Head colds, bath time, crawling around, superyard barricade

The boy and I both woke up with stuffy noses this morning, and Andrew stated tonight that he is not feeling 100% either. So the Freed household is under quarantine for a few days!

"Good morning!"

Greg took his first bath in the big tub at home today. I now understand the importance of bath toys. He was trying to crawl away and grab the shower sprayer the entire time!

"This bath is for me!"

Reading the ingredients, upside down

It is pretty tough to get anything done these days while Greg is awake. He's always crawling to something that he wants to investigate, whether or not it is safe for him! Putting away laundry goes pretty smoothly though since he can be occupied by an assortment of distractions in our bedroom.

Gratuitous cute picture

There are the blinds, which I pulled up so he wouldn't bend them and therefore uncovered the window. That was fascinating!

Checking out the view

There's that pesky red light on the power strip under my dresser. He tried to get to it from next to the dresser this time - tricky!

Trying to get to the red light from a different angle

His favorite activity was attacking his mama after she lied down on the floor.

Attack the Mama!

The superyard barricade is up, protecting our electronics in the family room. So far, so good! We'll see how long it takes him to figure out how to knock it over.

The electronics are protected - for now

Squealing, tooth #5?, Andrew at home, cleaning the superyard

Oh boy, Gregory has perfected the squealing noise. It is so loud, but we try to ignore it. I seek comfort in the fact that this is the third time he's gone through a squealing phase. It does end eventually, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

It appears that tooth #5 may be coming in, so maybe that's the reason for the squealing? He was definitely out of sorts today. He may also be getting back into our normal routine after the trip this past weekend.

Andrew worked from home today and he tried to keep Greg and I smiling whenever he had the chance.

"Hi Dad!"

I cleaned off the superyard this afternoon. We are looking forward to barricading the TV stand so Greg can't get near it!

Planning his next move

Executing his next move

The move - attacking mama!

Baby curls

Heading home, what nap?, Shamrock shake, early bedtime

We were happy to spend a few more hours with the Andrew's family this morning before heading to the airport. Greg's cousins were there, so it was a little busy, but fun!

Sadie and Cassidy hiding under our beds

We had to leave the house at 9:30 AM, which is a little beyond the normal nap time start for Greg. We decided to keep him awake before departure and see if he would sleep in the car on the way there since it is a 45-minute trip. He finally fell asleep at 10:04 AM and we pulled up to the terminal at 10:15 AM. Eleven minutes of sleep! Oh boy...

After a cranky check-in attendant and an out-of-service elevator, the rest of the pre-board festivities went really well. We were able to skip the long security line and go through the short-wait family-only line - thanks Greg!

And the best part of the whole trip? Shamrock shake at McDonald's! YUMMY! They don't sell that flavor in North Carolina, so I always try to find it when I travel. Last year I was up north at the beginning of March and had one every day for a week. Greg was probably turning green in utero.

Behold, the Shamrock shake!

This was our toughest flight with Greg thus far. He was exhausted and would not fall asleep. He was not happy to sit still for long. Plus he had learned a new squealing noise and was glad to share it on the plane. It could have been worse, but it was not fun. We were all happy to land. He was asleep within about three minutes of getting in our car.

Only picture from the plane today - so serious

Knocked out on the way home from the airport

The dogs were very happy to see us when we got back. Greg went straight to his crib for a nap and Andrew worked from home. My brain was shot from dealing with a fussy baby on the plane, so I took it easy for a bit.

Greg's nap was only an hour, so he was still short on sleep for the rest of the afternoon. He went to bed early without complaint. We will all sleep well tonight!

There's the happy boy! (This would have been such a cute picture!)

Doing some exercises

Singing performance, Heritage, family get-together

Andrew and his parents joined his sister Amy's family at church this morning to watch Cassidy in a singing performance with her preschool class. Greg and I stayed home so he could take his nap.

We met up with Amy's family for lunch at the Franconia Heritage. Yes, the Heritage two days in a row! The girls enjoyed feeding puffs to Greg.

