Only text, no photos

Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been in Washington state for the past week now, and I haven't taken any photos.

Josh and Raleigh are visiting his parents, and I've been told that they've taken video of some of the shennanigans that they've gotten into while there. I'll be sure to get some of those posted after I get back home.

The week has been long but rewarding and I'm feeling ready to go home now. I fly out tomorrow before noon and get back home around 7 pm tomorrow night. I'm definitely ready.

Look for more posts after tomorrow night :)

When the cats are away...

...I shall quilt :)

Below are all of the pieces for Raleigh's new Vroom Vroom quilt that I'm making.

I've been productive today. I cut all of the pieces in the picture above while watching old Friends episodes.

I've also been making some progress on a baby sweater that I started many many months ago. I've almost completed a whole sleeve today. I've also done 3 loads of laundry, swept the kitchen floor and I went shopping downtown this morning.

Raleigh and Josh are visiting Josh's parents until next Saturday. They left yesterday, and since I don't fly out until tomorrow, I've had a few days by myself.

While it's really tough being away from my guys, it's nice having time to complete tasks.

Happy Anniversary Mom, Dad, Dave and Barb

Today is my parents' wedding anniversary. It is also my brother Dave and his wife Barb's anniversary.

Congratulations to all of you!

Weekend with Grandpa Dave

We were treated to a visit from my father last weekend, which of course means that we got a lot done on the house. :) I'll post those pictures of house improvements in a later post.


Raleigh enjoyed playing with his Grandpa, and Josh enjoyed playing his Wii fishing game with him when Raleigh went to sleep.

Above: Grandpa reading to Raleigh. Can you find Raleigh in the picture?

Below: All the guys sitting outside chillin'.

Above: Raleigh enjoying some neon green taffy candy. I thought that he'd just bit pieces off but he was so committed to just sucking and licking on it. All around his mouth was neon green gooeyness.


And here's just a cute pic of Raleigh that I took last week.

Above: Raleigh's first bass lesson. "Tasting the Bass"

Pictures from the past two weeks

So, I've been bad at posting recent pictures of Raleigh. Now, I have a stock pile of cool photos to share.

Above: A large piece of sketching paper that Raleigh and I drew on. Can you tell which drawings were mine? Of course you can. Raleigh would scribble over my drawing of Percy the Train and then ask "Where Percy go?"

Below: Raleigh in camo regalia eating his favorite, a raisin bran muffin.



Above: Raleigh wearing a plastic fireman's hat that his dad brought home from church for him. Note Raleigh's chapped nose. This taken on one of his peak sick days. Even though we had the softest tissue possible, his nose still looked like that. Poor little guy.

My peanut is allergic to peanuts :(

I blame it on his Dad's side and all of their allergies :).

No, just kidding, the doctor actually said it's a combo of Josh's allergies and my own experience with asthma when I was younger. He said it's no wonder Raleigh has a peanut allergy.

Today, Raleigh had his 4 hour appointment with a pediatric allergy specialist. Along with asking Josh and I a lot of health questions, they also performed a nasal smear test (which came out negative), a scratch test on his back (hence the numbers on his back in the picture below), and they took some blood from Raleigh to perform more bloodwork.

Raleigh also showed a minor reaction to the dog/cat scratch, but we're not worried about it. The only good thing that came out of this appointment is that we found out he's not allergic to milk, dairy, wheat, shellfish, shrimp, fish, soy, any other nuts, or anything else.

So, yay, my son has only one potentially fatal allergy (note my sarcasm).

Actually, the doctor said that if his blood levels for the peanut allergy come back below 10, then he will have a 30% chance of outgrowing the peanut allergy. We'll find out about that in a week or so.

Belly Watch: 21 weeks along

No, I haven't forgotten that I'm pregnant. How can I? Now that most people recognize that I am pregnant, it's hard to forget. :)

People at work are actually feel safe enough to ask me if I'm expecting. Here's a belly pic to feed the curious.

Another E-mail Survey

Note: My answers were from yesterday. I just didn't post it on my blog until today. :)

