Baltimore

Labels: - Sunday, March 21, 2010

Jack is such a happy baby.  He's so easy, rolls with the punches, doesn't demand much of a schedule...I mean, he's just great! 

But....what will he be like on the airplane?  In a different house, sleeping in a different bed?  In a totally different environment for 72 hours?  Oy. 

Jeff's brother and sister in law moved to Baltimore about 9 months ago.  His brother got a great job in the financial world (I would be specific, but really, unless you're a teacher, I don't truly understand what you do...), they bought a house, and settled in for a few years.  They're great travelers and have been in to see Jack 3 or 4 times since he's been born, but we hadn't made the super important visit up to see them and their new digs! 

Jack's 6 months old now, so we decided it was time to test the flying waters.  Other parents with babies have gone before us, now it was our turn. 

I did 13 loads of laundry, took 5 days to pack, and did 3 hours of research on flying with an infant (you'd be amazed at the amount of sites dedicated to this topic...), and horded advice from other frequent flyer parents. 

We took in all of the travel tips and planned ahead and thankfully, Andy and Alison had some friends they could borrow the all important pack and play from and Alison stocked up on baby cereal and fruits and veggies.  Two most important things taken care of, right?  Where to sleep and what to eat!  That was a huge relief! 

Friday afternoon, my mom deposited us at the airport with my mega big suitcase (it's lime green polka-dotted, in case you need a visual), Jeff's smaller and more tame blue roller, the stroller, car seat, diaper bag and my purse.  Oh, and Jack! 
 
Getting through the ridiculous AA check in and security at DFW was probably the craziest part of the whole trip.  Long story short?  Well, there were more than a few people in the terminal hoping...really trying to get a casual glance at our tickets...that their seats were faaaaaaaaaaaaar away from ours!  And I couldn't blame them. 
 
One relatively new thing about Jack is he will...not...go....to....sleep unless he's in his bed.  He just won't do it.  He fights it like no body's business.  There's too much going on to sleep!  He wants to see it all!!  So, in the terminal waiting, he was tired....but wouldn't have any of this so called sleep.  So he was a little fussy.  Really, not too fussy, I promise, but just not extremely happy.  And wouldn't go to sleep, no matter what tricks we pulled!!  You can see him peeking out of the blanket...

The flight idols were with us, and even thought we'd been ticketed with seats not next to each other, the attendant changed them so that we not only had seats together but behind one of the flight attendant stations, so we would have a little extra room.  Sweet!  The flight was 3 hours, Jack slept 20 minutes.  Every time someone walked by, he had to watch them.  I swear.  He would be about to drift off to sleep, someone would walk by, and it was all over.  He was never crazy, just awake and not overly happy about it.
 
So, fast forward, we made it to Baltimore, flight was good, Andy was there to pick us up and load in all of our junk (although that was quite a feat) and soon we were parked in front of their adorable 1940's New England  home! 
 
 
We had such a good time.  It rained pretty much the whole time we were there, but that didn't really matter!  It was wonderful to spend time with them and for Jack to get to know his aunt and uncle. 

We ventured out on Saturday for a driving tour of Baltimore and a pretty cool visit to Andy's work place.
 
 
And Sunday we braved the drizzle to walk around the quaint town of Annapolis. 
 
My cousin went to the Naval Academy, and although I'd only been there once before, I feel like I have a little connection to Annapolis...imagining how my midshipman cousin wrecked havoc in that sweet little town.  :)
 
 
We dined in both nights (by dinner time, Jack was pretty much down for the count!) and had some delicious sea food.  It was just a wonderful visit!  Jeff and I loved just hanging out with Andy and Alison and laughing really hard at how crazy the boys were when they were younger...Jeff with his Wonder Woman costume and Andy with his hatred of sock seams and t shirt tags.  Oh, how did their mother do it? 
 
