Glorious Galveston!

Our little vampire, dubbed Baby Edward by Alexa...

The weather has been absolutely GLORIOUS for the past week or so. I LOVE this in-between-weather. You know, the weather between monsoon season (winter) and sauna-level heat and humidity (summer). Last weekend we took full advantage of the cloudless skies and barbecued, went for walks and even a visit to the beach!

Unfortunately, Aiden didn't enjoy the beach much. It was crazy windy, so our sun cover tent kept trying to blow away. We ended up putting the back half on the ground so we had a makeshift cabana. Every time the tent would blow back a little and expose Aiden to the sun, he would scream. Then after I put sunscreen on Aiden he rubbed his eyes. He started screaming 15 seconds later, which confirmed that sunscreen had gotten in his eyes.

He was cranky for the next couple of hours, all except for when he was playing in the water and in the sand. Well, until he rubbed his eyes with sand on his hands, of course. UGH. We'll have to try the beach again later. I would imagine the best time would be once Aiden can walk, so he doesn't have his hands in the sand the whole time.

Post-Pregnancy Pain

Towards the end of my pregnancy with Aiden, I developed hip pain. I was going to the chiropractor while I was pregnant and it seemed to help. Ever since I delivered, I have intermittent bouts of hip pain. It is bad enough that I cannot take a full-stride step and it's always on the right side. The other strange thing that I have noticed is that it seems to bother me the most first thing in the morning, and usually when rain is in the forecast.

It doesn't seem serious enough to make a separate appointment for, so I was just planning on mentioning it at my next doctor visit. Oh and I haven't gone to the chiropractor since I had Aiden.

Has anyone with kids had a similar problem?

Facebook Fails

Check out the two new websites I added to my sidebar. One is called Failbook, the other is Lamebook and they are awesome. People take screen shots of stupid things people say on Facebook (for those of you not educated in the ways of FB), or stupid photos they put up, then send it to these websites so we can all laugh at their stupidity. Same idea, two separate websites. It is divine.

Failbook

Lamebook

Why does someone have to get SHOT?

The other night, Travis and I were sitting in the backyard eating our dinner when our neighbor's neighbor came outside (Sara - remember your neighbor?). Every night he sits on that back stoop, grinding away at some sort of metal. He has some sort of a smoker sitting back there, so we always assumed he was working on the smoker. After several weeks, we decided that he must not be doing anything with the smoker because we've never seen him actually touch the thing and it doesn't appear to be changing at all.

Sitting in our yard that night was the longest we had ever spent watching that neighbor. Here's a quick background on the guy: he is probably in his 40's, lives at home with his mother and his dog died a couple years ago - there is a chance that he buried that dog in his backyard. We finally got a better look at whatever he is grinding. Alarmingly, it appears to be a knife. We both agreed that this is what it looks like.

After 15 minutes of messing with this sliver of metal, he set it down and went in the back door to the house. A couple minutes later, a Frisbee comes soaring out the door into the backyard. A moment later, another one follows. Then the guy comes out after the Frisbees, looks at the dog in his neighbor's yard and throws the Frisbees again. The entire time, his neighbor's dog is chasing the Frisbees from his side of the fence back and forth in the yard. This goes on for maybe 5 minutes before he brings out a golf ball and club. He looks at the dog and gives the ball a little toss, walks up to the ball and chips it several feet.

I am unsure if he was playing with the dog, since he misses his own, or if he was teasing the dog. Either way, the whole thing was just creepy. This is when Travis takes advantage of the situation and says "This is why we need a gun."

"Whaa? Why?"

"Protection against crazy guys like that."

Ohhhhhh no. I don't think so. I do NOT want a gun in my house. I can guarantee you that if anyone breaks in my house while Travis is gone, I will hesitate with that gun long enough that the trespasser will have time to turn our gun on me. NO THANKS.

Travis tells me I have to get over that because if someone is in your house, I should assume they are there to hurt me and shoot. Nope. Sorry! The first thing I'm going to think is, maybe he's not going to hurt me and he just wants our stuff. I don't think the punishment for robbing should be death. I would also be worried about getting in trouble for it later. Too many bad things can happen, so I'd rather just not have a gun to muddle up the situation.

Then Travis says he would get a gun safe in which to keep his guns.

