KerryAndGabe.com

Better late than never, right? We spent Thanksgiving in Davidson with my parents. My sister and Chad joined us for the day.

We were excited to Skpye with my grandma for the first time. We have been telling her about it for a while, so it was neat that she had the opportunity to try it.

We had a “feast,” as the kids called it. We had all the traditional, southern options. We put a little bit of everything on their plate.

Of course, they refused to eat more than half of it.

We put napkin rings on our eyes. Or maybe that was just me while everyone else laughed at me. I love Cullen’s expression. I think he’s already embarrassed by his mother, and he’s not even 2.

He was also amused.

He wanted to try it for himself.

We enjoyed some family time. Between us, we had 5 iPhones, an iPad, and a few MacBooks. We played a lot of Words With Friends against each other.

Cullen played an iPhone, too, in his new Apptivity case. That case is great for letting toddlers play the apps. I think my favorite feature is that it blocks the home key.

We had a great day with family. After the kids went to bed, we played Wits & Wagers and laughed a lot, as usual.

Happy Thanksgiving to us!

Something that makes me happy: The GIANT Christmas tree that we have in our library right now. It has lights, and we’ll have to do the ornaments soon.

Something I’m thinking: The holiday season is going to be so rushed this year with our cruise coming up really soon now!

Something I’m hoping: I hope that we can get all the things that we need to get done before vacation and Christmas.

Something happening around the house: We’re getting the house decorated after a few days visiting my parents.

Something I’m reading: I finished The Peach Keeper today, thankfully. I wanted to make sure I finished before it was due back at the library on the kindle. The waiting list is huge! Fortunately, it’s a quick read. I enjoy Sarah Addison Allen’s novels!

Something Gabe is reading: Hero of Ages. I don’t think he read any of it this week.

Something I’m watching: Getting ready to watch tonight’s Amazing Race.

Something I’m playing: We played a lot of Words with Friends on our iPhones this week. We played Wits and Wagers twice with my parents and Kristin and Chad and then Ticket to Ride twice with my parents. We had so much fun with my family!

Something tasty: Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house, though my favorite part was probably the turkey and country ham casserole the next day. Yum!

Something about both kiddos: We visited Santa on Saturday, and this year’s Santa was much better than previous ones. He attempted to make Cullen feel more comfortable, since he was not at all interested in sitting on his lap. And the photographer was amazing! I could not believe that we actually got a photo of both kids smiling. I was not even aware that Cullen smiled at all until I reviewed the photos. He was crying and trying to get away for the most part. I couldn’t hear what Maddie told Santa at first. Santa tried to ask Cullen what he wanted. Cullen was not talking to Santa, and he asked, “would you like a truck?” I told Santa, “actually, he wants a doll.” Maddie then said, “Hey, I want a truck!” So my son wants a doll, and my daughter wants a truck. After the Santa photos, we went to have lunch with my parents. I then had a spur of the moment idea to get haircuts for the kids (too bad we didn’t do that *before* Santa photos), and amazingly a kids’ salon was literally 30 feet away. Saturday went extremely well, and we were so happy to have haircuts and Santa photos out of the way. We had dinner at my parents’ house and headed home. We had a smooth ride home with no traffic jams. It was a wonderful ending to a wonderful visit. While we visited my parents, we took them to a children’s museum that opened last year. The kids had a blast, and the adults were completely worn out by the end of the morning. Whew!

Something Maddie is doing (45 months old): She has a new habit this week of saying “ya” instead of “you.” I’m going to have to try and break her of that habit. It’s cute at times, but it’s annoying at other times! I have noticed recently that her vocabulary is getting more and more sophisticated. Lately, she hasn’t allowed me to do anything with her hair, so it’s good that we trimmed up her bob again. It’s an adorable look on her! She looks so cute with pigtails, ponytails, bows, and braids, when she allows it!

