Fantastic Role Models

Maggie and I made the quick drive to Mitchell on Tuesday night to celebrate my grandparents 70th wedding anniversary with them. We were able to leave the kiddos behind with their daddys, which was great for us.  We had lots of time to chat with the others, and free hands to be my mom's helpers.

My grandpa Wally is 96 (will be 97 later this month), and my grandma Gladys is 89, it is amazing to see them together. My grandpa takes such good care of my grandma; Maggie and I were helping her out of her chair and into the other room when Maggie offered her arm to my grandpa. He looked at us and at my grandma and said, 'no no no, Im ok, just make sure your grandma is ok.' The way he looks out for her is amazing. She is equally as grateful towards him and tells him over and over again how lucky she is and was to have married such a wonderful man.

All of their kids were there to celebrate as well. It was a really nice dinner and Im really glad we were able to make the trip.

Love birds :)

Maggie and I with our grandparents.

My grandparents with their six kids.

Special Tree, Special Boy

Dave, Sullivan and I got home from California on Saturday evening and as we turned the corner onto our street, I looked towards our house, wondering a few things, like; are the pumpkins still there? Are my mums still alive? Are they starting to bloom yet? etc. Thats when I saw it, one of our Maple trees was the color of a bright red apple. In the six falls I have been in my house, I have never seen anything so awesome. Many of the trees on my street are still green which makes this one stick out even more. I immediately grabbed my camera and started taking photos. Little did I know, this would become my obsession over the next few days. 

We have had several neighbors and walkers stop by to take a quick photo, or snag a few leaves. It has really been fun to chat with the people about our little prize in the front yard. My across the street neighbor has been in her house for 30 or so years and said this is the first time the tree has turned this color. 

On a side note, Dave and I kind of have an inside joke, lots and lots of people comment on how Sullivan's hair has the slightest tint of red, which we both find interesting considering neither of us have red hair in our family's history. Whenever people make the comment, we just smile and say, yep "we have our little strawberry blonde baby, and love every ounce of him." We usually chat about the comment later in the day and smile, thinking that was about the millionth strawberry blonde comment so far. 

So, looking for the reasoning behind the tree, I decided to correlate the two. Our beautiful Maple tree is one in a million, and our beautiful strawberry blonde Sullivan is our one in a million :).

Isaac came to play in the leaves.

Sullivan and the Maple tree.

One more angle.

4 Months Old

Sullivan is officially four months old today, and we celebrated with his four month check-up and shots, poor guy.

We are happy to report that his stats are as follows... 

Weight: 14lbs 7oz (50th percentile)

Length: 24inches (50th percentile)

Also...he is officially in his crib! We had been alternating between the swing, his crib, and our bed. When we went to California last week, there was not a swing available to us, so we all went cold turkey, and were excited to take the big bulky thing down and out of his room earlier today. Sleep is getting better and better, he slept for a five hour stretch, followed by a four hour stretch last night. We were a happy family this morning. 

He is a sweet little boy, his smiles and blue eyes melt my heart. I love every thing about him.

Sweet Sullivan

Coronado, CA

We had a wonderful week in Coronado, Sullivan made his daddy very proud by being an excellent traveler 90% of the time. He is a trooper on flights, snoozing most of the time away, and smiling at other passengers the other part of the time. We hope to continue on this streak for our future trips.

We spent the week relaxing with a few excursions peppered in here and there. We went to Balboa Park, Point Loma for family photos (with our awesome wedding photographer, Melissa McClure), and took the ferry to Catalina Island. Catalina Island made for a great day trip, it is a darling little island north of San Diego; we went on a short tour, had lunch, had ice cream, wandered the streets, and then caught the ferry home.

We are really looking forward to future trips to Coronado. Every time we would see a toddler boy on the beach, we would stop to ask the parents how old their baby was in order to gauge how Sullivan will be in years to come. I definitely have a different perspective of the beach now that I am a mama and cant wait to see Sully explore.

Last, but not least, thanks to my parents for letting us stay in the condo, we feel so lucky to be able to enjoy Coronado, its our own little piece of Heaven.

Family photo on the beach.

Sullivan lounging.

Sullivan snoozing. 

Tubby in the sink.

