The Children's "See 'em"

At first Easton couldn't say museum. He said, "I just don't want to go to the see 'em." But he quickly picked up on the correct pronunciation. Well...close enough. And he also agreed to go.

We were going to meet some friends there. Plus we hadn't been in about a year so we were over due. We even used some of the "fun" Christmas money from The Alabamaws to buy ourselves a membership. Woo hoo!

When we got there Easton took a little while to warm up to the place. So in the meantime I let Dalton explore:

Believe it or not, that little girl was a total bully and kept pushing Dalton. So I didn't blur her face because the world needs to know to look out for her! :)

My little explorer:


We moved out of the baby area to give Easton a chance again, this picture totally warms my heart:

Look at how the brothers are sticking close together as they survey the scene and the new environment. I loved it!!! That's why I took the picture. I hope they rely on each other for support for the rest of their lives!

At first Easton still wanted to stand around being an unsure observer (by the way, we haven't met up with our friends yet):




But then he climbed a tree thingie and he came around:


But he didn't come around enough so I suggested going to explore elsewhere in the See 'Em and we headed to the sporty area upstairs. Easton in a locker...

Let's hope the little guy only ever sees the inside of a locker when he walks into it willingly like this!

Dalton at the bench:


Exploring the suprise inside one of the little lockers:


Easton stomping over to me with a pout because someone else slammed the locker and it was "too loud":


We then spotted some friends but the kids had different ideas of what they wanted to do, "I just don't want to paint!" said Easton about our painting friends. Even after Rachel's mom got a nice easel set up with fresh paper for him. *sigh* He dragged me over to the puppet theatre instead.


And there I noticed Dalton somehow got paint on his butt, darn it!


Needing to restrain him with my shoe. He was going for a piece of tissue. Ick!


After a bit we headed back downstairs...still not with our friends. The boys did some gardening...




E asked me, "Does this say carrots?"

We've got a ways to go with the reading thing, son.

But speaking of carrots, some snot (who I did decide to blur) came and stole Easton's carrot right out from his hands! Poor E looked to me for help but all I did was take a picture. Then I shrugged at him.

We should've told the tot, "Swiper, no swiping!" Oh well.

A little more playing around...



Dalton stuck that thing, whatever it is, in his mouth so I took it away from him. He climbed up to get it:

Mouthing things at the Children's Museum is probably not a great idea.

Just a little bit more...






I went up to tell our friends good-bye after that but they were heading for a snack (partly why we were leaving) so instead we stuck around and had lunch with our pals. Easton had fun. Even if all he ate was Goldfish and apple juice.

Poor Dalton was deprived of any morning napping but staying in great spirits the whole morn. Fell asleep as soon as we got into the car. And went back to sleep for a long nap once we got home.

What a fun day and I can't wait to go back!

Can Somebody Please Tell Me...

...just what the heck the point of Moon Sand is?

Kelly, don't answer that. :)

AJ said, "It's an outside activity" but in the dark, Santa must not have noticed all the snow on the ground.

We did it inside. But I wasn't sure what to do. Neither was E:


He heard the "sand" part and thought, well, people dip their toes in the sand...




And then we were all, "What are we supposed to do now?" I'd read you could mold it. But, mold it into what exactly?

So I made him some eggs.

Which he happily "cracked" into the bowl...




Then I made him some cookies...

(Notice the blue sand all up his foot and p.j. leg)

Ooooh, I know! How about a birthday cake!?!?


Removing the "candles"...


Cutting the cake...


Typical of the near 3 crowd, Easton chooses the bigger piece for himself...


Yummy in me tummy...


My candles then gave me the idea of trying a bit of bowling to finish things off...


We had fun...


But mostly we just made a mess...


Unless someone can tell me what people actually do with this, even outside, I'm thinking it's not going to come back out again.

New Year's Festivities

I guess I never did post with any of our New Years haps.

