.

After the recital, Abby had a birthday party for her friend, Riley, from her day care. She had a really good time there. And then after that, we went to Kevin and Abby's because Brian's brother, Dan, was making rosotto and a rack of lamb with a mint sauce. Holy crap was it good. The lamb was so tender. Unbelievable. Seth might try to make it sometime because it was delicious.

Sunday morning, Adam woke up at 6 a.m. with a high fever. Despite Tylenol, it kept getting worse throughout the morning and by 11:30 a.m., it was up to 101.8 under the arm, which is really like 102.8 becaue they say to add one degree to he under-arm temperature to get an accurate actual temperature. So I took him to the pediatric urgent care center. We were there for over two hours and it turns out Adam has the flu - like influenza. They did a flu test by sticking some swabs up his nose and it came back positive. Poor guy. So, he is on alternating Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours, albuterol breathing treatments every 4 hours, a steroid to open up his airways, and a strong antibiotic to make sure that the junk in his lungs doesn't turn into pneumonia. I don't know if he got it from Seth or what because Seth was home Tuesday and Wednesday last week throwing up like crazy (that was not fun) but Adam hasn't thrown up once. They said Adam could be sick for 7 days and if anyone else gets it, it will happen in the next 3-5 days. Adam will be better by Christmas, but hopefully none of the rest of us get it because depending on when we get it, we might not be better by Christmas, which would totally suck.

So, in addition to trying to scramble to get ready for Seth's birthday and Christmas, I now have a very sad 2-year-old with the flu. This week looks to be a busy week at work and home. Abby has Girl Scouts on Tuesday and I'm sure there's other stuff going on that I just can't think of right now. Sheesh!

Disney here we come!

Well, we finally booked our trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando. We have been planning this trip for two years and booking this trip was one of my goals for 2008. I'm so excited!

We leave on June 12 and return June 19 so we will be at Disney for Abby's 6th birthday. She is so excited. We will be there for seven nights and we have a seven-day Park Hopper pass so we can go to any of the parks whenever we want.

This link goes to a map of Walt Disney World. Our resort, The Boardwalk Inn, is #11 on the map near Epcot Center. The resort is supposed to be reminiscint of a 1940s Atlantic City boardwalk.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/resortmaps/propertymap.htm

Here is the lakeview of the resort.

Here is the pool - it's like a water park in itself.

This is part of the boardwalk area which has lots of shops and restaurants.

It is going to be so great. This is one of those things on my life's to-do list that I really want to be able to provide for my kids. I was able to go to Disney a few times as a kid - my Great Grandma lived in Tampa so we went to Florida fairly often when I was little. Seth has never been, although he has been to Disneyland. I just think this is going to be a wonderful family experience.

Weekends go by so fast.

Ahhh...another weekend come and gone. My friend Amy from college came over Saturday afternoon with her little boy, Carter. Amy just moved to St. Louis earlier this year, but this was the first time I had met Carter and she had met Abby and Adam. (She's been living in North Carolina since she graduated.) They had a lot of fun together. We ordered pizza and let the kids play. Adam tried to keep up with them. Brian came over, too. Abby loves Brian (another one of my close friends from college who was Seth's best man at our wedding - if you recall, Seth's best friend from college wasn't able to make it to the wedding at the last minute. He is also Abby's godfather). When I told her he was coming over, she said, "Funny Brian? My Brian?" She was excited.

Seth and I had a Christmas party to go to Saturday night. Our friends, Christina and Mike, have a Christmas party every year. They have dinner catered and then we just hang out the rest of the evening. It was fun. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures.

Today, I was very productive. I picked up the kids from my mom's and then took Abby to Sunday School. Adam and I went to Wal-mart to get some things - Abby needed stuff for school and a birthday gift for a party next weekend and we went to Dollar Tree to get some other stuff for her class's "Winter Party." Then she had a birthday party at 2 for her friend, Aiden, who is in her kindergarten class. Aiden lives in our neighborhood and I had met his mom several times, but this is the first time I have dropped Abby off at a birthday party and not stayed. She couldn't have cared less but it was kind of a monumental moment. Of course, she got hurt while she was there because they were jumping on a trampeline outside (despite the fact that it was really cold today) and she bumped heads with another kid. She has a red mark on the side of her face now, but she was ok. She really had a good time.

While she was at the party, I went to Borders to get some stocking stuffers for Christmas. I'm finally done with the kids now. That's a relief. Now, just everything else.

So, this upcoming week should be pretty laid back. Abby has her first dance recital on Saturday at 4:30 and a birthday party right after that for her friend Riley from her day care. Busy girl.

I am also proud to say that Adam seems to be turning an important corner - he seems to like me more. :) He is such a daddy's boy and I have to admit it stings when he only wants his daddy in the morning or when he's crying. Lately he's been asking for me a lot and I feel like the daddy-only stage might be on its way out. I think we're both glad because it gets tiring for Seth.

Oh - other exciting news. Seth still has a job. Seth's employer announced some layoffs on Friday and he was not affected. So, we'll be booking our Disney trip this week. Yay! More details on that once it's finalized. Have a great week!

It's December

I can't believe it's already December. The rest of my four-day Thanksgiving weekend was good. Since Seth went to the Rams-Dolphins game, my mom came over and hung out with me and the kids all day. We had McDonald's for lunch, the kids got to play in the snow and everybody had a good time.

This is my mom and Adam looking through a toy catalog so Adam could "write" his letter to Santa. Abby actually wrote it for him but he picked out a couple things he wanted. Diego and dinosaurs are big on his list. Also puzzles and books.

This is Adam finally smiling when we were playing in the snow because I carried him to the swingset.

This is Adam crying when he realized there was snow on the slide. He did not like the snow. When we were in Chicago this summer, he cried because he didn't like walking in the sand. Same thing with the snow.

A little blurry, but this is Abby making a giant snowball.

Abby and Adam posing. They are so cute.

This is me reading a book to Abby and Adam before bed.

I mentioned I would post a picture of my lovely tree and here it is.

So, last night the day care that Abby and Adam go to had a winter concert where each age group got to sing songs. This is Abby on stage watching me take her picture. Her good friend Trenton is to her right - they had to make sure to stand together. They sang the Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas song and "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas." It was very cute. Then Adam's class got up and sang "Twinkle, Twinkle." I didn't think Adam would do it, but he stood up there with everyone. He didn't sing, but he wasn't scared. It was very cute. I'm trying to post my (shaky) video onYouTube so you can see it - especially since the photos of Adam didn't turn out. Stay tuned!