1. What time did you get up this morning?
6:40 am
2. Diamonds or Pearls?
Diamonds
3. What was the last film you saw?
The Savages - Slow moving but good acting and good plot
4. What are your favorite TV shows?
LOST, Weeds, Dexter, House
5. What do you usually have for breakfast?
A chocolate chip scone, or vanilla yogurt with grapenuts
6. What is your middle name?
Ann
7. What food do you dislike?
Frozen veggies
8. What is your favorite CD at the moment?
What's a CD?
9. What kind of car do you drive? Ford Escort ZX2 - how we manage with a two-door and a toddler in a car seat...I'm still not sure.
10. Favorite sandwich?
Comet Morehouse from Erbert and Gerbert's
11. What characteristic do you despise?
Dishonesty
12. Favorite item of clothing?
My college sweatpants
13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would it be?
Great Barrier Reef
14. Where would you retire to?
Somewhere near lakes and family
15. What was your most recent memorable birthday?
I'm not that in to birthdays. They're just another day.
16. Furthest place you are sending this?
Not sure, I'll be posting it on my blog, people from different countries read that.
17. Person you expect to send it back first.
I hope that Erika and Robin and Lanae post and answer these questions on their blog
18. When is (should say was) your birthday?
Why would I post such personal information here? Hint: It's on the first day of winter.
19. Morning person or a night person?
Morning. I get cranky at night.
20. Pets?
Sadly, no.
21. How did you spend your 21st birthday (Shyla made this Q up because 21 was missing)
I had a horrible cold and was home from college and drinking mike's hard lemonade with my father.
22. What did you want to be when you were little?
A Marine Biologist
23. How old are you today?
27
24. What is your favorite flower?
Magnolia blossum or the dandelion. It's a toss-up
25. What is the day on the calendar?
September 9 - Tuesday
26. What are you listening to right now?
Normal office sounds
27. What was the last thing you ate?
chocolate cake brownie bar thingy and milk
28. Do you wish on stars?
I used to. Haven't for a while.
29. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
Some fabulous green color, or maybe a pink color.
30. How is the weather right now?
It is like Fall is here. I'm so glad.
31. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
Joshua, my hubby
32. Favorite soft drink?
Regular Mt. Dew out of the can
33. Favorite restaurant?
Thai Orchid
34. Hair color?
Brown
35. What was your favorite toy as a child?
I remember waiting oh so patiently for a child's pottery wheel one christmas
36. Summer or winter?
Neither. Spring or Fall. Both
37. Chocolate or Vanilla?
Chocolate, the darker the better
38. Coffee or tea?
Tea, only tea
39. Do you want your friends to email you back?
Not particularily. I just enjoy filling these out.
40. What is under your bed?
dust bunnies, I'm a horrible house keeper
41. What did you do last night?
Played with my son, did some dishes, read my favorite web sites, chatted with my mom and aunt.
42. What are you afraid of?
My son getting injured.
43. Salty or sweet?
both together, for example, sour patch kids are sour then sweet.
44. How many keys on your key ring?
6
45. How many years at your current job?
A little over 5 years
46. Favorite day of the week?
Saturday or Sunday, either are great
47. Do you make friends easily?
I believe so.
48. How many people will you send this to?
Like I said, I'll blog it. Who will all read it, I have no idea.
49. Favorite hobby?
Photography
50. Do you like finding out all this stuff about your friends?
Definitely

What a day!

A fat lip, a bonk on the head and still suffering from a head cold. Raleigh has had one heck of a day.

This morning, Raleigh was sitting on the bench on our deck and either he fell of or decided to jump off. Either way, he lost his balance and fell flat on his face. I suspect that he didn't put is arms out to stop himself because he was protecting George the steam roller tractor he was holding. I was worried that he'd land on the tractor and cut himself on its metal frame. So when I saw blood, I immediately thought, "Great we'll need stitches." Turns out the blood was from his lip. Phwew!


Then later in the day, I was laying new vinyl tile in the kitchen. Raleigh decided to push a chair up to the kitchen gate and attempt to climb over the gate. Raleigh was just climbing over when Josh yelled at him to stop. I think he was startled by the yelling and decided to rush his climb, and subsequently fell on his head on a pile of vinyl tiles. No blood this time, but he has a big bump on his head. Afterwards, I stressed the importance of "that's why we don't climb over the kitchen gate, we go through it."

Raleigh got over his head bump when I pulled out the little Nemo cold pack to put on his head. He didn't want it on his head because, as he said it, "cold head, no". But he loved holding it and putting it back in its packaging.

I'm including some pictures from the past few weeks. Enjoy!

Above: Raleigh in his sandbox.

Below: Raleigh saying Cheese!

Above: Raleigh bringing the football to Jamie when we were at the park a few weekends ago.

"pahhhk"

Sorry it's taken me a few days to post again. Here are some pictures of Raleigh that I took last week at a playground near our house.

Raleigh absolutely loves going to the park. When he says it, it sounds like "pahhhk". He's actually become quite the little jabber mouth lately. We have a toy cell phone that allows us to record our own voice...and a few weeks ago I recorded myself singing, "A B C... It's easy as 1 2 3" into the cell phone.

So yesterday, Raleigh picks up the toy cell phone, pushes the play button and I hear my own voice and then Raleigh says "Mamma singing". It just amazed me that he put those two words together. It also amazed me that my voice was still recorded for that long on the toy cell phone.

He already puts other words together like:

"Mamma go?" for Where did Mommy go? He'll also say "Gamma go?" for Where did Grandma go?

"nilk fridge" for Please put my milk in the fridge, or Please get my milk from the fridge.

"tank u mamma" for Thank you mamma.

"ball get" for Get the ball please. He really can put "get" after any item that he wants us to get.

"bovfer going" for "Bother Gorden" which is a quote from his Thomas the Tank Engine video.

"Happy saahhn" for when he wants us to play the Thomas the Tank Engine Happy song video for him.

It's hard for me to remember them all right now. Oh, one other one that I'll always remember because Sweet Mary Sunshine's little girls said it first is "crinkle crinkle" for "Twinkle Twinkle".

It's very difficult to image what we did to amuse ourselves before Raleigh came along. We're enjoying him so much...except for those times when he takes whole plate full of spaghetti noodles and drops it on the floor of course.