I went to Arkansas for 3 weeks in August! I left July 31 and came back August 18 -the day before C turned 2!
I had a VERY early flight on my way out. I had to wake C up at about 4:30.
This was him avoiding the light from the hallway while I changed his diaper.
On our first flight to Phoenix
It was exhausting, especially since I was sick the day before flying out! So I needed to take it easy and entertain an almost two year old.
He had been learning his letters. This pretzel piece was the letter Y. He was so excited about it!
He colored
I noticed the Grand Canyon out my window!! So neat from above! And it just shows how HUGE it really is!
This was in Phoenix. Best part of the Phoenix airport? They have corners every now and then with tv's tuned to cartoons! How awesome is that?!
Second flight, oh man, it was hard. He was mad at me for not letting him sit in the seat next to me which wasn't taken yet, so he was screaming and screaming! A sweet teenage girl sat down and he was happier with the cute girl who gave him candy… :)
He entertained himself for a while and then got really fussy. I picked him up and he zonked!
It was lovely!
I was on my own for the first week and then J would come the next and be there for a week and a half with me.
C could tell something was wrong, but didn't know what. It was rough. Most of the first week was spent relaxing and hanging out with family. We went swimming, played games… It was nice.
My sister owns a Gelish kit, so she painted my nails bubble gum pink!
"Hi Daddy!"
We went to the Little Rock river market Saturday morning. They have a lovely river market. DELICIOUS foods, cool crafts, fun sights. I really enjoyed it.
Sunday Selfie with my boy
He wanted Papa to read him his book before nap time. It was cute, but he only lasted a page or two before running off. Goober.
Just about every day, you could find my brother outside vacuuming or just blowing bubbles at the bottom of the pool with his scuba gear. The kid loves scuba, that's for sure!!
Morning snuggles with my boy
I played in this fort as a kid.
Grumpy boy. Who knows what the problem was that day… lol
This was funny. He got his leg stuck and when I came to help him, I laughed, so he laughed. We were giggling away while I helped him lift his leg high enough to get it out. I love those moments!
He needed a bath, so he got in the shower with me that day. He took in 5 teeny cups and was entertained enough while I showered.
My niece and my mom.
C had called Grandmas "mama" and also called me "mama." When he figured out that he needed to differentiate the two, Grandma became "Mama" said gutturally and creepy-like. All Grandmas involved were not big fans of it. So it became our mission, while I was living at a Grandma's house and around her 24/7, to come up with a new name for Grandma.
We tried out Granny, Nanny, Nana, and a few others. Nana stuck. It is cute.
I loved this sight of all of these sandals. Lots of family here for a good time!
My sis in law was at girls' camp for a week, so the kids were passed around to friends and family every day so my brother could work.
We got them Monday (I believe.)
We went swimming for the whole afternoon. :)
Afterwards, my mom was weeding her Black Eyed Susans from some morning glory that had overtaken like kudzu. In the process, a lot of Black eyed Susans were lost. The kids wasted no time in collecting them. My 4 1/2 year old nephew gathered a whole bunch for me. When there was one without a stem, he stuck it in my hair and said, "There, now you look beautiful!"
This is my sweet, complimentary nephew playing "Sweeping Queens" with me (Real name of the game is Sleeping Queens. Go buy it. It's adorable.)
When he left for the day, he was stroking my shoulder and rubbing my back and saying "you can come to the party with us if you want to!"
C adopted his cousin's Hello Kitty for the whole trip. I took off the bow to not lose it and it disappeared from off of the desk… I hope it shows up soon… Sorry!
It was cute how attached he was to M's kitty.
This is 18 1/2 weeks (August 5)
One day, we were swimming during nap time and he woke up during the swim. I took him out to the pool and offered to let him swim with us. Oh man, he was NOT happy with that. What makes the tantrum hilarious is that he was naked for it since I tried to get him into a swimsuit and then he freaked out. So hilarious. Poor, confused, fatherless boy… :) (This was about 2 days until Daddy came)
Nana took us to my current favorite burger joint in Little Rock Big Orange. Then we walked around and did a little shopping in the stores. This was the best one I got of their matching hats at Charming Charlie. :)
C fell in LOVE with my sister's kids. Oh man oh man, he loves them so much! The other day, we told him someone had come to visit him and he asked if it was cousin Lulu! Oh, my heart!
This is him with "Mimi" just hangin' out
I offered to curl Lulu's hair. It was adorable.
I liked it so much that I curled my hair
And then I counted down the minutes until I could go pick up J from the airport!!!!!
Yay!!!
The next day, we went to Babies R Us and JoAnn. It was a fun little expedition when C wasn't freaking out… :)
Right after Papa left for work, C really wanted to talk to him. So when he called home to touch base with my mom, C commandeered the phone and talked to Papa for a while. :)
This is how we settle ties in our family. And this was only for a game of Go Fish!
Sunday was my birthday! All of the pictures from it are on J's phone, so I don't have them…
My sister and I sang a duet in church that day. It was beautiful. I love how voices of family members mesh so well!
One of our friends told J to give me a foot rub for my birthday/being pregnant. I got one! :)
It was a lovely birthday! My sister was in charge of the family meal and asked what I wanted. I love Creamy Orange Chicken, so we went with that with green beans and salad and rolls. Then dessert was my favorite funfetti cake and homemade peach ice cream. I was so spoiled!!! (Thanks, siz!)
19 weeks and my birthday! (August 10)
the next day, we got up and drove to Texas! J's sister lives in Dallas and has just bought a new house, so we wanted to visit since we were so close! We got there in time for lunch, ate, visited, had nap time, played, had dinner, played… :) Jo made some cake for all of us August birthdays. (everyone but her son and J) We stayed up until about 1 in the morning playing games. Loved it!
