Noelle has been excited to celebrate daddy's birthday for weeks. First she wanted to have a party for him and invite "all of his friends." When I asked who she meant specifically, turns out they are her friends daddies. Convenient! Then she wanted to get him a present. Her pick? A bike for daddy! I told her those could be pretty pricey but she swore up and down that she had enough money in her piggy bank to buy him one. We settled on making him some homemade cards last night while he was still at work. Finally she wanted to give him breakfast in bed. Unfortunately Bryan gets up at 5 to exercise duing the week so that one also wasn't in the cards. All the problems with weekday rainy birthdays!
Even though we couldn't celebrate in style as Noelle wanted to (she still says we are going to make him a cake or get a special treat for him tonight!), all three of us are wishing daddy a very happy birthday! And daddy did promise to leave work at 5:30 tonight so we could all enjoy dinner together tonight! Yay! I think my birthday present to Bryan will be still doing bath and bedtime even though he is home for it.
Happy Birthday Bryan! Only a year younger than me again!
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Monday, April 29, 2013
Decked Out
On Saturday we hosted lots of friends, big and small, for our biannual Wine in the Patapsco Woods event on the decks. The spring edition is always during the day and kid-friendly and wow, things really seem to have exploded since last May. I feel like there were about fifteen 1-2.5 year olds underfoot during the event! Plus the "big kids," aka 3 and 4 year olds! The weather was perfect, the wine was good, and for once I had an appropriate amount of food and not twenty pounds of leftovers. It was pretty much a perfect afternoon. Here are some pictures of the day.
Noelle eyeing up the cookie dough dip. She and baby both got dolled up for the party.
Kellen greets friends on his wheels.
Young love blossoms? They said they were looking for bears.
I made Bryan pose for a picture with me. My favorite parts of it are the open trash can, sippy cup, and Noelle's baby that have made the background.
Everyone is sort of looking in the general direction of the camera!
Some of the "original" crew.
Getting along on the swing. For now.
Some of the ladies!
We are already looking forward to the kidless version in the fall! Thanks for a great day friends!
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Observations from a Hospital Waiting Room
Over the past 6 days I have spent two afternoons at Hopkins. We were actually at the pediatric outpatient center (Rubenstein Building for folks in the know) both times. We are doing more tests for both kids so we still don't know much but I certainly felt like an experienced mom yesterday. And sort of like an idiot last week. So here are some observations and lessons learned:
1. iPads are awesome for waiting areas. Except when they aren't. It certainly worked as a distraction with my 3.5 year old. The problem that time was that Noelle didn't want to stop playing with it when the doctor came in. Luckily (or unluckily) for us, the doctor wasn't real interested in talking to my daughter either. Yesterday, Kellen just wanted to hit buttons. So my plan to put Kiki and The Fresh Beat Band on was foiled by him exiting that screen 37 times in a row. He just wanted to use it to call Pop Pop. Yeah, probably not going to happen from the waiting room.
2. Doctors at major research hospitals are likely very good at their jobs. Not a guarantee - they have personality. Or even appear to like kids. Awesome. I guess I should have seen this coming but our experience with the doctor last week was less than awesome. Thankfully the hematology team yesterday was amazing. So if you have to see a specialist there, go with hematology! Also, if you go with urology they may tell you to come back in 6-8 weeks knowing full well they don't have any appointments open on their schedule for 14-16. Ugh!
3. Procedures at these places are really crazy. They make sense when you think about them, but are so not common sense. So to the hospital - some actual directions when you walk in would be awesome. The little black box you need to see to get a number to check in is totally not obvious. And based on a 20 minute or so case study, I am not the only one who looked clueless with what I was supposed to do to get checked in. A little help to nervous moms and dads, please!
4. Hospitals are really crazy and cool places. In the room yesterday was pretty much every possible ethnicity, with moms and dads ranging from their teens to 50's. Everyone was fairly upbeat and very pleasant, despite some of these kids clearly having pretty serious issues going on. JHH does do some things definitely right. The activities in the huge waiting room were great for both my 18 month old and 3.5 year old, and much older kids from all backgrounds were loving different offerings as well. Kellen in particular loved playing!
