Voyages in Parenthood

Happy Birthday, Daddy! We Love You!

(Warning: this post may be a bit disjointed. I'm tired and I don't feel like making it flow properly, so take it as it is! At least you got a warning! hehe) I have recovered from my near-death experience on Thursday night, if anyone was wondering! Only to end up with a fever and the aches on Friday afternoon. A call to the doctor had me picking up another round of antibiotics, just in case the bug I have intended to do more harm, and since I am still recovering from pneumonia, that was/is a distinct possibility. I'm really getting tired of feeling crappy all the time! Saturday morning I got to sleep a bit late (8:30am is considered late now - sigh!) and after Brock and I got cleaned up (read, took showers), we loaded Leda into the car and Brock got into the truck and off our little caravan when to Ikea. It's like church for us! The Holy Grail of furniture and other domestic goodies stores. Mecca! We were going to buy Leda a big girl bed. We walked the whole store, final...

Because no matter what, I will ALWAYS get stuck at the top - EVERY SINGLE TIME! I am TERRIFIED of heights. I love to look out from the observatory deck of tall buildings, but I don't look down and I don't get too close to the glass windows - that's just asking for me to pass out! I don't do open decks (the CN Tower in Toronto - viewed the views from INSIDE the darn thing, you think you are gonna get me to go outside where death is looming??? No freakin' way!), I don't climb ladders, my knees get weak just watching other people do things like lean right up against a window 100 stories up. Empire State building - yes, I went outside, but I didn't look down much and I didn't lean over the sides (of course, there's lots of safety measures to keep one from jumping off, which works JUST fine for me!) And, besides, my mother went out onto the observatory deck of the Empire State building and she's worse than I am about heights! I don't do Ferris Whe...

Don't sleep much! ;-) What a weekend we had! Summary: The Police in Hershey on Friday night, sitting on the Jersey Beach Saturday and Sunday! Friday afternoon, Brock and I headed over to pick Leda up from daycare around 3:30 or so and got to Dave and Annie's at 4pm, where Leda would be spending the evening with Danny and the babysitters while us parental units went to the Police concert. We hit the road by 4:15, leaving a screaming Leda to plan our demise when she grows up enough to put the plan into place! The ride to Hershey should have taken about an hour and a half, but we did hit just a bit of traffic about 10 miles from the venue - rush hour traffic and all. We were parked in the lot by about 6pm and proceeded to load up our cups for the short walk to the location that the rest of our group (there were 12 of us who made the concert) were already ensconced and in full tailgating mode! We hung out, enjoyed the beautiful weather (80s with low humidity and a nice breeze, BEAU...

(yes, I changed colors again - dude, it's July, it's hot, green is out!) Last night we went to the Malvern Fair (haven't been in YEARS! Actually, make that DECADES!) with the Durhams and met up with the Baurs (Maureen, John and their little three year old Sydney) and Karen to hang out and let the kids ride some rides. Leda LOVES to ride the rides! She didn't get to ride the roller coaster though, because Mommy didn't want to ride it and apparently neither did Daddy, but Leda REALLY wanted to ride it! I'm just not ready to let her get on rides like that by herself. (by roller coaster, I mean one of those kiddie rides, but still!) But Brock did take Leda on the Big Slide several times and she LOVED that! And we had to pay twice for the moon bounce, as we couldn't get her to get out after the first time! We ate pizza and french fries and watched all the teenagers mill about! Then, as we were leaving, Leda got to play the "duck" game - you know, you pa...

The past week has been interesting! Coming back from vacation always is interesting, but coming back from a vacation AND a major illness is on a level all it's own! The antibiotics that the doctor prescribed me have kicked whatever virus-or-bacteria-that-ruined-my-vacation's butt, but I was informed that it could take up to a month to fully recover from a bout of pneumonia. What sucks is, that means I have to suffer through the most annoying of all symptoms, the coughing. What helps is, the doctor prescribed me good cough medicine for nighttime and some good stuff to get me through the day! And, I got refills! The only other "symptoms" I have from the pneumonia is walking around the house, up and down stairs, exerting myself just a little bit gets me tired! Walking out to the mail box and back gets me winded. I feel like I have a three-pack-a-day habit, and I haven't had a cigarette in over three years! In any case, I appear to be getting better. Which is good, si...