Something Cullen is doing (22 months old): When you ask Cullen a question that doesn’t require a yes/no answer, Cullen starts his answer by saying, “um….um…..um…..um….” He also has a habit of saying “Awwww, man!” whenever he doesn’t like something or drops something or anything negative. Both habits are hilarious, and he says them at extremely appropriate times. He should be entertaining on the cruise. When we were having lunch with Nana and Papa, he had a taste of something he didn’t like. The next thing we knew, he had leaned over and spit it out on Maddie’s plate. Hilarious!!! He didn’t want to have anything to do with that piece of food! No way he was going to spit it onto his own plate. Too funny. We don’t get a high chair for him most of the time in restaurants, though he still uses his high chair at home. He’s so proud of himself, and I don’t think it will be long before we ditch all high chairs. We are probably going to transition him to a big boy bed after the cruise. He’s still resisting naps on the weekends, but most of the time he still takes one each day.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: Getting ready to go on the cruise on Allure….so soon now! Even Gabe is starting to get excited.

Something I’m looking forward to: I’m going to see Breaking Dawn with girl friends (rescheduled from last week), book club, early Christmas with friends, a birthday party, our annual poker tournament, and my annual Christmas date with a friend. Whew. Busy, fun week.

Something captured: This year’s Santa photo!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Some days I feel like I’ll never catch up on photos and trip reports and such, and other days I feel like I might be able to do it. So, I’m a little behind.

For those of you who do not want to read my long winded trip report, here’s some links to photos from our trip (if you don’t want to read my long winded posts and don’t care for the photos, then what are you doing here at all?):
Georgia
Disney
The rest of Florida

Before they knew that we were pregnant with Cullen, Gabe’s parents had booked a condo in Orlando and invited us to join them. We hadn’t told them about the new grandchild and tentatively said we would go. Since we knew the baby would still be very young by the time of the trip, we were really not sure whether we would want to go! We knew it would be somewhat of a last minute decision. I was pretty optimistic, but Gabe was not.

We knew that it was going to be a long drive, but we thought it would be easier to drive than fly this time. I’m glad we drove just based on the large amount of stuff that we had to bring with us! While I’m sure we could have been fine with much less, it sure is nice to be able to pack little conveniences like boppies, extra pillows, and pack-n-plays.

The first leg was easy. Maddie was happy, and Cullen slept the majority of the time. It takes around 3 hours to get to my parents’ house, which was our first destination. We decided to have lunch and spend a little time with my parents on our way down to Atlanta. We spent a little more time at their house than we had intended, but it was really nice to visit with them. The rest of the day did not go so smoothly! In fact, that was the only time in the car that was pleasant. We had lots of crying from both kids and very little quiet time on our rides.

Our next stop was Atlanta for a few days, including Easter Sunday. We visited with my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins. This was the first time we had stayed in a hotel since Cullen was born, and we opted for Embassy Suites so that we could have a little extra living space. We weren’t sure how the two kids would sleep in the same room, so Maddie slept in the living room and the rest of us were in the bedroom. We blockaded the door with a chair since we were a little nervous about having Maddie in the front room. We left our door cracked open, too, and we were happy to have the video monitor. The room worked out really well for us, though the free breakfast was a bit lacking at this particular Embassy Suites.

We had a very nice visit with my grandparents, and everyone was so happy to see our kids. This was the first time that Cullen met any Atlanta family. Maddie was excited about the Easter Bunny. She and I had shared some Peeps recently, so she was thrilled to hear that the Easter Bunny would bring her a basket of goodies, including Peeps. When my grandma asked Maddie who the Easter Bunny was, she replied, “The Easter Bunny is a bunny who brings Peeps!” The Easter Bunny did indeed bring her Peeps as well as some other goodies. He brought a feeding kit for her doll, some coloring books, crayons, stickers, eggs with Play-Doh and bunny snacks. She loved all of it. We then had an Easter Egg hunt in my grandparents’ back yard. This was the first year that she really understood what was going on with the Easter Bunny, egg dying and egg hunts. I loved it!

We left Atlanta to drive about halfway to Orlando. Once again, we had a rough ride both to the hotel and then to the condo the next day. Whew! Of course, we knew that this was a possibility since Cullen had not proven himself to be a good car rider in his life so far! It didn’t help that we were off schedule, we discovered Maddie doesn’t nap comfortable in the car anymore, Maddie was constipated, and the kids alternated in some kind of secret pact who would be the loudest at any given moment. Good times.

