(from Anthony's trip back east to Water Fun)
April 8th, 2009: The Eve of our Trip to NY
I've flown back and forth across this grand nation of ours almost twice a year since I was 9. But this will be the first time with a child. We're going to use the booster seat from Daddy's car as it's approved for airline use. (Oh...my...god.) Six hours in the air with a child that is quite active and willful. Daddy comes armed with two full iPods of cartoons and games plus our cell phones have their TV shows and music loaded. We've got a pocket Etch-a-Sketch, handheld games, puzzles, coloring books, travel play dough, and sedatives. If worst comes to worst we'll turn Anthony in as a terrorist and spend the rest of the flight with him tied down in first class. We've got blow up toys for play time at the layover airport and other goodies for him. One thing Angela and I never ever wanted to be was leash-parents. The idea of putting a leash on a kid is kinda...icky. But Anthony is starting to hate his strollers, and being at an airport seemed to make it a good idea. So we bought one. It's a cute monkey and looks like it's riding on his back. It doubles as a knapsack. He looks so cute in it, and he loves it. We tried it on him and he had a blast pulling against it. We'll see how long that lasts. So tomorrow we take off. On our way to NY to see Glamma, Poppies, Aunty Georgette, and the rest of the family. Anthony is gong to have a blast seeing everyone. Poor guy will be all peopled out by the time the trip is over. The trip will be a little difficult as both Anthony and Daddy have head colds still with some fluid in our ears. We've got some melt away fruit chews for Anthony and drugs for Daddy. (I hate flying with a cold. Rotten timing.) We're quite excited. Stay tuned for pics from NY. In the meantime...here are some recent shots.
April 9th, 2009: The airports and the plane ride
This update was posted all at once, but was created as the day went along.
1:20pm PST:
What a day so far. We started it off with the realization that our seat assignments were changed on us. They had all three of us sitting nowhere near each other and had to have the airport desk change our seats. So we wrestled the baby seat into Grandpa's car and off we went. Once at the airline counter Anthony began to pitch a fit that lasted all the way to his airline seat. A very nice old gentleman gave up his window seat for Anthony, who by law had to sit in a window seat. The third seat was taken by a cell phone junky salesman with delusions of importance. He soon realized he would be smack in the middle of things and switched his seat, so all three of us finally got to sit together. Next was installing the car seat in the airline seatWith that out of the way Anthony finally settled down and started to enjoy his turkey sandwich. Take off was absolutely no big deal to him. In fact, he was bored and kept eating his sandwich. By the time we got to cruising altitude he was fast asleep. We just need to find a way to keep his head propped up.
2:30pm PST:
Anthony is awake and we have turbulence. Angela has been doing contortion moves to try and breast feed him, and she was successful. He only had a 45 minute nap when he normally gets 2 hours. Can't wait for the second flight. Airline comment: we haven't flown in two years. So far we've spent $15 on luguage and $50 on food in the airport and on the plane.
2:55pm
Thank god for iPods!!!!!!!!!
4:15pm
We walked up the aisle, down the aisle, lost the puzzle pieces, broke the tic-tac-toe game, watched the iPod, walked up the aisle, walked down the aisle, breast fed, thru a fit going into his chair, threw the iPod, raised the shades, lowered the shade, rasied the shade lowered the shade, bugged the people in front of us, and tried to eat some food. Thank god we land in about in hour.
4:30pm PST
Wahoo! We're landing in 20 minutes. That's a bit early. ........and we don't mind.
7:20pm PST
So......we had some fun on the first leg. Anthony did better on the plane than he did in both airports. In Detroit he was another holy terror. The video stored in the Livcam section is just the tail end of his running around. At this point in the trip we're 25 minutes from landing in Syracuse and Anthny is doing just fine. He really hasn't had any problems with his ears.
8:30pm PST
We made it!!!! We're at Glamma and Poppies' house now. Anthony is a little skiddish about the dogs, but warming up to them. We're all a lot tired, so itd night night for everyone. Pics will be uploaded with the next update.
April 9th, 2009: Pics from the flight
Jet lag....stuffed ears....head colds...and a crowded plane. Here's some shots from the flight. More to come....