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5. Kudos to the doctors and nurses who know how to distract little ones from what is going on. Kellen hates doctors. He associates them with shots and blood draws (as you would too probably if you got poked each time you went!) so even the weighing, measuring, blood pressuring part of appointments is stressful with him. The bubbles the nurse had ready to go to make this process easier and the light up dolphin the resident let him play with while checking him out were awesome. And just a note to friends, turns out that the imprecise two lines on butcher paper way to measure babies is just as accurate as the more advanced measuring techniques at the hospital. Who would figure?
So those are some of my thoughts. Going down to Hopkins twice was certainly enlightening and it looks like we will be making a return trip for at least Noelle if we can ever get another appointment scheduled. Before then she'll have an X-ray and another ultrasound. Kellen got a blood draw at the hospital so that they can compare him to some genetic markers, look at his blood under the microscope, and compare his blood test results to the ones they can pull of me when I was pregnant. Based on that they'll decide his treatment course and determine whether we can just follow up at the pediatricians or whether we'll be back down there again for him as well. While the hematologists were quite pleasant I am certainly hoping that his case is not serious and that we won't be seeing them again!
1. iPads are awesome for waiting areas. Except when they aren't. It certainly worked as a distraction with my 3.5 year old. The problem that time was that Noelle didn't want to stop playing with it when the doctor came in. Luckily (or unluckily) for us, the doctor wasn't real interested in talking to my daughter either. Yesterday, Kellen just wanted to hit buttons. So my plan to put Kiki and The Fresh Beat Band on was foiled by him exiting that screen 37 times in a row. He just wanted to use it to call Pop Pop. Yeah, probably not going to happen from the waiting room.
2. Doctors at major research hospitals are likely very good at their jobs. Not a guarantee - they have personality. Or even appear to like kids. Awesome. I guess I should have seen this coming but our experience with the doctor last week was less than awesome. Thankfully the hematology team yesterday was amazing. So if you have to see a specialist there, go with hematology! Also, if you go with urology they may tell you to come back in 6-8 weeks knowing full well they don't have any appointments open on their schedule for 14-16. Ugh!
3. Procedures at these places are really crazy. They make sense when you think about them, but are so not common sense. So to the hospital - some actual directions when you walk in would be awesome. The little black box you need to see to get a number to check in is totally not obvious. And based on a 20 minute or so case study, I am not the only one who looked clueless with what I was supposed to do to get checked in. A little help to nervous moms and dads, please!
4. Hospitals are really crazy and cool places. In the room yesterday was pretty much every possible ethnicity, with moms and dads ranging from their teens to 50's. Everyone was fairly upbeat and very pleasant, despite some of these kids clearly having pretty serious issues going on. JHH does do some things definitely right. The activities in the huge waiting room were great for both my 18 month old and 3.5 year old, and much older kids from all backgrounds were loving different offerings as well. Kellen in particular loved playing!
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5. Kudos to the doctors and nurses who know how to distract little ones from what is going on. Kellen hates doctors. He associates them with shots and blood draws (as you would too probably if you got poked each time you went!) so even the weighing, measuring, blood pressuring part of appointments is stressful with him. The bubbles the nurse had ready to go to make this process easier and the light up dolphin the resident let him play with while checking him out were awesome. And just a note to friends, turns out that the imprecise two lines on butcher paper way to measure babies is just as accurate as the more advanced measuring techniques at the hospital. Who would figure?
So those are some of my thoughts. Going down to Hopkins twice was certainly enlightening and it looks like we will be making a return trip for at least Noelle if we can ever get another appointment scheduled. Before then she'll have an X-ray and another ultrasound. Kellen got a blood draw at the hospital so that they can compare him to some genetic markers, look at his blood under the microscope, and compare his blood test results to the ones they can pull of me when I was pregnant. Based on that they'll decide his treatment course and determine whether we can just follow up at the pediatricians or whether we'll be back down there again for him as well. While the hematologists were quite pleasant I am certainly hoping that his case is not serious and that we won't be seeing them again!
