I haven't blogged in an entire week! I do have a good reason though - I have been in Ohio. Darren & Carrie brought their new little bundle of joy, Jack Owen, into the world on May 5th. What a cutie! They found out just a few weeks prior to his birth that they would be relocating their family to Arizona where Darren will start a new job in the middle of June. That pretty much changed everything. Who has a baby and moves five weeks later? Well, I guess Darren and Carrie do! We always moved while I was pregnant, but never with a newborn. I can only imagine. So, Jennifer decided to come and help at the last minute since Darren couldn't take too much time off of work after the baby was born. She stayed for a week. When I heard that Darren would be going to Arizona to find a house the weekend after that, I quickly figured out a way to come. It certainly helps to have older kids! Collin agreed (with a little monetary incentive) to make sure the boys get out the door on time in the morning, be around and available after school AND he agreed to make dinner on school nights. Collin is awesome! He really has done a terrific job. Too bad some of that money has to go toward his $75 bicycling ticket.
The only bummer about coming this last week is that Lauren has a big choir concert TONIGHT. I told her that I would be able to watch it on TV later, but that didn't make her feel much better. Then I told her that maybe she should come with me the first part of the week. She was fine with that! The funny thing about Lauren is that she doesn't ever want to miss school, so this was more about her letting herself miss school rather than ME letting her miss school. It was just three days, and she was very responsible about it.
So, Lauren and I drove all day last Wednesday and arrived at Darren & Carries' house around 8:30pm. LONG day! But we had fun driving together.
We took Kylie & Walter to the park Thursday morning while Carrie & Jack rested.
We all drove Darren to the airport Thursday evening. Then we were on our own! Lauren ran around with the kids (literally) playing hide-and-seek and other games. She also held Jack a lot. She even fed him and burped him!
He's a sleepy baby . . .
And a pensive baby!
I am SO glad Lauren came with me. She was great with Kylie & Walter, and really enjoyed helping with Jack. I'm pretty sure this was her first time holding a newborn!
LOVE the baby feet
And this is pretty much Jack's routine: sleep, eat, burp, sleep.
It was rainy on Friday, so we didn't do much. I went back to the Aveda spa and had a facial. That lady was so good, I HAD to go one last time! I just about floated away driving through a torrential downpour to get there, but it was totally worth it. I went out again to pick up Little Caesar's Pizza for dinner and it rained even harder that time! Once we all got settled down with our food, the tornado sirens started going off. Fun! It seemed like the storm had already passed us, but we took everything downstairs for a picnic in the basement. Gotta love Ohio.
Saturday was a beautiful day. We went outside in the afternoon and watched the kids play. I had seen pictures of Walter driving his jeep, but didn't realize how fast it goes. When he's coming your way, you better move!
Here he comes . . .
And there he goes.
Jack hung out in the stroller snoozing the entire time (his first outing in the stroller even though it was just in the front yard).
Kylie showed off her bike riding with no training wheels. She's really good!
Carrie and I took the kids to church Sunday morning. Some whacked out crazy man called Carrie the night before and asked if she could get there a little early. Isn't 9am early enough when your husband is out of town and you have a two week old baby? Crazy. No matter though cuz we did it! And the kids were really good.
We went our separate ways Sunday evening to different airports. Carrie drove up to Dayton to pick up Darren, and I drove to the Cincinnati airport to drop off Lauren. I was so surprised how empty the Delta terminal was. The little shuttle train thing was practically empty!
Lauren had been craving Outback Steakhouse before we even left, so she was happy to see one in the airport. It was an interesting experience though cutting her steak with a butter knife! Her poor fingers hurt. (no steak knives past security) And then the unfortunate thing was that Lauren's flight got delayed so that she completely missed Lost. Hmmmm . . . I wonder if she has watched it yet.
On Monday morning, I took the kids to the "dinosaur" park.
I showed Walter the cute little ducks sitting in the shade. Like any other 3 yr. old boy, he immediately started chasing them around. It was quite the shock when they finally flapped their wings and flew away. He wasn't expecting that!
Kylie worked super hard and was able to swing from one rung to the next. Not an easy feat, but she did it!!!
After going to the park we stopped by the grocery store to pick up a couple of things. I had to laugh when I saw the "regulation cornhole" boards for $90.
NINETY DOLLARS!! That's just crazy. I saw these cornhole boards the first time we went to Ohio in the summer and could not get over how serious people were over a game that is basically bean bag toss.
In the afternoon, Carrie set up the slip 'n slide (new and exciting for Kylie & Walter) for the kids to play on. I didn't take any pictures of the slip 'n slide action since I was busy holding the baby. ;-)
What a nice afternoon! There was a cool breeze and a bit of shade that made it perfect for sitting out on the patio.
Jack loves to be held in the upright position. He would start on my shoulder and slowly slip down, down, down . . . Later on that evening he kept lifting up his head while I was holding him like that. I told him to STOP THAT! as he is way too young to be lifting his head by himself. Right?
This morning I whipped out my "rainy day" puzzles from the trunk of my car. Walter did the 24-piece Curious George puzzle. With a little bit of help, he did the whole thing.
Looks like he felt pretty good about it!
Kylie was very concerned about doing a 100-piece puzzle.
I showed her that it said on the box 5+ so she could do it.
She worked really hard at it and did very well!
Tomorrow morning I'll be setting out at around 6am to drive home. All good things must come to an end . . . I suppose. It does seem like my family did just fine without me. Gosh, when I called Michael the last time this morning he said, " *sigh* Can you stop calling, Mom?" Oh, well.
You might remember that I had Collin take care of the boys and make dinners while I was in Ohio. He was excited to do it because he loves to cook and he wanted the money. You might also remember that he had to pay $75 for that unfortunate incident on the bike. He was very disappointed not to keep all of what he earned. When he asked how he could earn some more money I asked, "Do you want to make more dinners?" He said yes!
