San Diego

Traveling with a toddler isn't ever a piece of cake. But, we made it to San Diego with very few headaches. I had fully planned on posting from our hotel room, but we weren't able to reply to e mail messages or post on the blog. Everything else worked - but now I have to play catch up! I'm going to try and put everything in order and post it in order also. We'll see how that goes. Get ready for a lot of pictures!

First vehicle of the day was the ride to the airport in our car. Here we are on the park and ride bus, vehicle #2 (tee hee).

#3 Airplane! And here is what we did to entertain the busy boy - we watched Elmo until the battery ran out. Unfortunately, the only nap of the day occurred about 15 minutes before landing and then he woke up when the flight crew made 68574685461968968498132459687 announcements over the loudspeakers.

More Elmo. I love the so serious expression!

Here we are in Phoenix riding in the stroller (state #7 for William I think?)

After a long day, we finally arrived in San Diego! The lovely people at the volunteer visitor's bureau took one look at all of our bags (2 suitcases, 1 stroller, 1 carseat, 1 baby backpack, 4 pieces of carry on luggage, and 1 wiggly monkey) and promptly offered us a free luggage cart.

Even with the cart, we were struggling to make it the 2 blocks to the hotel shuttle.

After checking into the hotel, it was time to run around. Here John tries to keep William out of one of the many fountains.
Red leaves
Everyone is still dry...
Sometimes you just can't get a great picture. After running off some steam, we went to our room and attempted to put William down for a nap. We were concerned with the time difference being two hours earlier he would be crashing before we had time for dinner. By some miracle, he cooperated and took a nice hour long nap (and so did we!). Grandma and Grandpa got to the hotel around dinnertime and we were so happy to see them! We went out to dinner at a Mexican place in Old Town. Although he didn't eat anything, he did have a great time playing with the Grandparents and waitress.
Smiling baby! But not eating...
After dinner, we walked to the Old Town San Diego State Historic Park -very cool area in San Diego. I think this might have been my favorite place we saw on our trip.
William and Grandpa
Riding on a wagon! This picture makes me think that riding on a wagon was a lot of fun for the men and children and a daily heart attack of stress for women trying to keep their kids from falling/being run over/etc. New perspective for me!
Grandma pushing William into the fountain
There is this interesting little cometary in the Old Town section that had some unmarked graves near the walls of the cemetery. When the walls got moved and streets pave, now it has people buried under the street!If you look carefully, there is a gold circle grave marker in the pavement below and slightly to the right of the tire on the car.
We also celebrated John's birthday with my parents - here he is all excited about his new socks!
When we hang out with the McGarry's, it is always game time in the evenings. The only problem was the lack of playing surfaces in our hotel room. So, we got creative and pulled out the ironing board for our game of dominoes!
Warning: William is now able to open door handles shaped like this. This could mean trouble for you if you don't have a lock on the bathroom door (we did not in our hotel room). Although I was glad to not have to worry about him locking himself into the bathroom by himself, we both were surprised by a visitor more than once!
It was chilly for a swim! But, what else can you do to entertain a very loud little person at 7am?
How did I get to be the lucky one in the pool? And yes, our baby does have the cutest ever farmer tan.
I thought it would be fun to warm up in the hot tub as the [heated] pool felt like it was about 55 degrees. The hot tub felt about 565468746451 degrees. That didn't make a happy camper out of either of us. Here I am trying to convince William to stay in just a minute longer....please?

After swimming and a big breakfast, we walked over to the trolley station.
Buying tickets and William checking out the trolley
We debated about not bringing this backpack with us because it is big and kind of awkward. And it doesn't fit into any of our suitcases. But William LOVED being in it and was SO much better than the stroller. I think he liked to be able to see what was going on and checking things out.
Riding the trolley still in the backpack (please note: William's first trolley ride)
When we got off the trolley, we found ourselves a wonderful boat tour of the San Diego area. For some reason, it seemed like a good idea to take William out of the backpack shortly after this picture was taken. He was delighted to spend the hour long tour running here and there and generally giving me a heart attack every time I turned around. Next boat tour he will be strapped to something. Regardless of his age. (please note: first boat ride)
Mama and William ride the boat. A lot of the tour was about the military vehicles that are parked in the water in the San Diego area. I would tell you all about it, but I wasn't really listening. If you're interested, John could tell you about it. Ask him.
But, I didn't miss this guy! He was huge!

We ordered a pizza for lunch and while we waited for it to be ready, Grandma took William on his first merry go round ride!
He wasn't really into the sitting on the horse part. He was all about the putting his fingers into the horse's mouth and nose part though.

After lunch, John and my dad went to tour this military boat called the Midway while I took William back to the hotel with Grandma for his nap. I don't think either of us was disappointed about missing this tour!
Very cool arty picture John took while on the midway I'm guessing - see the tiny couple walking on the lawn to the left of the statue?
And finally, the Fred's we have been hearing about for so long....William checked out the menu at a Mexican restaurant that evening while we waited for Uncle Mike to arrive.

Happy Birthday Dada!