Before we knew it, it was Monday morning and we were heading back to the airport.  Jack was soooooooooooooo tired from the weekend festivities (and the fighting of the sleep through out all of our activities) he fell asleep on the flight back.  Over all, he was a trooper.  He fought sleeping pretty much everywhere we went, but wasn't too mad about it!!  He slept great each night, and wasn't high maintenance at all!  I must say, I was a proud mamma. 
 
It's always nice to be home, but it was so nice to get away!

The Zoo

- Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day.  Sunny and 75.  Does it get any better?  Jack and I decided to head to the zoo!  Fort Worth had a really good zoo so Jeff and I have talked about becoming a member so that Jack and I could go as many times as we wanted over the year and not have to pay.  It's really a pretty good deal, if you go 4 times, you pay for your membership!  After yesterday, I'm sure we'll go 4 times.

Some friends of ours had the idea, so we met up with them, buckled both car seats in the back and headed on down!  The boys were so cute buckled in next to each other...I really should have gotten a picture of them.  Jack's friend is one month, almost to the day, older than him, and they're destined to be great friends!


Well, the boys really probably couldn't have cared less that we were at the zoo.  Jack is a good stroller rider so basically he just had a good 4 hour walk in the stroller. 


I would roll him up to the glass so he would watch the fish swim by...didn't care.  When we made our way to the giraffe exhibit, he was much more entertained by his giraffe rattle than the actually giraffe walking around in front of him. 


Oh well, it was a beautiful day and the zoo was a great place to spend it!  And I'm super excited to go back and have Jack grow up going to the zoo. 

And this is why...

- Friday, March 5, 2010

we won't be napping in the swing anymore.  So much for the transitional approach! 

Joy

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I came across this blog today stalking old friends on facebook.  Don't judge, you know you do it too!  Anyways, one of them posted a link to this blog and I just love it.  It puts into words the way I deeply desire to raise our child and Lord willing, children.  Man, if it won't be an uphill battle.  It's scary thinking about raising Jack to be a man centered on joy and not happiness...99.9% of our world will think he's crazy.  Thankfully, we have the strength of the Lord to rely on, doing our best to remember that Jack is his and not ours. 

http://itsalmostnaptime.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-dont-want-my-children-to-be-happy.html

I made a dress today!

Labels: - Tuesday, March 2, 2010

I've come to the point in my stay at home mom life where $70 t-shirts at Anthropologie and $120 dresses at Banana Republic are a distant memory.  I mean, let's face it.  There are much more important things in life at this point than my expensive taste.  Now my expensive taste is in leak-less diapers and organic baby food!  My how life changes. 


Now, while I am not going to splurge on many expensive clothes this spring and summer, I still want to look cute!  I may be a mom, but I don't think that Anthropologie/Banana Republic taste ever really goes away.  This chick is amazing...she takes celebrity looks and finds them for super affordable prices, so I'll def be listening to her, but I've also decided to become crafty.  You guys I know I love crafts and such, but I'm busting out the sewing machine this year to pop out a few easy yet cute dresses and t shirts.  I'm kinda excited about it! 


So, I've been following a few great blogs that are super fun and give great ideas, and I found this one on a dress that I just had to try.  Looked super easy...so here we go! 

Now, while I second guess the material choice (bold but a little too little-girly), gathered way too much (it's sooooo poofy!), I still made a dress!  Ok, not a dress.  I didn't make it long enough and it would be ridiculously short, making it a length that only little girls can wear (I'm beginning to see a theme), but these dress/tunic/whatever-it-is-it-goes-over-jeans are in style and I made one. 
Before we get all excited...as you can see, I accidentally sewed the tank top inside out.  Really? 

That, mixed with the over poofyness means a re-do.  I expect that when I'm sewing....so it's an unfinished project!  But as my mom reminded me even before I started (she knows me) that even if this one doesn't work out, there's always something to learn for next time! 

This dress was sponsored by Jack's extra long nap this afternoon.  Thank you, Jack!

