Sep 02

What Happened in July

If you recall, I spent most of July blogging about our end-of-June trip to Florida, which left me little time to blog about July itself. So here is a little catch up, since I know everyone has been on the edge of their seats waiting to find out what sorts of mundane things filled the middle of our summer!

In July, Emrick looked like this:

 

In July, I bought three colorful storage ottomans from Target for the playroom. I say “storage” ottomans, but they don’t store much on Pookie’s watch:

 

In July, one night we had a moon that was so amazing, it looked like the sun in the pictures we took:

 

In July, some birds poached apricots from our apricot tree:

 

In July, I bought a “guaranteed to grow” daisy plant kit from the dollar section at Target:

It grew just great until a couple of weeks later when I killed it (by accident).

 

In July, I baked chocolate chip cookies for Emrick for the very first time (I know!):

 

In July, Marcus and I made family flashcards, using pictures we took at the family reunion in Florida in June:

 Marcus printed them out and cut them up, and then I took them to Fed Ex, where they have a self-serve laminating machine. This flashcard thing was Marcus’ idea, and it has worked great. We made them with the hope of keeping his memory on these people fresh, and making it easier for him to readjust to people between visits, especially the grandparents whom he sees often. So far, he has seen all of his grandparents and one of his uncles since we made these, and in all cases, I think the cards definitely helped. He warms up in a couple of minutes instead of half an hour or more. AND, he knows everybody’s names. His pronunciation may not be perfect (e.g. Clark is “clock”; Anna is “nyeah”; Chris is “tiss” or “kiss”) but he knows every one. “Sam” is the one name he says perfectly.

 In July, Marcus went to Boston for five nights for a trade show, and when he came back, he had some souvenirs for us:

In July, Marcus’ work moved into new office space that was being renovated. When we visited, the renovations were not all done, but they were far enough along that the offices were usable:

This is the office ping pong room. You read me right — the room that is dedicated solely to PING PONG. Marcus’ boss is quite the enthusiast.

This is Emrick relaxing on the bench in the foosball nook. Yep. Foosball nook.

After this, we toured the sports complex, the video game lair, and the laser tag arena. (ha)

In July, Emrick learned how to feed himself his own yogurt:

In July, Emrick watched the Olympics, surrounded by toys and snacks:

 

In July, Emrick got a hold of my camera:

In July one of the many fires burning Utah was burning in the foothills just above the neighboring community to us.

A few days after that fire was contained, and the streets reopened, we went for a drive in that community to see how close the fire had come to some of the houses we’d looked at during the Parade of Homes in June (I still need to post pics of those homes).

These charred trees were right across the street from one of the houses we saw.

Luckily for the people who live there, most, maybe all, of the homes were spared in that particular fire. I know people with homes in other parts of Utah were not so lucky.

Anyway, that’s what out July looked like. Tune in this December, when I will tell you what happened in August 😉

The End.

 

 

 

Aug 21

Onesie Upon a Time

Emrick has been wearing shorts and t-shirts all spring and summer, but when we got back from Florida more than seven weeks ago, I put him in a onesie while the rest of his clothes were in the washer. I had forgotten how darned cute he looks playing around in a one-piece.

Aug 18

Also in California: Pool, Piano, and Popcorn

POOL

When we arrived in California on Wednesday afternoon, my mom had already ordered and received an inflatable pool for Emrick to use during our visit. We didn’t get a chance to use it until late Friday afternoon. On Thursday we had spent the day (trying to do some) shopping, though Emrick’s rambunctiousness wasn’t making it easy, and then by the time we got home Marcus and I had to get ready to go out for our anniversary dinner. But on Friday morning, before the three of us headed out to Palm Desert to visit Chris, Mom and/or Marcus inflated the pool and filled it up with water. We hoped that by the time we got back from the desert, the water would have warmed up, and the outside temperature would have cooled down. Both of those hopes were realized. However, what also happened is that the pool had become partially deflated in the hours that we were away. We checked the pool thoroughly and could not find a hole nor any other obvious source of leaking air, yet leaking it definitely was, though slowly.

