Mommies Get Sick Too

After Alex eventually felt better, Tim and I developed the same nasty cold. Let me just say that it’s hard to keep up with a super active toddler when you aren’t feeling well! Needless to say, I wasn’t spending much time taking pictures or working on this blog. Once I did start to feel better, Alex and I were ready to get out of the house. So, we bundled up on a cold, rainy day and went to the mall to ride the choo-choo.

Watching the choo-choo just after arriving at the mall. Check out his awesome new jacket!

Waving the choo-choo into the station. He was very concerned it wasn’t going to stop for us!

I wish this one weren’t so blurry, because it’s sooo perfect! (We’re on the train now.)

Waiting to hand the conductor his ticket.

Still Having Fun

I ended up taking Alex to the pediatrician yesterday to check his wheezing and for a suspected ear infection. Turns out my mother’s intuition was dead on – he has a virus (luckily no flu or strep) and an ear infection. We have medicine now and he is finally getting his appetite back. Poor guy has barely eaten in 5 days! Fortunately, Alex has been in a good mood for most of this cold and is trying his best to be a good sport about being cooped up in the house. I just need him to stay patient another day or two while I get better!

Being goofy and trying out his big boy mask for the nebulizer.

I was trying everything to keep Alex in a good mood while doing a treatment at the pediatrician’s office.

The whole family making the best of a family sick day.

Too Sick for Snow

Saturday afternoon brought us our first snow in Charlotte. We were amazed at how quickly it fell! Alex was actually napping through most of the snow fall, but he was very amazed by the white winter wonderland outside when he woke up. Since he was so sick, we didn’t take him out to crunch in the snow, but we did open a window and grab a snowball. Grumpy thing wouldn’t even touch it! Here are a few pictures after the snow stopped falling.

View from the master bedroom.

Backyard and playground.

We ended up with 2 inches!

Valentine’s Day 2013

Our Valentine’s Day was pretty uneventful this year since poor Alex was sick. I had planned a painting craft for us, but Alex was not feeling up to it. So, we settled for cuddling and watching shows about dinosaurs (Alex’s new obsession).

Alex did take the time to decorate our bed with flowers.

Poor thing was too sick to eat his heart shaped waffle!

We did get some smiles when we gave him his gift (boats for the tub and new trainer cups) and cookies.

Tim and I don’t do gifts on Valentine’s Day, but he did bring home a cheese ball and non-alcoholic wine created by Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The wine was horrible – oh well, thanks for trying!

Goldfish

Alex thought this clump of goldfish was extremely interesting and showed it to me before pulling out of our friend’s driveway this morning. He was even more excited to eat it! ummy yummy as he would say!

Computer Games

Alex loves playing computer games on the PBSkids.org website. His favorite character is Curious George and he is really good at several of the games! He knows when to push the button on our keyboard and loves to pick which game to play next. Here’s a video of Tim and Alex playing the Hide and Seek game. It’s kind of long – 8 minutes – but he actually paid attention to the game that long! Quite impressive for a toddler! Uncle Eric, there’s a special mention of you around the 5 and a half minute mark …

Kitchen Transformation

Tim has worked very hard over the past week to paint the kitchen and make it livable. You might remember from our downstairs post that our kitchen was a very interesting shade of blue. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except the blue didn’t match the other paint colors in the house – or the ugly while linoleum floor, or the cabinets. For some people, it would have been the deal breaker, but this house was too perfect to pass up. So, we requested permission to paint and got to it!

PREPARE TO BE AMAZED! Not only does the kitchen feel warmer and more inviting, it also feels cleaner and much roomier. The colors are more our style and go with our kitchen supplies and decorations so much better. Thanks, Tim!

Charlotte Nature Museum

Saturday’s trip to the Charlotte Nature Museum was tons of fun! The museum was smaller than I thought, but it had great interactive exhibits and was very focused on children. Alex loved seeing all the animals, especially the baby mice, turtles, and snakes. I was hoping he’d love the butterfly pavilion, but I think it stressed him out to see them flying right at him. The highlight of the trip was the boardwalk outside and the nature trail. We were so lucky to have a mild and sunny day for running around in the forest and collecting fire wood.

Water tables are always a hit! As real as it looks, that turtle was fake – thank goodness! Alex was slamming it in the water and splashing himself. This exhibit was really neat – it was basically the water cycle, complete with rain and ground water.

Alex was so concerned over his shoe falling off that we couldn’t get him to look at the camera.

Disco Alex? He was actually pointing out the “tall trees”.

Grandpa Murff’s blood definitely runs through this boy’s veins. He had so much fun piling wood in the wheelbarrow, moving it to another spot, and dumping it out. Who knew a wheelbarrow could be so much fun?

He worked so hard to dump out that wood!

Brotherly Love

Today’s ultrasound was so much fun! Alex was such a good big brother, sitting on Daddy’s lap and watching the images on the tv without getting restless for almost the whole 30 minutes! I was so proud of him! This baby was much more interested in letting us know the gender as soon as possible – Alex took forever to let us see. Not this one – we have lots of proof!

We’re having another boy! Last night I decided it would be a girl since I’ve been much more emotional this time around – and even though I would have been happy with a girl, I’m kind of relieved to be having another boy. I really wanted Alex to have a little brother. I think they’re going to be hysterical together.

Here’s my favorite picture:

This one is pretty cool, too – you’re looking right at his face.

We really enjoyed meeting our new doctor today. He was very good at answering our questions and never made us feel rushed or like he wanted us to leave. He loved having Alex in the room with us and even shook his hand (Alex shook back)! Alex stood on the step to the examining table eating Goldfish, almost like he was guarding me. It was so funny!

National Pancake Day!

Did you know that it is National Pancake Day? I didn’t either until I read about it in my Charlotte on the Cheap email this morning. I wouldn’t have even bothered reading more about National Pancake Day if Alex weren’t so obsessed with pancakes these days. Since Sunday, Alex has eaten a pancake for breakfast and a pancake for dinner. So, it just seemed appropriate to bring him to the free pancake day at IHOP! He was so excited, he could barely contain himself!

By the end of his first pancake, he had asked to try all four flavors of syrup!

Exploring Charlotte

Alex and I have been busily exploring Charlotte over the past two weeks. I must really be wearing him out because he’s sleeping close to 12 hours at night and napping between 3 and 4 hours in the afternoon!

Here are some pictures of our adventures:

We took Daddy to Discovery Place Kids. Alex went to the water table 3 times!

On our first morning alone, we ventured out to a new mom’s breakfast with a new playgroup.

We took Grandma and Grandpa Murff to the Bass Pro Shop to see the HUGE catfish. (Alex was sidetracked by this truck.)

Today we ventured out to Reedy Creek Park to play in the tree houses.

Alex especially loved the Nature Center at Reedy Creek Park.

After watching a tractor bring in 3 scoops of fresh sand, Alex had tons of fun playing with 2 other kids in the big sandbox. He even nicely shared a friend’s car! I was a proud mama!