Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Happy Birthday to my miracle!
It is hard to believe it has been 7 years since my miracle was born. Ayden was born on Aug. 24th, 2004 weighing 1lb. 12oz. at 25 weeks gestation. After my first pregnancy ended in miscarriage, I was excited at the thought of carrying a baby to term. He was supposed to be born around Christmas, but had other plans. He was born on our 2nd anniversary. Certainly a present not to be outdone. The doctors prepared us for the worst; death, disability. After seven years, physical therapy, occupational therapy, nutritional help, tests and more tests and he is doing better than we could have hoped for. He is on daily growth hormone shots, which seem to be working wonders. He is entering first grade this year! My how time flies!
Friday, June 13, 2008
10 year College Reunion
This past weekend was my 10yr. college reunion and I was so excited to be back in the Adirondaks. I was also excited to be able to reconnect with fellow classmates and friends I had lost contact with. Boy, was I dissapointed when I got there and found out only 6 or 7 of us out of 100+ people were attending. I understood when there was a poor turnout to our 5yr. because we were only 5yrs. out, but our 10 year. I thought for sure we would have a better turn out.
Lack of class participation aside, It did give me the opportunity to see a dear friend of mine. I hadn't seen Bill in about 3 years as he lives in Georgia. I had so much fun spending time with him and was thrilled he decided to come. My family loves Bill just as much as I do and "adopted" him as the son they never had.
They of course had plenty of activities available to sign up for. Friday night, we attended the Get Together/Casino Night. They had poker tables and a roulette wheel. The sign up price encluded drink tickets, and a bag of poker chips. My husband quickily became engrossed in trying his hand a poker and I moved back and forth from poker to roulette all night. The kids had fun listening to music and helping us pick numbers for the roulette wheel. They had set up a table with a variety of school merchandise and other small things like a magic set, whoopie cushion. If you had enough chips, you could pick the item or items of your choice. Silly us, waited until we were done playing to cash in our chips and all the "good" items were gone. We ended up walking away with a notepad.
Saturday, was the picinic. Great food and an opportunity to have your class picture taken. Who could ask for more. I could. I would have loved to had a class to take a picture with. I was the only one who apparently was interested in having a class photo taken. No, I didn't have then take the picture with just me. There was also supposed to be canoe sign out and swimming. Only problem was, swimming was canceled and so was canoe sign outs. After lunch, we wandered up to the Point. It is a beautiful area where you can sit on the rocks, look out at campus, and swim in the lake. We were looking forward to swimming in the lake since we couldn't swim in the pool. We got as far as sticking our feet in. I probably would have jumped right in, but I didn't have my suit on and there were other people there so I couldn't change on the spot.
We decided to head off campus to a Hospitality Program reception that was being held at the nearby White Pine Camp. White Pine Camp was the summer White House in 1926 by Calvin Coolidge and his wife. Anyways, it was a very nice reception for a former hospitality teacher. After the reception, we followed Bill to a staff memebers house, where he was staying. It was nice to see Cheryl again, as I hadn't seen her since I graduated. She had a gorgeous house and was very welcoming. We got to hear all about her recent trip to Arizona. From Cheryl's house we returned to our dorm on campus and got ready for dinner. After dropping the kids off with childcare we found our seats for dinner. Dinner was great! We had roast beef, salmon, green beans almondine, garden salad, pesto pasta salad, baked potatoes and a large selection of desserts. After dinner, they had a slide show of pictures from the weekend and a bonfire outside.
Sunday was bittersweet. I had to leave school again, but Bill was going back to Vermont to stay the night at my parent's house. A trip to Paul Smiths is not complete without a stop at Donnally's Ice Cream stand. They have the most delicious, creamy ice cream I have ever had. They make their own and only serve one flavor a day, but always have other flavors packed for sale in their freezer. The prices are reasonable for what you get.
All in all, despite the fact there was poor class turnout, it was a great weekend. Then it was back to reality!
Lack of class participation aside, It did give me the opportunity to see a dear friend of mine. I hadn't seen Bill in about 3 years as he lives in Georgia. I had so much fun spending time with him and was thrilled he decided to come. My family loves Bill just as much as I do and "adopted" him as the son they never had.