"Well, what if the trespasser cuts off each of my fingers until I give him the code to the safe. Then he has my fingers, your guns AND your bullets. Not an ideal situation. Again, no."

After arguing for a while, I say fine. You can have a gun. But no ammunition in our house. I may still have to lose all my fingers because the criminal probably won't believe that we do not have ammunition in the house, but at least Travis will have his guns, right? Wrong. Travis wants his guns AND his ammunition IN our house for MY protection.

He asks me if I at least see his point. Yes, I say. I do. You want to shoot someone. Or you want me to shoot someone. Or maybe it's just that you have absolutely no problem shooting someone and now I should feel bad because I will hesitate in such a situation?

1. I don't think that the need of a gun, a gun safe and ammunition is worth the cost considering how many times we have needed a gun for safety in the past. Which is NEVER.
2. If you think I need protection in the home that badly, get me a taser gun. We could get one that has that wrist band so if someone grabs the taser and turns it on me, the key would pull out, locking the mechanism and leaving it non-functional. Win-win, right?

Again, WRONG. Travis didn't want to have the conversation anymore. I am now positive that his entire argument was only to convince me he should be able to get a gun and actually had nothing to do with his concern over my safety. Funny how he worked that into our evening meal.

*****Update*****

I am totally going to ask the parents of Aiden's friends if they have a gun in the house whenever he starts to play at their house without me!! (Thanks Alexa!)

"Is There a Gun in the House?"

Head Shake

Aiden does this occasionally...

Shake it like a salt shaker from Nicolette Ward on Vimeo.

Testing out what his brain can handle?

Friends and Family

Friends

Rachel is in Dakar, Senegal for two months. She left this past Saturday and the lab has never been lonelier. She is there for a fellowship with the graduate school. It was an excellent chance to get to Africa and visit her sister while she is there too.

Family

Ariel just got a new job. She will continue working a night or two at the bar she's been at, but she will be working Tuesday through Friday at a pub now too. I am so excited because the first bar she was working at was more of a club. It was too hard to go visit her ever at night because the dance music was too loud to hold a conversation. When she said she was going to start looking for a new job, I was really hoping it would be a daytime job. I was bummed to find out that was not the case, although I am ecstatic she will have weekends off!

Weekend Saga Continues...

Saturday night we made last minute plans to meet Zach and Linsey for dinner and drinks at a bar and grill in Galveston called Yaga's. They had spent the day attending the Galveston Food and Wine Festival, which was in the "park" right next to Yaga's. We met them and another couple around 7 and had our meal.

After dinner we decided to check out the ArtWalk that is held every 6 weeks in downtown Galveston. It's one of those things that I wish I had known about when we lived in the area. Although, for all I know, it might not have been held then - that was three years ago. The ArtWalk is when all the businesses on Postoffice (the street we used to live on) open their walls to local artists to show their work. Then they serve wine to all that come to view the art.

We didn't get to see much because it ends at 9pm, but I was very impressed with the first artist we checked out. After Hurricane Ike, most of the Live Oak trees that give the island it's signature look were assumed lost to the saltwater that flooded the island for days. The artist, Rachel Stegall, had a series of photos that she took of all the tree stumps from these trees. Interesting concept.

Not featured at the ArtWalk, but related, are the tree stump carvings that are showing up all over the island. Individuals who chose to, left the trunk of these trees in the ground and later had an artist come carve them in their rooted home. I've seen the mermaid one near where I park at work - check them out if you have a minute.

After the ArtWalk we headed to a pub for a couple drinks. We got lucky and Linsey knew the bartender, so we got the VIP treatment. Gotta love special treatment. Ha! Travis and I headed out at 10pm to pick up Aiden from his boss' house. His boss' wife, Sue, loves watching our little man, so we know we can count on her any time we are in Galveston. Sadly, Aiden would not go to sleep at their house, so he was still awake when we got there at 10:30!!! Ahhh!!!

To make up for a little lost sleep, we let Aiden sleep in the next morning, but he only took an extra hour. Works for me though! I'll sleep in until 7 any day!!

OH YA! Forgot to mention - Travis quit his job at Home Depot on Saturday!!! The main reason he took the job was to help us out since there were no opportunities for overtime at his main job. Since things have really been picking up with the electrical company, he decided to back out of Home Depot. They were very nice about the whole thing even though Travis didn't give a two-week notice. His ex-boss said he could come back anytime.

