Voyages in Parenthood

Because I have been a bad sister-in-law and haven't called; Because your brother has also been bad, and hasn't called; Because Leda is too young to use the phone yet (although, if given the chance she probably could call - JAPAN!); You get this post - Thanks Auntie Claire, Uncle Bobby, Sarah and Scott! We love the little outfit and the puppet/book! We've already drooled all over the puppet! ;-) Can't wait to wear the dress! Love ya! The Yates

Actually, not a radio station at all...instead, the degree at which Leda's fever got to last night! Poor baby! Wednesday night, Leda and I didn't sleep very well. She woke up (sorta - she's not quite totally awake when she does this) crying. I actually, at one point, needed to rub her back to calm her down enough to go back to sleep. And then, yesterday morning, she didn't wake up happy - this child ALWAYS has a smile for us in the morning. We had taken her temperature (for the VERY first time EVER) on Wed night and it was normal (well, what we figured was normal - 98.9). She had rosy cheeks, which is what prompted the temperature taking, but we figured it must just be teething...which is wierd to us, since the first two teeth came in without fanfare. Anyway, all day Thursday, Leda was all out of sorts - crying, just wanting to be held, not really playing much and DROOLING like it was going out of style! Thus, coughing! When I got home from work, she was happy to see me...

Yesterday, Leda was 5 months old! (and her Granddaddie Sweat was 49 - for the umpteenth time! ;-) Wow, in 5 months we have grown so big! We aquired two teeth (our bottom teeth!), we've rolled over from our tummy, we chew on everything we can get our hands on. We "talk" a lot more now, especially at night , it appears! ;-) We started eating veggies this past month and we LOVE our rice cereal! We want to spend a lot of time on our feet - we really want to walk - and we move all over our crib during the night. If only we could figure out how to move around during the day! ;-) Here we are with two of our favorite neighbors, George and Jean. We love George and Jean! We probably weigh around 18 pounds and we don't fit in our 3 month clothes any more (well, most of them - one or two outfits we can still get on, but not for much longer). We can fit into some of our 3-6 months stuff and some of our 6 month stuff - and we are trying to wear all the summer stuff before it gets t...

Our second veggie was sweet potatoes - and we like those! The squash grew on us, but the sweet potatoes we loved from the get go! But, apparently, sweet potatoes makes us wake up in the middle of the night to talk to ourselves! Or, we are actually sleeping and talking in our sleep! Whatever the case, Leda woke up in the middle of the night Saturday night and babbled to herself for approximately 1 1/2 hours! (Mommy knows this, because Mommy was awake most of that time!) Not sure if she was fully awake, or if she was talking in her sleep - the length of time this occured for makes me think that it was definitely awake talking, not sleep talking. And, again last night, babbling away at 4AM! She's apparently not upset - she doesn't cry and we don't go in her room (we don't want her thinking she can get up at 4AM!) She just talks away to herself! At least she's happy! Mommy and Daddy would be really happy if she'd sleep through the night and not wake us up with her...

Monday night, we gave Leda her first veggie...squash! Mommy likes squash, Daddy doesn't. And, it appeared, Leda could live without it too! She made the funniest faces EVER! She then refused to open her mouth to the spoon...rice cereal OR squash was NOT going to make it past her lips! We even mixed the two together (she LOVES her rice cereal) to no avail! She just wouldn't eat it! So we saved it, Brock figured he would attempt it at lunch the next day and see what happens. She ate it. Then, we had the rest of the squash last night for dinner. She ate it, still made some faces, but she ate it. We believe she may have said her first word during the process - Yucky! (just kidding... it wasn't yucky, but it kinda sounded that way!) So, one or two more days of squash and on to sweet potatos! We'll see if she likes them more. One thing we do know, squash may not be in this child's future! ;-) UPDATED: 10/2/2005 - Finally uploaded the picture:

Got some pictures developed from the summer (well, August and September) that I figured I would share with ya'll! They are photoworks albums, so each link will open in a new window...just follow the directions - if you have any issues and REALLY wanna see the pictures, email me: cnbyates at earthlink.net! Pictures of our Vacation in Avalon, August 2005 Pictures of our Vacation in the Thousand Islands, September 2005 Pictures from the Radnor Hunt Concours d'Elegance Then, here are a few of my favorites! These are from our trip to the Thousand Islands earlier this month...(Thanks to Dan Corcoran who took the two family photos! They turned out great!!)

