Another Road Trip!

So we came home from Florida...we actually got home on November 27. Well, David had mandatory time off from work in December so we had to do something exciting! So we got back in the car and headed south again. This time our final destination was Texas. I planned a lot of our Florida trip and David planned most of this trip. He had us strategically stopping at such great places so we were able to visit lots of family and friends. We left again on a Friday night and the first stop was Dayton, Ohio to visit my big brother. Conner absolutely adores him and thinks he's the coolest guy (don't know why!) so he was thrilled to get to have dinner with him and see his house. His favorite part was my brother's drums. Scott has several drum sets (don't ask) and Conner was so excited to get to play on them. These are the real deal. Conner was actually pretty good on them and honestly would have stayed up all night if we let him. He continued to talk about "Uncle Scott's drum set" the whole trip. The only other thing we did in Dayton was grab a really good cup of coffee in the morning...and we were on our way!

Our next stop was Jackson, Tennessee to visit some of the Larson family. We haven't been to Jackson since before we were married. So much has changed since then. We were so happy to see the whole family and meet those two sweet girls. Miles is already 5 and Maddie just turned 1 and this was our first time meeting them.  They are both so sweet and we absolutely loved meeting them and hanging out with Anna, Frank, Katy, Uncle Rusty and Aunt Caroline. Conner was excited to spend time with cousins and Brennan was just happy to see another little person and to be out of the car! We spent two days in Jackson and had some great weather. The big kids actually got to play on the playground. Miles was a great big cousin and helped Conner out on the playground...and Anna was a sport going down the slide in some heeled shoes! 

Conner and Maddie

Miles teaching Conner a cheer!

Trying and failing to get a good picture of the 4 of them looking at the camera

the coolest mama!

the little ones

Our next stop was Dallas. We spent a night at our good friend Ashlie's house and 2 nights at a hotel in Dallas. We got to see a bunch of good friends and visit our old stomping grounds. We got to meet a few of our friends kids for the first time and they aren't even babies any more. We have been away too long! We loved seeing everyone and visiting so many places that we love in Texas.

Conner loved his new friend Ava..she wasn't as convinced!

The last stop before heading home was Austin to visit the rest of David's family and my cousins. We got to stay at Andra, Michael, Cheryl and Cayla's house (sister, brother-in-law and nieces) for a few nights. Conner had a blast having his "friends" around all the time. They played with Barbies, American Girl Dolls and Legos. Conner added a little Lightning McQueen to the mix but honestly he didn't care. He was so excited to play with his older cousins and they gave him so much attention, he would have played with anything. He completely ignored David and me most of the time we were there! We were in Austin for a few nights of Chanukah so Andra and Michael hosted a party for the whole family. Conner and Brennan got to spend some time with their grandparents and other Aunt and Uncles and cousin too. We got to go to a few places that we like in Austin too. I loved all the special time we got to spend with Andra and the girls (while Michael worked!). We went to the mall and ran around town together. Wish we lived a little closer. I also got to see my cousins Bruce and Jenny. Conner loved them too (I don't think he met anyone he didn't like on this trip!) and Bruce became a buddy pretty quickly.

We headed home on Christmas Day and took a few days to get home. We stopped at my brother's again and Conner got to play the drums one last time before the final trip home. Not sure when our next road trip will be but these two last ones of 2011 were pretty successful. The kids were great, we saw lots of family and friends, and we had a safe drive and fun excursions. I only wish we could have seen some more friends along the way.

Road Trips 2011 - Feb. 2, 2012

Well, since it's February already (crazy!), I think I am going to finally post about our road trips at the end of 2011. In case noone is reading this, I still want to write about it so I can remember that with all the struggles with all the small stuff, we had some fun times in 2011.

In the middle of November, we set off on a 2 week road trip to Florida. We left after school on a Friday, drove a few hours, drove all day on Saturday and arrived in Orlando on Sunday afternoon. We checked in to the Animal Kingdom Lodge (a special treat!) for our week long visit to Disney World and met up with our very good friend, Ashlie (Aunt Ashlie to Conner!) who met us there (from Texas). I'm not sure she knew what she was in for, but she was SUPER and amazingly helpful with the kids and it was so wonderful to get to spend a week with her. The kids loved her and Conner cried when she headed home! But in the mean time, we had a whole week with her...and with my dad, brother and nephew who also came with us. I haven't travelled with my dad and brother in a very long time (I think I was about 19 - so MANY years ago) so it was interesting. We were in 3 different rooms and we tried to catch up every day and have a few meals together, but mostly we did our own stuff.