I am sure that Travis was burned out working so many hours. He said that he missed being able to spend time with Aiden and I. I never wanted him to take the job in the first place, but I knew if I told Travis 'no' that he would hold it over my head that I wouldn't let him do it. So, I let him figure it out on his own. Glad that's over!

No more Home Depot meant Daddy was home all day Sunday! I let him sleep in, since it was his first day off in two months. He got up around 10:30 and felt like crap. I think his body was freaking out about having too much sleep. I know it wasn't from drinking the night before, because neither of us got out of control. It's tough to do that these days, knowing that you have to be up early the next day to deal with a baby. There's no time for a hangover in our house!

Sunday afternoon we went for a walk and tried out the new car-push-toy that Aiden got from Chris and Alexa. I think he really liked it. I know I did. It felt like he was more a part of our walk, as opposed to tied up in his stroller with only a 180 degree view of the walk. I am pretty sure that he was ecstatic about being on Callaway's level.

After the walk, Go Mode continued. I put Aiden down for his nap and went out to the yard to do some work. Travis was finally feeling a little better, so he helped by pulling some out of control weeds in our yard while I planted the Nasturtium seedlings I started a month ago. They are just a few inches tall, but they seem to be doing well. I ran out of soil and still have a few more to plant, which I am hoping to get to this weekend. I need to pick up some decorative grass to put in a few of the pots so that there is more depth to the planters. I LOVE SPRING!!

Switching it up

This past weekend was full of excitement. We went out and did things we don't usually do. It was really nice to switch it up a little.

Travis made plans for us to go visit our friends Zach and Linsey Friday night. Zach was having some electrical issues with a light in their kitchen and Travis said he could help him out if they bought us pizza. Basically we are forcing our friendship on them at their cost. Zach was great about it and even threw in beer at no cost to us.

Before we got there, Travis had picked up the part he thought he would need to repair the light. Unfortunately, it was the wrong one. Fortunately, they only live 5 minutes from Home Depot. Linsey and I stayed home with our boys - Aiden, and their son Luke who is five weeks younger than Aiden. It constantly amazes me how different babies are from each other. I mean, the all learn the same things within a decent amount of time from each other, but they each have their own personality.

Since Aiden is older and faster than Luke, he chased him around the living room taking his toys from him. I was constantly chasing after him to tell him that was not nice and that he could get another toy. I'm sure he doesn't understand me at this point, but the way I see it, it's never too young to teach sharing! Then towards the end of the night we tried to get Aiden to go to sleep, or at least relax and lay back. When he wouldn't, we let him crawl around with his pacifier. I thought it was HILARIOUS when Luke took the pacifier right out of his mouth and put it in his own. I said, 'See! It's no fun to have things taken away from you." Although he truly didn't seem to mind. Ugh, we'll have to try teaching that lesson again later.

We have only given Aiden a pacifier when he lays down to go to sleep. I know it will be hard enough to wean him from that. I didn't want to mess with him using it during the day too.

Saturday, Travis had to work, but I had made plans to go with Alexa to another friend's house for a Mom's Potluck Brunch. No kids were allowed so we could all converse in peace - and it was SO worth it. Chris agreed to watch Aiden for me while we were gone. It worked out great that Blair and Aiden have opposite sleeping schedules so Chris could have one-on-one time with each of them. Chris was great and sent photos and a video the whole time. When we got back, Chris even told me that Aiden had laughed at the movie they were watching (Robots). He has never done that before!

Back to the potluck... This was the first Moms' get-together, but the hostess is hoping to make it a monthly event. The goal is whoever can make it each month can come and if they can't come one month, then maybe they'll be able to come the next. It was so great to get together with a bunch of women who you know want to do the same thing as you - talk about their kids. There were a total of five women at this one, which I thought was a nice start. We had an intimate little group so that we all could fit at the kitchen table together.

I met two of the women for the first time and it was nice to hear their stories. Just like kids with their different personalities, it seemed that each of us moms had a different parenting technique. Some of us have one child, some have two, and one has a little girl on the way! It's so funny - I feel like I have all this pressure to have a girl next time around. All my friends and I had a boy the first time around. The second time they all had, or are having, girls. Ironic. Something in the water maybe?

