Fun times at Logan's birthday party

Since Todd and I started CrossFit, we've met some pretty cool people.  I met Chad in my Elements class, and he and his wife Liz are super awesome.  The kids got invited to their son Logan's 3rd birthday party, which was at PlayTown Express in Hopkinton.  We are definitely going back there at some point!  (Probably on a cold, windy weekend in January).  Natalie and Grant just had a blast.

Grant discovered the Cozy Coupe and didn't want to get out.  In fact, he screamed when you took him out (uh oh, here we go!) until you could find him something else cool to play with, preferably something with wheels.  He played with trucks, and rode on the Step 2 Up and Down Roller Coaster (google it if you aren't familiar with it). 

I'm sensing a reoccurring theme here with Natalie:  Daredevil!  This slide was pretty steep, and the first time she went, she wanted me to go with her.  I might have gone a few more times, because it was really, really fun, but she went all on her own (over, and over, and over again!). 

Grant and Daddy had fun too.  This is after G had his bottle, a slice of pizza, and about a half a cupcake.  He's a happy guy after he eats!

I love the chaos that is kids birthday parties.  Just food and messes everywhere, lots of screaming and movement.  Natalie is in the pink shirt with the green party hat on.  She had been waiting all day for her cupcake and quickly devoured it.  She wanted another, so I gave her half of Grant's (he never seems to care one way or the other).  Thanks for a fun party Logan!!!

Trip to Florida - part 2

The second in a two part series, the Bailey family enjoys the rest of their Florida vacation!

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we all got to go out in the boat with Nana and Pop Pop.  We drove up to Clearwater and went to Frenchy's for dinner.

The weather was really nice, if maybe a bit cool with the breeze off of the cooler water.  But Natalie had a blast running around the boat and yelling, "Faster Pop Pop!"  See?  She really IS a dare devil!

Grant, on the other hand, was not as enthusiastic.  He didn't hate it, but he definitely wasn't sure of the life jacket.  And he didn't like the breeze in his face, so he sat behind the "windshield" with Daddy.  Here they are coming back from dinner.  The next morning, Pop Pop and Natalie were on the porch and they saw a big fishing boat and Pop Pop asked Natalie what the boat was doing and she replied, "Going to Frenchy's!"  Of course!!! 

The day before Thanksgiving, Uncle Coco, Aunt Brie, and Auntie Britt surprised us and showed up a day early!  So we all went to Largo Central Park and played on the playground and threw a football around without our shoes on.  Aaaaahhh, I love Florida!   Of course, Grant was too little to play, but he had a fun time on the towel (we discovered he does not like grass!) with his toys and Uncle Coco!

Thanksgiving morning, Grant caught a comfy nap on Pop Pop.  He was out for over a half hour!  He woke up all sweaty though, ha ha.  Todd, Coco, Brie and I all went to run the Turkey Trot.  I'm happy to say that I DID achieve my goal of a sub-9 mile, and ran the 1 mile in 8:49!  I also enjoyed a big, fat Diet Coke from McDonalds (they are so much better in the south) after the race, as well as 3 donuts and a hot whiskey!

After all of that running, I deserved this big plate of food.  Ok, we know it's not Paleo, but if you're eating Paleo on Thanksgiving, a day of mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, noodles, blueberry salad, and pie, you are CRAZY!!!

Trip to Florida - Part 1

For some reason, these "trips to Florida" posts are always in a series!

We left for Florida last Sunday to enjoy a week in the sun and 82 degree weather.  Whew!  Natalie started sweating as soon as she got off the plane!  Thankfully, I hadn't packed away her shorts and short sleeved shirts yet (Grant on the other hand, didn't own any shorts that fit!  But he did have a few short sleeved polo shirts).  We got to visit the Lowery Park Zoo on Monday and really had a blast.  More than I thought we would!  Both kids were very well behaved and Natalie was all jacked up over the animals and the rides! 

Oh the rides!  Natalie is such a dare devil.  I honestly can't believe it.  She always seems a little leery, but never really even hesitates to jump on bigger, scarier rides.

Such as this roller coaster.

The funniest part of this picture (other than Todd's dramatic face) is the little hand that is sticking up to the left of Todd.  She isn't even afraid to go hands free!!!!