But we were not to be deterred! Marcus and Emrick put on their swim trunks and got into the pool while I took pictures. The last time Emrick had been in any kind of pool was in Florida, an experience that he tolerated just fine after the initial shock. I had hoped that he would remember the Florida pool and remember that he survived it. I also hoped he would adjust more quickly since this was, after all, just a wee little inflatable.

I hoped wrong. If you look closely in this picture, you can see Emrick’s open, crying mouth, and his heaving rib cage. Poor Pookie!

So Marcus picked him up and sat with him in the pool, though he still looks pretty worried here:

Eventually he relaxed just a little.

Pookie did all right, but was still afraid to venture away from Daddy’s lap.

Between the deflation of the pool and Emrick’s lack of enthusiasm, we decided to give the pool thing a break and try again the next day. So on Saturday Mom and/or Marcus inflated the pool again and filled it up with water again, and this time we got Emrick in there right away. We were going to beat the leak!

As you can see, Pookie was a lot more relaxed the next day. He was still a little hesitant at first, but he got used to it pretty quickly, and even felt comfortable out of Daddy’s arms!

Pookie even started splashing around for fun, just like he does in the bath at home.

 Day two of the pool adventure was a success!

PIANO

The next day was Sunday, the day we went back home. Our flight didn’t leave until mid-afternoon, so Emrick got to play around the house for a while. He even played the piano. And by played, I mean “played.”

POPCORN

 Another nice thing about having an afternoon flight, was that we were able to spend a nice, leisurely morning with Grandma and Grandpa… oh yeah! Grandpa! He arrived home from his trip on Saturday afternoon, so we did at least get a full 24 hours with him. In fact, Emrick and Grandpa (or “Glampa” as Emrick says) got downright cuddly with a bowl of popcorn and Grandpa’s recliner.

Emrick flashes his pearly popcorns.

In the afternoon, Dad (Grandpa) dropped us off at the airport and we later arrived home safely. While we were waiting at the gate in the Orange County airport, a nice woman commented to me on what a happy toddler Emrick appeared to be. Happy? But of course! With popcorn and glampas, Uncle Chrises and pools, a piano to bang on and his very own Cinda? Who wouldn’t be happy??

Aug 16

California, Baby!

Marcus and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary on August 2nd. In the weeks leading up to that date, we had mentioned it to each other a couple of times and casually discussed what we might do to celebrate. Our first anniversary had been spent in Vegas, which is where we had gone for part of our honeymoon. That was pretty fun, of course, but no such plans were considered for our second anniversary. By that time, I was nearly eight months pregnant with Emrick. I don’t even remember what we did do for that anniversary, but I suspect it involved Carrabba’s. Then for our third anniversary, we spent a week in California, and on our actual anniversary night, Marcus and I ate dinner at Mr. Stox, which is where our wedding reception had been (hmmm… I am noticing a trend here). We left a ten-and-a-half-month-old Emrick with my parents that night, and then came home only to find out that Emrick had screamed the entire time we were gone. 🙁

But this year there were no trips planned, so by the end of July it looked like year four was going to be another Very Special Carrabba’s Anniversary, to add to our past celebrations: A Very Special Carrabba’s Birthday… and the semi-monthly A Very Special Carrabba’s Tuesday.

Or so I thought! Five days before our anniversary, Marcus out of the blue forwarded me a flight itinerary: We were going to California, baby! Five days and four nights at the luxurious Casa Morgan, complete with full kitchen privileges and complimentary babysitting services. So on August 1st we made the short flight to Orange County and began our long weekend in California. The next evening was our anniversary, and Marcus and I celebrated with dinner at Morton’s. It was excellent. We both had the filet mignon; Marcus had his Oscar style, while I had mine with rosemary butter. Mmmmm. And thankfully, Pookie was much more fun for his sitter this time than he had been the previous year. Grandpa Ed was out of town, so Grandma Cinda watched him by herself and had no problems. Of course, Pookie has been good like that for a while. I think he better understands now that Mommy and Daddy are going to come back!

There are no pictures on my camera from Wednesday or Thursday, so apparently I didn’t take any. But on Friday we made a trip out to Palm Desert to visit with Chris and I took along my camera. We met him at his art gallery, which I had not seen since I moved to Utah, and which Marcus and Emrick had never seen at all. Pookie poked around a bit, but he was most captivated by a storage ottoman-bench that was in the gallery. If there is one thing Pookie loves more than anything, it is opening things to see what’s inside.