April 21st, 2009: The Flight Home
So.....how was the trip, you ask? Awesome......in a word. I wish we had more time to see all the people we had to miss this time around. Some we haven't seen in a bunch of past trips. Daddy used up all his vacation time for this 9 day trip and Mommy went without pay for the week. (This because we also used up all our vacation time and state sick leave from last year during Anthony's hospital stays. We built back up just for this trip.) And since this was our first trip with Anthony we had more people stopping by, or to drive to than normal. Even though we planned as much as we could it is just impossible to see everyone. Living in California has its advantages, but visiting out of state is not one of them. Someday our little family will be using vacation time to visit other exciting places in the world. But for now, we're happy bringing Anthony to see the family that he will only see every few years. Anthony had a wonderful time visiting with his family. He got to play with all his cousins, go to the zoo, run around with four energetic doggies, and be completely freaked out by the crowds of family he got introduced to on a daily basis. Along the way he got some bruises and went to the doctor's office to have his ears checked. He's been grabbing his right ear ever since the last leg of the flight to NY. Turns out he still has an ear infection that the flight made worse. The antibiotics are still in his system, so we're told to start giving him baby Motrin until we can get to his normal pediatrician on monday. Here's the breakdown of our trip:
Friday 4/10:
Not much went on this day. We slept in from the long late flight and spent time with Glamma and Poppies, while Anthony slowly warmed up to the doggies. We ran errands and prepared for the family fire-drills taking place during the next few days. It felt good to finally relax after the previous two week scramble to get things squared away with work and planning/packing for the trip. Mommy and Daddy made a quick run to the store and bought Anthony a mini Bigwheel to play with outside while staying there. Aunty Erika (TT) came over to see the Little Guy as she hasn't seen him yet either. Here's some pics for the day.
Saturday 4/11:
The day started with all of Anthony's immediate cousins coming over to see him (Kristen, Nicolas, and Little Johny). Anthony was a little freaked out, but soon got in to the groove. Glamma made a full on turkey dinner and we all got stuffed. Anthony and his cousins played inside and out while Mommy and Daddy visited with everyone. The fun lasted all day. See for yourself.
Sunday 4/12: Happy Easter!!
This day was the same as yesterday with the addition of even more cousins from out of town. The same fun and mirth unsued, but with more people. Anthony was doing very well warming up to everyone. We even had an easter egg hunt outside for the big kids, and inside for the little ones, Anthony and Johny. It was really nice to see cousins John, Lynn and their son Mark. In the afternoon we got in our cars and convoyed it over to Kathy and Tony's house to see Uncle Sam, Aunt Shirley and their entire clan. That was the visit that put Anthony over the top. Our group arrived and mingled with 20 others, while Anthony stayed glued in Daddy's or Mommy's arms with his eyes as big as golf balls as tons of people kissed and squeezed him hello. It was fun for all as Anthony slowly got in to it. Here's some pics.
Monday 4/13:
On this day Daddy, Mommy and Anthony drove Glamma's SUV to Little Falls to see Aunty Georgette. The drive to and from was long, but we had fun singing songs and falling asleep. (not daddy, just mommy and baby) We visited with Aunty Georgette, ate a long lunch, visited a nearby park, rode an exercycle, and played with his mini bigwheel that we brought along....just in case. We drove back to enjoy a late dinner with Glamma and Poppies followed by a late bed time for baby. Click for pics.
Tuesday 4/14:
This day was supposed to be a free day for Daddy, Mommy and Baby to enjoy themsleves, see anyone they wanted, and do whatever. Instead.......Anthony had been rubbing his ears in pain since we landed. He had had an ear infection before and was on antibiotics up until this morning, but it was obvious that the plane ride exacerbated the problem. We talked about taking him to a doctor a couple days ago, and Glamma made some calls and set something up for us with her work. We went and visited with all of Glamma's work friends and the doctor confirmed that Anthony still had an ear infection. We called our pediatrician to set up an apointment for when we returned and started giving Anthony baby Motrin right away. Poor kid. His ear infection seems to be lasting just as long as Daddy's ear problems. We also did a quick visit over to see Aunt Toe, Grandpa A's aunt. We had a nice visit, but had to keep it short. Daddy hadn't seen her in over 10 years and it was cool to get a picture with Anthony with his Great Aunt Antoinette. After more errands and such (mommy wound up getting pink eye, so we called in a prescription) we decided to call it a day and hang out with Glamma, Poppies, Aunt Erika and Uncle Jim for the evening. Jet lag was hitting us hard so we went to bed early.....for once. Here's the pics of the day.
Wednesday 4/15:
Lots going on this day. First up was a trip to the zoo for all the kids (Anthony, John, Kristen and Nicolas). It got a little chilly, but we all had a great time. Anthony got to pet an elephant and almost climbed in to the pony pen. It was his first time at any zoo. He was completely fascinated with the snakes and fishies. Not so much with the monkeys, go figure. We all had a fun day. Later in the evening Glamma gave Anthony his first hair cut. We distracted him with popcorn and he sat quite quietly. We saved his hair and will store it in his baby book. Here's some pictures and video.
Thursday 4/16:
On this, our last day of the trip we had planned to see some of Daddy's friends, but timing during this trip was not on our side. It's always difficult to see so many people in so few of days. Anthony got to play with his cousin Kristen and run around with the doggies. He was so energetic during this trip. Here's some pics and vids for today.