Loved watching the kids hold hands!

The kids did great (pretty much!) in the car. Conner is a pro on road trips. Brennan took some time to get used to the new car and her new carseat. We switched her to a convertible seat and after a day or so, she did great. They also did great at Disney. We got a side by side double stroller (I recommend the Joovy Scooter x2 if you don't want to spend a ton on a double) and we weren't sure how much we would need it, but we REALLY needed it. By the third day, we needed it a lot. Conner was really excited and loved most of the things we did.

Ashlie and Conner

My dad loved showing Conner around Disney...it was a trip we took many times when I was young

 We bought these awesome headphones which drown out loud noise and they worked wonders and I'm pretty sure they made our trip as good as it was. I actually bought a pair for Brennan too, but we really didn't need hers too much. Conner wore the headphones on rides and they really made him feel much more secure. He wasn't scared of anything. After a few times, on some of the rides, he was comfortable taking them off. He could still hear stuff with them on, just not so loud. His favorite ride I think was the Thunder Mountain Railroad. I loved Toy Story Mania and we rode that one at least 5 times! He LOVED the monorail and the train at Disney. Conner loved watching all the fireworks shows (with headphones!) and he got to get made up as a pirate with his cousin and he had so much fun doing that too (he adores and really looks up to his big cousin!!). He loved meeting the characters from Cars and having breakfast with Chef Mickey at the Contemporary and with the characters in the Animal Kingdom. We also had breakfast with some of the Disney Junior characters which was probably Conner's favorite meal - Special Agent Oso, Handy Manny, Jake (from the Neverland Pirates), and Little Einstein's. He is super in to those characters. But really, he loved meeting all the characters (especially Peter Pan!).

We were at Disney for the Christmas decorations too. Although we don't celebrate Christmas, we did take advantage of the extra stuff they have going on at that time of year. The Osborne Spectacle of Lights was amazing (the kids slept through the whole thing!) and the Christmas parade had all the good characters with an appearance from Santa which Conner thought was so cool!

Brennan did great the whole week in the stroller and being carried. She looked around at everything and took a lot of naps! I know it wasn't ideal for her but she loved the fresh air and being around all of us. Next time will probably be a little more exciting for her. I took her to meet the princesses. She wasn't scared, but not too excited about it just yet. Conner slept through that whole experience.

got a little freaked out and started running when Lightning McQueen revved his engine!

I did have some concerns on the trip about Conner. Brennan got sick but Conner seemed fine. He just got pretty run down while we were there. It's hard not to overdo it when you are at Disney World because there is so much to see and do. But it was SO hot and Conner doesn't have great endurance. We did have a guest assistance pass and I thought that would be enough, but we did end up needing to use the stroller as a wheelchair in certain locations (mostly Epcot) because Conner just could not make it any further. He was exhausted.

We definitely learned lots of lessons for our next trip to Disney. But really, the kids were awesome and had a great time. We headed from there to south Florida to spend a week with my grandma. We got to have Thanksgiving dinner with her at a swanky hotel. It was a long week because we were all tired and ready to get home, but it was great to spend time with my grandma and for her to meet Brennan for the first time. Conner absolutely LOVED spending time with her. She let him set the table with her, help her cut up vegetables for dinner and looked at books with him. She would say "abba dabba doo, I love you" (which is what she said to me when I was a kid) and Conner has been saying that to Brennan ever since!

The day after Thanksgiving, bright and early, we started the long ride home. It wasn't bad at all - except we didn't get to do any Black Friday shopping!!

All in all, a great time with the family! I have a ton more pictures...going to probably make an album on some site and make a link (some day!).

January 25, 2012 - Conner is 4 1/2!

Well I am way too tired to post a good update but that will come eventually! But I can't miss this day without recognizing Conner's 1/2 birthday. I have been saying Conner is 4.5 for months now. I guess time wasn't go as fast as it felt!

Conner is doing awesome and has made some pretty big strides since his 4th birthday which I will post about when it's not 1:45 a.m.

Here is a great picture of Conner having an awesome time this past weekend at Adaptive Sports Day at U of M. It was a great event and Conner had a fantastic time playing soccer, doing karate, and riding on a tandem bike. More to come!

January 8, 2012 - 10 Months!!