Next we went to the Westfield Mall to cool off with some smoothies (over 100 out in the desert) and let Emrick play in a play area they have there:

It appears that Emrick does not exceed the height restrictions.

vroom, vroom!

A couple of times while in the play area, we saw a choo choo train circle around with a couple of kids on it. Each time it went by, I help Emrick up so he could see it. You know, he has a wooden choo choo train at home, and it occurred to me for the first time that he probably did not realize that trains are not just toys in your play room… of course, now that I think about it, the train at the mall wasn’t exactly the real thing either. So I guess Pookie has gone from thinking that a choo choo is a toy to now thinking that a choo choo is a thing that gives rides at the mall.

Anyway, of course we HAD TO get Pookie a ride on the choo choo. Marcus walked him down to the other end of the mall, where the train loads, and I waited in the play area with Chris. The idea was that I would have the camera ready to snap a picture of Pookie as he went by on the train. So the camera was out and in my hand.

But then Chris and I got into an involved discussion about Breaking Bad and the next thing I knew, I looked up and the train was already approaching. Long story short, I got some pics but they’re blurry because I was rushing.

Mea culpa.

After the trip to the mall, we went to Tommy Bahama’s for lunch, where Pookie cooled off with some ice.

It was also at Tommy Bahama’s that Emrick really started to take a shining to his Uncle Chris.

Apparently Emrick thought Chris tasted pretty good, too, because he was soon (gently, I hope) gnawing on Chris’ finger.

But because he is such a sweetie, he kissed Chris’ owies after he was done creating them.

mmmmmmuah!

Emrick eventually took to biting non-human things.

For the record, we normally discourage Emrick from biting. More on that in a later post, maybe.

After lunch, we took a few pictures in the restaurant lobby where they had a sweet sitting nook.

So that was our fun day with Chris! And I am so glad Emrick got some more time with his uncle…

Stay tuned for more pictures from California!

Aug 14

I know it.

We’re overdue for a post.

But I will get something up here within 48 hours.

Father’s Day at The Cheesecake Factory at the brand new City Creek Center in Salt Lake City.

Jul 24

The Florida Trip, Part Five: Friday and Saturday

In my last post, I forgot to mention something cute Emrick did when he saw the ocean. Remember that he had just been introduced to the swimming pool the day before he first went down to the ocean. He had gotten the word “pool” down pat, and seemed to enjoy saying it. Well, you can see where this is going. When we took him down to the beach and he looked out over that big expanse of water, he said, “pool,” over and over, with that extra long “ooooo” he likes to use. He sat on the sand with his bucket, looked at the ocean in front of him and said, “poool? poool? poool?” keeping his lips in a perfect pucker.

He’s so darn cute.

FRIDAY

On Friday, we headed down to Old St. Augustine for some shopping and sightseeing.

We brought our stroller with us so that Emrick wouldn’t have to walk or be carried the whole time (we gave him frequent breaks from the stroller, though). And we also brought his hat. I hadn’t been able to find our baby sunblock at the condo before leaving, so I thought maybe the hat would provide enough protection. But once we got there, it was obvious that we would be in the sun most of the time, and so Pookie needed sunblock. On top of that, I was already sporting a sunburn from the day before and I didn’t want to make it worse. So we popped into one of the shops and dropped $8.99 on a tube of sunblock.

We posed Pookie on this cannon before realizing later that you are NOT TO SIT ON THE CANNONS.

The whole family went to St. Augustine, but we divided into groups pretty soon after arriving. So Marcus, Pookie and I were on our own for most of the day. After looking around at several shops (we bought Pookie a t-shirt), we ate lunch and then headed to the Castillo de San Marcos fort.

The last time I had been here was on a class field trip I took when I was in the fourth grade. And you know what? It is exactly how I remembered it.

Almost immediately after arriving, we ducked into one of the many rooms inside the fort, which was shady but did not offer much relief from the heat. I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet that this was a hot, hot, hot day.

A little while later, an announcement was made that a cannon would soon be fired from the top level of the fort, so everybody should head to the top level to watch and learn.

