We didn’t want to haul a pack-and-play with us, and since Katie isn’t mobile while sleeping yet (other than maybe scooting a few inches one way or another) we weren’t too worried about just putting her wherever. The first night at the hotel she got put on a blanket on the floor. At Papa and Grannie Lin’s, she got a Rubbermaid box. 🙂
I love this sight:
We were surprised at the amount of tree color in the U.P. considering it was only September 16.
After what seemed like a short 7½ hours (after two long nine-hour days, 7½ felt short), we made it up to the Upper Peninsula to see my dad’s new house…MAN, that’s a drive. (Here is our total one-way trip from North Carolina.)
See that tiny point? That’s where we were—Eagle Harbor. We joke it’s Alaska.
The view from the back deck—I have to admit it’s nice:
And Owen having a blast playing with cars out there:
And Papa meeting and feeding Katie for the first time…
We just got complemented on Owen’s great behavior at a restaurant. Yay, us! Yay, Owen!
I love roadside stores in the U.P.:
BEEF JERKY, SMOKED FISH, CURDS, FUDGE.
And PASTIES! How could I have forgotten pasties?!
This is now one of my all-time favorite Owen videos. Oh. My. Gawd. It was all I could do while recording him NOT to bust out laughing…and at one point, you can see the video jiggle because I was trying to hold it in. I laugh every single time I watch it, and I bet you will, too. In fact, I dare you to only watch it once.
Using Grandma Jean’s handheld solitaire game:
Hello?
This is Owen Hudson.
I need a recipe. I forgot the ingredients.
Okay.
Thanks, Hon.
See you later.
Katie got her first sink bath at Gramma Jean’s!
Okay, maybe it wasn’t QUITE that bad…but it was 51 degrees and rainy as we pulled into Grayling. I expected cooler than NC, but not quite this close to snow.
Well, that was a long, sleepless night. I didn’t really fall asleep until 11, Katie was up at 2, Owen was up at 3, and Katie was up at 5…and they both made so damn much noise all night we barely slept.
One of the only good things about staying in a hotel with the kids on our road trip…watching Owen have a complete blast in the pool!
We apparently have a backseat driver:
“Nice turn. Go right. 45 miles. Red light.”
Today, he went camping, had a store, put out fires, made cupcakes and s’mores, raced cars, got party invitations, helped Santa, and other stuff I know I’m forgetting.
It’s hard to get a picture of one kid with his eyes open and looking at me, let alone two. But I finally managed it!
He found the tiny Santa hat (from when he was a lot smaller) and was having a ball. We had also been watching a Christmas-themed Backyardigans, which I think is where he got the bit about the sleigh. Of course, I could never get him to wear the hat when it actually fit him…
Owen decided he wanted to read me a story, so he went and picked a book and this is what happened:
THE WINDOWS ARE OPEN! THE WINDOWS ARE OPEN! Ahhhhh. I love this day after a summer full of A/C…
In his bath tonight, Owen made a “sandwich” with a flat foam pumpkin piece, a tiny rubber ball, and a foam seahorse.
I said “Oh, I think it’s a s’more!” and he says with noticeable attitude: “NO! It’s a pumpkin, a ball, and seahorse.” Like How could you be so stupid, mom?
Weight: 13 lbs. 4oz.
Length: 23-1/2″
She did just fine at her well-visit…but the immunizations were a different story. Poor kid needed four—three shots and one oral. She actually did okay considering she got roughly poked three times (I know there’s not really a great way to give shots, but the guy seemed really rough…and he completely missed the spots where he had pre-applied the band-aids).
And we learned that apparently the way she deals with shots is to completely CRASH for five hours and then wake up screaming bloody murder and refuse to be comforted for 30 minutes, then CRASH for another nap, then wake up screaming bloody murder and refuse to be comforted for 30 minutes. Fun!
So, the next time? Tylenol BEFORE the shots. I didn’t do it this time because I wanted to see how she was going to react. Thankfully it wasn’t worse.
Unfortunately, I didn’t remember to take her monthly photos until in-between post-immunization tantrums…so I was lucky to get any decent shots at all. And after the luck I had with the “1 Month” sticker matching her onesie perfectly…this month was nearly impossible—I had to put a onesie on backwards (the front had writing that wouldn’t be covered by the sticker)! And as she was laying on one of Owen’s B’s, he was QUITE concerned at first…but I convinced him to share. 🙂
Oh. My. Gawd.
Owen just pooped one of the biggest poops I’ve ever seen. IN THE TOILET! ENTIRELY ON HIS OWN!! (He claimed he did once before but he flushed before we saw it, so we aren’t 100% sure.)
He had pooped in his underwear twice this morning so we kept him naked (on the recommendation of a friend who went through this recently with his son and claimed it worked wonders). So Owen was playing out of sight (naked) while we were watching the MSU/CMU game…then suddenly came running in “Mama! Daddy! I pooped in the toilet! All by myself! C’mon! Come look!”
So I followed him—downstairs!—and I’ll be damned…he did. But it was SO huge I honestly thought it might have been Tom! So of course I called Tom to check it out (it wasn’t). And I took a picture for posterity (no, I won’t be posting it!).
We lavished him with praise. He seemed thrilled.
We said “Wasn’t that easy?” He said yes!
Then he says “You happy now?” We said yes!
Then he picked out his reward and I asked if he was going to keep pooping in the potty…and he says no. 😐
Family MSU jerseys (Tom’s 40th birthday presents)… Any other game I’d actually be rooting for State, but today I’m rooting for CMU, my alma matter! GO CHIPS!
With the blog and website renovation, I have been going through all my old pages and pictures. Today I was incorporating Tom’s Iraq pictures into the blog, and realized that eight years ago this week (September 13) Tom was packing to head to Iraq for the first time.
If you ever want to take a look at old Iraq posts, just click on the Iraq Category tag.
OMG. Katie is driving me batshit crazy today. She is super cranky, screaming like she’s starving, but spits and sputters and won’t sit still to drink a bottle. Then she’ll drink for 10 seconds then spit it out. There are no burps in there and she’s in a clean diaper. Lather, rinse, repeat ALL DAY LONG.
And I know she’s not even being that bad…I just have a VERY low tolerance for this type of thing, and why I wasn’t sure about having another baby. If she ever gets colicky I won’t be able to handle it. Seriously.
I feel like a horrible mom. :'(