Back in Maryland

We are finally back in Maryland. It is definitely nice to be home but I’m really starting to miss the sun and warm weather back in Florida. Our car ride home was of course long and seemed even longer since both Easton and I came down with some sort of bug (the second day) and were sick for about half of the ride. Our plan was to drive through the night and possibly stop for a few hours to sleep at a rest area if necessary but once we stopped at around midnight Easton woke up and was full of energy. He was not going to let us sleep for anything. We decided to find a motel and sleep until we woke up and then drive the rest of the way home. Nathan and Easton fell asleep almost instantly but for me my night just began. My stomach started hurting really bad and within a half hour of trying to fall asleep I found myself making several trips to the bathroom to throw up. It was a continuous cycle for about 9 hours straight. In the morning when Easton woke up he started to throw up. At first I was thinking he was just copying me because he had done it in the past when I was really sick with morning sickness. I decided to play it on the safe side and just give him crackers for breakfast just in case and sure enough he threw that up all over himself, blanket, and new car seat. We pulled over and cleaned everything up and luckily that was the last time Easton threw up. My stomach also started to settle by then but I was still a little nauseous on and off the rest of the way home.

We are all healthy and happy now. Nathan just started his surgery rotation yesterday so I will basically be a single parent for the next several weeks. Let’s just hope that Blair doesn’t decide to make an early appearance. From what I heard Nathan (most weeks) will be working six days a week starting at 4:30am and finishing around 5:00pm. He will also have a 30 hour shift once a week. This doesn’t include his 45-60 minute commute each way. Poor Nathan. He is going to be so tired.

This picture is for Uncle Wade! Easton's new favorite thing to eat is chocolate pudding.

Video of Easton climbing. Nathan's got to be excited about this. In no time Nathan will have a new rock climbing buddy.

Week 4 - Pensacola

Last week we drove around and found this really cool local park. Too bad it took us this late in our vacation to find it. Easton and I checked it out this week and he absolutely loved it. We even went two days in a row (and twice in one day) because he and I liked it so much. It reminds me of the park we went to last summer when we were visiting Nathan’s family in Utah. I have heard that there is a cool park back in Maryland with a pirate ship so my goal when we get back is to find out where it is before summer comes.

Easton playing on the swing.

Easton making music.

This week our beach trip consisted of Nathan trying to find sand dollars, shark teeth, and cool shells (spiral kind). He wasn’t all that successful. He found about three quarter pieces of sand dollars so he claims that found 75 cents of a sand dollar. He didn’t find any shark teeth or any whole spiral shells. The shells he did manage to find, Easton decided to return them to the ocean. Nathan would get about a hand full of shells and place them in a pile on the sand and Easton would come right behind him, grab a shell and throw it back into the ocean. It was pretty entertaining to watch.

We also went to the beach on base and Nathan found four hermit crabs. We figured out why we can’t find any spiral shells. It’s because all the hermit crabs are hogging them. We sifted in the sand for them for about an hour before Nathan saw a big one walking along underwater. He grabbed it and noticed it left some tracks. Nathan is now a master crab-tracker. He found three crabs in the next fifteen minutes! 75 cents worth of sand dollars, 4 spiral shells (complete with hermit crabs) but no shark teeth.

Looking at one of the crabs.

I don’t know if Easton is coming down with something or what but this last week has been full of whines and tears. One day he just wouldn’t fall asleep by himself for his nap. He was so upset and tired and he just couldn’t seem to calm himself down. I eventually picked him up and rocked him in my arms briefly before he fell asleep. This is not like Easton at all. He generally falls asleep without a fuss rather quickly by himself and if I ever try to hold him like a baby he puts up a huge fight. He hates it. I was so surprised and in heaven when he let me rock him to sleep. It brought back memories of when he was a little baby and I realized how much I missed it (I guess I’m lucky that I only have to wait a couple more months before I get to cuddle and rock a new baby). I just held Easton in my arms until they got tired because I knew this would probably be one of the last times (if not the last time) my little boy would let me do this. I admit I shed several tears as I realized how fast my baby boy is growing up. The other night Easton woke up in the middle of the night and wouldn’t stop crying. We tried to calm him down but because we are currently staying in a hotel with paper thin walls and neighbors who complain about other crying babies on the floor, I decided to take Easton for a car ride to hopefully knock him out again. After about a half hour of driving around in circles, Easton was still awake (not crying or whining). I decided to give up. I was so exhausted and tired. Luckily for me Easton returned to his normal self. We walked into the room, I laid him down in his pack and play, and he eventually fell asleep on his own without crying.

