Vernon Volumes text

Vernon Volumes text

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Paige's 3d/4d sonogram



On Friday we went to do a 3d/4d sonogram on Paige. In our first sonogram the tech said she was 85% sure that it was a girl, but we wanted a second opinion. We also thought it would be kind of fun to see the 3d/4d sonogram.

Before we went back to the room, Andrea said: "Let's not tell her that we know it's a girl and see what she says." As soon as the sonogram started, the tech happened to put the little scanner in the right place and literally within three seconds she said "It's a girl!" She was 100% sure right away. We spent the rest of the appointment trying to maneuver Andrea and Paige in to the right positions to get a half decent picture.

We've got friends that did the 3d/4d sonograms before and have had problems because the baby kept putting their hands or arms over their faces. Paige had a similar problem, but it was her feet! She had both legs up by her head the whole time and typically had both feet over her head. She moved around a lot too, which made it difficult to get a good picture. Just like her big brother Connor!

We only posted three of the pictures from the appointment. Most were really not that great, definitely not what you see in the advertisements for these things. It was kind of fun to do the 3d/4d sonogram and we were happy that we were able to confirm that Andrea can start decorating Paige's room and buying girly stuff.




We took this picture of Andrea before the appointment. She will be 30 weeks pregnant on Monday! Getting very close. She is feeling pretty well so far, but pretty exhausted at times.

Rock and Roll Connor



Connor's been rocking out on his guitar lately. He loves to dance along to the music. Whenever we tell him to kick his legs and twist his body he always says "No twist body!". He's got some pretty impressive moves!

We love this video, we're trying hard not to crack up while we're taking it. What a cute rock and roll star!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Conversations with Connor

We wanted to start doing a recurring post about the things that Connor saying at a point in time.

Here's the current list:
- "Oh Maaaaaan!" - He says this one all the time whenever things don't go his way.
- "How Bout" - He's always looking for compromise. If Mommy's working on something and can't play he'll say "How Bout Daddy?"
- "Nope" - He hardly ever says "No" recently, it's always "Nope"
- "This" - Everyone and everything can apparently be referred to as "This"
- "Scuse Me" - He's very polite. If Daddy's resting his feet on the ottoman that we store Connor's toys in he'll say "Scuse Me Daddy". Mommy taught him very good manners.
- "Nosey" - We've been hearing this one a lot lately. When his nose is running he'll say "My Nosey! My Nosey!"
- The other morning Daddy was getting Connor dressed and we were in a hurry. After getting his clothes on Daddy grabbed his feet and tipped Connor over to put Connor's shoes on. Connor got very irritated and said: "Hey Daddy! No knock down me!"
- "Shoot bad guys" - Everything and anything is a gun and he likes to run around and shoot at the bad guys he imagines are always around.

Connor's new room


On our Disney trip, Connor slept on a big mattress in Daytona Beach and proved that he was a good listener and was ready to graduate up to the big boy bed and big boy room. When we got home, we put the last few finishing touches on his room and this last week Connor officially moved in.

The furniture is actually Mommy's set that she got from her parents when she turned thirteen, so it's pretty special that we're able to use it for Connor now. He gets the coolest of the non-master bedrooms, across the catwalk upstairs. There are Choo-Choo trains up on the walls and his name too above the closet. It's nice to be able to lie down in bed next to him when reading books.

He really seems to like the new room. He's slept in the room for seven nights today and he does a great job of staying in his bed when he wakes up. He's been sleeping normally and it's been a very easy transition.

It's hard to get it all in on a picture so we took a short video.

Short video of his room:




Poor Nosey

Connor's had a runny nose lately and it's been driving him (and his parents) crazy. He refuses to blow his nose and instead he just complains about it constantly and rubs it with a tissue. He won't take a tissue with him, just comes running every few seconds yelling "My nosey, my nosey!" and expects Mommy and Daddy to wipe it. Within 5 seconds he's usually back again.

This video captures the back and forth pretty well.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Daytona Beach


After Downtown Disney we drove to Daytona Beach to stay with Shawn's grandparents. We're so lucky to have family that has such a nice place to visit and is willing to welcome us to their home. Their condo is beautiful and is in a great location in Daytona Beach and right on the beach.

