summertime

We have been having a busy summer, the little man and I. It is IMPOSSIBLE to spend a whole day in the house with him, we usually average three walks plus at least one outing (sometimes two) and he STILL is a horrible napper. He usually sleeps like a rock at night, though, so I'm not complaining. I know that my cherished uninterrupted night times are about to come to a screeching halt this fall, so I am enjoying every minute I can right now. Which is not to say that I'm sleeping through the night- I generally average 10-30 wakeups a night these days. Ah, pregnancy.

Here's a quick photo recap of some of our good times thus far this summer-

Rocking his shades:



Hanging out in Baltimore:



We visited my good friend Mindi and her sweet son, Max. These two were super active- in fact, the only way we were able to get a photo of the two of them together was to strap them into their strollers:




Visiting Foutsy! in Annapolis- I'm so jealous of how close she lives to the water, it's awesome:

Testing out the waters with Daddy- we were surprised, he loves the bath and the backyard pool so we thought he'd take to the bay like a duck. However, that was not really the case:

And.... he's out of there!

One of my favorite shots:

In other news, he's still not really talking. However, he did just start making these strange noises ala Donald Duck. It's all very odd. He has said some words, but he doesn't use them on a regular basis. Hopefully his language will explode one day in the near future, it would be nice to know why he throws these obnoxious tantrums sometimes (like today). Also, why he has decided to stop eating anything that doesn't contain at least 80% sugar. And why he insists on pooping under the dining room table. My mother in law says this means he's ready to be potty trained, and she might be right, but I just don't have it in me to train him and then have him regress once the new guy rolls into town this september. I am too fat and too cranky to deal with newborn stool AND at-large toddler poop. Throw in Stella and my job as a nurse and that is entirely too much poop for one person to have to deal with. Seriously.

kali alexa

Sweet little Kali (my cousin Tracey's baby) passed away on Saturday. Although she had a myriad of health problems due to her prematurity, it was thought that she had a decent chance of getting out of the hospital. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. Our family is heartbroken for Kali and her parents. We are off to the funeral tomorrow.

great news!!!

Dolan's test results all came back in the clear! The cancer hasn't metastasized, and the tumor biopsy came back as a low-risk type of neuroblastoma. He'll be closely monitored for some time yet, but it's extremely likely that he may get out of this without even needing chemo or radiation! It's the best, best case scenario, and I am thrilled for D and his family. Thanks to everyone that kept Dolan in their prayers. But keep sending good thoughts their way, as well as my cousin's baby, Kali, who is still awaiting the results of her liver biopsy. Here's a link to my cousin's blog for anyone who knows Tracy and wants to follow Kali's progress:

http://ourspecialbaby.blogspot.com/

I know I owe a post, or twenty. I am the worst blogger ever. I am just soooooo freaking tired after chasing our maniac around. Just as an example, today I made the mistake of trying to get some shopping done at the mall since I am lacking in summer maternity clothes. While in the dressing room, I gave Graydon some crackers to try to distract him. He immediately dumped them all on the floor, then stomped on them and ground them into tiny pieces. Then, while I was trying to clean up cracker crumbs, he grabbed my pants (I was in my underwear) and took off running toward the store exit/into the mall. So I had to throw on the pants I was trying on and sprint after him, by which time he had already made it out the door and was heading for the escalators, all the while laughing hysterically. So I ran out and grabbed him while wearing my as of yet not paid for pants and the store alarm went off. Sigh. Then I had to convince the store employees that I wasn't in fact shoplifting. Then I felt guilty because of the store alarm and the crackers mess and so I bought the pants even though I don't like them. And seriously, at this point we had only been at the mall for fifteen minutes.

We lasted only ten more, after an ill-considered detour into a toy store, in which Graydon threw a MASSIVE fit because I wouldn't take the trucks out of their boxes so he could play with them. He swept an entire shelf of stuffed animals onto the floor, and after I spent five minutes putting them all back in place, I had enough and we were out of there. Time spent to get to the mall and back? 50 minutes. Time spent in the mall itself? Twenty, MAYBE twenty-five after paying for parking. It suuuucked.

How in the world do people manage this with TWO? arrgh.

crapola

Just wrote a long post and then accidentally deleted it. Argh. Will try again tomorrow.








In the meantime, please keep Dolan and my cousin's daughter, Kali, in your thoughts. Dolan is undergoing more tests this week to figure out which type of treatments will work best against his specific type of cancer. And Kali, born ten weeks premature, is battling a host of issues and undergoes a liver biopsy tomorrow morning. I am so sad for all these sick babies and their families; what the hell is going on here?