The food at the brunch was great. Even though we only had five people, there was plenty to choose from. I think we stayed for about three hours before we headed back to relieve Chris of his charges. Aiden seemed to have had a great time with Chris. He was finishing up lunch when we walked in the door. I stuck around for a little bit so Blair could spend a little time with Aiden before we left. Then we headed out with more gear from Shoppe Ramby. Aiden was getting bored with his toys, so they offered up some goodies to entertain the boy. My favorite? A little car that Aiden can sit in while I push him during our walks. We've already taken it out for a test drive, but more about that later.

Aiden was full of firsts this weekend. He laughed at the TV, Daddy taught him how to high-five, he started walking by himself while holding onto a toy... more to come (this post is getting lengthy)!

Pig Roast at the Russians'

I've mentioned one of my co-workers, Zhenya, on here a few times. A couple weekends ago, her and her husband Kostya had a pig roast at their house. Yup, they drove up to Houston, brought home an entire pig in a cooler and cooked that pig for about 8 hours on a spit in their backyard. I took a few photos, so if you are weak in the stomach, I recommend skipping this post...

Here are the hosts, Zhenya and Kostya (sporting a Russian smile):

Travis was working that day (of course), so Rachel helped me out with the kiddo a bit.

And, dun dun DUNNNN! The pig:

This whole thing was a little weird, but I was totally grossed out when I asked why some of the skin was gone. Apparently people had been eating the crisped skin all afternoon. Sorry, but I've never been a fan of pork rinds and this disgusted me to no end.

They had to put a bracket around the vertebral column to hold it to the bar of the spit all day. Before they cut it up for us to eat, they had to unscrew the bracket, hence the screw drivers. They eventually grabbed a drill... LOL!

I had a little trouble watching the cutting. Then I couldn't get myself to go grab some meat. The sliced portion was sitting between the legs that had been removed and the remains of the pig. Too much for me, so Scott grabbed Rachel and I some meat. It was absolutely delicious! Just like a pork roast. Ha. Guess that's what it was huh - a roasted pig. What I was referring to, though, is the piece of meat that you roast in your oven in a pan.

At the end of the feast, while Aiden was taking his nap in the house, I partook in several of the desserts.... mini strawberry cheesecakes, Andes mint brownies (courtesy of Rachel), chocolate covered toasted soy nuts... mmmmm.... I really need to start controlling myself or I am never going to lose this baby weight!

Anyhoo, here are my comatose homies soaking up the last few drops of sun as it sets behind the neighbor's house.

Neighborhood Watch

More midnight drama at the Ward's house!

At 12:30am (just after Travis got home from HD) Thursday night I woke up to screeching tires just outside my window. Immediately after the screeching tires came a lot of yelling. I assumed there had been a car accident - why else would someone slam on their brakes so suddenly?

Apparently, another reason is because you are in the middle of an argument with your passengers and would like to scare the crap out of them. I went outside to see what all the commotion was about and Travis followed me onto the front porch. We could hear the people in the truck arguing, although we couldn't figure out what it was about.

Two women got out of the truck and they yell some more. Then BAM. The driver throws the truck in reverse and guns it down the street, then turns down another street. In reverse. That pedal had to be to the ground. His tires were screeching the entire way, dust flew up in the air, and then he flies through Cowboy Willie's yard. Poor guy has had the worst luck lately with idiot drivers turning his property into a high traffic area. I checked it out the next morning and if that guy would have swerved into Willie's yard just another foot, he would have gone down a 3-foot ditch and probably rolled his truck right into Willie's house.

The driver stopped just a few yards later, magically facing the opposite direction, and the passengers started to run after him screaming for him to stop. At this point I turn around to Travis frantically worried that the driver might throw the truck in reverse and run into our house. I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep knowing that some wacko was sitting outside our house with the potential of killing us or our son in our sleep. So, Travis called the police. It took them about 10 minutes to get out, which was a bit longer than the last time we did our civic duty (see link in previous paragraph).

The cop had them stopped for a good 20 minutes. By this point, they were too far away for us to tell what they were saying, especially since they had stopped yelling. It looked like the cop gave the driver a breathalyzer. I guess he passed, because he let him go a little while later. Travis and I drove down that street the next day and we're pretty sure that guy lives in a house on that street. Dumbass.