The view from the top level of the fort.

Several men in costume were already present next to the cannons when we got upstairs. Before firing the cannon, though, one of these costumed guys gave us a talk filled with historical information. I wasn’t listening too closely, I am afraid (did I mention it was hotttttttttt?), but I definitely caught the part where he explained that the costumes they were wearing were historically accurate reproductions of the originals, which meant that they were also made of wool. WOOL.

By this time, Pookie was being affected by the heat. Though covered in sunblock, his face was red and he was getting pretty sweaty. So we took him out of the stroller and gave him sips from a cold bottle of water.

“Enough talking! Fire the cannon already!”

Pookie points to the area below.

Finally! They fired the cannon!

BOOM!

After the cannon blast, we looked around a little before heading downstairs and heading out.

“DON’T SIT ON THE CANNONS! DON’T SIT ON THE WALL!” said a booming male voice during the cannon demonstration.

Pookie is a little orange dot near the bottom of the stairs. Can you find him?

If not, can you find him NOW?

The trip to the fort more or less concluded our day in St. Augustine. I never did find the “country’s oldest schoolhouse” which I remembered seeing when I was nine. Had it been about fifteen degrees cooler out, I might have been interested in looking for it, but as it was, I was eager to get into the air conditioned car. Pookie, too, had had quite enough of the heat, it seemed. When we got back to the car, my cell phone (which I had accidentally left in it) was hot as an iron, but still working. Then during the drive back to Jacksonville, we had to pull over onto the sandy banks along the A1A to change Pookie’s diaper, which had gotten messy enough that he was very upset about it. And believe me, if you’d seen it, you would’ve been very upset about it, too. 😉

When we got back to the condo, we changed Pookie’s shorts (see paragraph above), and then Marcus headed down to the beach on his own to give that boogie board another go.

Meanwhile, Emrick and I watched from the balcony.

Back inside, Emrick had some fun showing off for cousins Ed and Nick.

That evening, the whole family went to Sticky Fingers, another BBQ place, for dinner. Is eating at Sticky Fingers a family tradition now, just like eating at Woody’s is? I think so!

Uncle Chris (also sunburned!) visits our end of the table to visit with his newest nephew.

After eating, I asked the server to take a picture of our whole group. She took two. In the first one, her finger was covering the flash. D’oh!

But the second one worked out fine.

From front to back on the left: Sinead, Kelly, Clark, Dad, Mom

From front to back on the right: Chris, Anna, Nick, Samantha, Ed, Me.

And of course, Marcus and Emrick are in the back center.

Outside of the restaurant, we took even more family pics, using a bench that was there.

All of Grandma Cinda’s (Mom’s) and Grandpa Ed’s (Dad’s) grandchildren.

All of the kids and grandkids, plus Mom and Dad.

After dinner, we drove back to the beach and we met up at the Dairy Queen on 3rd St. (another family tradition, anyone?). We did not order anything for Emrick because Marcus and I always share with him, and of course he’s not capable of eating an entire treat on his own, not even a small one.

But fate was on Emrick’s side that day, because in all of the confusion involved in serving up ice cream to a large group, somehow an extra Blizzard was made by the DQ employees and they allowed us to keep it for free. So Emrick got to enjoy his very first just-for-Pookie ice cream treat. Of course, he still didn’t come close to finishing it, but for once he didn’t depend on the mercy of me or Marcus to give him a bite. He got to take his own bites! That’s historically significant to him, I am sure.

Unfortunately, the ice cream gods were not so kind to cousin Nick. For some reason, when Marcus got up to throw away our ice cream trash, he somehow crossed paths with Nick’s Blizzard cup, assumed Nick was finished, and proceeded to toss a wet napkin on top of the last couple of inches of ice cream at the bottom. And as it turned out, Nick was not finished. Sorry, Nick. :p

Ding! Ding! Ding! Thank you, Dairy Queen!

 SATURDAY

On Saturday, it was time to fly back home. The trip there had gone pretty smoothly, but it seemed even better on the way back because Pookie napped for almost the entire first leg. Even when he was awake, the whole flying thing had become old hat already.

And that was The End of our Florida trip!

Stay tuned for outtakes!

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