NY Road Trip

We made it to my parents' and it has been fun so far. The road trip portion wasn't nearly as bad as I had worried it might be. It took us 3 days to get to NY and we left each morning between 10 and 12 (12pm, 11am, 10am or so). We drove about 6 - 6 1/2 hours each day with a nice stop for lunch in the middle (usually about an hour to an hour and a half). We ate at Chik-Fil-A 4 times during our trip, which made John very happy. They boys really liked it too! They had chicken nuggets, fruit, and apple juice. They also had these disposable place mats that stuck to the table for kids, they were great! Both hotels we stayed at were very nice too.

The first day went really well. The boys handled the drive well and all the changes to their routine. We stopped in Des Moines for lunch and the mall there is fantastic. They have a huge rest area in the food court with several rooms for families to use along with couches and a children's area. They had a couple family rest rooms with kid size things, a baby changing room, and a nursing mother's room. Dinner was a little of a disappointment though. We stopped at Steak & Shake (which John loves but they don't have any near us) and sadly the food was not very good. I guess they were having a training night and most of the kitchen staff were training. It took forever to get our food; by the time it came Oliver was a pretty big fussy-pants. When we finally got our food it wasn't too tasty, mine was wrong, and I never got my french fries. The poor waitress was really nice though and very apologetic; from what we could tell it was like that for the rest of the people in the restaurant. When we went to pay the manager was very nice and gave us our meal for free, hopefully when we swing back through on our way home it will be better. We ended up going across the street to Chik-Fil-A for some nuggets and lemonade (man is it good!) on our way back to the hotel.

Day 2 went well also. Lunch went well again, they had a play area for kids at that one. It was great, we let the boys run (well toddle) around for awhile before we got back in the car. Oliver was just big enough to climb up into the big kids area. So I followed him up and took him down the slide, which he loved! Then I took Owynn up so he could go down the slide too; he thought it was great also. Oliver started getting a little fussy about a half an hour from our hotel, but he stayed fairly happy until we got there with some toys I gave him. We were pretty worn out by the time we got there and it was late, due in part to the time zone change. We ended up getting subs from this tiny little place across the street from the hotel and they were fantastic! I haven't had a sub that yummy in a long time! We got the boys a little sub to split and they even liked theirs.

Day 3 I was pretty anxious to get going since we were getting to my parents' that night. The morning for me was pretty gross. About an hour before we were supposed to get to our lunch stop my motion sickness hit me. I had been taking medication to prevent it non stop our whole drive, I don't know what I did differently but I was feeling pretty awful by the time we stopped. I managed to eat some lunch and we took an extra long stop until I finally felt better. I got a surprisingly yummy chicken caesar wrap at Chik-Fil-A. I took some more medication before we left and I didn't have any problems at all during the rest of our drive. It was very odd. Oliver got fussy again about half an hour or so before we got here, but again toys helped him. Owynn was great and didn't make a fussy peep the whole drive.

We got here around 7pm and surprisingly beat both my parents home from work. Sammy and Jeff were here though to greet us. It's been a nice and relaxing visit so far. The boys have been sleeping great too, even though we are all sharing a room. They have also been napping great too, so far today they've been asleep for almost 3 hours now. Easter was a lot of fun too! The Easter Bunny was great to everyone. The boys, especially Oliver, have been thrilled with all the animals here (3 cats and 3 dogs).

Happy Easter and Passover!

Owynn's 1st Trip to the ER

I came home from work today and the boys were both sound asleep napping on the floor. When they woke up Owynn was fussy and crawled into my lap and he was super warm. He had been whiny, and generally more fussy and clingy the past day or so. We took his temp and it had spiked up to 102.7. So John's parents came right over to watch Oliver while we took Owynn to the ER. They checked him all out and tested him for the flu and rsv. They took nasal swabs which Owynn hated. He also cried a lot when the Dr. looked in his ears and when the Dr. had to clean out some earwax from his ears. I don't think I have ever seen Owynn cry so hard. The Dr. said it looks like an ear infection and got him started on an antibiotic. They gave Owynn a dose of ibuprofen and sent us home. We are supposed to follow up with our pediatrician in the next few days. We also are supposed to give him pretty much around the clock scheduled dosing of tylenol and advil to keep his fever at bay for the next 24 hours. By the time he went to bed Owynn's fever had dropped quite a bit and he was acting a lot more normal. I really hope he is feeling better in the morning.