Well, it wasn't a complete weekend in NYC! Just a Saturday night! Brock and I headed up to NYC on Saturday afternoon to take in dinner and a show! Leda stayed home with Aunt Karen and did a little girl bonding (no QVC, but jewelry was apparently discussed!). We stayed at the Hotel Belleclaire on the Upper West Side - nice little hotel...one of those hotels that is just that - a place to sleep! No restaurant or bar (but there's one right around the corner) and if you are lucky, you can get a private room...we had reserved one, but apparently, due to a busted pipe, they were unfortunately a little on the full side with less than the normal number of rooms, and apparently we lost out on our private room...so, we had to share a bathroom with two other rooms...ended up not being a big deal, we never saw our "bathroom mates" and never had to wait for the bathroom! And, we saved $110! Took the VERY HOT subway down to the theater district and had a little dinner at Ruby Foo...

Happy Anniversary, Honey! It's our 7th anniversary today! And, it's Talk Like a Pirate Day ! Bonus! Seriously, if we had known about Talk Like a Pirate day when we got married...the possibilities would have been endless for a Theme wedding! ;-) Can't wait for the next 7! Love you!

It's Talk Like a Pirate day !

This interests me greatly, since it deals with my biggest pet peeve during the winter...those people who can't take the extra 2-5 minutes it will cost them (if that!) to clear the darned snow off the roof of their cars... Bill aims to clear snow, ice off autos Not only is it dangerous, it's just plain rude. Those who don't clear off the snow pretty much put everyone behind them in a white-out - and that's if it doesn't freeze first! Would be perfectly happy if PA would be the second state to take up a bill like this.

If you have ever watched a football game, specifically an Eagles football game, with me and/or any one of or group of my family members (that would be those family members on my mom's side), you know that it can get quite loud - okay, REALLY loud! We yell at everything...we are the 12th team member! Seriously, sometimes, the louder we yell, the better the team does, really! I've seen it happen! ;-) Well, in our house, I watch football alone...Brock has too much fun rooting for the other team, just to work me up (which, as you may know, is really unnecessary), so he's not allowed to watch the game with me...and more than likely, he doesn't really want to anyway! He's a Cleveland Brown's fan, so what does he know anyway? ;-) The dog, Duff, can't stand the yelling...he apparently thinks I am yelling at him - so he tends to slink out of the room when the game goes on. START RANT: I HATE Monday night games! Truly...Why do we on the East coast have to suffer a f...

Boy, is her daddy in trouble when she gets older! hehehe Leda, for what ever reason (oh, I don't know, maybe because Daddy and Mommy seem to use it an awful lot!) is facinated by the remote control. And, not ALL remote controls, only the one that we used to change the TV channels (I've tried giving her the DVD remote or the stereo remote to no avail...want the TV remote!) So, Saturday, on my shopping trip to Target, I picked up a toy remote for her to play with. She likes it, she plays with it, but if that TV remote is in eyesight, forget it! Here's Leda attempting to get the remote - the remote is in that wooden tray (our new coffee table configuration!)...and yes, she is standing - alone! Of course, you can see, the dog is giving Brock the "you'd better not let her fall or there'll be hell to pay" look...

Our little family headed up to the St. Lawrence River for Labor day weekend - we had such a nice, quiet time. We spent a week up there, hanging out and doing not much of anything. We did manage a trip over to Canada to visit with some wonderful Canadians. And Brock fished a bit (kept catching the same poor lil' bass! And, I mean little!! ;-) We headed up late Thurs (9/1/2005) after Leda had her nighttime bottle - we figured, a 5 hour trip, best time to leave was when she would go to sleep for the night - it worked okay - she did seem to be awake for about an hour when we got there, but she just talked quietly to herself for that period of time and finally fell asleep! It was Nana Pam's birthday, and she had had a book signing that day (more about her book later) and Stacey, Stephanie and Missy had come up to surprise her, so it was a busy house at 2 in the morning!! Some of us went to bed, some of us hung out looking at pictures and talking until the early morning....guess who...