Nathan had Monday off so we decided to go to the Naval Aviation Museum. Yesterday we went to a really big flea market that actually was pretty good. Nathan and I enjoyed a fried snickers bar (lucky for Nathan I don’t have any weird cravings because I’m sure a fried pickle would seem compelling to other crazy craving pregnant women). We also attended a free car show at the local fairgrounds. There was a pretty cool Bronco that was made almost entirely out of wood.

Gross, funny, and cute stories of Easton this week:

You know when you are pregnant and every once in a while your baby takes some body part and pushes it out as far as they can while sliding it across your belly? Well, Blair has mastered this and is constantly doing it. Anyways, the other day she was doing this while I was lying down so I called Nathan over so he could enjoy his talented little girl causing me pain. Easton decided to follow so Nathan and I pointed out Blair’s movements for him. After about the second or third time she moved for Easton, he looked wide eyed at my stomach and said, “Whoa dude!” Nathan and I couldn’t stop laughing. I think this is funniest thing he has said so far. I definitely look forward to more funny and crazy things this little boy will come up with in the future.

Easton the other day decided to not only clean his teeth using his toothbrush but he also decided to clean the toilet with his toothbrush at the same time. Easton definitely didn’t get any kisses that day.

Yesterday while I was switching over laundry and Nathan was trying to take a nap, Easton figured out how to take his diaper off and was parading around the room with only his shirt on. Nathan was definitely caught off guard when he opened his eyes to Easton jumping on top of him half naked.

Easton is now interested in praying again. We had a rough several weeks where he absolutely refused to fold his arms and sit still for a prayer. He would say no, cry, and try to run away. We now have a saying/song we sing before we pray that gets him all excited. Easton is now copying/trying to say the last word of each sentence during family prayer. Today at church Easton had to make sure that Nathan and I were folding our hands in our laps just like he does during prayers. He poked Nathan (still hands folded) until Nathan copied him just right and he was trying to get my attention to do the same.

Nathan here… Ashley wants me to write about getting peed on this week. Well, I got peed on this week! Now the boy can aim and giggle. Easton shot me, laughed and shot again. Not cute...

Middle name?

As I said before I think we have decided on the name Blair but we are still not sure about her middle name. We currently like Brianne and Marie but we are open to suggestions. What do you think? Vote on the left for Brianne, Marie, or other. If you choose other you must come up with a new middle name and write it in the comments. Thanks!

Week 3 - Pensacola

Week 3 – Pensacola

First off I am currently 28 weeks along. Here's a pictures of the lovely belly. Later this week I will need to go to the hospital and get the rhogam shot (lucky me). Baby girl Kelsey is still extremely active. She is constantly waking me up during the night kicking, stretching, and doing all kinds of summersaults. I think Easton is starting to understand that there is a baby growing inside mommy’s tummy. Just the last two days he has come up and started to rub my tummy and say, “baby”. Today he learned the word, “sister”. We have also been trying to teach him to say, “Blair” so I guess if he actually figures that one out then we might not have much of a choice but to call our little girl by that name. That is currently our top pick so unless something better comes along that will probably be her name.

One of the best things here in Pensacola is the sunsets. I could get used to walking on the beach and watching the sun go down daily.

We went to a little beach on base and Easton absolutely loved it. At this beach there is sand and water but no waves. Easton prefers calmer water over waves at the ocean. He enjoyed going into the water with Nathan and he even went in waist deep getting his clothes drenched. Easton also enjoyed watching and dumping sand on the crabs we were able to find.

Watching one of the crabs.

We decided to take Easton bowling for the first time. He seemed excited and interested in it for the first game but not so much the second game. By the second game we figured out how to set the ramp up and use a heavier ball for Easton so that he could knock down more pins. At one point in the game I thought Easton was going to beat me. We were tied for a while and then he pulled ahead of me, but in the end I came through and beat him. I almost lost to a 1 year old. Nathan killed us. He got his first turkey ever and ended the game with five strikes.

Nathan and Easton were nice enough to take me shopping yesterday. I got to finally shop with some peace and quiet as Nathan kept Easton entertained. We also took Easton to a park where we had a picnic and he got to play for a while. We then took Easton to Petsmart to look at all the animals. Hopefully that made up for all the suffering I put him though shopping. We also watched the moive mall cop.

Proof of Nathan's turkey and Easton pulling ahead of me.

Easton's first attempt.

Easton's second attempt.

The week wouldn’t have been complete without a trip to the beach. Easton actually enjoyed going into the water with the waves this time. We will now definitely have to keep a better eye on him now that he isn’t so scared of the waves.