I'm sure it's so crazy by my house because we live in a crazy town. And I'm thinking it's even worse because we live on a fairly busy road. I can't wait to get out of this town! We talked with our realtor and she seems pretty confident that we should be able to sell our house next year! Let the countdown begin...

Magazine Advertisement

So. Yesterday at lunch, I was minding my own business, reading a Parenting magazine, when I came across this:

Is that teddy bear having diarrhea??

The small print talks about how vomiting and diarrhea can lead to dehydration, hence the need for Pedialyte. Which leads me to believe that my assumption that this teddy bear is pooing out it's stuffing all over the couch is fairly accurate. I understand that dehydration is a serious subject, especially when it comes to our little ones, but who thought this would be a good advertising idea.

Shorties

The other day, Travis was at the back door calling Callaway to go outside with him. Callaway came barreling through from the back of the house - and ran straight into the baby gate that was latched. Travis' response?

"Oooo, right in the face!"

---

Travis and I were watching a program on the History channel about Cocaine in US History a couple nights ago. It said that in the early 1900's, cocaine sniffing became prevalent in the South. White folks quickly began accusing the "negroes" of becoming violent and raping white women whilst under the effects of cocaine, dubbing them "Negro Cocaine Fiends". It was soon made illegal to sell cocaine to "negroes", because at that point cocaine was not nationally illegal.

RIGHT. The black people hated whites because they were under the influence of cocaine. It had nothing to do with racial discrimination and the violence against blacks.

---

Monday night, Aiden started crying in his sleep. He does this occasionally, but I guess Travis was unaware of it since he is gone working most of the time. When he took a step towards the door to go check on him (it really is a horrible scream), I told him to wait 5 seconds to see if he stopped crying because it was probably just a nightmare. Sure enough, Aiden stopped screaming immediately.

Travis wanted to know what the heck he would have a nightmare about.

Taking his bottle away from him, maybe? Not being allowed to play with the DVR? Being forced to eat PURE PEACHES with all their tartness?

That's a lotta gum

How cool is this? A prom dress and matching vest for the dude made out of GUM WRAPPERS.

When Ariel and I were young, we used to go to this local pizza restaurant, called Monical's Pizza (I have to go there every time I visit home now), with our parents. My dad would pull out a bunch of gum wrappers and show us how to make a chain when each one was folded a certain way and linked with the next. Just another one of the good memories from my childhood that I would like to pass on to our child(ren).

Bad babies go to jail

I only get to hear the word 'mama' out of Aiden's mouth when he is upset, and even then it is far and few between. 'Dada' on the other hand, has a regular show in Aiden's speech. NOT FAIR.

Baby Jail from Nicolette Ward on Vimeo.

9 Months Old

Aiden's new skills:

• He can go back and forth from crawling to sitting, back to crawling, with ease. (He practiced in the tub.)
• He can crawl on his hands and knees, as long as he has bare knees or is on carpet. When he has pants on, he still prefers the army crawl.
• He finally started eating cereal by hand. Thus far he has stuck to puffs and crackers by hand. He is not that great at wielding the spoon, but he sure tries!

Aiden is currently pushing out a canine tooth on the top, right side. He has no incisors on the top yet - only two on the bottom. That means we're going to have a little vampire on our hands! LOL! I can feel the tip of the tooth, but you can't see it outside the gums yet.

Because of this teething, I was unaware there was anything more wrong with him until he developed a fever of 102.8F Tuesday afternoon at daycare. I tried to set up an appointment with his pediatrician, but they had no openings. Starting at 5:30, his doctor's office turns into an urgent care clinic. I didn't feel like sitting around for an hour waiting, so I took him to the urgent care clinic next door that is open 9am-10pm. They saw us right away and we only had to pay our regular co-pay. I was relieved.

They immediately gave him Motrin to help bring down his fever and then the doctor saw him. After a quick once over, he determined Aiden had an ear infection. They gave us some Pedialyte (Travis met me there when he got off work) to give him while the Motrin had some time to work. When they checked his temperature again 10 minutes later, it was down to 99.0, the doctor called in a prescription for Omnicef and sent us home.

