Sunday, June 29, 2008

Jacob Golfing:

Practicing his sand trap shots:

Practicing hitting from the rough:
Jacob decides he is ready for the real thing, "Here Dad, you take this one":
Aaron trying to putt with Jacob's putter:My little butterball wearing his favorite shirt in honor of fathers day:



Asleep in his swing:
He found his thumb!This past week we spent some time out at the parents house because Aaron had an overnight meeting in the Soo. Aaron returned on Wednesday and we continued to stay overnight there because Aaron had Thursday and Friday off (because of working the weekends). Then Thursday during the day the Aaron went and waxed the parents boat to get it ready for the water. (The sale fell through, so we get to enjoy it a few weekends this summer!) The weather was great, so we were able to enjoy the sun by the dipping pool - very relaxing! We also took Jacob up to the range and let him practice his golf game. Our little happy gilmore has more of a hockey swing than a golf swing, but he did pretty good! The only bad part of the week was that Brody was sick for the SECOND time in his short life. Not too many symptoms, just a fever and irritable. I tried to get him into the doctor, but they didn't want to see him because of the lack of symptoms. Which seems crazy to me because everything I read online says that a baby under 6 months should be seen asap for a fever of 100.6 (his was 100.8). And he is only 13 weeks old! Poor thing. His fever only lasted about 3 days and then he developed a little chest congestion (Sounds like a rattle in his chest), but his mood is much improved. What is NOT improved are his sleeping habits. The past 3 nights Brody has decided it is ok to wake hourly. Yes, hourly. Thankfully, Jacob has been sleeping in big time in the mornings, so that helps!
In other news, we took Jacob to the doctor today for his 2 year well child appointment. A month late. Not because of me, because of the doctors office scheduling. And now, I can't get him back on schedule because they say the insurance won't pay for the visits if they aren't so many months apart. Oh well. Anyways, Jacob weighs 25lbs (with clothes on!) and is almost 33 inches tall. Putting him smack dab in the 10th percentile for both. How is it that I have one kid in the 10th percentile and one in the 90th percentile?! So strange. Aaron says my milk was set to skim with Jacob and set to whole milk. Scratch that - set to ice cream. Although, I am still confident Brody will start slimming down. Hopefully sooner than later, my back is killing me!
What else? Oh, we took Jacob to get his first pair of Crocs yesterday. Aaron fought me about it. We have not been able to buy Jacob a new pair of shoes in months. He is very... picky about his feet right now and refuses to let us even try a new pair of shoes on. Aaron insisted that Jacob would hate the crocs and kick them off all the time. I figured he was probably right, but I've got to at least try. I was sick of his tennis shoes getting sandy and wet all the time and wanted a more practical summer shoe. So mom and I went and bought a cute traditional pair and were even able to get him to try them on! Good progress! He shuffled around the store in his new shoes like his legs were broken and couldn't bend, but nonetheless it was progress. So we continued shopping and I came across another pair of crocs that had the fabric around the ankle. I thought these might stay on better in the water, so I picked those up too. And some jibbitz of Sally from "Cars". Lucky Aaron. He didn't want me to buy ANY crocs and now I am coming home with two pair. Although I intend on returning one pair. I think. Anyway, to BOTH of our surprise, Jacob woke up from his nap and immediately asked us to put his "Sally Shoes" on him. And then wore them all night (until bedtime). Then again this morning he asked right away to wear his Sally shoes. Go figure! So even though Aaron wasn't "right" he too was big time happy that the kid will finally wear something other than the two shoes he has had for months now. We will probably never be able to put his tennis shoes back on him now, but we will cross that bridge when we have to...
So Aaron is currently working this weekend and will take Thursday and Friday off. We are going to go stay on the boat Thurs through Sunday and will be enjoying our 5th anniversary watching the blue angels. We are looking forward to it, but this kid of mine better start sleeping better!!!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Some Videos



Monday, June 16, 2008

Tales from Florida

4 Planes, 14.5hrs and it wasn't even an international flight. Heck, it wasn't even a coast-to-coast flight! Our original itinerary was to depart Traverse City at 7am, connecting flight in detroit and arrive in West Palm Beach at 12noon. We boarded our plane in Traverse at 6:30am and pulled away from the gate shortly after 7am when the captain came on and said there was a problem with the engine, but have no fear, it was an easy fix and the would have to bring in the on-call mechanic. Is a problem with then engine of an airplane sound like an 'easy fix' to you? Me either. So we sat and waited and finally the captain said we were clear to go. We proceeded and a minute later heard from the captain again who informed us now that the right engine won't even start now. Great... get me the hell off this plane!! But no, they made us wait while the mechanic attempted to fix it again. Finally they gave up and let us get off the plane and reschedule our flights and unfortunately for us, there are very few direct flights from Detroit to West Palm Beach, so we were screwed with either making TWO connections or getting up at 4:30am again the next day and trying over. So we took our chances with making two tight connections with a 10week old and a 2 year old and I'm shocked to say we made it and so did our luggage, gasp!

