Across the Street

Uggg, my neighbor directly across the street is due with a baby boy in a week. From a totally selfish perspective, I am not looking forward to catching glimpses of her carrying him around or hearing his little newborn cry. She and I are not friends or anything but I'm still bound to see them around like I do now. It's not that I don't want other people to have babies but I think you can appreciate where I'm coming from.

34

I would be at week 34 in my pregnancy with baby Kevin. There was a hugely pregnant woman in line in front of me at the grocery store yesterday. I could feel my heart sink. The woman in the house directly across the street from us is also hugely pregnant. (Don't even get me started about that. They don't even watch the kid they already have as she plays outside.)I'm supposed to organize meals for a gal in MOMS Club who's due at the end of June.

I should be waddling around, washing newborn baby clothes, looking gleefully into Kevin's nursery and feeling anxious about a forthcoming labor and delivery. Indeed, it sounds like I'm feeling sorry for myself. I don't think I am. It's just that a lot of time I simply don't allow myself to feel my loss.

Overall, I think I've been coping very well after baby Kevin passed away. I just have these small relapses once in a while and of course, they totally catch me off guard.

Tyler's Speaking Skills

Rick and I are enjoying how much more Tyler is speaking. School has helped with this quite a bit. He's finally starting to use more than two words at a time. He'll say a few sentences here and there which is great. He's more responsive and interactive. His latest mini-obsession is Blue's Clues. I like to observe him as he watches because he really gets into it. He pretends that a lot of things are clues around the house.

He's able to repeat almost any word that we say to him (better be extra careful with what we say...hee hee) and he's reading more and more. I was working with him by writing words on the chalk board and I simply don't know how he knows some of the words he knows. Now I'm working with him on reading simply sentences.

I was concerned that he will not be mentally stimulated enough when school lets out for the summer. (When will schools go to year round? It makes more sense than being off for almost three months.)Even though I work with him and will continue to work with him over the summer he gets more out of school. Anyway, we enrolled him in camp for two weeks. It's called Imagination Station and is for kids with special needs of varying degrees. It's Monday through Friday, from 9-4 and is only $85 per week! I think he's going to learn quite a bit and will have many positive experiences.

Photos from GA Trip Part II

The view from our hotel room patio on Jekyll Island.


Rick heard about this place on CNN. Rick and I love turtles and tortoises.


Tyler looking at a small sea turtle at the educational center.


A recovering sea turtle named Griffin.


Jen's horseback ride on the beach. The horse is named Dixie.

Photos from GA Trip

For a description of our trip please see the posting before this one.

Tyler having fun on Tybee Island.


Rick and Tyler on Tybee Island.


Jen and Tyler on Tybee Island.


Neat trees in a town square in Savannah, GA


Waving Lady statue in Savannah, Ga

Georgia Trip

We just got back from Georgia yesterday. :-) We arrived on Tybee Island on Sunday afternoon and went to the beach. We were concerned that Tyler might not like it because last May when we went to the beach in Charleston he screamed and cried. A year can make a big difference because he had a ball! He had his own ocean baby pool with the way some water created a shallow pool surrounded by a bunch of sand.

We went into Savannah on Monday and thought it was charming. We like Charleston better but certainly enjoyed Savannah. We tried to go to the beach in the later part of the afternoon but it POURED buckets of rain. We managed to go for a little while after we ate dinner. Tyler was happy playing in the sand and was mad when we had to literally pull him away from it because it was almost completely dark.

On Tuesday we stopped at Fort Pulaski as we departed Tybee Island. What an interesting place! I highly recommend it for anyone who likes historical sites. We arrived on Jekyll Island that afternoon. Good job, Rick, on our hotel! It was a resort on the water and we had an ocean view with a balcony. It wasn't expensive, either. Rick and Tyler went to the beach while I unpacked and organized. It was kind of cold and rather windy so the beach jaunt was short. One thing about Jekyll Island is that it has very limited conveniences. That is both good and bad. It's good because it is not a touristy place and is not commercialized. The bad thing is that there are only a handful of restaurants and they're expensive. There was only one grocery store and it was small and expensive. Our room didn't have a refrigerator (which lead me to believe that's the resort's way of 'encouraging' people to eat there).

We visited St. Simon's Island the next day which was Wednesday. It's bigger and much more commercialized. We liked Jekyll Island better but St. Simon's was still neat. We went up into the historical lighthouse. Rick carried Tyler up all those stairs. My situational fear of heights flared up! Rick said my bottom lip was quivering!

One hundred percent convinced that Tyler needed a nap, we went back to our hotel on Jekyll. I told Rick I'd stay with Tyler so he could go exploring. I was quite tired and was hoping to nap with Tyler. No such luck. Tyler just wanted to watch his hockey video and was captivated by the fact that he could look at himself playing hockey in the full length mirror. (We brought his mini hockey stick and some balls.)
Later that afternoon we went to the Georgia Sea Turtle Rehab Center. It was a terrific experience.

I got to enjoy my surprise Mother's Day gift the next day, a one hour horseback ride on the beach. Wow. I liked it quite a bit and would like to do it again. My horse's name was Dixie and she was sweet. We left for home after lunch. It was a good trip but we were glad to be home. You know how it is....traveling with a 3 year old can be hard. I do have to say that Tyler behaved really well for the most part. :-)

Photos from the Past Few Weeks Part II

This is Tyler watching his favorite hockey video this afternoon while he was coloring. He has his hockey jersey on all the time when we're at home unless he's sleeping, eating or bathing.

Photos from the Past Few Weeks Part I

We hosted play group and while everyone was outside Tyler went into the garage to play hockey. Eventually some of the other kiddos joined him. It was pretty cute.






"I'm playin' in my sand box!"

Step in the Right Direction

After hearing several good things about Peak Fitness I decided to join there and drop my membership at the Y. Peak is significantly cheaper than the Y, it's closer, and the facility is bigger. I was going to the Gold Hill Y and wasn't thrilled with it. I was so bad about going to the Y. I'm going to take advantage of the 2 free personal training sessions I was offered. I need to learn how to properly use the weight training machines. I just want to have more energy, feel better about myself and not be so pudgy.

I checked out the child watch facility and it seemed nice but there is one thing that's bothering me. There was a huge flat screen TV smack dab in the middle of the room with chairs facing it. It was as if the focus of the child watch facility was the TV. I asked the lady who was showing me around if it stays on all the time. She said that it's not always on. I guess the way I should handle that is to ask that it be turned off for at least part of the time while Tyler is there. I'm not anti-TV but if they have to have a one I feel that is should be small and in a corner of the room. I don't want Tyler going there to zone out and watch TV while I exercise. It's just a contradiction.

Geez, TV is almost everywhere these days: in the waiting room at the doctor's office, in the examination room at the dentist, at child watch and in cars. Whatever happened to reading, doing cross word puzzles, coloring or simply enjoying some quite time thinking?