We had my mom and Lauren over for some tacos. Not quite the same as black eyed peas and collard greens but I think we all enjoyed it more. Gramoo even brought some sopapillas to finish things off. Yum.

I got a few pictures of the fun afterwards...

You can see Gramoo crawling out of the clubhouse in pursuit of Easton.

Getting tripped up from having to run so fast...


Auntie Lauren was apparently his "base" where he was safe...


They moved onto a round of the always entertaining, "Guess Which Hand It's In"


And some climbing ensued...


Meanwhile Dalton, who has become quite the independent player if it wasn't for all the crap he finds to put in his mouth and gag on, found some stuff to do...


Goober. Happy belated new year. Even though I wished you a Happy New Year already.

Didn't I?

I Promise to Do a "Real" Post Again Soon...

But for now, here's another journal entry... I just find it sadly amusing looking back that we had originally thought I'd be pregnant for another two months. Not just 3 more days... (at one point earlier in the pregnancy I predicted "the baby" would be born on March 4th, 6 days late)

January 6, 2005
Jason went into work. I sat at the hospital. I got moved to Mom/Baby at some point since I didn’t need to be continuously monitored anymore…things were looking better at least. I went down for an ultrasound to check on the baby. Jason made it in from work halfway through the ultrasound. The baby wasn’t moving at all but it’s heart was still beating just fine. The tech didn’t seem too worried so J and I didn’t either. At one point I got up to go to the bathroom to see if we could wake Appo up. Oops! That means I have to start collecting the urine all over again! I went back up to Mom/Baby and they put me back on the monitor based on the baby not looking super hot during the ultrasound.

This evening Dr. Jennifer Leavitt (an LSU med school grad!) came to see me. She freaked me out telling me the horrible report she got from that afternoon’s ultrasound. She repeated the ultrasound herself at my bedside. Jason wasn’t there. Appo was looking much better, though. If the baby continued to look bad that would have meant they’d have to deliver me then. Baby was okay, apparently, but they wanted to move me back over to L&D for the night for continuous monitoring again. I had to get my second steroid shot, too. Ow ow ow!

I am 32 weeks and 5 days.

I Was Hospitalized...

...3 years ago today. Sorry if the title potentially alarmed any of you. Read on for the journal entry.

January 5, 2005
I sat around for a lot of the day and put notes on boxes for J to move. My BP was 113/74. Tonight I went to an Advanced Breastfeeding Class offered by the hospital. I’ve never breastfed before but somehow I’m “advanced”. Towards the end of the class my head started hurting a little. I know this is one of the “signs” I’m supposed to be watching for so I casually wandered up to L&D to see if a pal up there could check my blood pressure before I went home. It was 163/108!!!. They checked it again. Nope, it wasn’t a fluke. It really was that high. I got admitted into room 331 for a PIH eval. I called Jason and we decided he would come up to be with me. I would be at least a couple of hours. I ended up needing to stay overnight. Dr. Siegfried came to see me. She told me I am now “high-risk” and can’t be followed by her and Teresa and the rest of the Family Practice gang anymore. I have to be transferred to an OB/GYN for the remainder of the pregnancy. Boulder Women’s Care is going to be my group of doctors now. Dr. Mako Shimoda came to see me. She recommended that I get some steroid shots to help mature the baby’s lungs since I am now at risk for delivering prematurely. She explained that even if I don’t “go” prematurely getting the shots now would pose no risk to the baby. So I agreed to the betamethasone shot. Elaine, my nurse, gave it to me in my butt cheek. It hurt much worse than other shots I’ve gotten…like my flu shot just recently.

They kept me on L&D for the night. I had to be attached to monitors for the baby’s heart rate and potential contractions. They also checked my blood pressure frequently. Plus, they’re collecting another 24 hour urine. It’s a little humbling to have all my friends taking care of me like this. I usually try to pour the urine into the jug myself since it’s embarrassing but sometimes they like to “dip” it just to see on-the-spot protein levels. Oh well. I couldn’t sleep due to all the noise and excitement so they gave me an Ambien. J slept on the couch in the room.