Easton playing in the waves.

Easton licking the sand off his hands and eating it.

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Upside-down Cheesecake

Ingredients:
1 pre-made graham cracker crest
1 box cheese cake jello pudding
1 sneaky toddler

Follow directions indicated on jello pudding box. Pour jello pudding into graham cracker crest and refrigerate for a few hours. Next, have toddler open refrigerator without anyone noticing, grab cheese cake, and drop it upside down on the floor. Note: make sure lid is on top of cheese cake to avoid any serious messes. And there you have it! A masterpiece!

Yesterday was Nathan’s birthday and unfortunately that was his birthday cake. Made with love by me and destroyed with love by Easton. Where we are staying there is no oven so it was impossible to bake a cake or cheesecake (which I normally do) so we had to be creative or not very creative and make an instant cheesecake. Unfortunately the cheesecake tasted about the way it ended up looking. I think once you make the real thing (cheesecake) there is no going back to the instant stuff. It’s the thought that counts though right? I think Nathan had a pretty good day though. He opened a few gifts from Easton and I (with Easton’s help) and then we went to Outback Steakhouse to celebrate. Nathan thought he was going to get out of them singing to him but at the last minute I informed our waitress that it was Nathan’s birthday. So he got sung to and they even brought him an ice cream sundae. Hope you had a wonderful birthday Handsome! We love you!

Nathan opening his gifts.

WEEK 2- PENSACOLA

Earlier this week it was pretty cold and since I didn’t pack much warm clothes, Easton and I stayed inside a lot more the first part of this week. Easton loves to run out our room and head straight for the windows just down the hall. His new thing is to stand in each window (just the perfect size for him) and lick and/or kiss every window. It is a little disgusting to me but it has become a ritual for him. He doesn’t want to leave until he has visited every window. One day after he finished visiting every window he ran down the hall. I slowly followed him (as I am getting rather large) until I realized he was about to lick a power outlet. I ran to him and grabbed him just in time. He got upset with me and wouldn’t hear it as I tried to explain to him that it wasn’t safe. He now tries to lick almost everything. He licks the faucet in the bathtub, he tries licking my face like a dog to give me kisses, he tries licking my toes, and he has even licked my leg in the shower to drink the water running down it. I told him he wasn’t allowed to take a shower with me anymore.

On one of the cold days, Easton and I needed to get out so we checked out one of the local malls. I was hoping that they would have a play area but unfortunately they didn’t. Luckily they had a little pet shop where Easton got to talk to the birds, pet the bunnies, and have a barking competition with the dogs. It was a much needed break for Easton as he now hates to go shopping. Every time we walked into a store he would start to whine and cry and keep it up most of the time in the store until we left. He would calm down and compose himself when we left but the second I crossed the line and went into a new store it all started again.

On Wednesday Easton and I checked out the local library where they were having story time. Easton absolutely loved it. They read a couple stories and sang a few songs. It was really nice to get out and let Easton play with other children. I think he really misses not being at home and seeing other kids. He definitely loves nursery these days because it has been his only interaction with kids all week. I think we will definitely go the next two weeks to the library just so he can play with other kids. I really wish our local library did story time every week like they do here. Ours only does it once a month and I always forget when it is because it isn’t consistent enough. We could go to another library that seems to do it a little more often but it is further away and they ask that you don’t bring siblings so that won’t be a option once our baby girl arrives (how dumb is that?)

Nathan got off early again on Thursday so we decided to hit up another beach. We had a picnic, played in the sand (of course), waded in the water, and flew a kite. Easton had a blast chasing the seagulls all over the beach.

Dad and Easton.

Easton playing in the sand.

Video of Easton playing in the sand.




Easton chasing the seagulls.



Easton flying a kite.

On Friday Nathan had to work late. He was scheduled to work until 10pm but he asked if he could stay later and deliver the baby of a woman he was following most of the day. So Nathan finally got his chance to deliver his first baby all by himself.

On Saturday we checked out the local zoo. I was a little worried that the trip wasn’t going to be all that enjoyable since we got there late in the day and Easton hadn’t had a nap yet. It turned out to be a great day. Easton loved every moment of it. He was so excited to see every animal and he of course tried to communicate with as many of them as he could. We bought some animal feed thinking that Easton would like to feed and pet the petting zoo animals but he seemed a little too scared to get too close to them and have them eat out of his hands. Instead he enjoyed throwing the feed to the ducks in the pond. Easton really seemed to enjoy the train ride around part of the zoo. At some parts of the train ride we were really close to the animals. In fact if they wanted to they could have come right up to us. There was no cage or fence between us. It was really fun. The second we got Easton buckled up in the car he passed out and slept the entire way home. He was so tired.