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Specialists
When we are little we are taught that special is a good thing. You get a special treat sometimes, or get to do something special for your birthday. In the grown up world, special is rarely good. And certainly going to see a specialist because your regular doctor is baffled by your condition is not something most of us jump up and down to sign up for. So what are we spending our time doing these days? Driving to JHH to likely wait hours to see specialists for a few minutes. For both kids. Yes, my kids are both "special." Super awesome fun.
Many of our close friends and family know of our bathroom adventures with Noelle. Casual blog readers have probably picked up on the fact that my almost 4 year olds bladder habits aren't exactly normal for a child of her age and ability. So off we go to Johns Hopkins Pediatric Urology. She has already had a complete blood work up and an ultrasound of her kidneys but since those didn't hint at the potential problem, we are bringing in the big guns. Hopefully they can give us some answers and easily fix my little girl. Being able to go places where bathrooms aren't within a 3 minute run would be awesome. And getting rid of pull-ups once and for all would be lovely!
For his part, Kellen will be going to Johns Hopkins Pediatric Hematology. For the past 6 months we have been treating him for anemia. Well turns out when they did his most recent blood work up that isn't exactly his problem. His combined blood count numbers are low but his iron specific number is right in the range where it should be. So we'll be consulting with the blood experts to decide whether this is a problem. The pediatrician's guess is that he is fine, especially since he doesn't show any signs of being sick in any way, but we just need to double check. So back down to Hopkins we will go.
So that's our life right now. Prayers for my little ones are always appreciated!
Many of our close friends and family know of our bathroom adventures with Noelle. Casual blog readers have probably picked up on the fact that my almost 4 year olds bladder habits aren't exactly normal for a child of her age and ability. So off we go to Johns Hopkins Pediatric Urology. She has already had a complete blood work up and an ultrasound of her kidneys but since those didn't hint at the potential problem, we are bringing in the big guns. Hopefully they can give us some answers and easily fix my little girl. Being able to go places where bathrooms aren't within a 3 minute run would be awesome. And getting rid of pull-ups once and for all would be lovely!
For his part, Kellen will be going to Johns Hopkins Pediatric Hematology. For the past 6 months we have been treating him for anemia. Well turns out when they did his most recent blood work up that isn't exactly his problem. His combined blood count numbers are low but his iron specific number is right in the range where it should be. So we'll be consulting with the blood experts to decide whether this is a problem. The pediatrician's guess is that he is fine, especially since he doesn't show any signs of being sick in any way, but we just need to double check. So back down to Hopkins we will go.
So that's our life right now. Prayers for my little ones are always appreciated!
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
18 Month Round Up
Today Kellen is 18 months! For the first time ever, I actually was able to schedule a check-up on the exact day it was supposed to occur. So here are Kellen's 18 month stats:
Height: 32.5 inches (52%)
Weight: 24 pounds 4 ounces (54%)
Head Circumfrence: 48 3/4 cm
Compared to his sister at this point, Kel is still my little guy, but he has done so great growing lately! Now he had just consumed two entire large sippy cups of water before being weighed, but I think he is looking pretty sturdy and much fuller in his face these days. For comparison purposes, his big sister was 25 pounds 12 oz (75%) and 33 3/4 inches (75%). She was and still is my big girl!
A little bit about Kellen at 18 months
Kellen continues to be my little sweetheart. Not to say he doesn't have a tough streak. He'll whack his sister up the side of her head or give mommy a swing if he doesn't like what you are trying to get him to do or take away something he wants. We are working on it! But one of his favorite words is hug and he often comes up to me, says hug, and comes in for the embrace. It melts my heart!
In terms of his vocab, we were curious last week how he was doing with words so I started listing out his recognizable words and stopped when I got to 50. My guess is he has about 75. He also likes to do his animal sounds finally! Favorite words are Noelle, hug, up/down/out, no, eat, mommy, daddy, puppy, and car. I am waiting for him to learn yes because no is his favorite response to most things, even if he doesn't mean it! He just says it with less finality if he really means yes. He also loves to point out parts of the body, especially ears, eyes, and head, for anyone around.