Great Grandpa and Grandma taking us out for "Cowlick's" icecream.


Shopping at Publix with Great Grandpa.


We loved feeding the sea gulls on the beach. The sea gulls went nuts for the bread Great Grandpa brought and Andrea got a little freaked out by all the swarming birds.


Taking bread from Shawn's hand.


Connor really wanted to play football. He loved throwing it around on the beach with Daddy. We threw football for hours and chased the birds. We never got into the cold water, but we had a lot of fun goofing off outside.






On Friday it rained a bunch. We went to the lighthouse and drove around a bit, but mostly just played inside. We ate breakfast at Denny's and Great Grandpa and Grandma took us out to dinner at Aunt Catfish.


Saturday morning we flew home. We were sad to leave, it was one of the best trips we've taken. Connor was such a trooper on the trip and was a great listener.

We really enjoyed spending so much time with Great Grandpa and Great Grandpa. Thank you guys for inviting us to visit and for all the hospitality. We love you!

Downtown Disney



Wednesday we packed up our stuff and left the Pop Century Resort. We went by Downtown Disney for the day and did some shopping.

Great Grandpa and Great Grandma took us out to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch. We were thinking of going to the T-Rex cafe and thought that maybe Connor wouldn't be as scared of the Dinos as he was when we tried to go in KC. We went in to the T-Rex cafe and Connor freaked out so we decided to go to the Rainforest Cafe instead. The Rainforest Cafe had animatronic stuffed animals in the eating area and simulated thunderstorms every 20 minutes or so. Connor was pretty uncomfortable with it all, but we ended up eating there anyways.


Mommy had a chance to do some shopping and found some cute onesies for baby Paige. It's the first girl stuff we've bought.



There was a little train Connor spotted and he just had to ride it although we'd been riding all kinds of exciting stuff for the last couple days.


Riding with Daddy.


Fun times!

Animal Kingdom


After the Character Breakfast we weren't sure what to do. The weather forecast called for rain. We were planning to go to a park the next day and just rest on Tuesday, but Wednesday's weather forecast was cold and windy. We couldn't decide if warm and scattered showers was better, or cold and windy.

We decided to go to the Animal Kingdom Tuesday despite the forecast. We thought it would be more interesting for Connor than the other two parks (Epcot and Hollywood studios). We got to the Animal Kingdom around noon and watched the Lion King musical show and then went to the safari jeep ride. Right around then it really started to rain. The park didn't have a lot of visitors and we didn't have to wait at all to get on the ride. For us, on the ride, it was actually not that bad. The animals seemed to like the rain and we saw more animals then when Andrea and I had ridden it years ago on another trip.

When we got off the ride, the rain was really coming down and we started to get really wet. When we got on rides, we'd leave the stroller sitting with an umbrella propped up to keep it semi-dry. Before too long we were pretty wet and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa were soaked through to the skin. We ate a quick lunch and afterwards they decided to go back to the hotel to dry out. We stayed for another few hours and rode a bunch of rides. We got wet, but there were no lines at all. Unfortunately for us, Connor was a little too short for some of the rides. Animal Kingdom's not the best park for little kids.

Riding the Dino ride with Daddy.


Connor saw Goofy and really wanted to see him again. He gave him a big hug and when Daddy asked him to pose he actually cooperated.



When we got back to our room that night, Connor was pooped. After the Magic Kingdom he'd been wired and had actually stayed up late playing and chattering. Tuesday after two long days he was exhausted. He fell asleep during dinner and didn't wake up when we changed him and put him in bed. Daddy set him down in his little bed and when we looked a couple hours later he hadn't moved at all.


Character Breakfast


Tuesday morning we had our Character Breakfast at the Contemporary resort. It's possible to see a lot of the characters at the parks, but there are typically long lines to see them. We saw Mickey and some of the characters Connor likes from his "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" TV show, but not all of them. We were really glad Mommy set up the Character Breakfast so Connor would have the opportunity to interact with them. Daddy was always terrified of the big stuffed creatures when he was little, so we were a little worried that Connor would be scared and would hate it.