The next day, we went downtown for lunch! I should get some pics from Jo from that trip downtown. It was really cool. We drove to a station, got on a free, old-fashioned trolley, went to a really neat park right smack in the middle of the city on an overpass, and had lunch there with T, who works in the next block over. We ate lunch and then the boys went to play. Normally, C doesn't like splash pads. There was one at the river market and he wouldn't go near it. I think what made this one much more appealing was that the jets were all short. There was a huge puddle at the end of a strip of small little fountains. It was perfect for little kids. C was having the time of his life and then tripped and hit his lip and gums on a cement bench. He was up and at it again in no time, though.
Here's Jo squished in between the boys on our way to the trolley.
We got back and had nap time. While we played games afterwards, TJ pulled out some tv on the iPad. They were so cute sitting there together!
Funny boy
We then went to Red Robin with Jo and T and TJ that night. This was me trying to get a picture of C's gash on his gums. You can see that it's dark above his left front tooth… :)
When I asked for more pictures… hahahaha
After dinner, we went home. J was amazing and drove the whole way while I was able to sleep. It took a long time for C to give up and fall asleep, but he finally did. Then we were home… :)
The next day, I needed to go shopping! Hooray! So I dragged Katelyn to a maternity shop where we found this shirt for family pictures on Friday. I love it! It's light, so I didn't die at all and yet is long sleeved, so I can wear it in the winter!
It was a nice visit and I still got an errand done! Cha Ching!
It was good to see you, Katie!
The 14th was this cute couple's anniversary.
I'm so glad they got married! I love them and I'm thankful for them!
Mom and I sat down one afternoon and made some great cards!
C figuring out how to jump on the bed. :)
That Saturday, my parents left for a dive trip at the Little Cayman Island.
It was so sweet, because C woke up and was looking for Nana. When he couldn't find her and I was crying, he turned around and comforted me. What a sweetheart.
But we also went on an adventure that day!
We went to Blanchard Springs Caverns!
It's a beautiful cave in the Ozarks in Arkansas. It's about 3 hours away from Little Rock.
C and I hitched a ride with my sister and her family. They have a DVD player, so C was set!
My beautiful nieces who are going to be having another little sibling!!!!! Could NOT be more excited about this little niece or nephew!!! I'm so thrilled for her! And it's doubly awesome that she's pregnant when I am!!! She's due at the end of March and it's taken a while for her to have this baby, so we're all suuuuuuuper excited! The niece on the right brings it up just about every 20 minutes… ;)
C's favorite person is Lulu. He LOVES her! She is soooo patient with him and helpful and sweet and he notices and loves it. It's things like this that make me wish I lived closer!! (among other things…)
I borrowed a back baby carrier from a friend, so in order to have that work well, I wanted to have C get alllll of his energy out. So he ran from me to the door and back a zillion times. Sometimes, Lulu raced him. Every picture I have of that was blurry. So here's this one. :)
I've been to this cave quite a few times. I know all the answers to their questions that they ask for random trivia and such. :) But I still love it and am still blown away by it every time.
This is a column in their Cathedral room. It's 65 feet high. So amazing.
Pictionary. What do you see? Go!
The boy on my back. He loved the tour if we were moving. When the group would stop to talk about formations or what makes caves and stuff, I had to keep walking around and point out all of the pretty rocks. :)
I think this is my favorite room. It's got a zillion billion gajillion soda straws. I love how teeny tiny they are and yet so fantastic and took so many years to make!
So the reason J didn't join us was because he went on the Wild Cave Tour with my brother. It's a 5 hour tour for those who are willing to work hard, crawl in tiny spaces, and get dirty!!
He LOVED it!!! (Thanks, Mom and Dad!!!)
20 weeks!! August 17
Feeling great and feeling a little movement from the kiddo!
Sunday, we made Brisket. oh it was so tasty!!
We were off for home on Monday afternoon. Thankfully, I had J with me for the whole thing-especially the huge layover in Vegas.
It didn't last long, but he got to sit in his own seat for a little while.
I loved this. C put Daddy's hand there.
On our flight to Las Vegas, we sat in the very back seats. He could climb up and not worry about bothering anyone behind us!
Ooh, irritating story about our trip from Vegas to Boise! Ready??
So we have figured out that it gives our independent boy some space of his own if he gets to stand on the floor at our feet. However, when taking off or landing, he has to be in your lap. He was happily playing on the floor and then we were taxiing and about to take off. As we SLOWLY got in line to take off, he was getting more and more restless, but I couldn't exactly put him down!
So he's starting to scream and cry and you know what happens??
The girl sitting in front of us (girl meaning immature adult in this situation) makes a mocking crying sound!!
Every single emotion inside of me exploded. Of course, I had to respond. ;) So I said, "Oh, grow up!"
ha
I wanted to pull her hair, pinch C to make him cry longer, have him spit on her head, kick her seat, make her flight a living heck….
She would've deserved it, right? Did she really think I was ignoring my crying child and NOT trying to calm him so that everyone could fly happily? It made me so mad and sad.
The ENTIRE rest of the flight, he was quite happy.
There was one point where he got mad at us and yelled out and the girl in front of us said "Oh grow up" hahahahaha
what an idiot lady.
She was stupid and inconsiderate and had OBVIOUSLY never had a kid.
Is it wrong that I just hope that karma shows her who's boss? ;)
So there's that story and an adorable picture of my cute boys. (J doesn't look as comfortable as C does, though)
2 comments:
It was great to see you and C!!! Love ya!!!
Sounds/looks like such a great trip!! I love that you were close enough to see some of Jason's family too. And just hearing about crawling through a cave makes me and my claustrophobia freak out!! Even you just walking through one! But I'm glad you liked it :).
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