We also rode the carousel.  She liked that the zebra went up and down as the carousel went around and around.  Geez, I seriously need a tan!!!

Lowery Park Zoo is much cooler than it used to be.  They have this great manatee tank that also has some fish and some sea turtles in it.  The manatees were so awesome.  But Natalie took a liking to this turtle that came right up to the big glass window and hung out while Natalie got up close and personal.

On the way home, she conked out while watching a DVD.  The DVD player was leaning on her face, she was out cold.  Must have been a good day at the zoo!!!

Grant's first haircut

Big boy was starting to look a bit like Tom Brady (shagtastic!), so we decided to get his haircut before we went to Florida. He was SO well behaved!  He moved around a lot - he wanted to see the lady cutting his hair, while she was cutting his hair, so it isn't the most even of haircuts, but at least he looks nice and trim!  He might be the sweetest kid ever!

A busy weekend

We had a pretty busy weekend, as usual.  It sort of started on Thursday when Todd was home with the kids all day for Veteran's Day. I don't get that day off, so I had to work.  But it looks like they had a good time.

On Saturday after gymnastics, it was such a beautiful day, we headed to the park.  Natalie and Daddy played while Grant and I hung out on a picnic blanket.  As you can see, Grant is showing his support for Cam Newton from all the way up here in Massachusetts!  Grant says, "I support you Cam Newton!  I sure hope you didn't do anything wrong, because I look up to you and love to watch you run around on the TV!  I hope you play for the Patriots some day!"

After our trip to the park, Natalie didn't want to get up in her chair to eat lunch (after repeatedly asking her), so she had to go down for a nap without lunch.  This was another massive tantrum, that wasn't finished by the time Grant had to go upstairs for his bottle of milk and his nap.  She heard Todd coming up the stairs, so she opened her door and followed him into Grant's room.  She laid down on the floor and promptly fell asleep!  And she was seriously snoring like crazy. I got some video of it- it's on smugmug.

Last but not least, Todd and I celebrated 5 blissful (!!!)  years of marriage on the 12th!  We went out to dinner at a Brazilian Steakhouse in Woburn - and yes, we ate Paleo!  Lots of meat, house salad, and sides of veggies, along with iced tea and Pellegrino.  They even brought out fried bananas!  YUM!   We didn't touch the other sides (although they looked good- rice, bread, beans, etc.) There IS a bottle of wine on the table, but that was unopened, quite sadly!

Happy 5th anniversary honey!

Kid update

I always feel like if I don't have pictures to post, what I have to say just isn't worthy. Okay, that is just crazy talk. My kids lives are totally worthy, to all 5 of my blog readers!

Natalie had her first progress report at preschool and it was a glowing review! She is polite and listens to her teachers. She loves playing on the playground with her friends (doing make believe/pretend) and really enjoys arts and crafts. The only black mark was her occasional tantrum that she throws when Todd comes to pick her up. It's usually when she is having a good time playing on the playground with her friends, and doesn't want to go home because she is having so much fun. As embarrassing as those tantrums are for Todd, I guess there are worse problems to have! As the teacher wrote in the report, "It's so good to see she is so happy here!"

Grant is moving all around now. He's a pretty speedy crawler, and he has started to pull himself to a stand. Todd has seen him take a step or two ("cruising"). But not really.

We have seen some great progress in Grant's eating too! I mean, he's always been a good eater. I've never seen him turn away from a food. He eats EVERYTHING. In stark contrast to his sister, who eats NOTHING. However, we were having some issues with textures, which he seems to be pretty much over. Lumpy, crunchy, you name it, he'll eat it. He will sometimes take too big of a bite and start gagging on it, but it's not because of the texture. His other issue was that he didn't want to be the one to feed himself. He wanted YOU to do it. He would cry and get upset if there was yummy looking food on his tray but you weren't giving it to him! I would just get up and walk away but the crying would escalate and... well... I'm an enabler, so I would go give it to him. Last night something must have clicked, because he just started picking up green beans and eating them! Todd said he ate about 12 (this is after I gave him about 12, then had to leave to go to the chiropractor). The thing is, he CAN do it. He was just choosing not to. I hope this trend continues!

Beast of the East

Todd, the kids and I went to watch some of the Beast of the East competition at CFNE this weekend.  I seriously doubt I'll ever be good enough to do something like this - those competitors were amazing!  But I have no doubts that I have the cutest family in the world!