When we got back, Greg ate his lunch and then went down for a nap. The rest of us did the final preparations for the dinner get-together. Both sides of the family were invited, so it was going to be a big crowd!

The guests arrived throughout the late afternoon. We were able to take pictures of the great grandchildren on both sides - six on one side, five on the other. Ages ranged from four years to five weeks. Throughout the evening there were 35 people in the Freed household! We were very happy to see everyone.

Breakfast buffet, nap complications, grandparent visit, birthday celebration, kid time

We started off this morning stuffing ourselves on the breakfast buffet at Franconia Heritage. Greg enjoyed eating his puffs and he tried sweet potato fries. Not a big fan of the texture - no surprise!

Greg was rubbing his eyes and ears while we will still eating breakfast, which is a clear sign of sleepiness. Since he ate plenty of puffs, I decided to skip his solid breakfast and go directly to nap. To make a long story short, he finally went to sleep after babbling, fussing, diaper change, crying, solid foods, more crying, visit with a friend, and extreme crying.

Andrew's maternal grandparents stopped by for a visit after Greg woke up. He enjoyed showing off his crawling and standing on furniture skills.

Andrew's sister Amy and her family arrived in the late afternoon for a birthday celebration for Andrew, Amy, and her husband Josh. March is a busy birthday month! We took pictures of Greg and his cousins Cassidy, Sadie, and Luke. Then we took the big family group picture. It is certainly an interesting experience with ten people involved!

We had a great taco dinner and followed it up with a chocolate cake that Amy made. Delicious!

It was fun spending time with everyone and watching the different stages of the kids. Cassidy (4) and Sadie (2.5) rode on Uncle Andrew and Pop-pop's shoulders, Greg (almost 10 months) crawled from toy to toy, and Luke (5 months) watched the entire scene.

Now we're down to four adults and we're enjoying a snack of soft pretzels. Notice a trend? Andrew and I love to eat when we have visitors or when we are the visitors!

Travel preparations, plane ride, arrive at Memaw and Pop-pop's

Most of today was quite the blur for me. I was rushing around from the time that I woke up until we ran out the door to go to the airport. "Why do I always do this to myself?" I thought. "Why do I wait to pack until the last minute?" The more I thought about it though, it's not the packing that gets me. It's all of the other odds and ends - doing laundry so you can take certain items, paying bills, writing instructions for the pet sitter, feeding the baby, bathing the baby, etc, etc, etc. If all I needed to do was pack, I'd be golden.

We got to the airport with reasonable time to get situated. Going through security is always a mind-taxing process for me. Backpack, diaper bag, stroller, shoes, liquids, jackets/sweatshirts. Whew! Andrew had to go through one of the new scanners, but I didn't because I was holding Greg. We were able to take a sippy cup filled with water. The woman was very nice and explained that she needed to run a test on it. She simply held up a scanner of some sort to the top of cup - didn't need to open it or anything.

Our flight was on time, so we boarded at ~1:45 PM. I found a good seat for us and I could tell by the look of the woman behind us that she was not too pleased about the close proximity of a baby. At least two people looked like they were going to sit in our row, only to keep moving once they saw Greg. We call it "baby repellent" - our baby repels them!

By the time we took off, Greg was ~2 hours overdue for a nap. I was really hoping that he would settle down and sleep on the plane. Well, he did not. But he was a real trooper. He spent the whole flight in Andrew's lap. Greg stayed busy by smiling at the aforementioned woman behind us, playing with a new book, and taking puffs from me and feeding himself.

We landed after a little over an hour in the air and headed to baggage claim. We met up with Andrew's dad there. While waiting for the luggage, I noticed that another baby from the flight was starting to get fussy. We had met briefly while waiting for our strollers after the flight, so I pushed Greg over to say hello again. She stopped crying when she saw him. Crisis averted! The mother thanked me for stopping by.

