Trip to Los Angeles

Matt was asked to help out with some training in California for three weeks. He knew I would go crazy in Atlanta by myself, so he said that if he was close to LA, where my sister lives, I could go, too. If not, I could go visit someone else for a couple of weeks. Well, he was staying in a hotel in Sherman Oaks, about 10 miles from my sister, so Scotty and I flew out to meet him about a week after he got there. I didn't take pictures of everything, but here are some I did get.

My sister and her kids and Scott and I met up with our first cousin (once-removed) and her daughter at the LA zoo. First stop: Elephants.
Gianna.
Max.
Gianna is Scott's first-cousin once-removed (he's supposed to be one generation older) and she is 2 weeks older.
Orangutan
Silverback gorilla
Zebras.
Max climbed up on the fence by the picnic area, but continued to eat around the fence... I couldn't help but catch a picture. I think he was looking at giraffes.
Flamingos.
Meerkats. Timon was cuter than this...
Jen and Gianna :) It was fun for Jen and I to be pregnant at the same time. And this was the first time our kids had met, over a year after they were born!
All tuckered out.

One day we went to a park by the Santa Monica Airport. I'm not sure that Scott could handle living in LA. He was NOT a fan of the sand at the park. He sat on the pavement the whole time.
Ate some cheese while playing. I had to carry him out there, though. He would not walk on the sand.

We had one Saturday when Matt could hang out with us, and we went with my sister and family to the Griffith Observatory. We got a good shot of the Hollywood sign.
And Scott loved Einstein...
We had a good time in LA. We also got to see my mom's sister and my dad sister on different days, and we went to Disneyland for a day. And then we got sick, and the low point was me throwing up 5 times in my sister's van. :( Still not sure what that was all about.

Anyway--these were also on my camera, and I know my mom will appreciate this. This is Scott eating one of my mom's lollipops.
When he starts to lose focus, and flips the pop around, I know he's done for now...

Christmas!!!

Our little family flew to Detroit for Christmas this year. Matt has a sister and brother who live an hour apart from each other, so almost all of Matt's family flew to Detroit, except one brother. So, it was fun to have almost everyone together for the first time since we've been married. We spent Christmas Day at Amanda's house, and here are some pictures:

We got Scotty some Matchbox cars in his stocking.

And we bought him a bunch of books because we were getting sick of his other ones.
We found a board book of Star Wars heroes--how could we pass it up?
Another book. He was starting to understand the unwrapping process by this time.
He got some Tonka trucks from Matt's Uncle Tom and Aunt Jan. So cute.
His cousin, GK, got him three magnetic train cars...
that were immediately interesting to his other cousin, Addy, which was fine, because Scott kept going to play with her not-new toys in the corner of the room.
Here, I've captured some wrapping paper mid-air. This was a Tonka truck carrier from Scott's Aunt Heidi. Thanks!
We had fun at the hotel, too. Here's Scott spinning in the office chair.
And wearing Matt's slippers.
This is me at 16 weeks pregnant. MUCH bigger, than I was with Scott at that point. Ah, second child syndrome... or that's what I'm telling myself to make me feel better.
The reason I'm dressed up is because we went to Scott's oldest cousin's (on Matt's side) baptism. That was part of the reason we all decided to converge in Detroit. It was nice for us all to be together for such a special occasion. Congratulations Mason!

When we got home, there was a package waiting for us from my mom. She made him a new quilt. He loved it immediately, and laid down for a nap (not pictured). He was really tired.

We kind of stopped taking pictures prematurely on the trip because we ALL got sick with a cold and stopped sleeping at night. It was rough. We went to the pharmacy and talked to the pharmacist about what Scott could take, and what I, the pregnant one, could take, and we started feeling a little better, but we are just now, three days after arriving home, starting to get back into a good bedtime routine with Scotty. We did have a wonderful time visiting with family, but I have to admit that I pined a little for my childhood when vacationing wasn't work. Any other parents with me on that?

Merry Christmas to all of you, and Happy New Year!

[We aren't really celebrating, so there won't be a post for that--we need all the sleep we can get and now that we're on the East Coast, we can't watch the ball drop in New York at 10pm. Lame! Oh well.]