First touch of the ocean with daddy.

Family Photo on Point Loma.

Two Years.

Today is our second anniversary, and we are celebrating it on Coronado Island, the same exact spot we got married two years ago. We have had lots of fun reminiscing about the events that took place leading up to the big event, looking back, it was quite hectic, but an absolute blast.

Dave had rented a fabulous room at the Del the night before the wedding and the wedding night. Maggie spent the night with me there before the wedding. She was about 28 weeks pregnant with Anna. She woke up the morning of the wedding before me and returned with Isaac who was 2 1/2 at the time. I remember him climbing into bed with me and giving me a great big hug. Maggie said "today is Suzie's wedding day, its kind of like a birthday, so wish her a happy wedding day". He looked at me with those big blue eyes and that mop of blonde hair and said "Happy Wedding Day, Suz!". What a sweet memory.

Many of our close friends and family were able to join us on that special day. We had a wonderful ceremony, short cocktail hour on the beach, and a fun reception. The weather was amazing, we attributed that to Dave's sister, Julie, who we know was looking down upon us with smiling eyes. Today is so much like that day, the sun is shining, the temperature is a perfect 73 degrees, and we feel Julie's presence once again. We speak fondly and frequently of how much Julie would have loved Coronado Island, and of course, our little Sullivan.

We have had a great two years, and are looking forward to the many that lie ahead.

September 25, 2010

Mama and Sullivan with anniversary flowers from daddy.

Daddy rocking Sully to sleep. That's our wedding beach :)!

27 Hours Away

I had my first official get away from Sullivan this weekend. My high school girlfriends arranged a weekend get-together in Omaha, NE, and because Dave was on call, I could only go for Saturday day and night, but I had a blast.

I arrived in time to meet the ladies for pedicures, then basically spent the rest of the day eating and enjoying some freedom (although I was still tied down to my breast pump about every 3-4 hours). We had sushi in the Old Market, and then basically bar hopped until close to 1am. I cant remember the last time I was out until 1am! It was a blast, we met some fun people, did some fun things, then returned to the hotel room to pig out on unhealthy food, pump, and sleep. 8am came way too early and we were on the road by 9:30.

Due to Dave's work schedule, Lauren came to watch Sully this morning until I got home, which was fabulous. He was in good hands and napping when I got home. I was so excited to see him when he woke up, he was a bit groggy, but gave me the most awesome 'welcome back, mommy' smile I could ask for. We talked for a little bit, he had lunch, then fell back to sleep with me for about 2 hours. That was just what this mama needed to get through the rest of the day and night with Dave on call. Sully and daddy did great yesterday and last night on their own. It was good for all of us. Its amazing how rejuvenating 27 hours away can be. It was great to go, and great to return.

Thanks, Dave, Lauren, and to all of my high school girlfriends for a wonderful weekend, I cant wait for the next one!

Jamie, me, Nicki, Maggie, Karla, Beth, Sarah and Sonia

Jamie and I at Blue.

Character drawing of the group, funny for so many different reasons.

Meanwhile, back in Sioux Falls... :)

This was last weekend...for some reason I forgot to publish the post...

Going Against the Grain

He did it!

I have been anxious for Sullivan to roll over for the past couple of weeks. I have been putting him on his tummy several times each day and he gets so mad. He looks up and around and does great for about 2 minutes before becoming frustrated, and if you know how Dave and I have been parenting, you know we are not very good about letting him cry :). He is definitely a first baby, it seems his needs are met before he even realizes he has them, this will probably come back to bite us in the end, oh well!

Back to the point, I had been reading about how babies generally roll from tummy to back before doing the opposite, which is what we were working for, however, Sully had a different agenda. We returned to Coronado after a busy day in San Diego, we spent the morning shopping followed by lunch at the Prado in Balboa Park, and then a tour of The Air and Space Museum for Sully and daddy. I immediately put him down on the floor when we got to the condo. I knew he would love to stretch and kick on his own after being carried for most of the day. I started to get some laundry ready when Dave yelled to me to come out and see what he had done. Sure enough, he rolled from his back to his tummy... then got stuck. So, we are half way there, we just need to figure our the rest. Until then, we are so proud of our little roller :).

Sullivan, post roll