Today is John's birthday. We're running around like crazy trying to get things pulled together for our trip tomorrow. Happy Birthday to you dada! You get to mow the lawn! And pack! And charge all electronics! And find all the stuff mama can't find!

Luckily, we were able to make it a little special by squeezing in a low key dinner at our favorite steakhouse down the street, a big trip to Lowes to exchange a vanity (long story, not very interesting), and topped off by ice cream cake from DQ. A perfect combination for a busy day that had a very long to do list. It will be late before we are all tucked away in bed this evening. [Note to self: next year schedule the cake earlier. Although funny, it was not a smart move to serve the ice cream cake half an hour before bedtime].

William helping Mama put together the shelf John requested for his birthday (actually, he requested Mariocart. But, they were all out of that - so on to the next request!).
More helping
Helping sing to dada and pointing at the cake
Still trying to get him to sing...not working

Ice cream cake!
Finally! Eating!

*I wish I had an after picture, but it was straight into the tub from here!*

Possibly Reclusive

I went to the doctor today. I'm having some swelling along my hip line that has become very painful when any type of pressure is applied to it (leaning on the counter, rolling over in bed, William leaning on me or kicking his feet while I hold him). As I suspected, I have a very swollen lymph node along my hip which is probably due to the bite of some kind I got last week around Wednesday or Thursday. The bite area is on the back of my upper right leg usually covered by shorts. Over the weekend, it was hot and very itchy and HUGE. I would guess at its largest, it measured about 6 inches wide by about 4-5 inches long. If you saw me this weekend and it appeared that I was itching my backside, I apologize. The professional medical doctor I saw today agreed with my self diagnosis and went a step further to say that the bite appears to be a classic Brown Recluse spider bite. She said that up to 60% of people who are bitten by these spiders do not have a severe reaction. Her explanation is that I was bitten by some spider on Wednesday or Thursday and my body reacted by Friday with the very swollen lymph nodes which is exactly what my body should be doing. So, the treatment at this time is to use anti inflammatories to help with the swelling and pain. The good news is that we are still okay to fly out to San Diego on Wednesday of this week.

What? I didn't tell you we were going to San Diego? Well, for your information we will be flying out to see my brother and take a little family vacation at the same time. The Grandparents McGarry will also be there at the same time which makes the deal even more attractive. Also, my big, burly neighbor with lots of big guns and tattoos will be watching our house - so don't try anything funny. She is a scary lady. So, all in all I am very relieved that everything is okay for travel and thankful there is nothing serious to report.

William also had a big weekend with bumps of his own. On Friday evening he fell off of the neighbor kid's tricycle. Yes, I know he is too little for the tricycle and his feet don't even reach the ground. But, I was enjoying a quick visit with the neighbor when he climbed on and it seemed harmless at the time. But here are the results:

Big bump located right above his right eyebrow


It was already looking better by Saturday morning - which was good because our neighbor was over twice on Saturday to apologize for him being hurt. Really no need - it was an accident! By this morning it is just a light bruise with a little bump. Not very noticeable at all!

And some pictures from Sunday playing in the yard:

2 before Noon

William has bust out two new words today before noon. What did you do this morning?


New word #1: MINE!!! Said forcefully and with accompanying hand motions pushing me away. Then repeated 15687856411 times while running away from me in the kitchen.


New word #2: eat. And he said it every single time he put something in his mouth during lunch today. Bite of grape: "Eat". Considering a bite of green beans: "Eat. No." and put it back down.


He has been picking up new words that I haven't documented here very well, but I was just impressed that we tried out two new ones just this morning. What will the afternoon bring?

Growing up

We've had a several little first today. We played with the sprinkler outside and ate corn off of the cob. Summer must be here!

Helping Mama cook dinner
I thought this would be all we would get, but he worked on this cob of corn for almost all of dinner time.
Mr Blue Eyes
Big boy can climb up into this chair now. Any bets on how much longer he'll stay in his crib? I am SO NOT READY to put him in a big boy bed!


PS No pictures of the sprinkler this time - too much water and not enough parents were home.

Hey Lady!

We were out and about this morning. One of the errands we had to run was to pick up one more box of flooring to complete the flooring installation in our office and playroom in the basement. While we were in the store, William was completely captivated by a woman looking at carpeting for her bathroom (seriously, who puts carpet in a bathroom?). William giggled and performed what has become his signature greeting: A huge wave of the right hand and a very sweet sounding "Haaaa" over and over and over and over again. The woman looked up several times to see him waving and saying hi. After a few minutes, I finally looked at him and said "Are you saying hi?" in a voice loud enough she would be able to hear and understand what he was doing, but quiet enough that she could ignore it if she wanted. And she did. She never said hi back to my baby and started to look annoyed. I tried to distract him with the carpet sample books and the toys in the diaper bag. I sang a song and tried to get his attention with my cell phone. Being the stubborn boy he is, William continued to wave and hi and her for the next five or six minutes until we left the store with our flooring.

Would it have been too much to ask for a hi from her? Just a wave, nothing more. Because really. How do I teach my almost 1 and a half year old that some people just aren't friendly?