We did have a nice time while in Florida. We went to the pool, played ping pong and horseshoes, lost a little money at Bingo, and took it easy around the condo. We decided as we were driving into Orlando that we couldn’t be this close to Disney and NOT go.

So, we went to the Magic Kingdom for a day. It was a wonderful day, and I’m so happy that we decided to go!!! I thought that Maddie would be too young. I wasn’t sure how she would react to the rides or the costumed characters. She loved everything! Every time we rode a ride, she wanted to go on it again (with the exception of the carousel…she did not like it!). She loved Dumbo’s Flying Elephants, Aladdin’s Flying Carpets, and the Winnie the Pooh ride. She enjoyed going through Minnie’s House (which I thought was crowded and not terribly interesting, so I was surprised she wanted to do it again!). The highlight of the day was when she met her hero, Winnie the Pooh. She posed nicely for the photos, shook Pooh and Tigger’s hands, and hugged Pooh for a really long time. It was awesome. It was a little hot and at the height of Spring Break, but we still had such a great time. Next time, we will likely plan ahead a bit more (and pick a time of the year that is not so popular). Maddie did great with the lines and learned a thing or two about “taking turns.” She has been talking about how she met Winnie the Pooh and Tigger since then and how she gave Pooh a big hug. It’s about the sweetest thing ever!

The ride back was not smooth by any stretch of the imagination. The plan was to leave as early as we could and drive about halfway home. What actually happened was a flat tire on the van. We discovered it just as we were about to pull out of the parking lot of the condo. Fortunately, Gabe’s parents were staying one extra day. This was a very good thing since we had a place to be with the kiddos while we sorted out the tire issues. We called AAA and were excited to use the auto services for the first time (we mostly get AAA for the discounts on hotels). Unfortunately, AAA was worthless to us. They would only come out and change the flat tire, but they couldn’t even call us back for over an hour. The only thing that they could do is change the tire to our spare and could not do any diagnostics on the tire nor were they able to direct us to a service station that could help. Gabe and his parents decided to change the tire themselves while waiting for a call back from AAA. Gabe was already on his way to a service station by the time that AAA got back to us. Worthless!

By the time we had the tire inspected and back on the van, we had lost 3-4 hours. We now had a very wound up toddler who desperately needed a nap and was acting out in ways that I had never before witnessed. It was a very stressful morning and afternoon.

We finally got on the road over 5 hours after our scheduled departure, and ran into a massive traffic jam before we were even out of the Orlando area. That traffic jam took us two hours during which time both kids were extremely cranky. We canceled our hotel reservations midway as we weren’t sure how far we would be able to make it. Turns out that we should have kept our reservations in Savannah. We ran into another traffic jam after dinner. I’m not even sure we were out of Florida at this point. That traffic jam took us another 2 hours to clear. Now we have two cranky children and two cranky adults. By the time we cleared the traffic jam, it was around 10 or 11pm, and we could not find a hotel for over 100 miles. We called many hotels before finding a Hampton Inn in Santee, SC (about 2 hours from where we were at the time). We got the last room. Fortunately, they were true to their word and held the room for us. They had to turn away several weary travelers.

We brought in one pack-n-play, but we could have just left it in the car. We ended up each taking a bed and a child and got some sleep. The complimentary breakfast was the best that we had out of all the hotels on this trip. All of the staff that we ran into were extremely friendly. I can highly recommend the Santee, SC Hampton Inn! I had stayed in a few sub par Hampton Inns a while back, and this particular hotel has changed my opinion of the chain for the better.

The rest of the ride home was long, and we were extremely happy to be home again.

We can’t wait to take the kids to Disney within the next couple of years, though we will NOT be driving!! This trip was quite an adventure, though it will be a while before we try to tackle driving of that magnitude again. Whew! It was great to see family and positively magical to visit Magic Kingdom. We were glad that we went on the trip!

I can’t believe my sweet baby boy is already 3 months old. Babies sure do change fast, and I know we’re going to see even more changes and milestones over the next few months. So, here’s the next installment in the letters to Cullen series. (more…)

We went to see friends Ben and Kristina get married in Asheville at the Biltmore Estate. We decided to stay in Davidson with my parents so that they could watch Maddie while we attended the wedding.

We took a few photos (and I stole a few from my friend, Gwynn). Click on the photo for the rest of the album.