Read Part I Read Part II Read Part III (You will be happy to note, that this is the last installment in the Yates' 2007 Family Vacation Saga!) So after the ER visit on Monday night, we head back to the house and pack me into bed and I am looking forward to maybe feeling better in the next day or so. I end up waking up on Tuesday morning at something like 5AM coughing like crazy until about 8AM. I cough so bad, I end up throwing up. And, I feel feverish and yucky and for someone who loves the beach, this SUCKS! Brock and Leda spend the day with the kids and the rest of the family. I spend most of the morning sleeping on and off. In the afternoon, I feel good enough to move to the couch so I can at least join the rest of the family, and they are all getting ready to move on out! The boys are going crabbing, the girls are going shopping. I am staying home! Leda went with Aunt Claire and Aunt Joan and Sarah shopping and apparently had an awesome time. She came home with some goodies - ...

Read Part I Read Part II The Wedding of the Century had happened Friday night but the festivities continue on Saturday with a Champagne Brunch on the Sternwheeler Colombia Gorge and later, a barbecue at the home of the Bride and Groom. The view from the room was beautiful, but I woke up Saturday morning feeling BAD! The coughing is keeping me awake, it's getting worse (it gags me it is so bad and coughing fits last for a half hour or more). I have the chills and I am in a terry cloth robe under all the covers on the bed. I decided, since the only place I would have to sleep would be the car since we had to check out of the hotel, to "Cowboy Up", get dressed, throw some makeup on and go to the champagne brunch, which, by the way, would have the last bit of alcohol I would have until, well, still haven't had any! We got to the boat dock and got a quick tour of the reception building that has a small cafe and a gift shop. Daniel's company really did a great job putti...

Read Part I So, we wake up on Friday morning (at the ungodly hour of 6:30? Does this child not know that we are on the other side of the country, on vacation, and need to sleep another two or three hours??) and we head down around 8:30 to meet Grandpa and Nana for breakfast. We got lucky, Uncle Daniel joined us for breakfast! (He had to stay at the hotel Thursday night - you know, can't see the bride the day of the wedding, before the wedding, etc?) After breakfast, we headed back up to our room, packed up again and loaded up the bellboy's cart to check out and head on up to our next hotel near the Cascade Locks on the Columbia river, where the wedding was going to be held on Thunder Island with the reception held in the Pavilion. We stayed at the Skamania Lodge on the Washington State side of the Columbia. Let me tell you, this place is beautiful. It's near the Bridge of the Gods (we actually had to cross the Bridge of the Gods to get to WA state) and the sites are just b...

(To ensure that there is no "century"* in this story, I am splitting it into parts) (*private inside family joke) The good news: I lost 10 lbs while on vacation The bad news: I had to endure pneumonia the entire time (well, most of the time)! Oh it's a long sorted story, ready? We were so efficient in packing our bags and stuff that by Wednesday evening, we had nothing better to do than to head off to Brock's favorite Japanese Steak House, Liki, for dinner. First, we stopped over at the good next door neighbor ER Doc and asked him to take a look at me, as I had started coughing on Monday and it was getting to be annoying. Good ER Doc took a look and said I may just have a little virus, the cough was really the only symptom, no noise in my chest and my throat looked fine. He prescribed me a cough medicine with codeine to be filled before we left and some other scripts to fill IF, while on vacation, I got worse. Off to the Airport we went at 4:45am in the morning - unbe...

Will probably do a more extensive update of our busy, busy wedding weekend later, when I HOPEFULLY feel better. We are down the beach now, it's beautiful here. I've been sick for pretty much the entire trip so far. Saturday I believe I was sporting a wonderful fever and that traveled on into Sunday. I am on the antibiotics that my good doctor neighbor prescribed for me before I left, in case of such a thing happening. I'm just worn out from all the coughing - which doesn't stop at all during the night - I have taken to sleeping upright as much as I can so I can at least get a hour or two in between coughing fits. Leda's been wonderful. She flew beautifully. She's been sleeping between Brock and I in a king size all weekend and that is going pretty well - she kicks us once in a while, but she's sleeping through my coughing fits! Have started to feel better today, although am now losing my voice, probably due to the coughing! Hopefully I will feel even better ...

...getting ready for vacation! Seriously, I'm gonna need a vacation from my preparation for going on vacation with a two year old. A two year old who will have to sit in a car seat on a plane for a cross-country trip. For which we will have to awaken her at the god-awful hour of 4:30 in the morning. What was I thinking?? That's right, we take off on Thursday to Portland, OR, for the Wedding of the Century. Brock's brother Daniel is marrying Maggie on Friday night. Leda's dress fits and we'll see how well she handles being the flower girl (ha! we'll see about that!) We had better have everything we need for our trip because we don't have any more room in the bags we are taking! I guess we'll just have to get it there if we don't already have it. We are really looking forward to seeing the family! Claire reminded me that it's been over a year since Sarah and Scott have seen Leda! They'll have the whole week to get reacquainted! May try a post o...