Friday 4/17: The Trip Home
It was an early flight and we got pulled to the side, so they can make sure Anthony's baby food wasn't a bomb. (You have got to be kidding me.) Anthony was a perfect little boy on each of the flights. You can add up all of his crying time on all flights to just 10 minutes. A very good boy. ....but the airports....that was a different story. We laid over in Detroit on both legs of the trip. The first time he threw a temper tantrum everywhere we went. On the return trip Anthony was just as, shall we say, bratty. But this time we tried to run him down by playing with the ball a lot and running....a lot. It worked...he fell asleep 20 minutes in to the flight, ....then woke up 30 minutes later and never went back to sleep. He was good for the rest of the flight, but its amazing he didn't crash for longer. See the pictures and video for yourself.
Saturday 4/18: Good to be home, but we miss everyone in NY
We spent the day hanging around the house and going to the park. Poor Anthony screamed bloody murder when we put him in his car seat for the 5 minue ride to the park. Poor kid was freaked that he'd be stuck in the seat for hours, like on the plane. He'll be ok. Here's some pics.
May 17th, 2009
Ok, so....check this out: Anthony gets treats at day care for eating all his vegetables at lunch. No big deal, right? Well,....we've just been informed that he's been hiding the vegetables under his butt .....just to get the treat. He's tried it at home, but we stop it at the moment never knowing how far he could be taking the action. Chip off the old block, I'd say. ...................... Moving on to Swine flu. First a panic, now a realization of something less than a pandemic. Thanks for nothing. Anthony had an appointment to check his ears that were more plugged from his NY trip. (He's fine now.) While at the doctors we saw them setting up a Swine Flu line out the back door with masks. The doctor told us he was more than happy to take the money while telling me that this particular strain is no big deal. That sounds more like the REAL swine flu to me. .......Anthony is talking more and more. He's making gibberish sentences, but its quite that he is communicating a full thought. He's very good at pointing out his needs. Some people say that the terrible 2's are all about a child's frustration over not being able to communicate their exact needs. I say "hogwash"! It may be true they are frustrated, but its up to the parents to make sure they are doing their best to understand what the child's needs are. If you forgot what's its like to be a kid, then you just might find your child's terrible 2's to be (um) terrible. We're finding that by meeting him half way we bridge the gap easier and generate less frustration for him. We've been told to teach him baby sign language. Its not really needed for Anthony. He knows some signs from day care, but says the words at the same time as making the movements kinda making the signing a moot point. We all need to spend time playing like we're kids again. Its the best way to think like one and communicate with one. Never ever forget what its like to be young. ......moving on to toys..... We went out and stocked up on some summer toys for Anthony. More balls, a golf set and other fun stuff. We even bought him a toy vacuum cleaner. Not a push toy that talks......its a real toy vacuum.....complete with vacuum noises that are extremely annoying. Daddy is going to open that sucker up and change the sounds it makes....for our own sanity. The other fun toy is a water wiggle fun sprinkler for outside on hot days. Anthony is a little afraid of it still, but gets that it's for fun. ...... Anthony is getting along more and more with his day care buddies. One in particular, Jamison, has befriended Anthony and now they are best friends. Everyday at nap time Anthony and Jamison talk it up for a full half hour before falling asleep. We'd like to see a video of that. Anthony does very well with other kids, but is still quite shy around new adults. Last weekend we went to another child's first birthday party where Anthony spent a lot of time staying close to us, which was a little more shy than he normally is. We'll be encouraging him more as time goes on, but mindful of his pace. ...... Anyone out there refinance your home yet? We're about to start the process. We want to take advantage of the low rates and save some money month to month. I know our house has dropped in value, but not as much as the average for our area, which gives me some hope. We'll see what happens. ...... How's Daddy's back doing, you ask? Not so good at the moment. Anthony is getting up around 28 pounds and wiggles more into many different positions. Without a doubt I am having problems with Anthony's activities, and my back is not able to withstand the stress. Right now I'm wearing a pain patch, an ice pack, and I took 600mg of ibuprofen ...and it still hurts. Major bummer. ............ Pictures have been a bit sporadic, but here's a bunch from the past few days or so. And by the way.......Happy Belated Mother's Day to all you Mom's out there!!! Update: May 17th, 2009 (second posting)
Water water water. That was the theme this weekend. Anthony loves the water. Today we decided to check out the community pool. Both Mommy and Daddy feel it's a germy kind of place, but we decided the heat (100+degrees) was worth it. First off we were confronted and told that Anthony needed a certain kind of baby swim suit. They sell them there, so no big deal to buy it and slip it on (its reusable). After we found a spot on the grass we got in the pool to get cool. Anthony loved it. It wasn't his first time in a big pool, but with all those people it was a different experience. Lots of other kids splashing and stuff. He got used to it and started to have some fun. We floated and swam with him. We tried to see if he would jump in to the water, and he took to it right away. He must have gotten out and jumped back in dozens of times. We caught him each time, but sometimes let his head go a little under. He laughed so much. After a full hour of fun he started to shiver, so we dried him off and headed home where we rolled around on the playmats at home. Take a look at today's fun.