Happy Birthday Mike!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband! And for his birthday, we spent about 3 hours in the labor & delivery ward of the hospital last night! I thought I had been having contractions for several hours yesterday evening, so we finally decided to head in and have things checked out. Some good friends came over and stayed at the house with Miles and we got to know the L&D staff. Turns out I was contracting, and when we first got in and hooked up to the machines, the contractions were coming about every 3 minutes. Luckily, everything else was closed up tight and looked good. So I was given some medications to stop the contractions, and a few hours later, once the medications did their thing, we were on our way home. Happy Birthday!

For his actual birthday present, Miles and I got some maternity pictures done and gave Mike a framed collage of Miles & my belly. Here is one of the poses that we got.

Trying to see the baby

Yesterday Miles asked to see the baby. I told him it would be a while before the baby comes out. So he goes to his toy toolbox, gets out his little plastic wrench and brings it over to me. Miles then says that he is going to see the baby. He puts the wrench on my belly button and tries to (I believe) open up my belly to see the baby.

Nesting?

I think that I have begun to nest, and I have started to clean and get rooms ready for the baby, but I've begun to wonder about 'nesting'. There are many times when the urge to clean comes when I find myself sitting on the floor because I just can't squat or bend over like normal. Then I stay there longer than usual because the thought of getting up seems too tiring. Then, of course, the actual process of getting myself up is somewhat amusing. And during all this, I have time to see places in my house that I don't normally see, or, apparently, clean. So my question is this, is it truly nesting or just seeing dirty places that don't normally get seen?

Baby Shower

Today my Mommy friends threw me a surprise baby shower! It was a wonderful surprise and lots of fun. The kids had fun playing together and us moms had fun chatting. There was great food - Miles had more dessert than lunch food, so he had a blast. The Moms got me the sit-n-stand stroller that I really wanted, as well as some boy onsies and other new baby essentials. All afternoon todays date was kind of sticking in my mind, so I checked the baby book I started when pregnant with Miles and found that the baby shower my work threw me for Miles was also on June 24. Hmm, Jennifer helped plan both of these, did you remember that Jen (or do it on purpose?!)

Again, to all my Mommy friends, Thank You! You are a special group of ladies and I feel lucky to be part of this group of Mommas.

Chicken Festival

Today we went to the Chicken Festival that is being held in town this weekend. It was, for the most part, a typical festival with the rides, food & craft booths. In addition, they had an antique car and corvette car show, with quite a few cars. There was an actual race car there, which Miles wanted to drive! And there was a nice kiddie area and baby chicken tent. Miles loved the baby chickens. They had one elevated pen with baby chicks that you could pick up and hold and pet, and they had an enclosed pen/incubator with eggs and chicks and chicks hatching out of the eggs. Miles got to hold some baby chicks and pet them. This pic is one of the first times he held a chick, he got much more comfortable and held them more by himself as he held more chicks. Miles loved seeing everything, he got to blow bubbles in the kiddie area, and he got a balloon - that later gotten taken away when he decided to try and eat it.

Baseball, Clydesdales & Firetrucks

Last night we went to the local minor league baseball park to see the ball game, and before the ball game, there were both Budweiser Clydesdale horses out front for the kids to see and pet, as well as firetrucks out front for the kids to see and get in. Yes, more firetrucks in one day, and yes, Miles was just as excited to see and crawl in the firetrucks for the second and third time in one day! This time Miles was able to wear a fireman's hat and 'drive' the firetruck - which is what he wanted to do all day.


Miles' eyes were huge when he saw those big horses, and he talked all night about petting two big horses! I was proud of my little man for not being afraid of the horses. We later found out that the Clydesdale horses were from NH, the announcement only said NH, but I assume that they were from the Merrimack, NH stables that were across the river from where I grew up. Perhaps we can bring Miles back to visit these horses next time we visit Grandma & Grandpa.

Then of course we went into the ballpark and watched most of the baseball game. We went with some friends, and the kids had more fun playing with each other than watching the game. The kids got a special treat when the team's mascot came to our seats and played with the kids.

All in all it was a very fun night.

Trip to the Fire Station

This morning Miles and I went on a tour of one of the local fire stations with our Mommy group. We were shown all around the fire station, we got to see the gear room, with all of the fire coats, hats & boots, and we got to see the fire trucks and ambulances, and best of all, Miles got to get in one of the fire trucks and look around. A very fun morning.

Hits from all over

The internet is a pretty amazing thing, and far reaching. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have a stat thing attached to this blog so I can see the basics of who is visiting my blog - no names, mostly IP addresses and geographic locations. Well, some of the geographic locations of folks who are finding this blog are far and wide. Here are some of the more unique ones: Calcutta India, New York city, Brooklyn, Portugal, United Kingdom (2 separate IPs), Berlin Germany, Aachen Germany, California (4 different locations), Illinois, Florida and several places in Texas. We do know some people in some of these locations, but certainly not all. Some folks seem to find us while searching for other things (preggo porn!), others are looking for or going straight to this blog. It is pretty interesting to see what a small world this really is.