I am 32 weeks and 4 days.

And now I really am an "advanced" breastfeeder. Whew.

Just an Old Journal Entry...

January 4, 2005
I had another visit with Dr. Siegfried today. When the assistant took my BP it was 120/84. Jill wanted to recheck it herself. I like that about her. It was basically the same: 114/84. There is still no protein on my urine dip. She says I don’t have to come back next week. Things are looking so well I can just go on to have my regular appointment in two weeks. I am 32 weeks 3 days.

Just like looking back to 3 years ago at this time....

Making an Impression...

This is Easton literally making impressions of people.

I asked him, "Show me your Mommy face."


"Show me your Dalton face."


"Do a Gramoo face."

What cracks me up about this one is that when he looked at them with me on the computer later I said, "Which face is that?" and he knew it was his Gramoo face. Ha!

"Now do a Woody face."


"Do an Ellis face."


"And how about an Adam face."


Of course there were others, but those are the highlights. Weren't those fun?

Little Buds

Our friends Ellis and his mommy Ember came over to play this morning. Easton answered the door in his "silly mask".

The boys had a blast and it was so fun to watch. When we go play at other kids' houses Easton is often more interested in checking out all the other kid's toys than he is in actually playing with the other kid. I think the same might be true when other kids come over here? I don't know...

But today the boys were totally playing together and I love hearing Easton have conversations with another 3 year old rather than adults like he's usually stuck talking to. The boys played some chase kind of game with a basketball (it seemed to make sense to them) and played with the Rescue Center and E's new drums (they each had a stick in one hand and an apple slice in the other). Pretty cute.

I actually took some pictures but they're not quite as cute as the boys really were in the moment. Don't you hate it when that happens?

Anyway, checking out Hokey Pokey Elmo in the "clubhouse":


It's not a great shot, especially because they were trying to stay hidden and needed the door closed:

Little Dalton sooooo wanted to play with the big boys. It's hard to be little. I was glad they let him in the clubhouse with them.

Ellis got hungry and so they had an apple...again, they kind of tried to stay hidden from us and sat on the stairs with the rest of us in the living room:

I guess they're not too excited to see me and my camera when they were trying to be off on their own.

And Easton has a new game where he likes to make a "crib" out of pillows on the couch and we tuck him in and such. Ellis was willing to play along and read Easton a story, sang him a lullaby...

It's blurry but it was still cute.

Ellis is going to be a big brother soon himself, his baby brother is due, like, next week! I look forward to Dalton getting to have a little buddy one day too.

New Year, New Look!

Happy New Year, blog fans!

So that "silly mask" was Easton's latest prize. 8 poops in the potty. He's doing awesome. Just that pesky lack of regular nighttime dryness.

Anyway...I'm getting off track. The silly mask was not the new look for the day. Instead...

"Does your scraggly hair have you feeling a little down in the dumps?"


"Does it make you want to hide your face?"


"Then how 'bout your first hair cut?"

(Tied together with a keepsake quality strand of dental floss.)

Dalton before:




And after:




Ack! His hair is all gone! I instantly regretted it but Jason likes it. If hair was something I cry over (never have before even with some really bad cuts and styles) then I'd probably cry over this. He looks older. Auntie Lauren thinks it makes his head look bigger.

When nursing him I loved running my fingers over his little head. And now he's got a boy head. Not a baby head. He looks like he's ready to join the army. I really hope it grows back quickly. Not to quite as long and "wispy" as it was before, but I buzzed it too short, for sure.

Eastie got a fresh buzz too:


And so did Jason, for that matter...the freshly shorn boys played in D's room while I buzzed J's head:

Then they both took a shower with J to get rid of any stray hairs.

What a day. D's first haircut. What a way to start the year!