Kellen is a pretty good eater. He loves meat, green beans, cheese, fruit, and sweets. He is not a fan of shrimp, strawberries, or greens/lettuce, and other things are kind of hit or miss depending on his mood. I am constantly amazed at his appetite given his size. I hope this means he is going to continue growing and will not end up a shorty like his momma!
Kellen loves to read books, take baths (or more accurately run around in the bathtub and throw all his toys out to soak the bathroom floor), play with his sister, go down and up slides, and sleep. He naps little at daycare which means he takes one good afternoon nap each Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He also sleeps well most nights, going down around 7:45 and waking up a little after 7. He sleeps with puppy and Scout, and loves to go to bed, even now that his pacifier is out of the picture. He had been a light sleeper til about a month ago but we seemed to have turn the corner and he has been sleeping through the night more often than not lately.
Favorite toys are the play kitchen, his airplane, car and ice cream truck, train table (again to throw things), and his stacking toys. Goodnight Gorilla and Noelle's family picture book remain his favorite books. Kel also loves to play ball and is getting pretty good as he tries to catch and throw. We just got out his sports stuff he got for Christmas so I am sure he'll be dunking and sinking holes in one in no time.
Kellen is also super mischeievous. I have to get his laugh on video because it is hysterical and almost evil sounding. He also loves to stand on chairs, and has had one fall on his face because of this bad habit. Again we are working on it!
So that is Kellen at 18 months. My baby is getting to be a big boy!
Height: 32.5 inches (52%)
Weight: 24 pounds 4 ounces (54%)
Head Circumfrence: 48 3/4 cm
Compared to his sister at this point, Kel is still my little guy, but he has done so great growing lately! Now he had just consumed two entire large sippy cups of water before being weighed, but I think he is looking pretty sturdy and much fuller in his face these days. For comparison purposes, his big sister was 25 pounds 12 oz (75%) and 33 3/4 inches (75%). She was and still is my big girl!
A little bit about Kellen at 18 months
Kellen continues to be my little sweetheart. Not to say he doesn't have a tough streak. He'll whack his sister up the side of her head or give mommy a swing if he doesn't like what you are trying to get him to do or take away something he wants. We are working on it! But one of his favorite words is hug and he often comes up to me, says hug, and comes in for the embrace. It melts my heart!
In terms of his vocab, we were curious last week how he was doing with words so I started listing out his recognizable words and stopped when I got to 50. My guess is he has about 75. He also likes to do his animal sounds finally! Favorite words are Noelle, hug, up/down/out, no, eat, mommy, daddy, puppy, and car. I am waiting for him to learn yes because no is his favorite response to most things, even if he doesn't mean it! He just says it with less finality if he really means yes. He also loves to point out parts of the body, especially ears, eyes, and head, for anyone around.
Kellen is a pretty good eater. He loves meat, green beans, cheese, fruit, and sweets. He is not a fan of shrimp, strawberries, or greens/lettuce, and other things are kind of hit or miss depending on his mood. I am constantly amazed at his appetite given his size. I hope this means he is going to continue growing and will not end up a shorty like his momma!
Kellen loves to read books, take baths (or more accurately run around in the bathtub and throw all his toys out to soak the bathroom floor), play with his sister, go down and up slides, and sleep. He naps little at daycare which means he takes one good afternoon nap each Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He also sleeps well most nights, going down around 7:45 and waking up a little after 7. He sleeps with puppy and Scout, and loves to go to bed, even now that his pacifier is out of the picture. He had been a light sleeper til about a month ago but we seemed to have turn the corner and he has been sleeping through the night more often than not lately.
Favorite toys are the play kitchen, his airplane, car and ice cream truck, train table (again to throw things), and his stacking toys. Goodnight Gorilla and Noelle's family picture book remain his favorite books. Kel also loves to play ball and is getting pretty good as he tries to catch and throw. We just got out his sports stuff he got for Christmas so I am sure he'll be dunking and sinking holes in one in no time.
Kellen is also super mischeievous. I have to get his laugh on video because it is hysterical and almost evil sounding. He also loves to stand on chairs, and has had one fall on his face because of this bad habit. Again we are working on it!
So that is Kellen at 18 months. My baby is getting to be a big boy!