We rode a bus to the Magic Kingdom in the morning and then rode the Monorail to the Contemporary Resort. The Contemporary Resort's pretty neat and the Monorail drives right through the middle of it.



All of us eating breakfast and waiting for Mickey and friends to come around.



Goofy showed up first and Connor was so involved with his eating that he hardly paid any attention to Goofy. Goofy was determined to get a reaction out of Connor so he took Connor's fork and cut up some food and fed it to Connor. Connor still didn't seem to care, so Goofy decided to help Connor chew and he rubbed Connor's cheeks while he was chewing.







Mickey came by next and Connor was pretty excited to see him, but very shy. He kept turning away, but he was definitely smiling.


Connor was really getting in to it by the time Minnie showed up. He absolutely lit up when she came over. He even posed for a picture with her.


Connor was really excited when Donald Duck showed up. He'd been counting off all the guys he'd seen and he knew he hadn't seen Donald yet. He gave Donald a big hug and showed Donald the little Mickey and Donald Duck toys that Great Grandpa and Great Grandma had bought for him at the Magic Kingdom the day before.


Donald liked the Donald toy, but not the Mickey one. He kept knocking over the Mickey toy and Connor thought that was really funny.


Last was Pluto. By the time Pluto came by, Connor was really in to it. He grabbed Pluto's nose, gave him hugs and kisses and played with him a bunch. One of the dads sitting nearby told us afterwards that watching Connor interacting with Pluto was the cutest thing he'd seen at Disney. Connor was definitely loving the characters. It's a shame that Daisy didn't come by, Connor knew she was missing and was the only one of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters that wasn't there.




Short video of Connor interacting with Pluto.

Disney's Magic Kingdom


This past week was Connor's first vacation. We went to Florida to meet up with Shawn's grandparents and to visit Disney World. We flew in to Orlando on Sunday and checked in to the hotel. Connor was very good on the flight and is such a great traveler.

Monday morning we went to the Magic Kingdom bright and early. The weather on Monday was the best we'd have all week, so we chose that day to go to the place we knew Connor would enjoy the most. It was a little cold, but it was sunny and warmed up a bit as the day went on.

Connor was a little apprehensive about the rides at first, but the more we went on the more he liked them. Some of the rides were surprisingly scary like Snow White and Pirates of the Caribbean, but we covered Connor's eyes when he got scared and he was fine with it.

It was a long and tiring day, but we all had a lot of fun.

Early on Monday morning waiting for the bus to take us to the Magic Kingdom.



We stayed at the Pop Century resort. The resort was broken up into decades, 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's. We stayed in the 60's section. It was a big resort with decent sized rooms. The pool was heated and Daddy wanted to take Connor swimming, but it was pretty cold and windy and we never had a good time to go.



A quick look around the resort.


We wanted to get Connor some Mickey ears, but he freaked out when we put them on him and wanted the hat off.



Riding on the Merry Go Round with Daddy.



Connor's favorite ride was definitely the go kart. Daddy ran the gas pedal and Connor steered. It was on a track, but actually gave the driver a bit of latitude in steering. This meant that we bounced back and forth on the track the whole way down the track. We bounced so hard a few times that the steering wheel got jolted out of Connor's hands and Daddy had to help. Even so, Connor absolutely loved the ride.



We ate in the "Small World" restaurant and actually got one of the few tables where you could see the boats launching. Connor loved the Small World ride and loved pigging out on chicken nuggets afterward.


Connor on his first ride at Disney (and ever!). He rode the Mad Hatter's teacup ride with Mommy, Daddy and Great Grandpa. He was terrified once he got in it, but then settled down and looked like he might have almost enjoyed it.


Before we left, Connor was telling us about all the Disney guys he wanted to see.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Paige Checkup and Update

Andrea went to her 26 week checkup last week. She did the Glucose test and everything came back fine, however her iron levels were low so she will need to start taking another vitamin. This happened with her pregnancy with Connor as well and hopefully the iron pills will help with her fatigue.

We're planning a 3d sonogram in a few weeks to make sure it's still a girl. We only have 13 weeks to go and Andrea was very pleased to see that the baby countdown days are in double digits.

New baby, coming soon!