Brennan is 10 months old. I can't believe it. I'm in denial. This year has flown by. We are starting to plan a first birthday party already. While I know she won't really care or remember, we did it for Conner so I think we are going to do it for her. We already have a big birthday weekend planned, but the activities are mostly for Conner (just happens to be her weekend!).

At 10 months old, Brennan is continuing to amaze us with her great personality, all of her new skills and her loving, cuddliness. She is still pulling up and cruising everything, pretty much running while holding on. She crawls at light speed! She will pull up and then let go for about 10-20 seconds, and will walk while holding on to a baby stroller, but she is not ready to walk just yet. She is babbling a bunch and I love hearing her sweet voice. She loves when you do the "How big is Brennan?" game. The first picture is her saying "SO BIG!".  She has also started clapping her hands and waving this month. One day, she was just sitting in the family room in a corner with Conner's legos and I look over and see her just clapping to herself. She giggles so easily and is so fun to play with. She is a really great baby and we are so lucky!

Brennan FINALLY got 4 teeth this month. At about 9 1/2 months, they all came in, pretty much overnight. One morning she woke up and 3 had popped through and then the next morning, there was the 4th. You would never have known it. Teething has not been bad at all for her, and so far, we have only given her Tylenol one time, but that was mostly for an ear infection (at the time we weren't sure if it was ears or teeth). Hopefully, teething will continue to be easy for her. She does gnaw on everything and she is grinding those teeth and figuring them out. I think you can see the two little bottom ones in this picture.

She has started eating more and more and we haven't really found anything so far that she doesn't like. We aren't that aggressive with new foods, so there are probably going to be things she won't eat, but for now, so far so good. She is still loving all kinds of baby food and cereal and now she has tried several fruits and vegetables (not pureed!) too. She has had carrots, green beans, cantaloupe, honeydew and bananas. She has also had little pieces of chicken, bread and bagel. She gets so excited to eat real food! She is not, however, excited about drinking anything other than a bottle with formula in it. She LOVES her bottle and I have no idea how we will get her off of it. She takes 3 bottles a day and is pretty excited about them. I try to offer her water when she eats food. We have tried sippy cups but she has NO interest. So I tried the honey bear cups that we used with Conner. It took him a while to figure out but then he learned to drink from a straw pretty easily. Brennan figured it out in about 10 seconds. She still doesn't like it, but she will take a sip or two if I force her. She loves the cup though and would play with it for an hour.

When Brennan gets excited, she is so animated and it is so fun to see. She squeals and shrieks and screams. She loves stuffed animals and baby dolls. She loves tearing apart all the puzzles in the family room. She loves Conner and gets really sad when he goes upstairs to bed without her. Conner loves her so much too and I hope it stays like that for a long time.

Brennan as a baby is SO different from how Conner was. I notice so many differences between them all the time. They were both great babies, though, and for that I am so grateful. Conner was always a very social little guy and still is. He was never really shy around people and never really had stranger anxiety (and still to this day, he never meets someone he isn't really comfortable with). David and I usually think it's because as a little baby, he was around so many different people. For his first 4 months, we were only with him about 12 hours a day. The rest of the time he was with other caretakers. He was held and snuggled by lots of nurses who loved him and we think that's why he is okay with most people. Brennan is so different than that. She is so happy and animated at home, but when we are out in a crowd she is very reserved. She is SHY. We have gone to some groups and we tried a class and she wanted nothing to do with it. She won't even smile. She checks everything out and takes a while to warm up to most other people. Even my family, she takes time with. She doesn't see many other people besides the three of us and we are who she is most comfortable with. She has MAJOR stranger anxiety (since she was very little). We actually had a babysitter last week and she did great so that was reassuring. I'm hoping to try out another baby class or two and see how she does. Hopefully she will come out of her shell and let everyone see her great little personality!

During the last month, we took another road trip (more later) and Brennan got pretty sick. She ended up with RSV and an ear infection. It took her about 4 weeks to get over it and finally she is getting better. Thankfully, she did okay and we didn't have to go to the hospital or anything. She did end up with a few breathing treatments, but that was no big deal since we already had the stuff here for Conner. We did get a pediatrician visit though so I know her weight this month did not change. She is holding at 20 lbs, 15 oz (she might have actually been 14 oz.). She seems so heavy!

Anyway, things seem to be right on track for her and she is such a blessing to our family.