Birthday Party Do Over and Renovations Update

This weekend we had Gwennie's make up party at Monkey Joe's with all of her buddies Stella, Gwennie, Charlie, Matty, Alex, Blythe, Ben and Crawford!
As you can see from the pictures everyone had a blast and was pretty tired once all the pizza and cake was served. Gwennie actually asked us to go home so she could take a nap. That evening we headed up to Paw Paw and Neh Neh Meek's house to celebrate his birthday. Uncle Rob was there as well and Gwennie had a great time tiring their dog Lily out. I think in the end Lily met her match!

We also are a week into renovations. I have added a slideshow off those pictures as well.

Shower in Boston and Day 1 of Demo

This weekend Gwennie and Corbin held down the fort in Charlotte while I headed up to Boston for a visit with friends to celebrate the pending birth of Parrish's little boy. As would be typical I left my camera upstairs all weekend but check The Weiss Family blog as they will have an update with pictures soon. This is a picture of Alexis chillin with Addie's toothbrush.

We also started our kitchen demo today and as of 3 PM we are knee deep in drywall!

Great Weather with a Birthday Postponed...

Well, this weekend was supposed to be lots of fun, family and friends with great weather but as it turned out most of the weekend was spent either at the Doctor's office, sleeping or watching movies.  Gwennie unfortunately woke up Friday a little cranky and then proceeded to throw up her breakfast (at Costco in the checkout line).  She later spiked a fever and we ended up moving her birthday party out a few weeks since we thought it was a stomach bug.    

We took her to the doctor's office and Saturday and it looks as though her antibiotic was not working on her ear infection so that is why she was so sick.  We are now on round 2 of a higher dose and Gwennie is in good spirits given the change but we are hoping this next round will knock out the infection.  We decided to open a few of her gifts including her new kitchen which she loves.   Many thanks to Auntie Addie, Gladys and Don for the dolly potty chair (here's hoping Gwennie will soon follow!) as well as the cute matching outfits and thanks to Clark and Nancy for the Gwennie travel gear.  

Confined to the house for 3 days now!

 I have found that around the 6 month time frame of being pregnant I seem to have an urge to move furniture and redo the bedroom.  I guess it's nesting but I have been thinking about it for months and since Gwennie woke us up early on Sunday and it was raining out, I decided this was the day to actually move the bed.  Last time I waited until about a week before I delivered Gwennie so this time around I think I was trying to plan ahead.  Here's the link to the first time I redid the headboard.  

This time around I again decided to move furniture but it really only took about an hour to create the new headboard and another hour (during Gwennie's nap so she couldn't "help Mommy and Daddy".  Here's some pictures of the finished product.  

We also had a snow day so there are a few pictures of this morning with Gwennie checking out the snow. 

Weekend in bed with Thomas

This weekend the whole family was down for the count with a cold that kept us pretty much confined to indoors. We watched lots of Thomas, Horton Hears a Who, WALL-E and Ratatouille when Gwennie was awake but she pretty much slept most of the weekend away. Here are the only 3 pictures from the weekend when we were trying out pigtails.

Big Friends and Family President's Day Weekend

This weekend we headed up to Baltimore to meet Clare and Matthew as well as to see a bunch of friends. Saturday morning we headed to Owings Mills to meet up with Alan, Heather, Ari and Matthew (this is him on the right). Ari and Gwennie had a great time playing together and Ari loves his new baby brother. Matthew is a great baby and loves to just chill in his bouncy seat.

That afternoon we headed up to Bel Air to meet up with Clark, Nancy and Clare (she's on the left). Gwennie was so excited to see them and spent most of the day "rocking" Clare in the swing....with all of us close by because she wasn't really grasping the whole concept of "gentle'. Sunday we drove down to Vienna to meet up with Dave, Missy and Henry which I am pretty sure was the highlight of the weekend for Gwennie. Henry has a huge playroom outfitted with Thomas and lots of other toys as well as a drum set!!!!!! Henry loved to show Gwennie all of his toys and was great about sharing and teaching her all the ways of cars/trains and drums. We all had a great lunch, took a nice long nap and then watched Horton during dinner (yummy pizza) and then headed back up to Clark and Nancy's for bed. Gwennie was so pooped she passed out right when we got back and slept straight through from 7 PM until 7:30 AM.

