Boston Trip!

We had a great 3 days in Boston, meeting baby cousin Jimmy and seeing his parents...and Erin got to meet Great Uncle Ron and Great Aunt Elaine too! They drove down from Maine to see everyone yesterday, which was great.

Erin did fabulously on the flights, despite all my worrying. On the way up, she played about half the time and took a 45-minute nap during the rest of the flight. On the way home, the flight was delayed 3-1/2 hours due to "mechanical problems", but she did great in the airport and was only a little grumpy on the plane...since our flight ended up being 6-8pm instead of 2:30-4:30pm. Boston has a cute little play area that she really liked. She was in bed just after 9pm and was so happy to be home and in her own bed last night. She slept pretty well, and is catching up on all her toys today!

Anyway, we spent most of our time visiting and didn't really do much sightseeing. Bob and I have seen some of Boston already, and the weather wasn't exactly kid (or adult) friendly! We did get to see Tom and Pam's new house in Ayer, MA, which is beautiful. It's a great setting with lots of big hills and trees. Tom also took us to see his office, which is very nice. Erin enjoyed the free snacks and she really liked running around the office for some reason.

We had a great time, and the hotel worked out great too. The first night, we had an ex-smoking room, which we didn't mind, but we didn't want the tiny baby in there on Friday. So we switched to a better-smelling room. Erin got a little roll-away crib and slept fine in it. The continental breakfast was nice too, though Erin learned that she doesn't like grapefruit! She did get to eat lots of other yummy food though while we were there.

So, the trip was a big success. Poor Tom and Pam have a lot going on with a 3-week old baby and having showings on their house at the same time. They are handling it great though, and they are having lots of second showings, so an offer has got to be coming very soon! Unfortunately, we couldn't really wait to come with our new baby arriving, so we were there while they had all this going on. Hopefully we'll get back up there sometime soon with 2 kids (when we are brave enough to attempt the travel!).

All the pictures are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/bob.callaway/Boston2010#

Here are a few highlights:

Introducing...

Erin's new bedroom! We are nearly done - just need to come up with a window treatment and get a dresser, and it should be about set! We're going to move a few wall decorations from her baby room in there and add those 2 small prints too. Erin approves of the room, and is very interested in the bed. She's not actually going to use the bed for awhile (thanks to Oliver for letting us borrow his crib!), but we've got room for one visitor this way. We are not allowing "bounce party" on her new bed...we do let her bounce on our bed sometimes, but we don't want to start that with her new bed. Anyway, I must say that Bob did a great job, and it looks pretty darn cute!

What's New?

Not too much with us! Let's see...I got to have another "bonus" ultrasound the week before last (just like with Erin) due to a placenta position issue, but it has resolved, so all is well! Hopefully there will be no c-sections here. The baby is measuring right along where it should be, and everything looks great! I took the 1-hour glucose tolerance test on Monday and am awaiting results. We are trying to get motivated with names, and Bob has given himself a deadline of the end of February to come up with his top 5-10 names for a boy and a girl. I am 28 weeks already...scary!

We went to Concord this past weekend for my birthday, and had the second snowfall in as many trips. It must be us bringing the snow to NC! This one wasn't as icy and dangerous, so it wasn't as bad. It was still pretty though! We had fun playing with Erin's cousins and everyone. We didn't take any pictures, unfortunately.

Erin is walking up a storm...her favorite activity (after reading) is now walking laps around the perimeter of the living room, or circles around us on the floor. She is still a mega-bookworm, and I try to come up with other activities to distract her from books. It's not easy, though! We are trying to work on talking - she doesn't say a lot of distinguishable words, but she does have specific babbles for things.

Her new room is almost done - we need to put one more coat of paint on the beadboard, and then just get her a dresser and she will be set to go. She continues to check progress, and we are lucky that she hasn't cracked the whip on us for taking so long!

We're super excited about going to Boston next week to meet baby cousin James/Jimmy! Erin is making lists of what all to pack...Daddy better get his muscles ready to help carry this stuff through the airport!

New Tricks

Erin has 2 new tricks that she loves to show off. First, high five (please ignore the milk drool):



And second, touching her toes:



We say the "teddy bear, teddy bear" poem, but the only thing she will do out of the poem is touch her toes. Who knows?!?

P.S. She will also give hugs on command, but only to Bob and only around his legs. We are working on that one.

B-day, snow, and baby!

Erin had another busy and fun weekend - we braved the elements (beating out the snow) and went to Concord on Friday afternoon for Ansley's first birthday. It was lots of fun, and Ansley got her very own infamous tea set and armchair! Here are the girls posing in it on Sunday. They both, and Logan, really liked it - despite what the picture shows:



Unfortunately, we had to cancel our plans for participating in Charlotte Restaurant week due to the weather, and Erin didn't get to see her Uncle Dale and Aunt Maria, nor her great-grandparents, but she will see them in a couple of weeks.

I'm sure most everyone has heard about the snow in NC this past weekend. Here are a couple of pictures of Erin playing in it. She didn't really like it - she won't wear gloves (how can you suck your thumb with gloves on?!), and it's just not a cozy, clean activity. Bella, surprisingly, is quite the snow bunny!




And our most exciting event of late - Erin is about to have another cousin! Tom and Pam are at the hospital now, and their baby boy should be born sometime today! We are super excited for them and are thinking about them during this time. We can't wait to see pictures and hear the name...and Erin is already shopping for tickets to go to Boston to meet him!