Well, now that I have your undivided attention... Just a few quick items from our vacation, to hold you over until I can get the pictures loaded over the weekend... *I finished TWO books...that's right TWO books...and no, one of them was NOT Harry Potter, so I still don't know what happens, so don't tell me! I actually decided to stop reading Harry until I can go back and re-read Phoenix, since I am completely lost...need to refresh my memory. No, instead, I read the latest James Patterson book (that's right, Mom, I have caught up to you! Ha!) and I read my mother-in-law's new book (her first!). Wanna check it out: The Gift of More *On the way home yesterday, we discovered (actually, I discovered) Leda has a tooth!!! Yep, our little monster has a little white tooth pushing through! Of course, I discovered the hard way...she grabbed my finger and CHOMPED down! Ouch! It didn't hurt because she bit hard, but because that thing in her mouth is SHARP! Whatever you ...

Where does the time go?? Brock, Leda and I are off to the Thousand Islands for a week to relax and read books! We are looking forward to doing not a whole lot - other than visiting friends in Canada, we really are doing NOTHING! And it will feel good! If you come here while we are gone, don't forget to help out our fellow Americans in the Gulf Coast region by giving what you can: www.redcross.org . Things look devistating for that region. Brock and I were in New Orleans in '99 when our friends Dan and Christine got married and it is a fun and neat town. It's amazing to think that a whole city (much less the whole region!) can disappear right before our eyes. On the up side, check back here late next week/weekend to see what I am sure will be cute pictures of Leda tanning herself on the St. Lawrence.

Brock and I spent an interesting evening last month when the power went out because of a storm. We were only without power for 10 hours - it was hot and uncomfortable, but we had a roof over our heads, no loss of life, limb or any of our stuff... We couldn't BEGIN to imagine what the people who live in the Gulf coast areas that were hit by Katrina are enduring. And, hope we never have to. So, we are asking you to join us in helping out...spend a week bagging your lunch from home and give the money you will save to the Red Cross - and count your blessings.... The American Red Cross: 1-800-435-7669 or www.redcross.org (Other relief agencies are listed in this article at MSNBC.com)

Click the picture to see a few others...Leda actually sat without assistance for a few seconds! Wooo hooo!

We went to see Jimmy Buffett (4th year in a row) this past Saturday night. He, instead of playing the Tweeter Center in Camden, NJ, played the new ball park, Citizen's Bank Park, in Philly. This was the first ever concert at the ball park....well, actually, Saturday night was the 2nd concert - he played Thursday night too! So, we met up with Bob and Linda, Kayla, Gary and Rich for a little tailgating in the rain (luckily it didn't rain the whole time, and it cleared up for the concert) and Tom and Karen met up with us just before the concert. We had okay seats (GREAT seats for a ball game, not so great seats for Buffett) - they were quite some ways away from the stage, which was in center field. And, Jimmy came out shortly after 8pm...and he was great - the acoustics, they sucked! And, unfortunatly, for a short while, the video and audio didn't match up! Jimmy WAS great - I mean, if you know your Buffett, the audio can suck, it don't matter, you still sing along with i...

My family members have become quite accustom to receiving their birthday cards from me late...several days late! In fact, so used to this practice of mine they were, that last year, when I actually sent the card so it arrived BEFORE the special event, they all thought something was wrong with me (it was, I was pregnant!). I DO, however, ALWAYS remember to call on the special day to wish them a Happy Birthday and inform them that the "cards are in the mail!" Now, I always (and, knowing what you already know from the first paragraph, you probably will not believe this) purchase the birthday cards AT LEAST 3 weeks ahead of said birthday with EVERY intention of having them signed, sealed and delivered by the special day! I have even purchased cards MONTHS ahead of birthdays that I forgot and purchased a second card!! So, 4 weeks ago - YES, FOUR WEEKS AGO - Leda and I are out at Target. I think forward into August and figure I'd better purchase birthday cards for my brother-in...

Wow! We've reached 4 months without any serious mishaps! Great! Leda's growing and becoming more of a little person than a newborn baby now! She's definitely developing a personality, and so far, it looks pretty good! She is quite happy, which bodes well for us. We had our 4 month doctor visit yesterday. We are officially 16lbs, 7oz (Mommy was off by quite a bit! I thought for sure she'd be 18 pounds!) and 25 inches (I still think she's closer to 26, but oh well!). The doctor said she's a perfectly healthy little girl who will stop sleeping through the night at 8 months! I said, What?!?!? He said, I just want you to come back in here and tell me I was wrong! Let me tell ya, I was sweating it there for a moment. Actually, we were all sweating...we apparently were put in the one exam room that had a broken air conditioning system, so it was HOT in there! Leda smiled and did a little belly laugh for Dr. and he told us that we can expect her to start "scooting...