The Three Amigas
On Sunday afternoon we joined some friends for a hike and then a cookout and playtime at the tire park. I didn't get many good pictures during the hike, and totally forgot to take them during the cookout and playtime, but Bryan got a few good ones of Noelle and her friends using his phone. The girls were adorable, and my favorite part is that these three rarely see each other, particularly all at the same time. But they were super cute, and did so well together!
We hiked a little over a mile in Patapsco, then grilled out hot dogs and enjoyed pasta salad, veggies, fruit, cole slaw, and brownies with about 6 other families. It was a great way to spend a spring day!
We hiked a little over a mile in Patapsco, then grilled out hot dogs and enjoyed pasta salad, veggies, fruit, cole slaw, and brownies with about 6 other families. It was a great way to spend a spring day!
Monday, April 15, 2013
Everything's Bigger in Texas
Last week I journeyed southwest for my annual science teacher conference. Between sessions (some of which were actually good this year) and working at our booth to recruit teachers and students, I was able to enjoy some of the food and sights in San Antonio.
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I also walked over to the Alamo, checked out a cathedral (bringing back memories of my trips to Italy and Greece!), headed over to the Market Square, and ate lots of good food. Mostly Mexican but I got beef brisket in there too! It was a great trip and I hope to be able to go back with Bryan someday.
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And how did my family do in my absence? Perhaps not as well as my last trip away when Bryan and Noelle made life look easy without me but they did survive! Kellen has been pacifier free since I left and slept all night last night without making a sound so that was certainly successful! The lowlight of my trip away was Noelle puking on the kitchen floor mear minutes after my flight landed in Texas. Oh no! After wrangling a friend who was kidless for the week in to watching Noelle, Bryan dropped Kellen off at daycare Thursday only to find out that Noelle had stuffed herself with food and then run around like a crazy person before heading home Wednesday night. Given she had no other symptoms of the stomach bug and was fine immediately after getting sick, our friend took her over to daycare Thursday. Crisis averted!
Life is never dull in our house!
The River Walk was beautiful, even if it was crazy touristy. I walked down there solo or with my colleagues for meals and to enjoy the weather, and even got in one run down it before work. The highlight of the trip was definitely the narrated river boat tour. This reminded me of a longer and perhaps more informative version of the Jungle Cruise from Disney. And you know I love Disney so being remotely like anything Disney means you are super awesome in my book!
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And how did my family do in my absence? Perhaps not as well as my last trip away when Bryan and Noelle made life look easy without me but they did survive! Kellen has been pacifier free since I left and slept all night last night without making a sound so that was certainly successful! The lowlight of my trip away was Noelle puking on the kitchen floor mear minutes after my flight landed in Texas. Oh no! After wrangling a friend who was kidless for the week in to watching Noelle, Bryan dropped Kellen off at daycare Thursday only to find out that Noelle had stuffed herself with food and then run around like a crazy person before heading home Wednesday night. Given she had no other symptoms of the stomach bug and was fine immediately after getting sick, our friend took her over to daycare Thursday. Crisis averted!
Life is never dull in our house!
Monday, April 8, 2013
Home Alone
Bryan journeyed down south for part of the weekend so Noelle, Kellen, and I had the house to ourselves. So what did we do? In typical I am totally crazy fashion, I hosted about a zillion events and people. On Friday night we dropped B off at the airport and rushed home to put the pizza in the oven for our Toy Story Pizza "Picnic" with friends. Mostly the kids ate and ran around like crazy people but they did watch the movie for about 6 minutes total!
On Saturday morning we woke up, got showered (which was an adventure sort of in itself!), and greeted Emme when she arrived at 8:30. The girls immediately started arguing over who would be what princess, and then played nicely for the next 4.5 hours. We played inside and outside and had a great time. In the meantime, Aunt Catherine and Avery came over for an early lunch and playdate, and then we were joined by Nicole, Jacqueline, and Baby Juliet. Somehow despite having 3 babies and two 3 year olds in our care, we successfully put together freezer meals for all of us in record time. I guess we are just getting better with that whole multi-tasking thing with experience!