I called Aiden's daycare to see if it would be okay for him to go to school the following day, since their normal requirement is a wait of 24 hours after a fever develops before he is allowed back. They said yes. Unfortunately, they will not give any medications unless they are prescription. That meant he would not have any Motrin or Tylenol to ease the ear infection pain all day. I had already told my boss I wouldn't be in Wednesday, so I opted to just stay home with Aiden.

Wednesday morning we got up at the normal time for Aiden's first feeding. I laid him down for his nap at 8:30, but he didn't fall asleep until 9. I decided to lay down for a nap with him. I forgot to set my alarm, so I didn't wake up until 11:30am. AHHH! I took a two and a half hour nap first thing in the morning!! I had made plans to meet with Travis for lunch at noon and I knew we wouldn't make that. I called him to push back our lunch date. I am so glad we made it, because we sat outside at a Mediterranean restaurant and soaked in the sun.

After lunch we took a walk down the Strand, a street lined with shops and restaurants. Aiden loves being outdoors - it makes him smile every time. After our walk, we stopped at Target to pick up a bunch of baby stuff. We started getting all of Aiden's diapers and formula from there and I am surprised to say that I actually like their brand!

It was hard to go back to work Thursday. I felt like I had a short weekend and then had to go back to work early. I gave Aiden Motrin right before bringing him to school. His teachers assured me that he did great all day. He drank both of his bottles and took both of his naps. That means he was feeling good - THANK GOODNESS.

TGIF!

Easter Weekend

We had great weather this past weekend. Travis and I took advantage and grilled out Saturday night. I love having my husband home in the evenings!

Hammock fun time

Another Stop Motion

Sorry I'm Late from Tomas Mankovsky on Vimeo.

Easter 2010

This year for Easter we had a few friends and family over to our house. Of course, Travis had to work, so I scheduled a later dinner than I would have done normally. Everyone came over between 3 and 4:30 to snack on appetizers. Travis was home around 5:30 and we ate around 6:30. The table was full of food and, later, desserts. I am going to go ahead and apologize again for the overly spicy scalloped potatoes. The recipe called for chopped Chipotle peppers, which I did not actually measure out. Oops.

Rachel's ever-impressive baking skills at play. It's good to have friends-with-baking-benefits.

(with several goodies missing already)

My husband, his 70's-long hair and Toby

Scott and Rachel, looking Easter-y

Ariel enjoying a cupcake, as Robert pays absolutely no attention to the camera whatsoever

Not pictured: Chris, Alexa and Blair - didn't break out the camera until after dessert. =(

The photo of Aiden is the day after Easter. I just wanted to get in a shot of that crazy stuffed animal Auntie Ariel brought in an Easter basket. The colors sort of go along with Aiden's room, except that we have NO IDEA what it is. A frog? An alien? A colored egg? It has webbed feet, eyes and bunny ears. Your guess is as good as mine!

Despite sending food home with everyone, we are still working on leftovers. Bring it on ham sandwich.

Only $7 (plus tax)!

Dude Da' Bunny hopes you had a happy Easter!

I need to find out where Dude gets his bling!
(This was seriously on the shelf at Walmart.)

Kilbury-Routh-Hargus House

Growing up we lived in an old Victorian house that was built in 1895. I came across this photo today and it shows our old house at the end of the road before it was moved. The house was moved twice. The first tmie was in 1959 when it was moved just a few yards because they built Interstate 74 and wanted the on ramp to be where this house was sitting. The second time was when my parents bought it and moved it to their land, where it sits today!

I'm not sure what year this photo was taken, but it has to be before 1959 since it is in it's original location and the roads are MADE OF DIRT.

Also found this photo. I worked in this building in high school at the St. Joseph Apothecary, where I was a Pharmacy Techinician. When this photo was taken, it was still the depot for the Interurban - a little trolley car/train that you could ride to and from the "big city" of Urbana for just five cents! When I was a little kid, I used to go up to the pharmacy that I later worked at and bought Tootsie Rolls and individual Jolly Ranchers for five cents each. Irony, anyone?

April Fool's, Google Style

Missing vowels?

31 Fingers and Toes?!

This is just ridiculous. I've heard of an extra digit on each hand, but NOT THIS. Can you imagine asking if your newborn has 10 fingers and toes, only to find out the answer is nope? 31.

Chinese boy has surgery