Grant's 1 year statistics

The big fella went to the doctor for his 1 year checkup today.  The numbers are in: He's 31" tall (85th percentile), he weighs 22 lbs (45th percentile), and his head circumference is 47.5 cm (18.7 inches, 80th percentile).  That's a big boy! 

So a few things were going on... One, he's had crazy bad eczema for as long as I can remember.  But what happens this week/weekend?  Somehow, it randomly disappears!  Just in time for his doctor's appointment.  OK, so the doctor must think I'm crazy!  (Or Todd is crazy since he took him to the appointment!).  We also had to ask about switching to real milk, rather than formula, since he should be weaned off of the formula starting about now.  Todd gave him some milk on Sunday and he drank it right up, so I don't think we'll have any problems there.  We are also trying to give him "real" food but he seems to still have a problem with gagging.  He's making chewing motions and he likes the taste of things, he just can't get the idea of swallowing.  Dr. Meisheid said we just needed to KEEP giving it to him.  Last night he ate three tiny pieces of grilled chicken and did fine with it.  Obviously, the smaller they are, the less of a problem he's having.  But most of what we give him is pretty small. 

Lastly, he recently had an ear infection so Dr. Meisheid checked that too.  She said the infection is gone but there is still fluid in his ears, so she said this is the classic set up for get an ear infection, get some antibiotics, it goes away briefly, and 3 weeks later we are back at the doctor's for another ear infection (and then she eventually writes us a referral to an ENT for tubes!).  We were concerned about traveling for Thanksgiving, so Dr. Meisheid said for him to come back the Friday before we leave and she would check him again.

Oh one more thing, he got his chicken pox vaccine and his first flu shot vaccine.  He needs to get the follow up for that one in a few weeks.  They don't do the MMR until 15 months, whew.  Natalie got her measles shot at 12 months and was SO sick.  I'm glad that one is delayed!

Halloween 2010

Halloween was way more fun this year than I expected it to be.  We went out with our friends Tiffany and Chris and their twins Jackson and Samantha.  Grant this year was a lobstah (as they say up here...), and Natalie was a fairy princess.  This was the first year she decided what she wanted to be.  And she picked out her own costume.

My little lobster was told that he looked "good enough to eat with butter and garlic!"   

Natalie and Grant took over the Kelley's stroller!  The Kelley kids wanted to run around.  Mine wanted to sit and be pushed around.

Finally Natalie got out and walked, with Tiffany pushing Maddie and Jackson in the stroller, with Sammi walking in her Minnie Mouse costume (Maddie is Jackson and Sammi's cousin).

Natalie, how do you feel about this year's trick or treating adventure?  Thumbs up!

Grant's 1st Birthday Party

Grant's 1st birthday party was held at my in-laws house in Plymouth.  Todd's two sisters and their families (minus Madison and Uncle Gordie) were also there, as well as Aunt Betty.  We had some cake, witch cupcakes (hand made by Carole and they were so cute... I really wanted one!  But it's not Paleo, sniff sniff...), and ice cream, followed by some present opening.

 

We got Grant this funny hat, and he wasn't sure what to make of it at first... but he never tried to yank it off or anything!

Grant obviously can't blow out his own candle yet, so he had some help from his big cousin Seth, his parents, and big Sis Natalie.

I captured a couple of sweet pictures of the kids.  I love the first one where they are both laughing.  Grant didn't dive into his cake as I had hoped (but in reality, I knew he wouldn't).  He's just like his mama, in that he doesn't like to get his hands dirty.  He has never liked anyone touching or grabbing his hands either.  Natalie didn't like anyone touching her face.  But she was always fine with the hands (as evident by her first birthday where she shoved a whole piece of cake in her mouth!).  Grant really liked the cake, but only if you were spoon feeding it to him!

I also took this cute picture of some of the Bailey boys (well, Gordon is a Fitch!).  We have big, big cousin Gordon, Seth, Daddy and the birthday boy, who is sticking his tongue out.  They all look so cute!

Overall, I think Grant was a little overwhelmed.  He is getting over an ear infection and has some molars coming in, so he's been a little cranky lately.  I can't wait until next year when I think he'll be a little more into it!