Saturday night I hosted our second themed mom's dinner. This time our ingredient was ginger and we had a yummy cocktail with fresh ginger, cranberry juice, and vodka and some carrot latkes with an apple, jalepeno, ginger slaw on top to start things off. Our soup was carrot ginger and then we had salad greens with a fresh ginger dressing. For the main course I made lemon ginger shrimp and it was accompanied by rice and green beans with a soy ginger marinade. We finished the night with a pear ginger crisp with ice cream. Yum! Of course I forgot to take pictures.
Sunday morning I got myself and the kids ready for church and we made it to the 9 o'clock service and Sunday School with 2 minutes to spare. Kellen behaved pretty well, Noelle had a lovely time as always, and I was feeling pretty proud of how well the weekend had gone! I got things ready for my Pampered Chef/Origami Owl open house and Bryan arrived back just as it was about to get started. He gave Kellen a kiss, put him down for a nap, and took Noelle to the tire park with her bike. Awesome!
The open house was good and the kids feasted on the leftovers afterwards. Kellen even wanted to be in a big kid seat!
A little after the open house I started to feel yucky so Bryan finished the day with the kids, took them to Opie's, and dropped off dinner for a family in my mom's group that just had their third little one. Being home alone was ok, but we much prefer to have our family of four together!
On Saturday morning we woke up, got showered (which was an adventure sort of in itself!), and greeted Emme when she arrived at 8:30. The girls immediately started arguing over who would be what princess, and then played nicely for the next 4.5 hours. We played inside and outside and had a great time. In the meantime, Aunt Catherine and Avery came over for an early lunch and playdate, and then we were joined by Nicole, Jacqueline, and Baby Juliet. Somehow despite having 3 babies and two 3 year olds in our care, we successfully put together freezer meals for all of us in record time. I guess we are just getting better with that whole multi-tasking thing with experience!
Saturday night I hosted our second themed mom's dinner. This time our ingredient was ginger and we had a yummy cocktail with fresh ginger, cranberry juice, and vodka and some carrot latkes with an apple, jalepeno, ginger slaw on top to start things off. Our soup was carrot ginger and then we had salad greens with a fresh ginger dressing. For the main course I made lemon ginger shrimp and it was accompanied by rice and green beans with a soy ginger marinade. We finished the night with a pear ginger crisp with ice cream. Yum! Of course I forgot to take pictures.
Sunday morning I got myself and the kids ready for church and we made it to the 9 o'clock service and Sunday School with 2 minutes to spare. Kellen behaved pretty well, Noelle had a lovely time as always, and I was feeling pretty proud of how well the weekend had gone! I got things ready for my Pampered Chef/Origami Owl open house and Bryan arrived back just as it was about to get started. He gave Kellen a kiss, put him down for a nap, and took Noelle to the tire park with her bike. Awesome!
The open house was good and the kids feasted on the leftovers afterwards. Kellen even wanted to be in a big kid seat!
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Happy Easter
Easter was pretty low key. It was the first holiday that we have spent with just the four of us, and it was a pretty quiet day. First, the Easter bunny came. He was pretty generous, especially when you factored in the clothes the kids got the day before from Grandmom and Pop Pop.
Next up was the hunt. Noelle told me there would be bunny tracks outside. We didn't see any prints but she did find 105 plastic eggs on the front lawn. Well Kellen collected 5 or 6. He refused to go in the grass to collect any he couldn't reach from the sidewalk.
Then we had some spinach egg bake and got ready for church. Despite being there about an extra hour between getting there early and the service being longer, and it being the first one we had both kids with us for quite some time (no Sunday school on holidays), it went pretty well. It was the late service and Kellen was pretty sleepy so we put him down for his nap as soon as we got home. Noelle had a snack and also took a nap after our crazy trip. We spent the late afternoon watching some Peppa Pig and Shrek. We finally got a few family pictures after naps and our early dinner. I am probably the only mom in the world who served crockpot pork instead of ham or lamb for Easter!
Before bed, Kellen and Dad had a heart to heart. I think K missed daddy while we were at the beach and asked him to come next time we go!
Everyone was exhausted so after dinner, pictures, and play time, it was off to bed. It was a nice relaxing holiday and we were glad we could spend the day together! Happy Easter!