Greg finally took a nap on the way home from the airport. We got to briefly see Andrew's paternal grandparents upon our arrival. Then we had empanadas for dinner. Delicious! Greg had his first store-bought versions of green beans and sweet potatoes. I truly do not have a problem with store-bought food, it certainly has its place, but it just isn't the same as homemade!

Greg had some good play time with Memaw and Pop-pop after dinner. He played with the music table, xylophone, books, and was introduced to the ball popper. He loved it!

They each read a book to Greg before sleepy time. After he was tucked into bed, Ron, Debbie, and Andrew went for a dip in the hot tub. The current outside temperature is 33 degrees. Elise doesn't participate in hot tub time in that kind of weather! Brr!

Eating strike, playdate, "new" music table, Max takes the big bed

Where has my son gone? He has been replaced by a baby that doesn't eat every morsel that we put in front of him. Mealtime has been a struggle for the past two days. I didn't even try to feed him any of his dislikes today.  He is acting fine otherwise, so I am not worrying about it. We'll file it under the always-keeping-me-guessing category!

We went to a playdate at the house of our friends Leslie, Vivienne, and Miles today. Babies, babies, and more babies! Ten in total. Some were on the move, some observed for crawling tips. Give it a few months and all of the mommies will be chasing babies around. How will we be able to carry on a decent conversation?!

"Hey, they have a music table too!"

Babies everywhere!

Happy babies

I had another successful Craigslist pickup today. Greg loves his music table, but he has flipped the page on it so much that it no longer works. The rest of the table still functions, but only on one mode. And he really loved the page-turning noise. So I hunted down another one on Craigslist, including the Spanish-speaking mode. Now we get to learn new words en español. «¡Arriba!»

I have been packing on and off all day for our journey to Pennsylvania tomorrow. This weekend will be Greg's third and fourth time on a plane. His last flights were almost half of his life ago! Here's hoping he is a happy boy on the plane!

Last night there was a rare sighting: Max and Hank were sharing the big bed. Max usually never goes near that bed for fear of Scout, but he has slept on it several times in the past week. Maybe he's figured out that it's a lot more comfy than the other bed that has basically been smashed into a pancake. Hank still goes for the recliner for overnight accommodations and I'm too much of a softy to kick him off.

Rare sighting

"Yeah, I'm on the recliner. So what?"

Bonus pictures:

"Mama, I reorganized the shelf for you!"

42 Weeks

Superyard on Craigslist, playground fun, Happy Birthday to Andrew

I had been on the hunt for a superyard play yard on Craigslist for quite a while. They are posted occasionally, but they are often priced close to what you can buy a new one for on Amazon. Yesterday I did my usual search and a new listing appeared! Eight panels for $35, which is half the price of a new set. I called immediately to say that I was interested.

The seller and I agreed to a pick up on Wednesday. He gave me his address and later I looked it up on Google Maps to get an idea of where it was. Then I typed it into the GPS before Greg and I left to go pick it up. I drove down the street looking at the house numbers: **0, **2, **4... and reached the end of the cul-de-sac with no **6 in existence. Google found **6, the GPS found **6. Where is **6? Luckily the seller was easy to reach on his phone. Either I got it wrong or he told me the wrong number. The real one was **4.

The superyard itself was in good shape and the seller was very nice. A Craigslist success!

Greg and I met up with some playgroup friends at a local playground this afternoon. He went swinging and then played in the mulch with his pals.

Greg's friend shuffled over to say hello

"Hi!"

Checking out the mulch and sticks

Today is Andrew's birthday. Happy birthday, hubby! I got a card for him "from Greg" that had a frog on it and said "Hoppy birthday, Daddy." Father and son celebrated the day by reading the "best book ever" - Nobody Listens to Andrew.

Reading before bed

Around the house, swinging and sandbox, another bee, stairs investigation

Tuesday was a stay-around-the-house day. I worked on laundry and tidying up the kitchen. Greg worked on exploring the house. At one point I looked over to see Greg standing there holding onto Max's tail. Greg was proud of himself. Max is such a champ.