We drove to my parents’ house on Friday night, and Bapa and Nana were excited to see Maddie. She went to bed shortly after arriving, and of course the rest of us played a round of Tichu!

We spent Saturday morning with my parents and left during Maddie’s nap to go to Asheville. We set the GPS to find the Biltmore Estate, and it took us to some Biltmore office downtown. Oops! Fortunately, we had just enough time to correct our error and make it to the wedding with time to spare.

The wedding was very nice, and Ben and Kristina seem extremely happy together. We are thrilled for them. The wedding was quite fancy, and we rather enjoyed our dinner at the reception as well. We had fun with friends at our table and ended up leaving the reception shortly after 10pm. This put us back in Davidson fairly late, but it was still manageable.

Meanwhile, Maddie had a great time with Nana and Bapa while we were away. They went for a walk and played in the giant sandbox at one of the parks in their neighborhood. She didn’t ask for Mommy and Daddy at all, apparently! She went to bed nicely for Nana and only needed to be patted once afterward.

We spent some time with my parents in the morning and headed back to Raleigh after lunch. We have found that this is the best time to travel since it is Maddie’s natural naptime! Fortunately, this time we had a smooth trip with no blown tires like our last excursion to Davidson…

Well, now that it is September, it’s probably about time that I updated some of my trip reports. I keep getting behind on these. It won’t be long before it will be time for a lot of cruise related posts as our New England/Canada cruise is very soon!

I’ve posted the photos from the July 4th weekend which you can get to by clicking on the link.

We had originally planned to go to Athens to visit family for the July 4th weekend, but we found out that my cousin had whooping cough just a few days before the weekend. Considering that whooping cough can be contagious for a while, we decided it would be best to stay away from Athens. We ended up going to Davidson to visit my parents instead.

We had a nice time visiting my parents, and they enjoyed getting to spend more quality time with their granddaughter. Maddie started calling her grandpa “Bapa,” and I think the nickname is going to stick. She doesn’t have a name for Grandma yet, but we’re leaning towards Nana (a name my mom previously claimed to hate but seems to be embracing after we have repeatedly used it as a joke for several years).

On July 4th, we went to the Davidson festivities which included a parade and a concert on the green. The parade was a hoot. It started with the fire truck and presentation of the flags. This was the only organized part of the parade. The rest of the parade consisted of Davidson residents with decorated bikes, strollers, wagons, and dogs. Very entertaining! Gotta love that small town charm! We stayed for a bit of the concert and headed home to a tasty dinner with fresh corn on the cob, grilled chicken, and mashed potatoes. YUM!

We were able to play Tichu with my parents both nights. We always enjoy playing cards with my parents. Lately, we are all excited to get in a game or so after Maddie goes to bed. Thank goodness Maddie is much more predictable with her sleeping these days (just in time for the new baby, of course).

We had a bit of unwanted excitement on the way home from my parents’ house on Sunday. Just about 15 minutes from home, we blew a tire on the interstate. We heard a loud bang and both thought, “uh oh, was that what I thought it was?” Before we could think the whole sentence, it became clear that we had blown a tire. Fortunately, we were starting to exit I-40 and on one of the transition ramps when it happened. We weren’t quite at full highway speeds, and I was able to navigate the car to the side of the road without losing control.

Neither of us had changed a tire before, though my dad taught me how to do it about 15 years ago. Perhaps I should have paid better attention! The first step was to take everything out of the trunk of the car. We had a bit more than we had packed since my parents gave us donations for the upcoming National MS Society yard sale. Maddie and I stood a safe distance from the car and the road. All the while, Maddie is pointing at the passing cars and saying, “car, car, car, car, car, car.” Yes, Maddie, there are many cars today!

The next step was to consult the car’s manual. Fortunately, Honda is so kind to provide detailed instructions on how to change a tire. Gabe made it look pretty easy and had the tire changed pretty quickly. We made it home safely, and the wheels didn’t fall off or anything! We found out that the tire had a slow leak with a nail that could have been in there for hours or even days. The tire slowly deflated until it just exploded. Oh well…we were happy to make it home safely!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that made me smile this week: Maddie made me smile quite a bit this week. For the most part, we had a great time together. It was fun to see her interact with her grandparents this weekend.

