Charleston & Baltimore

We went to Baltimore and Charleston over the last few weeks. Ana and really enjoyed spending time with Jeremiah. He travels a lot and most of the time we have to stay home, so it was a real blessing to be able to go on a trip with him. These pics are out of order so bear with me. This is the reenactment we went to in Baltimore.

It was really interesting and fun, but lasted too long for Ana.

She turned into a pumpkin before our eyes.

Here we are in the airport... I love ColorWonder markers!


Here's a jellyfish in the Charleston aquarium.

We went aquariums in both cities and I have to say that

Charleston's was much more child friendly. Baltimore's wouldn't allow strollers.

Its at least a mile on foot... yeah that was fun with a toddler.





Here's Ana smiling after she got to play with the sea urchins and sponges.

She's actually saying "EWWWW!"

Gotta love my funny girl.

In Charleston, we got to spend time with one of Jeremiah's long time collegues, Mark, and Mark's wife Danna. We had a awesome time... they are very well-traveled and knew a lot about some neat places to eat and go. The guys were in conference all day, but we girls had fun on our own.

In Baltimore, I met a lot of Jeremiah's coworkers from OMD. Probably too many to count. They were all so great about Ana being with us, and were very impressed with how good she was. We all went to see Senator John McCain speak. Jeremiah was concerned that she wouldn't behave, but it was after her nap... I laid down with her so that she would sleep.

I really didn't like Baltimore as a city. Everywhere you went there were panhandlers asking for money. You are told when you check into the hotel to NOT give them money and to do so is a crime. But everywhere you go there they are. I felt unsafe walking alone with Ana. The panhandlers actually blocked the way of my stroller more than once. I got into a habit of walking in a large group of people from NGAUS to deter them from bothering me.

A lot of people ask me why we take Ana with us rather than leaving her with friends or family when we go out of town. I grew up traveling with my grandparents. I went all over the country with them from the time I was very young. I want Ana to be well-travelled. I want her to experience the world outside of our little town. So as often as we can, we'll take her with us.

We have New Countertops!!!

Yeah... the countertops have finally been installed. Jeremiah returned from his business trip on Friday and we spent the better part of the weekend ripping out the old ones. The installation crew came in Monday and in 2 hours finished the job. They were really nice and did a super job.

Mama...izzz etsss

I think Ana is just about ready to potty train. She has started taking off her wet diapers asking me to change her. She takes off the diaper comes to me and say, "Iz ets, Iz ets, Iz ets"... which translated from baby speak is "its wet"... I guess its about time to get out the potty, book, big girl pants/pull ups, and the reward for training.

Its a Jungle Out There....

... at the zoo that is. Nana & I took Ariana and Ali to the zoo on Wednesday. We got up early 5:30, and left the house before 7:00 am. We got in most of the zoo by the time we left at 11:00. It was getting hot so we headed out to Mamasita's for lunch with Jeremiah. I'll add pics to this post when the computer people call me back and give me some information as how get the pics from my camera to computer!!!

Tatoos Anyone?

So I had a very stressful day today, and was trying to distract myself with some cleaning and organizing... it may sound silly, but when life seems to be out of control and I'm trying to work things out in my head... putting a drawer or files in order is very comforting...

Anyway, I digress... I'm organizing. Ana is down for her afternoon nap (or so I thought). I go to the utility room to get a trash bag for the shreddings...come back and Ana is sitting on the rug with Sharpie pen all over her legs, arms, feet, and hands. Man Oh Man... what do you do?

And I've found the cure... hairspray (as recommended by Tita earlier in the day), purel gel, and a soapy bath with lots of bath oil.

I couldn't figure out where she got the Sharpie to begin with... then about 5 minutes after the bath, I see her open my desk drawer, remove a pen, and SHUT it.... Little Stinker! Guess I'm going to be buying boxes that latch for pens next.

Sorry, I didn't take any pics of her covered in Sharpie pen, I was too shocked by her self tattoos.

4th of July

Well its a little late to be posting about the fourth, but a good time was had by all. We stayed in Chandler and had a blast at the Christy's house. Their son and his wife were visiting and it was really great to see them, I don't think we've seen them in over a year and it was great to spend time with them. Ana had a blast being the center of attention but missed her friend whose Daddy was sacrificing his holiday to keep people safe (he's a firefighter). Ana enjoyed the fireworks, and only jumped a little when the BOOMs hit.

Saturday, we went over to our friends' new house and enjoyed an evening of hamburgers and pool fun. Ana wants to be like the big kids and not have to have her mommy, daddy, Uncle David, or Tia Tita holding her in the pool, she's so independent and yes at time stubborn. Imagine that Jeremiah and I's daughter being stubborn. Crazy?!?

Sunday & Monday we spent most of the day hanging out at the house and working on projects that have been being neglected. I'll try to add pictures to this post later.

Car Sick...Ewwww

Poor baby girl. We had to go to the pediatrician today b/c Ana spiked a fever of 102.5 early yesterday afternoon, we think she has an ear and throat infection (won't know until the cultures get back).

I know Ana has a tendency to get a little bit of motion sickness so I avoid traveling at certain times. I prefer to get at least either the drive to Oklahoma City or home scheduled during her nap. Today, we didn't have any such luck. We had to leave about 30 minutes after she woke up. And the poor baby threw up 3 times on the way to the doctor's office. Her motion sickness seems to be getting worse. She has gotten sick at least 2-3 times on our last few trips to Meade and Woodward. She got sick when we went to Branson, about ten minutes from the hotel. The pediatrician really didn't have any advice for me other than to travel during her nap time (which I already knew), and that she doesn't recommend medications at this point because of her young age. She said that heat could also be a contributing factor, it was around 85 degrees when we left this morning. We also had to buy her more clothes this time around. She went through all of her spare outfits so we had to stop by Target and buy her an outfit to go home in. I just hate it when my sweet baby doesn't feel well.