Happy Father's Day

First of all to my Dad, my Husband and my Father-in-Law - Thank you for being such wonderful fathers. I love you all very much. And to every Dad out there - this day is for you - enjoy it!

Random (Miles) Moments of the Week

* During dinner the other night, Miles stopped eating, started tapping his hand on his face (as if he were thinking), then put his hand up with one finger in the air and said "I know, have idee, snack!" He apparently thought that having a snack right then in the middle of dinner was a great idea.

* A few times this week, when Miles has tried to climb onto my lap while I was sitting on the couch, he said "Sit next to you, Mommy legs getting fuller." Meaning my lap was full and there was no room for him!

* Yesterday Miles decided that his stuffed animal 'elephant' had to go potty. And yes, you can imagine that 'elephant' did not sit on the potty seat, but rather had a nearly full body dunking into the toilet. After he took 'elephant' out of the toilet and onto the floor, Miles came to tell Mike that elephant spilled water on the floor.

* On another day, as I was sitting on the floor, Miles looked at me and at my belly and said "Baby brother come out?" I said it would still be a little while before he came out. At which time Miles proceeded to push my knees apart and look to see - I'm not sure if he was trying to see baby brother or if he was thinking of going back in...

School's Out

Today was Mike's first day of summer break. And I was at a conference for much of the day. He and Miles had a great father-son day. He took Miles to a new kids playhouse in town - it is indoors and has several bouncy type houses, slides, etc. I have not been yet, this was Miles and Mike's first time there. Then they went to the park and zoo. And of course, they are both napping now!

Beach

Miles and I had a chance to hang out on the beach this morning. I had to go set up the paralegal assoc. table at the bar conference in OC, so we went early and played on the beach for a while. Miles loves the beach, and has been asking to go for a couple of weeks now. He had lots of fun digging in the sand, burying shells in the sand, and sitting/laying in holes in the beach.

Here he is laying in a hole he dug - with the sun in his eyes!

And if you look close at this next picture (or click on the picture and enlarge it), you will see a mouth full of sand, he thought it was a good idea to bend over and take a big bite out of the sand pile he made!

All in all though, a fun morning on the beach.

My little republican

Last night Miles decided to just sit next to me on the couch, no book, no toy, not asking questions or talking, just sit there next to me. So after a couple of minutes of trying to start up some two year old level talking, I asked him some more grown up questions.

Me: What do you think of the current gas situation?
Miles: no answer
Me: Do you think prices are too high or too low?
Miles: Too low
Me: Who do you want to be president, McCain or Obama?
Miles: Cain
Me: (chuckling) Hmph, so you are a republican?
Miles: (an emphatic) Yep!

Quiet week

This has turned out to be a fairly quiet week. Miles wanted to go to the park & zoo on Monday, Tuesday was storytime at the library and yesterday grocery shopping. Nothing new or exciting here this week. Today will be a quiet day around the house/neighborhood. And no plans for tomorrow. It is nice to have a routine sort of week and just enjoy spending time together. Next week will be a bit busier as I have 2 trips to OC for a conference. And then Mike is done with school for the summer. So I will enjoy the quiet while I have it.

Grandma's turn

Last evening we went strawberry picking again. This time it was a family trip, the weather was cool, the sun was behind clouds with a gentle breeze, it was a good time. Today Miles was talking about strawberry picking, and he remembered how last time we went, there was a girl there with her grandma and grandpa. I asked him if he liked going with both Mom and Dad. He said yes, then he said, "Now Grandma's turn." He then continued on to say "Mom go office, Dad go work with band, Miles and Grandma pick strawberries." And yes, that is a direct quote! No worries Grandpa, he said he wanted to see you, too!


I was able to get many more pictures this time.

Heading out to the fields with Dad
Looking for strawberries

Found a red one!


Hmm, should I put it in the bucket or eat it...

Duh, like there was ever a question!

And I'm off!

Jumping Rope

Here is Miles trying to jump rope. I am not sure where he has seen or learned about jumping rope, but this morning he picked up one of Mike's exercise bands and started trying to jump rope, all the while saying "jump." Once I got the camera, he had stopped, but he wanted to see a picture of himself jumping rope, so he obligingly 'jumped' some more. Then, part way through, he realized it was also fun just to wiggle the exercise band around.

Finally

I am finally feeling better. What a relief to be able to breath and think with an almost clear head! I went to bed after dinner last night, and pretty much slept through the night until my normal waking time. And boy did it feel good. Now maybe we can get out and do some family stuff together. Poor Mike and Miles, we tried to go out yesterday and do things, but I just couldn't keep up and I have to admit I was not in the best mood. All I wanted was to put my head down.