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking non-stop about this charity yard sale, and I’m pretty sure most of this post is going to revolve around that.

Something I’m hoping: Obviously, I’m hoping that the yard sale is going to make a lot of money for the National MS Society.

Something happening around the house: Our garage quickly went from a two-car garage to a one-car garage and is now a no-car garage. Donations are still piled just about everywhere, but it is starting to get a little more manageable…well, not really, but we have made progress.

Something I’m reading: I finished My Sister’s Keeper and went back to reading The World Without End. I’m torn about reading things like that. I really don’t feel like I have enough time to read anything too long or complex.

Something tasty I ate this week: We went to a wedding at the Biltmore Estate this weekend, and our dinner was very good!

Something Maddie did this week: She stayed with her grandparents while we went to the wedding. We didn’t quite leave her overnight. We left for Asheville from Davidson while she was napping and returned around 1am. She had a lot of fun with Nana and Bapa and apparently didn’t ask for Mama or Dada even once!

Something happening with the pregnancy: I got some new maternity shirts since I didn’t have much need for short-sleeved shirts in the first pregnancy. This one is one month earlier, and I’m showing earlier relative to the first pregnancy, too.

Something I struggled with this week: Gathering, sorting, pricing.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: Working like crazy towards this yard sale for the National MS Society (getting closer to that goal of raising $100,000 for the NMSS – obviously, I have a long way to go). I also signed up for a photography class that starts this week.

Something I learned this week: I learned that some people may actually want to pay good money for a high end stroller that is 20 years old. We’ll see if we can actually find a buyer as we have two such items in our pile of donations.

Something I’m looking forward to next week: Having this yard sale behind us.

Something random: Gabe’s coming around on my favorite road game, 20 questions. For the longest time, he refused to play. The last few road trips, I’ve convinced him to play a round or two. It’s better with more people to brainstorm questions (and we don’t limit it to 20), but it’s still a good way to pass the time.

Something I captured: This doesn’t come close to describing the madness that is our house right now. Just one of the photos showing some of donation central.

I didn’t take too many photos on our trip to Davidson last month, but I posted the ones we took on the website. We did a little better this past weekend…but I’ll have to write up that trip report later.

We took a quick little trip to Davidson about a month ago to visit with my parents and Bill and Dawn. We left Saturday after lunch with the hopes that Maddie would take a nap the majority of the trip. We were in luck! She fell asleep about the time that we hit the interstate, and she didn’t wake up until we got to my parents’ house. Wow! We were thankful that she took such a good nap.

We arrived not too long before Bill and Dawn, my mom’s cousin and wife. We hadn’t seen them in a little while, so this was the first time that they met Maddie. We spent some time visiting and catching up and then had a nice dinner together. Maddie was very taken with Dawn, which is pretty rare! She doesn’t usually warm up to strangers very quickly. Maddie showed off several of her baby tricks, and everyone enjoyed watching and interacting with her. She was interested in our shoes and tried to put on Daddy’s shoes. She played with her bugs and learned how to put them into her pockets after Dawn showed her. Maddie was in a pretty good mood.

After Bill and Dawn left, Maddie went to bed not too long afterward. Once she was snoozing, the four of us played Tichu. We had a great game! If we had just played to 1000, then my mom and Gabe would have won. We just kept playing as long as we could, knowing Maddie would wake up eventually to end our game. We got in a very good game and ended up with my dad and I winning by about 30 points. Fun!

In the morning, we took a walk around the neighborhood and found a nice park that has TONS of toddler toys. We didn’t have any sunscreen for Maddie, so we couldn’t take advantage of the park for too long. We’ll have to remember this for next time!

After lunch, we headed back home. Maddie only slept about 45 minutes, but she was quiet and happy the rest of the ride. We were amazed (but did not complain!). She’s been great on car trips lately! Our theory of getting her used to it early and often seems to be working so far…

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that made me smile this week: This weekend, my parents turned on the TV to see the Nascar race, and Maddie pointed at the TV and said, “car, car, car, car, car, car…”

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about what we want to do tomorrow as I’m taking a vacation day and Gabe has a holiday for the 4th. I think Maddie is going to daycare so that we can run some errands (such as getting a new tire for the car, ugh!).