Husband: "Honey, our daughter's a redneck in training" Wife: "Why do you say that?" Kid: "Mommy, Watch This!" (Kid does something cute) Husband: "At least she didn't ask the dog to hold her beer first!"

We actually had a pretty nice weekend, all things considered. I woke up on Friday feeling pretty bad. Very tired, a little achy, but most annoying, a sore throat. What sucked the most was we were scheduled to spend the weekend in the Poconos with our friends the Durhams. Who wants to be sick on a fun weekend like that? I fought my way through the day, and I went over to day care to pick up Leda as Brock headed over to the Durhams to pick up Uncle John and the refrigerator we were taking up to the house in the truck. When Brock got back, we packed up the car and Leda and I followed Brock and John up to the mountains. The trip wasn't so bad, but I had to give Leda her binky (okay, I didn't HAVE to do anything, but for my sanity, I decided it was a good idea). The question, "Where'd Daddy go" was accompanied by "Where'd John go" for about the first half of the trip. Somewhere just after going through the tunnel, Leda thought it was funny to throw her Bi...

To all the Fathers and Grandpa/Granddaddy/GrandDads, Happy Father's Day! We love you all! Phone calls will be made on Sunday, but due to travel for work, Father's day cards were not purchased in time for delivery! (bad me!) We are off to the Poconos for the weekend. Hopefully the weather will warm up a little (but not too much! ;-)

Brock and I must be the only two people in the universe that have never seen an episode of The Sopranos. Mostly because we are too darn cheap to get HBO. Let me tell you, I will not miss being asked at least twice during each season over the past many years, if I watch The Sopranos. Nope, don't watch 'em, never did. But completely understand the fans that are mad today! If the creators/producers of Lost do that to me, well, let's just not even think about that happening!

Leda surprised me (and caused me to get a little veclemped - and yes, this would be the second post in a row that I have used the word veclemped!) this weekend. Yesterday, as we were sitting outside on the patio, playing with markers (washable, thank goodness!) and paper, Leda was holding them high up above her head, and I said, "are they way up in the sky?" And she replied, "way up in the sky!" Next, she did something she's never done before, and I almost didn't catch it. She started to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. "Up in the sky, Twinkle Star, How wonder you are" I asked her to repeat it - okay, and it's not perfect, but man, did my heart just soar. She was singing! Sorta, there really wasn't much of a melody! But it was beautiful none-the-less. She may not win a real Grammy, but she wins my heart over and over every day!

Well, I've entered the iPod Nation. I'm officially an owner of an iPod. I LOVE it already and I have barely scratched the surface! I really didn't think I'd be all about this piece of technology. I'm 'old school' - I like my albums (see, I'm so 'old school', I still call them albums! Heck, I still REMEMBER albums! Oh, let's just face it, I still OWN albums!) I like my liner notes. My favorite activity after purchasing a new album (okay, CD!) is to put it in the stereo, turn it up loud and read the liner notes front to back while listening to the new music. I even do that with my old music - it's nice to get re-acquainted with an old friend once in awhile. Over the past several years - probably due to parenthood, although I wouldn't trade it for the world - I haven't been as into my music as I used to be. The only time I really listen to music is when I am in the car. I listen to Radio Margaritaville on the Internet when working. I...

Last night Brock and Leda and I headed downtown for First Friday - every first Friday of the month is a big deal in our little town - the shops and restaurants all do something fun, they have music playing all up and down the street, there are street performers, lots of fun. We hadn't been able to make a First Friday in the past two years they have been doing them - either we are too busy with other stuff, or too darn tired. Last night we decided to go down for the dedication of the "Children's Plaza" for which we bought a brick! They closed down a little one way thoroughfare that wasn't much of a big deal and paved it with bricks and put in a fountain and some benches and they will have some activities there over the summer for kids. It is a pretty nice little place. So we went down for the dedication, and after they "opened" the plaza, the fountain was turned on and Leda needed to play in it! Luckily we kept her from getting IN it, but she had to put h...

Yes, I finally got my road trip. It wasn't too far and it didn't involve taking the kid. It did involve traveling to a client for some on-site face time, so technically it was work. I had to drive out to York, PA to visit with a client. It just so happens that York is where I lived for 5 years while I went to college. So it was like going home for a day. I enjoyed the ride out, checking out the sites along the road I traveled back and forth on for 5 years. Wow, how things have changed. There's now a Target in the back yard of the "Real live working" Amish House and Farm attraction in Lancaster County (something a little obscene about that). After my productive meeting with the client - who was also a graduate of York College! Small world - I headed down to the college. Now, the spring semester was finished about two weeks ago or so, so there was no one on campus. It was dead. They are building something new at the old gym building - gonna be REALLY TALL! Amazing! ...