Monday I headed back to Owings Mills with Gwennie for more Ari time. Gwennie and Ari had a fun time at lunch together and Heather/Alan/I had our first experience with 2 toddlers at the same time in a public . We are in for a rude awakening!!!!! Overall a great weekend!

Matthew Shayne!

On Wednesday Gwennie's best buddy Ari became an older brother. Alan and Heather welcomed Matthew Shayne around 2 PM on Feb 4th. Matthew weighed in at a healthy 8 pounds, 8 ounces and is doing great. Ari is pretty excited about having a new buddy to play with.

Here's a few other pictures from this weekend. We had wonderful weather in the 70's so we spent most of the weekend outside in the backyard or at the park.

We finally had a nice weekend where everyone did not have to bundle into multiple layers just to go outside. Sunday was beautiful and as you can see from the pictures Gwennie and Corbin spent the afternoon on the tire swing. Gwennie also finally can reach the pedals on her Tricycle. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

GeeGee's Visit

This week GeeGee came for a visit and we decided to head to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC. We met up with our cousins Gini, Blyth and Alex and everyone had so much fun!

I think the highlight of the day was when "Diver Dan" fed the fish. There's video of Blyth and Gwennie checking him out. For some reason they thought he was a fish and would not wave to him. Overall it was a great day and a great visit!

Snow Day!!!

As you can see from the pictures, the snow finally fell last night so there is no school or work today! Gwennie had her first real experience playing in the snow and was so sad to go inside (Nemo bribery was the only way we could get her to leave the yard). Ruby also had a blast, Ginger on the other hand had no interest and could not wait to come back inside. Here's some pictures from this morning including Gwennie in her PJ's right after she woke up checking out snow for the first time. Pardon the crazy outfit. It was the first thing we could find in the closet!

A Trip to the ER for Nursemaid Elbow

Wish I could say I have pictures from this weekend but thus far we haven't taken any pictures. Gwennie is home with us tomorrow because daycare is closed so tune in because I will likely take some. Today we were at Staples and in a rush I grabbed Gwennie's hand to go meet Corbin and ended up injuring her with something the nurses (yes...the ER and all) called Nursemaid's Elbow. At first we thought she was just mad that we were leaving but when she didn't stop crying and wouldn't use her left arm, we headed to the Children's Emergency Room.

So....yes, I could not feel any worse about it and believe me I am still upset about not being so careful but the good news is that as soon as the nurse gave her arm a little twist, within a minute she was up playing again and running around. The nurses assured me that this is one of the most common injuries out there. They said most of the time it happens from parents swinging their kids while walking or even when trying to pull arms out of a coat. That being said, I decided to blog about this because I figured if it happened to anyone else, the facts really are helpful and hopefully it will prevent an injury.

Swimming and Baby 2

This weekend Gwennie started her next round of swim lessons at Little Otters Swim School. As always, Gwennie loved the class and was not happy that the class ended after 30 minutes.

In other news...Gwennie's new little brother or sister is doing well and we got some great ultrasound pictures. Everyone still seems to think we are going to cave and find out what we are having but we are holding strong and keeping it a surprise!

Happy New Year!

Happy Near Year! As you can see from the pictures Gwennie and the rest of the family spent their New Years Eve with our neighbors Bragg, Michelle and Stella. Gwennie and Stella are thick as thieves and their favorite pass time is watching Nemo together while jumping on the couch (which they always do when we aren't looking....knowing full well we have told them this is not allowed). Needless to say the couch gets a pretty good workout when the two of them are together. They made it to about 10 PM and then passed out and the adults were soon to follow! On New Years day, we headed back up to the Lazy 5 Ranch with Corbin this time and he got a first hand feeding experience. We all agree that the Ostriches are just too weird/scary with their neck bobbing so we just threw the feed quickly and rolled up the windows before they infiltrated the car.

We then got home in time to watch the Rose Bowl and as you can see from the picture Gwennie was channeling East LA and running around the house. Corbin and I thought it was pretty funny but before we could get the camera out she was off playing with something else. This is the only good picture we could take before she decided to take off running.