Something I am hoping: I’m hoping Maddie’s tubes surgery will improve her health (and our sanity!).

Something happening around the house: Donations for the MS Yard sales are piling up in many corners around the house. I’m excited about the potential that we could earn for the National MS Society!

Something I’m reading: I really didn’t get a chance to read much of anything this week.

Something tasty I ate this week: I decided I needed to buy and eat Pirouette cookies. YUM.

Something Maddie did this week: Maddie had her tubes surgery. Time will tell if this helps her with illness and pain.

Something I struggled with this week: I’m not sure if I struggled with this, but I had mixed feelings about it. This is the first full week that Maddie did not nurse at all. After we cut out the night nursings and then the early morning nursings, it wasn’t long before she stopped asking to nurse altogether.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I haven’t done much towards my goals this week aside from some of the usual ongoing goals. I did some of the fundraising efforts for the upcoming MS yard sales, as I mentioned above.

Something I learned this week: I learned how to change a tire…sorta. On the way back from our trip to Davidson this weekend, one of our tires exploded. Gabe was pretty quick at changing the tire, and I watched from a safe distance with Maddie. This was Gabe’s first tire change, and he did a great job! We made it home, and the tire didn’t fall off or anything.

Something I’m looking forward to next week: I’m looking forward to our games day/night! It will be Gabe’s turn to play and my turn to hang out with the kiddies.

Something random: My cousin has whooping cough! We were supposed to visit this past weekend, but we canceled our plans, of course. I was surprised to hear that he had whooping cough – you really don’t hear about the disease much these days!

Something I captured: I’d post one of the photos from this weekend, but I am too tired to download the new photos from my cameras. So, here’s one that I had already posted from Maddie’s surgery.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that made me smile this week: When some of the neighbor kids entertained Maddie while the adults watched from the driveway while drinking beers. It was nice to spend some time with the neighbors.

Something I’m thinking: I should really write Maddie’s 16-month letter…or resign to doing it every 3 months now. With each passing day, that option is sounding better and better! The next letter would be at a nice, even 18 months. Sounds like good timing?

Something I am hoping: I hope that Maddie’s tubes surgery goes well on Thursday. This Mommy is a little nervous about it, but I’m sure it will be fine.

Something happening around the house: We swapped out some of the toys between the bonus room and the living room for a change of pace.

Something I’m reading: I finished Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella while in Cincinnati and started Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult. I didn’t get a chance to read at all this week.

Something tasty I ate this week: We had chocolate chip muffins on Saturday and waffles this morning. I love weekends at home!

Something Maddie did this week: She finally cut her 4th tooth! She was a bit fussy and sensitive for a few days.

Something I struggled with this week: We’ve all been a bit sick this week. Maddie and I had a stomach bug, and Gabe had some sort of sinus thing. I’m looking forward to us all being well again.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: We finished watching the first season of Dollhouse! We enjoyed it and are glad that they are going to continue the series. I also checked “Attend a home baseball game for the Cincinnati Reds” off my list.

Something I learned this week: I was surprised to learn that some cereals have high fructose corn syrup!! I would expect that from something like Fruit Loops or Frosted Flakes (oddly enough, Fruit Loops do not contain hfcs, but Frosted Flakes do). Cereals that surprised me were Raisin Bran, Corn Flakes, and Rice Krispies. I’m sure that there are many more. I guess I’ll have to be checking the labels more frequently. I’m happy to report that Cheerios do not contain hfcs. I would have been devastated.

Something I’m looking forward to next week: We’re going to visit my parents in Davidson and family in Athens, Georgia over the July 4th weekend.

Something random: I haven’t felt like blogging much lately…I scheduled a bunch of posts about a week before our Cincinnati trip, so I had been relaxing while posts were automatically published each day for about a week and a half! That was nice…wonder when I’ll get the energy to do that again.

Something I captured: This morning, Maddie wanted to put on this dress. At some point, Daddy made a visit to the bathroom. Maddie’s such a Daddy’s girl these days and couldn’t wait for Daddy to return and play with her. She waited not-so-patiently by the door and even brought over her toy drum to use as a stool while she waited. Hilarious.