East Coast Adventure Part II

After a very long, hard, and complicated labor (almost 24 hours and ended with a C-section) Jeanine (aka ROCK STAR!) delivered our newest member of the family, Colin Joseph, November 6th at 1:00 am 6 weeks before his expectant due date. He was an amazing 5 pounds 15 ounces.

Early Sunday morning, Henry and I left Roanoke to make the 6 hour trip down to Wilmington, NC. I realized traveling at 7:00 am on daylight savings Sunday is the absolute best time. We saw about 10 cars throughout our trip on back roads. Finally, Sunday afternoon I was able to meet Colin and see Mike and Jeannine. Since Henry wasn't a sibling, he was not able to meet Colin, but did an exceptional job of going with the flow throughout the entire weekend.

Henry was a big fan of Aunt Jeannine's wheelchair!

Although it was not ideal for Colin to show up so early and when Mike and Jeannine were 6 hours from home, it was very convenient that my good friend Christine and her family live just 10 minutes from the hospital. So again, I stayed with friends for a few days while visiting and helping Mike and Jeannine out as much as I could. It was also great meeting the Mottram's newest member of the family, Miles. Definitely felt like baby weekend!

Again, Henry had a blast hanging with another two year old! He might start to expect instant playmates and new toys whenever we go out of town!

The next day a cold crept up on me so I wasn't able to see Colin in the NICU, but it was still nice visiting more with his parents and the Mottrams.

East Coast Adventure Part I

Henry and I just returned from our East Coast Adventure. I'll try to condense the events of our travels as much as possible...

Friday morning I was minutes from getting Henry in the car to drop him off at my parent's house when I got the call that Jeannine's (my sister-in-law) water had broke while Mike and her were in Wilmington, NC for a wedding. It was such a shock since Jeannine wasn't due for another six weeks and of course because they live in Washington D.C. Quickly my plans for a solo weekend trip to Roanoke changed. Our original plan was for my mom to watch Henry during the day and then Todd and Henry would have some male bonding time while I was away for the weekend at Ann's baby shower.

I decided to take Henry with me to Roanoke so I could travel down to NC after the shower weekend to meet my new nephew. Unfortunately, my parents weren't able to make it down since they flew out on Monday for a trip to China!

So Henry and I made it to Roanoke in about 6 hours on Friday. The Smiths were so nice to let us stay with them during our time there. Henry loved having time to play with his pal Lillian.

Saturday was the baby shower. It was so wonderful to see so many great friends and to help Ann prepare for baby girl Sanderson!

More Fun Visitors!

A few weeks ago we had a house full of friends visiting from both Virginia and New York. It was so great to have the weekend to hang out with everyone. The whole gang went to a nearby arcade with moon bounces, go karts, and games galore. Later the big boys played some basketball. Between late nights (and early mornings with a toddler in the house) and maybe a few too many rounds of bball for the first time in years, I think Todd quickly realized he isn't in college anymore...

The second night we had a great bonfire. We let Henry stay up way late (9:00!) to check out the fire. He wasn't a huge fan as he was pretty much attached to me the entire time.

One of Henry's favorite books is Blodoq and Sammy Build a Fort and lucky for him we know the author and illustrator personally! Here she is reading the very cute and funny book to Henry.

We had a blast hanging out with everyone! Hopefully all will be back for another fun weekend in the near future!