Xmas 2008

Well, we made it through another holiday with Nanna, GeeGee and PopPop, Gwennie, Corbin and I (and the girls - Ginger and Ruby). I think everyone had a nice time eating, chasing after Gwennie, eating, watching Gwennie run around the house, eating, sleeping, and more eating! Overall it was a great holiday and we are slowly trying to get the house back in order. Here's some pictures from the week and a video of Gwennie playing with her favorite gift

No No Duck!!

Today while Corbin was working, we (Gwennie, myself, Gee Gee and Pop Pop) went to the Lazy 5 Ranch to check out the driving tour and to feed all of the animals at the ranch. We hadn't crossed 2 feet into the ranch when Gee Gee tried to feed an Oryx (huge deer with big horns) and it decided to take the entire bucket of feed - good thing we had another 3 buckets to spare. We learned our lesson...roll up the windows quickly if you still want your feed for the rest of the tour!!! The emu and ostriches were also a little weird - their heads kept pecking on the windows and bobbing up and down. We figured if we opened the windows they might just jump into the car with us. We were a little nervous about feeding them but they seemed to be pretty docile. Gwennie liked the Lamas and Alpacas the most. They were very easy to feed and would let Gwennie (and everyone for that matter) pet them while they were eating.


After the tour we went to the petting zoo and Gwennie quickly learned what happens when you get too close to ducks. Not to fear....no lost fingers or toes, just a little sniffling, a NO NO DUCK and an unhappy Gwennie for a couple of minutes. The duck was not to keen on being touched so it let Gwennie know what happens when you try to mess with a hungry duck. As you will see from the pictures below, my parents tried out their new Christmas presents. I will post pictures from Christmas on our camera later.

Big Wedding/Holiday Weekend!

This weekend was a big family weekend. Our cousin Sara married her wonderful beau Mike. The wedding was a blast and Gwennie actually got to attend. She had so much fun and enjoyed hanging out with the family!

Sunday we headed over to the Burton's house for an early Christmas celebration. Lots of cousins, aunts, uncles and babies were in attendance. It was a little overwhelming but so much fun to see everyone and enjoy the holidays. As you can see the kids all enjoyed making gingerbread houses/cookies and testing out the frosting. Here are lots of pictures from the weekend.

Weekend Project

This weekend we decided to put up a "communication center" in the kitchen (nice fancy way of saying a dry erase board with a spot to charge the cell phone). Little did we know that we would need to drill holes in the wall to reach the closest electronic plug. As you can see from the pictures Corbin was a trooper and Gwennie decided to stay away and watch Wall-E. Here's some pictures from the weekend project.

The Search for a Christmas Tree and the Return of the Diaper Hat

This weekend my cousin Gini came up from Columbia to participate in the Christmas Bazaar at Christ Church down the street. Our good friend Jennifer also participated and overall it was a fun but exhausting Saturday!

Sunday we did the quest for a Christmas tree and as you can see Corbin was all about snapping pictures of Gwennie running through the trees. She seemed to have the most fun. After lots of shopping/walking/chasing Gwennie, we decided on a tree and decorated it last night. Here are some pictures from the weekend. You'll notice Gwennie is back on the swimmie diaper kick so we took a few pictures of that to use at her wedding years from now!

Thanksgiving 2008

For the second time we headed down to Neeces, South Carolina to meet up with Corbin's side of the family. As you can see it's a pretty large group and we all had a great time visiting, eating, watching Gwennie get into something and eating again!
Gwennie loves to play with Lily who was a very patient dog with all the patting/tail pulling Gwennie seemed to do every time she saw Lily. Ginger is not as patient and has now started just heading in another direction when Gwennie starts calling her name (Ginngerrrrr!!!). Ruby must have organized a toddler treaty because Gwennie seems to only pet Ruby and doesn't insist on running around pulling her tail.

Here's some pictures from the week including Gwennie sporting her new "swimmie hat". It's amazing what kids find to entertain themselves nowadays!

Cheese.....

This weekend Corbin and I picked up our Christmas present earlier. We decided to get a new digital camera and so far the pictures are great! Gwennie, Ginger and Ruby were our main subjects and by the end of the weekend I am pretty sure they were running in the other direction every time we took the camera out. Gwennie seemed to be into hats on Saturday and Sunday. She spent most of the weekend walking around with either a baseball cap or a winter fleece hat on her head. Here's some pictures from both days.