Next up was the hunt. Noelle told me there would be bunny tracks outside. We didn't see any prints but she did find 105 plastic eggs on the front lawn. Well Kellen collected 5 or 6. He refused to go in the grass to collect any he couldn't reach from the sidewalk.
Then we had some spinach egg bake and got ready for church. Despite being there about an extra hour between getting there early and the service being longer, and it being the first one we had both kids with us for quite some time (no Sunday school on holidays), it went pretty well. It was the late service and Kellen was pretty sleepy so we put him down for his nap as soon as we got home. Noelle had a snack and also took a nap after our crazy trip. We spent the late afternoon watching some Peppa Pig and Shrek. We finally got a few family pictures after naps and our early dinner. I am probably the only mom in the world who served crockpot pork instead of ham or lamb for Easter!
Before bed, Kellen and Dad had a heart to heart. I think K missed daddy while we were at the beach and asked him to come next time we go!
Everyone was exhausted so after dinner, pictures, and play time, it was off to bed. It was a nice relaxing holiday and we were glad we could spend the day together! Happy Easter!
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Moving On
The past few weeks have been sort of a whirlwind around here as we got some good news - Bryan will be beginning a new job next Monday! He'll be working for another firm in Baltimore and is really excited for this new opportunity. The new job will be in a small office of a NJ based firm and he'll be able to specialize just in real estate law instead of doing a little bit of everything which will be good. We definitely feel like Bryan has been lucky - Tydings was a great, family-friendly place for him to learn a lot and grow as a lawyer, but we agree it is time for him to move on and get settled in a new position.
Of course Bryan's move comes at kind of a crazy time for our family. We were all supposed to head to NC for Easter but since his current firm wanted him to stay as long as possible to help transition, I went solo with the kids and came home Saturday so we could spend Easter as a family. This weekend B is off to Louisianna to do some work with his mom and oldest brother. Monday Bryan gets on the 6:15 am train up to NJ for Orientation and won't be back til close to 11 and on Wednesday I fly to San Antonio for work. Add in a trip to JHU with each kid and some other doctor appointments in the next three weeks and things get really exciting!
Congrats B! And local friends, we might need you to help us balance the kids in the next few weeks!
Of course Bryan's move comes at kind of a crazy time for our family. We were all supposed to head to NC for Easter but since his current firm wanted him to stay as long as possible to help transition, I went solo with the kids and came home Saturday so we could spend Easter as a family. This weekend B is off to Louisianna to do some work with his mom and oldest brother. Monday Bryan gets on the 6:15 am train up to NJ for Orientation and won't be back til close to 11 and on Wednesday I fly to San Antonio for work. Add in a trip to JHU with each kid and some other doctor appointments in the next three weeks and things get really exciting!
Congrats B! And local friends, we might need you to help us balance the kids in the next few weeks!
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Egg Hunts, Wagon Rides, and Playground Fun
Due to some medical appoinments for Noelle (more on that in another post someday), our trip to the OBX was delayed until Wednesday afternoon. Since we needed to be home Saturday night to celebrate Easter with Bryan, it was a quick and exhausting few days, but we had lots of fun! The trip was filled with egg dying and hunts, lots of wagon rides. some time on the beach with the kite, hunting for turtles to feed, coloring, playing with wall decals, eating, not sleeping, and many playground visits!
Noelle and Kellen enjoy the walmart special table grandmom found!
Noelle loved the egg dying and was quite the artiste!
Kellen wanted to be more involved in the egg dying then we would let him...
Her masterpieces. I'd like to say they stayed this beautiful but unfortunately (or fortunately, since I like to think it shows the little scientist in her!) she then decided to put them in again and "mix" colors.
They love each other so much it melts my heart!
Hello. Do you think I am cute?
She is pretty adorable too!
I'll just take both of these mom.
Working on her kite skills!
Headed for the shore.
Maddie had fun too. Yes, we still have our adorable dog even though she rarely makes the blog these days!
On the hunt for turtles
Found some! Let's give them mass quantities of bread!
Whee!
Making his escape for home. We were clearly taking too long.
We had a great trip even though it was too short and can't wait to go back this summer, hopefully with dad in tow!
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