They of course had plenty of activities available to sign up for. Friday night, we attended the Get Together/Casino Night. They had poker tables and a roulette wheel. The sign up price encluded drink tickets, and a bag of poker chips. My husband quickily became engrossed in trying his hand a poker and I moved back and forth from poker to roulette all night. The kids had fun listening to music and helping us pick numbers for the roulette wheel. They had set up a table with a variety of school merchandise and other small things like a magic set, whoopie cushion. If you had enough chips, you could pick the item or items of your choice. Silly us, waited until we were done playing to cash in our chips and all the "good" items were gone. We ended up walking away with a notepad.
Saturday, was the picinic. Great food and an opportunity to have your class picture taken. Who could ask for more. I could. I would have loved to had a class to take a picture with. I was the only one who apparently was interested in having a class photo taken. No, I didn't have then take the picture with just me. There was also supposed to be canoe sign out and swimming. Only problem was, swimming was canceled and so was canoe sign outs. After lunch, we wandered up to the Point. It is a beautiful area where you can sit on the rocks, look out at campus, and swim in the lake. We were looking forward to swimming in the lake since we couldn't swim in the pool. We got as far as sticking our feet in. I probably would have jumped right in, but I didn't have my suit on and there were other people there so I couldn't change on the spot.
We decided to head off campus to a Hospitality Program reception that was being held at the nearby White Pine Camp. White Pine Camp was the summer White House in 1926 by Calvin Coolidge and his wife. Anyways, it was a very nice reception for a former hospitality teacher. After the reception, we followed Bill to a staff memebers house, where he was staying. It was nice to see Cheryl again, as I hadn't seen her since I graduated. She had a gorgeous house and was very welcoming. We got to hear all about her recent trip to Arizona. From Cheryl's house we returned to our dorm on campus and got ready for dinner. After dropping the kids off with childcare we found our seats for dinner. Dinner was great! We had roast beef, salmon, green beans almondine, garden salad, pesto pasta salad, baked potatoes and a large selection of desserts. After dinner, they had a slide show of pictures from the weekend and a bonfire outside.
Sunday was bittersweet. I had to leave school again, but Bill was going back to Vermont to stay the night at my parent's house. A trip to Paul Smiths is not complete without a stop at Donnally's Ice Cream stand. They have the most delicious, creamy ice cream I have ever had. They make their own and only serve one flavor a day, but always have other flavors packed for sale in their freezer. The prices are reasonable for what you get.
All in all, despite the fact there was poor class turnout, it was a great weekend. Then it was back to reality!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Flying with kids
When my husband first suggested that we go to Colorado on vacation, he assumed it would just be the two of us. It was a lovely idea, but I didn't find it completely realistic. I'm breastfeeding our second child, who is 10mos. old and I was afraid that if we left him for 8 days, not only would I exploded, but he would decided he didn't want to wait around for me to come back. So he suggested we take our second and leave our first son with family. I was afraid our oldest would be jealous, and I also didn't think he would take being left with family very well. When we were in the hospital having Kai, our youngest, my oldest, Ayden was taken care of in our home by my MIL. We don't know what happened while we were gone, but Ayden was devestated. We were told he cried a lot and when we finally got home he would not leave our sight. Even to this day sometimes, he won't go to my MIL or do things with her unless one of us is there with him.
Anyways, it was obvious that we were going to Colorado with two kids in tow. We bought a seat for my husband, myself and Ayden and Kai was going to sit in one of our laps. As the time for our trip neared, we went over the list of things we were going to need to bring. Portable crib-check, two car seats-check, luggage for us and the boys-check, double stroller-check, cameras-check, carry on with snacks and activities-check. Sound like alot? It is! Luckily, my brother in law, whom we were going to be staying with, was able to get us a portable crib. Unfortunately, our double stroller exceeded airline guidelines. So, instead of one stroller, now we needed to take two.
Fast forward to the day we left. We parked the car and got a shuttle to the airport, where we really realized how much stuff we had. Thank Heavens for Skycaps! They checked all of our baggage that we weren't carrying on, right on the sidewalk. We now only had to worry about two cameras, one car seat two kids, a purse, a diaper bag and a backpack with snacks and activities. Piece of cake! Fortunately, I grabbed my baby backpack, which freed up my hands for the carryons.
We let the kids play and crawl, until it was time to board the plane. I had read articles about air pressure and little one's ears prior to our trip, so I was prepared. My husband and I each had our gum, my oldest had a drink and my youngest breastfed. I had also read articles about breastfeeding on a plane, which included a story about a woman being asked to leave a plane for breastfeeding. I was ready for a fight if they tried to tell me I couldn't breastfeed my son. I'm happy to report that only once during my roundtrip plane experience did I have a flight attendant approach me about it. She politely asked if I needed a blanket to cover up with, which I politely declined and said I was just fine.