Tapping Saturday Morning Away

Labels: - Monday, March 1, 2010

I guess since I mentioned it in my last entry, it's time to talk tap! 

After the first of the year my sweet friend Susan sent out an email to a bunch of the girls at church, asking if anyone would be interested in taking a tap class at a local arts center. 

A little background for those of you who don't really know me, I was in dance class from the time I was 2 until I graduated from high school.  Tap, ballet, jazz, gymnastics, the whole nine yards!  Jazz didn't last too long (my jazz hands weren't jazzy enough), but long enough to strut my stuff on stage in a particularly 80's-ish dance that involved a lot of black lights...yes, I was cool.  Gymnastics, well, that was my sister's forte, so I left that to her.  Ballet and tap were my two top classes, and from solos to duets to trios to group dance numbers, my name was littered through out the yearly dance recital program!  I wasn't as graceful as some at ballet, and really, you have to be crazy in love with it to endure the PAIN of toe shoes...tap was my favorite!  One of my favorite tap numbers was based around the "chain gang", so we wore black and white striped costumes and even had plastic chains connecting all of our feet together!  I also loved that dance because my friend accidentally kicked off her tap shoe into the audience that night.  Good times! 

Here is some proof of my dancing.  Most of my childhood pics are at my dad's house...I have these in a random picture pile here at the house so dug them out, which of course, happen to be ballet! 
This was my first solo costume!

LOVED this costume!

I love this one because there's me trying to be graceful...and behind me and in front of me are two of my best friends!  Ah, memories. 

So, flash forward 15-20 years, and here I am, a mother of a almost 6 month old, and back to taking tap.  My dad thought it was hilarious when I asked him to bring me my tap shoes, stored in the top of my childhood closet!  I think I had to repeat myself about 10 times before he really believed me. 

My first class was...well...hard!  Susan had been able to start before I did, so she was a few classes up on me, so she helped me along, was so encouraging, and promised it would get easier!  We are taking the intermediate tap class and I was secretly wondering if I should really be in beginners...again, Susan said I would be ok, to just hang in there!  The morning was filled with flaps and shuffles...when the class was over, Susan commented that I wasn't as sweaty as she was...I told her that was because for half of the class I was standing around trying to figure out what they heck everyone else was doing!

This past Saturday was my second class and I have to say, it was easier!  I'm reaching waaaaaay back, trying to remember these steps and they're coming back, little by little!  My teacher did a little diddy and asked if I'd ever heard of the time step, and I said I'd done it a million times...about 20 years ago!  And I'm learning new things that I swear I've never heard of like a shim sham and a rudiment.  I did much better this week, and had so much fun.  And yes, I was actually sweating by the time I left!  Sweet!

Bye bye sweet lamb swing

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So Jeff walked in Jack's room on Saturday morning to find Jack had wiggled himself half way out of the swing.  Um, ok.  I get it, we've outgrown the swing. 

I love my husband...I was actually at tap class (yes, that's right, tap class...that deserves a whole other blog!) when this went down and when I came back, he told me that he'd put Vincent's bed and a few blankets under the swing...just in case...I love him! 

I absolutely adore that swing.  It was one of my favorite things we registered for and my mom's friend Peggy got it for us, we put it together immediately!  And Jack was no where close to making his debut! 

It is so sweet, he looked so precious in it when he was tiny!...you remember! 
Oh my gosh, he was soooooo tiny!  This was taken when he was just a few days old.

So, I will be very sad to see it go.  It has been probably the biggest staple to Jack's sleeping for the past 6 months!  Loosing that swing really means he's growing up. 

I'm still not quite ready to have him out of the swing...maybe I should say, he's not quite ready to be out of the swing!  So we pulled out the travel swing. Much lower to the ground (good thing!) and a different shape so he's not flailing like he was in the other swing.  We'll see how that works...it looks like we're running a day care with all of this sleeping paraphernalia!

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