The knees are red from crawling everywhere

He doesn't sit still for long

"I'm coming to get you, Mama!"

It was a very warm day, but it was nice under the deck. Greg and I spent some time swinging and then playing in the sandbox. I'm pretty sure that I am still having more fun with the sand than he is.

There was another bee on the back deck, so Andrew took care of that one like he did the others. Go away, bees!

Andrew and Greg investigated the stairs in the evening. Greg was interested in checking everything out and even put his knee on the first step momentarily.

"Dad and I are checking out the stairs."

"This banister is pretty funny, Dad!"

We took a nice walk with the dogs after the temperature cooled off outside. We all enjoyed the fresh air.

Gran and Opa depart, playgroup x 2, bees and wasps attack

Greg spent his Monday morning hanging out with his Opa and Gran. They departed after he went down for his first nap. We all had a great time during the visit! Thank you to Mom and Dad for all of their help!

Monday was a busy playgroup day and Greg's naps were timed to near perfection. We met up with some friends at Panera for lunch. Then we met up again with two of the three mommy/baby combos and several others for a walk on a local greenway.

Lately we have noticed that some carpenter bees and wasps have been hanging out on our back deck. We'd rather that they were not there because:

1. I am allergic to yellow jackets and I don't want to find out if I'm allergic to any other stinging things
2. The dogs try to eat them

Andrew took it upon himself to protect his family. Armed with a fly swatter, he entered into battle on the deck. By the end he had killed a wasp and two carpenter bees, the last one with a "Chase Utley mid-air strike."

Looking all grown up!

Gran and Opa's visit: Sunday recap

Sunday started off how it often does when company visits - breakfast at Brigs!

Dad's main project of the day was installing a gate at the top of the stairs. The moulding on the wall and near the floor made this endeavor it more difficult. It required him to add pieces of wood behind the gate attachments. This is the kind of challenge that he seems to love, and I am more than willing to let him enjoy it!

The rest of us spent some time outside in the afternoon. Greg went swinging, Mom and I tied up and prune some roses, and Andrew tended to the yard - mostly weeding along the fence. Hank went outside too - all 5% of himself.

"What? This is comfy!"

Andrew and I made a rare trip to the grocery store together without the boy. It feels weird going anywhere without Greg!

Mom and I went to Fresh Market later to pick up chicken and beef pot pies for dinner. They were pretty good!

Gran and Opa's visit: Saturday recap

Mom and I started off Saturday morning by going to a consignment sale in Apex. We found some nice shirts and shorts for Greg. Andrew went to play football, so Dad and Greg held down the fort for a while. (Andrew found out that this was the last day of football for a while. The "bumblebee" kiddie soccer takes over the field next week.)

Our friends Jess and Mark came to visit in the afternoon. Greg enjoyed playing with them and the adults enjoyed good conversation. I also made an awe-inspiring Duplo pyramid - everyone was impressed I'm sure!

After Greg's nap we headed out to Lowe's hardware and then to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. Greg made his first appearance on a meal bill even though he didn't eat any of their food (under 2 eat free). He did do a good job eating his pureed veggies from home.

It was soon time for Greg's bedtime when we got home. Gran read to him before he went to sleep.

"Simon James Alexander Ragsdale the Third"

Mom, Dad, and I headed out again afterward - Lowe's trip #2 for Dad and TJ Maxx / Home Goods for the ladies. For Greg, I found some swim shirts and a outfit that has swimming floats sewn in. He is set on water gear now!

Meeting with friends, Gran and Opa arrive, birthday cake

On Friday, we were to meet with two of my friends around 11:30 AM. I warned them that Greg's napping schedule is shifting, so that we might be late. We arrived at 12:25 PM. They were very kind to be that flexible! We met to discuss the Girl Scout backpacking trip that the three of us are leading in June. I am really looking forward to it!