Once we landed in Denver, we now had the task of collecting all our belongings and some how getting them to the rental car pick up area. We struggled to get our stuff to the rental car desk inside the airport, only to find a note saying to report outside to the shuttle area. At this point, we were tired, hungry and wishing we didn't have so much stuff. When we finally reached the rental car place, we were unable to find our confirmation letter. The staff was unable to find our reservation and we were starting to panic. My brother in law, didn't have a big enough vehicle for us and all our stuff and our travel agent wasn't home when we called. After about 10 minutes of searching, our reservation was found. There was an extra A in our lastname. It then took, another 15 minutes, while the agent tried to convince my husband to get a larger vehicle. Finally, we were in the rental car and on our way to Colorado Springs!
The weather was, as I was told, not typical Colorado weather. It was about what the weather back east was. You could get away with a t-shirt, but not shorts. We went through about five memory cards taking pictures and two cans of Gerber Lil' Crunchies during our trip. Those lil' crunchies were our saviours at times. Most of the things we did required sometimes two hours in the car at a time and the kids seemed contents as long as we had those crunchies at hand. Of course we did include some activities the kids would enjoy, like the zoo and Chuck E. Cheese.
Somehow the journey home seemed a lot easier than the journey there. All in all, the kids were very well behaved on the plane and never had any complaints from fellow fliers. Now, having survived traveling with two young kids, we are trying to adjust to the time change and wishing the vacation could have been a little bit longer.
Anyways, it was obvious that we were going to Colorado with two kids in tow. We bought a seat for my husband, myself and Ayden and Kai was going to sit in one of our laps. As the time for our trip neared, we went over the list of things we were going to need to bring. Portable crib-check, two car seats-check, luggage for us and the boys-check, double stroller-check, cameras-check, carry on with snacks and activities-check. Sound like alot? It is! Luckily, my brother in law, whom we were going to be staying with, was able to get us a portable crib. Unfortunately, our double stroller exceeded airline guidelines. So, instead of one stroller, now we needed to take two.
Fast forward to the day we left. We parked the car and got a shuttle to the airport, where we really realized how much stuff we had. Thank Heavens for Skycaps! They checked all of our baggage that we weren't carrying on, right on the sidewalk. We now only had to worry about two cameras, one car seat two kids, a purse, a diaper bag and a backpack with snacks and activities. Piece of cake! Fortunately, I grabbed my baby backpack, which freed up my hands for the carryons.
We let the kids play and crawl, until it was time to board the plane. I had read articles about air pressure and little one's ears prior to our trip, so I was prepared. My husband and I each had our gum, my oldest had a drink and my youngest breastfed. I had also read articles about breastfeeding on a plane, which included a story about a woman being asked to leave a plane for breastfeeding. I was ready for a fight if they tried to tell me I couldn't breastfeed my son. I'm happy to report that only once during my roundtrip plane experience did I have a flight attendant approach me about it. She politely asked if I needed a blanket to cover up with, which I politely declined and said I was just fine.
Once we landed in Denver, we now had the task of collecting all our belongings and some how getting them to the rental car pick up area. We struggled to get our stuff to the rental car desk inside the airport, only to find a note saying to report outside to the shuttle area. At this point, we were tired, hungry and wishing we didn't have so much stuff. When we finally reached the rental car place, we were unable to find our confirmation letter. The staff was unable to find our reservation and we were starting to panic. My brother in law, didn't have a big enough vehicle for us and all our stuff and our travel agent wasn't home when we called. After about 10 minutes of searching, our reservation was found. There was an extra A in our lastname. It then took, another 15 minutes, while the agent tried to convince my husband to get a larger vehicle. Finally, we were in the rental car and on our way to Colorado Springs!
The weather was, as I was told, not typical Colorado weather. It was about what the weather back east was. You could get away with a t-shirt, but not shorts. We went through about five memory cards taking pictures and two cans of Gerber Lil' Crunchies during our trip. Those lil' crunchies were our saviours at times. Most of the things we did required sometimes two hours in the car at a time and the kids seemed contents as long as we had those crunchies at hand. Of course we did include some activities the kids would enjoy, like the zoo and Chuck E. Cheese.
Somehow the journey home seemed a lot easier than the journey there. All in all, the kids were very well behaved on the plane and never had any complaints from fellow fliers. Now, having survived traveling with two young kids, we are trying to adjust to the time change and wishing the vacation could have been a little bit longer.
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