My Birthday

I decided I wanted to post a bit about my birthday. Which is going to be a fun 2-parter =) I had to work on my birthday, but it wasn't too bad. John's parents sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers at work. John and the boys picked me up at the end of my day and took me to dinner. We decided to go to Red Robin because it is always yummy and is family friendly (which is a big deal to us now). I had the whiskey river bbq burger which is always delicious. The boys were anxious to eat and Oliver stole a fry off John's plate as soon as the server put it on the table. The boys were soooo good! I am starting to wonder why this keeps surprising me, they are always so good when we take them out. Our goal was to have them on a loose schedule, but to be flexible when we changed their routine. During the day John had kept them out running errands all day, he even took them to lunch at Runza, just the three of them. Right now John has been working hard at preparing them for our vacation. My mom has said that while we are she will bake me a cake =) (yay!) and we can celebrate my birthday a bit while we are there.

I can't express how excited I am about our trip. Only 3 more days of work to go! Well I suppose it's bedtime. This was kind of a sleep rambling post.

Cuteness, Fighting, and Vacation

I am counting down the days until I am off of work and our vacation starts. It has finally started to hit me, we have so much to do to get ready! I have 4 more days of work and we leave in a week. =) I have 3 weeks off and it is going to be wonderful! I am sure we will have a busy weekend of cleaning and packing, but then we leave for NY on Tuesday. It will take us 3 days to get to my parents. I really hope the boys handle the drive well. Last time we went they were 7 months old and were just learning how to crawl. Now they are 14 months and walking. John has planned our trip really well though, we will be traveling 6 hours each day and should be able to keep close to their schedule. I'm nervous about the drive, but I really can't wait to see my family.

Yesterday (Sunday) the boys were alternating between being absolutely adorable and grumpy fussy-pants. They were both very needy all day and just wanted Mommy to hold them. At one point during the day Oliver toddled up to me and gave me a BIG hug and kiss, then toddled away. It melted my heart, I love when they do things like that.
Owynn woke up from his nap before Oliver did; so when John got home Owynn was sitting on my lap. I fed him some chicken from the salad John was eating, he ate quite a bit of it. But apparently when he was done, he was done. He said "all done" and then spit out the chicken left in his mouth onto my shirt. It was kind of yucky, but John and I laughed pretty hard. Later in the day though both boys were pretty fussy. They have been fighting over toys a lot lately. Owynn took a toy out of Oliver's hands that he was playing with. Instead of taking his toy back, Oliver got really mad and pushed Owynn. I wasn't quite expecting to be dealing with this kind of behavior already. I told them both no and put them in their chairs, and after some tears everything was ok. They know when Mommy says no and gets upset they are really in trouble, I get tears every time. =(

Well I suppose it's bedtime, I have the early shift tomorrow and I need to get at least a few hours sleep.

Time Alone

I got home from work tonight to find everyone napping; they boys' were in their cribs and John was laying down because he wasn't feeling too well. I got about an hour and a half of blissful peace and quiet all by myself. It was exactly what I needed, and I didn't even know it. I spent my time mostly on FB and reading some articles online; and polishing off the other half of my Ben and Jerry's. It's been a very stressful few weeks here. Right now I am counting down the days until my vacation (8).

I decided yesterday that it really had gotten too much and so John and I should do something for ourselves to help make us feel a little bit better. I finally decided on picking up ingredients for a really yummy dinner at home. We had shrimp cocktail, snow crabs legs, asparagus, bacon cheddar twice baked potatoes, and Ben & Jerry's. I also make John a big blender full of non-alcoholic Pina Coladas. It was great!

I am very thankful tomorrow is Friday! I am looking forward to this weekend a lot, even though I'm sure we will be very busy. I'll be at home with my family instead of at work, and that makes me happy =).

The boys have been both fighting more recently and ridiculously cute. John said the other day that Owynn kept tickling Oliver while Oliver was getting a diaper change. Oliver thought it was hysterical! Owynn found my pink Red Sox hat tonight and kept putting it on his head, he thought he was very smart =). Oliver had John's Chiefs hat and was equally cute.

It's late, I supposed I should go to bed. Good Night!