The pre-Christmas part of December

The first Saturday in December, it was time to rake the leaves. We had been waiting for all of the leaves to fall so we could do it all at once. This is Scotty and me sitting in the leaf pile. I was going to stand up, but I was really tired and sat down while Matt ran in to get the camera.The rest are mostly just cute pictures I took of Scott while he was playing with random things in the basement or outside.
Matt thinks it is so awesome that Scott already holds the controller correctly. He puts his thumb on the joystick and everything.
On my birthday, Scott and I went to the mall so I could get some shoes for my outfit for Matt's work Christmas party on Saturday. We also got a hat and some mittens, so when we got home, I had to try them out.
Scott soon realized the trouble with mittens--he couldn't pick anything up and got pretty annoyed.
Matt made some gluten-free pizza for me on my birthday night. He made 4 small pizzas: chicken alfredo, bbq chicken, ham and pineapple, and pepperoni.
A few days later, I was outside with Scott, and he got his first real boo-boo. Do you see the tear under his eye? He was trying to pick up that big stick and lost his balance. He fell right on his face on the pavement. He has a bruise already starting to form on the right side of his forehead. Poor guy. I have to admit, though, when I saw him totally biff it, I did chuckle a bit before he started crying.
Scotty enjoying some M&Ms. The blue one made such a mess--his fingers and lips were stained for a couple of days.
And here's one of Scotty and me, with Monkey. And if you look close, you can see Scotty's molars.
We got to go to Cirque du Soleil on the company dime on Dec 11th. It was awesome. We couldn't take pictures, obviously, but I just have to say that if you ever get the chance to see them, I would go. We were blown away. My favorite act was the foot jugglers. They were incredible. They laid on the backs and spun things with their feet and passed things to each other and even tossed people from one person's feet to another. I can't even count how many times I caught myself with my jaw completely dropped in amazement. I don't think Matt will be leaving this company any time soon--they treat their employees very well!

What happened to November?

It's been a long time since I blogged... sorry about that. I don't even really have any pictures from November. So, here's what happened: in the first week of November, we found out that I'm pregnant with our second baby! I had been feeling queasy for almost all of October, so I had my suspicions, for sure. We got to see the baby on an ultrasound and see the heart beating, which is always reassuring. Then Scott and I went to Florida for three days before Thanksgiving to visit my brother and his family. My mom and dad also flew in. It was fun to see Scott with his cousins. I think the highlight of the trip for me was walking barefoot on the beach in November. The sand was very soft, and the water wasn't too cold. Scott wasn't too fond of the sand or the water, but he didn't hate it. He also traveled SO well. He slept for both one-hour flights. I had been really nervous about it because it's the first time we traveled since Scott started walking, and I was worried he was going to want to run around on the plane, but the white noise of takeoff put him right to sleep both times. We flew home on Thanksgiving morning and then went to Matt's boss's house for dinner. Scott did great with all of the unfamiliar people until we all sat down to dinner. He was the only kid and he would not sit. Matt and I took turns eating at the table and walking around the house with Scott. Matt was a little embarrassed, and we left before dessert. You can only ask so much of a one-year-old. He needed more time at home before seeing more people, I think. Poor kid. To be honest, it was nice to come home--I felt how Scott was acting.

And that was our November... sorry no pictures. There are going to be plenty in the next post, coming very soon.

Halloween 2010

My original plan was to be Mario, Matt to be Luigi, and Scott to be Toad or a turtle or something, but I couldn't figure it out and overalls for Matt would have been $35, and he'd never wear them again, so when I saw this Yoda costume at the store, I had to have it. Then we figured out a way to make me Leia and Matt to be Darth Sidious/the Emperor.

The red light saber is actually for Matt's costume, but Scott liked it. And then right before we went to the ward party, we found this blue glow sword that was more Scott's size. It's supposed to be green, but what can ya do?

Scary Darth Sidious...
Leia and Yoda.
A half-hearted battle...
And our awesome pumpkins. I did Yoda and Matt did Darth Maul.
Happy Halloween!

1 year stats

height: 27 inches -- less than 5th percentile

weight: 18 lbs -- less than 5th percentile

head circumference: 49cm -- 98th percentile

I waited to post these because Scott's new doctor wanted us to go see a neurologist to make sure Scott was okay even though his head is massive and his body is not so much. I went to the neurologist today and they said that Scott is great. They watched him toddle around and checked his eyes and did a basic exam and said they didn't even want to do a scan or anything, but they want to see him again in 6 months just to make sure. They asked if there were any big heads in the family and I said that my brother had a big head and at least one nephew had a big head on my side. They measured my head and said it was normal--53cm. They sent me home with a tape measure to get Matt's head circumference--60cm. I called to report my findings on an answering machine, and that is that. So, there you go. All is well in Zion, Scott just has what the nurse practitioner calls, "Familial Big Head Syndrome," you know, FBHS. Awesome :)

Proof!

Scott is bigger than he was a year ago!

I saw this picture when I was making his birthday post yesterday...
So I decided to take a new one...
What a ham :)