So I thought the worst of our travel concerns were over until we woke up on Sunday and Jacob had a fever, runny nose and pink blotches on his cheekbones. He was very uncomfortable, grumpy and irritable and Motrin and Tylenol weren't doing a lot for him. I think maybe it was just his molars coming in that bothered him because he was drooling a lot, but who knows? He developed a rash on his belly by Monday, but that could have been from a number of things (chlorine, sunscreen, heat rash). We did take him to the doctor to rule out an ear infection since we had to fly again in a few days and she said he looked healthy, so who knows what it was. His fever and runny nose went away by Wednesday, but then at that point I think he got homesick :( He was very whiny and upset and the only thing that we found would calm him down was talking about home, Roxy and his sandbox, etc. Poor thing! He DID have a good time though. He LOVED the pool and even jumped in a few times without holding our hands! He also is doing great with swimming and will swim underwater without holding your hand, but he hasn't mastered swimming ABOVE the water yet. But he sure is cute below the water, with this HUGE smile and his face and big, open eyes. We bought a pair of the arm swimmies so he could swim above water without us and he hates them. It made for a rather embarrassing experience as our kid is crying and saying "HELP" repeatedly as he swims towards us. We kept Brody's brand new skin out of the water and the sun, so he is going to have wait a few weeks to experience swimming.

We stayed for 4 nights in a beautiful resort on the beach in West Palm (same place we went last March - thanks to Mom and Bruce) and Aaron and I had a ball swimming in the ocean, but I didn't get any beach pictures :( The ocean was just the way I like it... 83 degrees, crystal clear, sandy bottom and not a jellyfish in sight! Although we DID see a stingray! The waves were pretty big most days, so Jacob didn't care for the ocean much. He liked the beach until he and I were sitting a little too close to the water and a big wave tried to carry him (and all his beach toys) off to sea. The hotel property is on the ocean and borders a major inlet, so there is a ton of boat traffic. Jacob enjoyed pointing out every.single.boat. It was cute the first day.

The final 3 nights we stayed in Vero Beach. Our hotel was miles from the beach, but walking distance to the Outlet mall. As I predicted we did not make it to Sea World, so I made up for it at the Outlets. Most of our time in Vero was spent shopping or visiting with Aaron's family as their grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Aaron's grandparents are really doing great, his grandpa will be turning 89 this winter and his grandma is I think 87? Anyways, they strike me more as two people who just retired in the 60's though. Grandma even makes beautiful beaded jewelry!

The flight home was mostly uneventful, thankfully. Overall, things went very well and the boys did great. Jacob was glad to be home, but as soon as he realized that his bed and dog were still here and ok he was ready to go back for more... "Bye-Bye? Airplane?"

Sunday, June 15, 2008

We're back from Florida!

We're back! And still married! To eachother! More details to follow...

You gotta love Jacob's grumpy faces:















Wednesday, June 4, 2008

It's official. I'm 30.



Yikes, it seems so old to me!! Or I should say "Adult" and not old, so I don't offend those "more adult" than me. Are we grown-ups? When did that happen? WOW.


The birthday went pretty well. I went to see Sex and the City (loved it) with the girls (my mom, Linda Rysberg, Kyra and Lisa) and then we cooked some steaks afterwards with the boys. Besides turning a big number, this birthday shall go down in history because I actually received great gifts from Aaron and my IL's! Wow! Aaron got me a beautiful watch and the IL's got me a very generous gift card, Score!


This week I've spent mostly just getting ready for our trip to Florida. We leave on Saturday morning, spend the first five days in West Palm Beach with Aaron's parents and brother, then we head north to Vero to meet up with the grandparents and the rest of the family to celebrate the grandparents 60th anniversary. I'm looking forward to it, except that traveling with others can be stressful. Especially when the "others" are your husbands entire family. I'm also slightly worried about Jacob behaving well for the flight and restaurants we will visit. I purchased a bunch of JPBQ's on Tuesday, hopefully those will do the trick. (JPBQ = Jacob Please Be Quiet). I'm hoping to take the boys to Sea World while we are there, but we will have to see how well that works out with "everyone". Especially since Aaron isn't too excited about doing those types of things with the boys "because they can't remember it yet". Ummm, so why do we waste our time with Christmas? Good grief!


Jacob has been super cute lately. He is doing great in his big boy bed (I think he has been in there since late April). We have a gate up so he does wander at night and when he wakes up in the morning, I usually give him a few minutes to see if he will go back to sleep. It rarely works, instead I listen to a series of pleads, until I give in. Monday morning went like this:


Mom!!...

Mom, Juice!!...

Mom, Milk!!...

Mom, Poop!!... (This is almost always a bluff, but is usually a pretty successful tactic to get my attention)

Dada?...

Mom, To-To's... (Cheerios)

Mom, Peas? (Please)


I had to give in at Please, it was just the sweetest thing you've ever heard.


Jacob now knows a TON of new words, too many to list here. There are a bunch that most people don't understand though, I'll provide some translation so you will be prepared for your next visit:


Wa-Wa: Noah

So-Sa: Lisa

Di-Di: Brody

Aahhh-EEEE: Roxy

Do-Do: Dozer

Papa: Grandpa

Bye-Bye?: Mom, I'm bored... get me the heck out of this house!

Some?: He wants SOMETHING. This is a guessing game. It could be anything. It all started when I would offer him something that I was eating, ie - Do you want SOME?

Arrrrr: Water. I'm thinking this is what Pirates were trying to say too.


Brody has been super cute, too. He is giving me huge, big smiles and even some giggles! He loves to be tickled and is especially sensitive on his sides. He is my little buddy and we love to go shopping together. :) He did great for his dad when I left him for a few hours on Saturday (for the movie and drinks), but only drank an ounce or two while I was gone. I wasn't too worried, he has plenty of reserves.