My parents arrived for a weekend visit in the 4:00 hour. Greg was sleeping when they got here, so we were as quiet as we could be. When he woke up, he was a little weary of our company, but he warmed up to them quickly!

We walked up to Five Guys for dinner. It was a nice temperature outside for the stroll there and back.

After our return, it was soon Greg's bed time. Gran and Opa helped get him ready for bed and read his book to him. He showed off his new talent - turning the pages!

Mom made Andrew a red velvet cake for his birthday. After the quickest rendition of "Happy Birthday" that I could mumble, we dug in to it for dessert.

We finished off the evening watching the DVRed nightly news and an episode of Dirty Jobs.

I forgot to download Mom's pictures from the weekend on to my computer before they left, so I won't have many pictures to post!

St. Patrick's Day, playgroup, "new" toy, standing in crib

Sorry that I am so far behind on my daily recaps. My parents were visiting this weekend and I was spending time with them instead of in front of the computer!

Last Thursday was St. Patrick's Day. Greg and I did our part by wearing green shirts.

We went to a playgroup get-together at a friend's house. She made brunch for the mamas and it was delicious! I also brought my festive green-sprinkled snickerdoodles. Greg enjoyed exploring a new environment to crawl in. We had a wide range of ages again - I love to watch all of the different stages!

On the move in new territory

The weather was gorgeous and the dog enjoyed time on the deck.

Happy to be shaved down

Sunlight = Hank approved

I had time to clean up one of the toys that I picked up on Wednesday. Greg enjoyed playing with the new item while I tidied up the house for my parents' arrival on Friday.

"This toy is fun!"

Now Greg really likes to stand up in his crib and he can even stand in the sleep sack!

"Standing up in here is a piece of cake!"

41 Weeks

Busy Wednesday

Wednesday was a busy busy day for me.

7:15 AM - Wake up, eat breakfast, get ready.
8:15 AM - Greg wakes up, feed Greg.
8:30 AM - Pack up dogs in the truck.
8:45 AM - Bathe Scout and Hank.
9:45 AM - Shave Max.
11:15 AM - Bathe Max.
12:15 PM - Drive back home with the dogs.
12:30 PM - Feed Greg.
12:45 PM - Collect all of the dog beds to wash them.
1:05 PM - Take shower.
1:25 PM - Leave for NE Raleigh.
2:05 PM - Meet up with woman to pick up her Craig's List items (toys for Greg).
2:15 PM - Drive home.
2:45 PM - Hang up the dog beds to dry.
3:00 PM - Eat "lunch."

The rest of the day was more laid back. We went on a walk with the dogs around 4:30 PM. I also made snickerdoodle cookies after Greg went to sleep.

Thank you so much to my wonderful husband for working from home so that he could take care of Greg while I was busy with everything!

Lesson learned on traveling that distance for a Craig's List deal - too far!

Max's haircut process:

Before

Lion cut
Don't worry, it was very temporary!

"Roar!" says Max the lion.

After

Boxing up clothes, exploration and conquest

Tuesday was another odds and ends day around the house. Now that I had Greg's little clothes in the appropriate piles, it was time to organize (sleepers, onesies, pants) and then box them up. It seemed like my boxes weren't where I left them...

"I'm going to move this box for you, Mama."

"How do you like it over here?"

Then my "help" decided to go exploring.

"Let's see what is down this way."

"What an interesting contraption! Your foot won't stop me from touching it!"

Moving on...

I was able to keep him occupied by bringing in toy kitchen reinforcements.

"Where are all of my veggies? I could go for some sweet potatoes right now."

In the end he did help with boxing everything up.

"Here, Mama, this box is ready!"

We headed downstairs after we finished tidying up Greg's room. The rest of my day was spent keeping him out of trouble. Pulling on the speaker, the jumperoo, the diaper bag, and Max's tail are all too much fun!

The speaker shudders in fear

Not how the jumperoo is typically used

Diaper bag acquired. Eyeing up next conquest. Hank tries to act cool.