Dad and Easton at zoo.

Easton feeding the animals.

The giraffe came right up to the deck and would eat from your hands.

Have you ever seen a white peacock before?

Train ride.

Zebra we saw from our train ride. It came so close to us.

Video of Dad feeding cow and Easton getting scared.

Video of Dad feeding goats and Easton running away.

Easton talking to one of the birds.

Easton feeding the ducks.

Warning: If you are Grandma Stockton, you probably don't want to watch the next video.

Video of Easton getting scared of the snake. He did actually touch the other snake in the background without any problems.

Baby Blessing Dress

My sister-in-law, Mykle, is amazing. She was kind enough to make our little girl a blessing dress. Check out this cute little dress on her blog at http://wmwhiting.blogspot.com/2009/03/dress.html I can’t wait to see it in person and of course see it on our little girl the day she gets blessed. I believe this is Mykle’s first attempt at making a dress. Isn’t she talented? It turned out so well and I absolutely love it!

Also, don’t forget to check out our week 1 in Pensacola post.

Week 1 - Pensacola

In our room we have a fridge that is smaller than a normal sized fridge but bigger than a mini fridge. Well, Easton is in love with this fridge because he has no problem opening it and getting whatever he wants. I thought this would be convenient at first because I wouldn’t have to get up and help Easton every time he wanted something but it now is a little annoying. He is constantly opening and closing that fridge just because he can and about half the time he forgets to close the door so I have to get up and close it. The other day he opened the fridge and grabbed a bag of grapes. I figured he would just open the bag and pull off what he wanted but instead he dumped the entire bag on his plate. He just looked up at me with a big proud smile on his face. It was as if he was saying, “Mommy, look at what I did ALL by myself!” Easton is definitely becoming more and more independent.

We found a couple of parks on base that we visit frequently. Easton loves to play outside and the weather for the most part has been really nice. Easton also really likes to play in the sand. We have a volleyball court outside our place where Easton plays in the sand with his bucket and shovel. He thinks it is hilarious to throw/dump the sand on me.

This picture reminds me of Nathan because Easton's little tongue is sticking out just like Nathan's does when he is concentrating really hard.

Easton especially loved going to the beach. He ran right up to the water and wanted to jump in. Nathan grabbed him just in time before he got all wet. Again he loves the sand and was basically swimming in it the first time we brought him. He also liked digging for shells with Daddy, throwing sand at Mommy, and of course eating the sand (I don’t know that I’ll ever understand this kid. He will eat sand almost like it is candy but the other day he refused to eat ice cream with hot fudge and yummy toppings). When we were leaving Pensacola Beach we decided we would take a drive and see how far the beach went (I also wanted to see what all the beach houses looked like). After a while Easton was getting cranky because he was probably hungry and tired of being in the car so we decided to turn around and go back. We tried doing a U-turn but apparently our car is not made to drive on sand so we got stuck. Poor Nathan had to get out and try to push us out of the sand but that didn’t get us very far. After a couple of cars passed us by, a car finally stopped with two men who were more than happy to help us out. The men must have been locals because they told us this happens to everyone. They along with Nathan pushed as I tried to reverse out of the sand. The car still didn’t move but a man on a bike stopped and gave us a hand as well. They dug around the tires and then pushed again. This time we finally made it out. Nathan says that next time we buy a car it will have 4-wheel drive. First stuck in snow and then sand, what will be next?

Easton also likes his new friend in the mirror. I often find him giving himself kisses and laughing at himself. He thinks it is just great that someone will copy him. Every time I take out the camera to catch it on film he of course stops what he is doing. Here is a video of him kind of playing with his friend in the mirror and then him roaring at me.

Nathan got off work early on Thursday so we decided to go to some outlet stores. I got some really good deals on baby clothes for both Easton and the baby. Outside the stores every so often there was a kid ride for 75 cents. Nathan happened to have 3 quarters so we thought it would be fun for Easton to take a ride on one. At first he didn’t seem too sure of the ride but eventually we got some smiles out of him and he appeared to be having fun. He was definitely not happy once the ride stopped though. He burst into tears and wanted to ride it some more. Unfortunately for him we didn’t have any more quarters and unfortunately for us there was a different ride about every five stores we came to. Easton would run up to the new ride, hope in, and wait for it to go. Of course it didn’t and so tears would start all over again. Eventually we had to distract Easton’s attention away from the rides every time we came close to one.

Easton after his ride.