Kids Together Walk for Inclusiveness

We're very lucky to have a wonderful park just around the corner from our house. Inside the park is the Kids Together Playground that is accessible for children with physical disabilities. Saturday was their fundraising walk along the Hinshaw Greenway that connects Marla Dorrel Park to MacDonald Woods Park and the Comptons came to join us.  It was a gorgeous day and we had a great time.  Maybe one of these days I'll remember to bring a real camera and not just my phone.

Poor Porter, stuck in the wagon with all the gear!

One for fun!

Downtown Raleigh

Leaving...on a jet plane!

 We headed up to North Dakota for Grammie Jean's funeral.  Not the reason we wanted to visit the Dakotas again, but a very nice trip despite the circumstances.  It was G and PJ's first trip on an airplane and they were troopers.  It was stressful, but given the circumstances they did really really well.  G even got to meet the Captain on our flight from Cleveland to Raleigh.  He was so excited!  We had a very nice visit with the cousins as well as GG and Papa.  More on that later.

If only he had been this still the whole time!

Ditto!

G wanted to ride on the cart so bad he went up to the driver and asked him
all by himself to take us.

Optimism

One of my favorite new co-workers posted this picture outside her cube and it makes me smile everytime I walk by.  It helps remind me that perception is everything.  We each have control over how we react to the things that happen to us in life.  If, for example, our car breaks down on a busy week when we have a million errands to run, we can look at it negatively and simply cuss complain about it.  OR we can use it as an opportunity for personal growth.  Here are just a a few of the opportunities I've identified for this week: 

• Practice delegating by
 asking Jimbo to run a few of the errands while he has the car during the day.  

• Investigate the bus system that we have here in town.  I've seen them several times as I've been driving home and have meant to investigate, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

• Save some money by bringing my lunch to work each day 

• Get to know my co-workers better by asking them to take me to lunch with them.

• Write a blog article about the whole situation so that JMKG knows that I'm still alive.

• Have an actual conversation with Jimbo that is not instantly interrupted by a tiny voice needing something as he drives me to work.

Tell me how you turned a challenging situation into a positive experience?

Lake Gaston 4th of July 2012

Well someone responsible had to drive the boat!

Graham hard at work

and he found what we were looking for!

Special thanks to AJA for posting these pics.  We, of course, forgot our camera!

I HATE having my picture taken...

I am quite possibly the LEAST photogenic person alive.  Jimbo has said more than once that G and PJ are not going to be able to remember me after I'm gone because there are so few pictures of us together.  So here is one that I actually like.  The matching shirts were a total coincidence!

and a funny one of Jimbo...

Good Boy!!

Don't send a man to the grocery store.

My sister sent me this video and I love it for several reasons:  

1. It made me laugh.
2. It made me laugh out loud.
3. I love a REAL southern accent 
4. She reminds me of my mom who owns stock in Duncan Hines.  She bakes for everyone she knows (even some folks she doesn't) for celebrations of all kinds.
5. I can imagine this EXACT situation happening with me and Jimbo.  There have been situations where I've felt compelled to tell Jimbo to "stop being an engineer".  He's VERY literal and therefore i have to be very specific in my requests of him .  Ex.  We met in DC for my company Christmas party a few years back (I had flown to NYC for another work event and took the train to DC) and I told him he would need to wear a suit to the DC event.  We started to get ready and I asked where his tie was and he said "you didn't tell me to bring a tie".  Lesson learned.
6. Who doesn't love a pound cake?

My husband, the baby whisperer!

After several grueling weeks of listening to G cry while falling asleep for 90% of his bedtimes and naps, Jimbo has discovered the secret to a blissful slumber for our sweet boy. It was so simple, almost too simple, but I think it speaks volumes to the strategy that we will need to employ with him in the future. Simply put, G needed control over when he went to sleep. He didn't like it when we laid him down in the crib and tucked him in. That was us telling him to go to sleep. Based on Jimbo's advice instead of doing that I now simply sit G in the crib, give him his binky, turn on the mobile and aquarium, kiss him goodnight, turn out the light and leave. He usually lays down before I've left the room, but its on his own terms. He's making the decision that he wants to go to sleep. No fuss, no muss, happy baby. It's amazing! It might just be luck, it might be that we're getting into more of a routine each night but I really think he's stubborn and independent just like me and Jimbo and that letting him decide when he wants to lay down is making a difference. I've done this each night this week and for both naps today and its worked like a charm. I hope it keeps up because it kills me to hear him cry!

Sweet, sweet victory

Despite the fact that I am blessed with the best baby in the world, there are some days that his schedule and mine don't mix. Generally those are the days where I have stayed up way too late and he wants to get up and stay up way too early. It's on these days that I use all my best mothering skills, including the use of bouncy seats, swings and the recliner. All ways to get him to go to sleep that do not involve him being alone, on his back in his crib. Probably not the best long term plan for my sanity, but he's only a month old and I'm told this will not destroy his sleep habits (next month may be another story, but for now, I do what I can do to get a few more hours of sleep).

I am also blessed with a wonderful husband who has turned out to be an incredible dad with all the best intentions for the baby. He has also been a little disappointed in my parenting choices a few times recently. Specifically the measures I've taken to get our little angel back to sleep when mommy was too tired to keep her eyes open, much less entertain a newborn. Jimbo is really insistent that G sleep in his crib (or pack and play), DEFINITELY not in bed with us (which I totally agree), not in the swing, etc. So you can imagine my pleasure this morning when Jimbo, who is on weekend morning baby duty, comes rushing into the office telling me to "come quick". Based on the level of excitement I'm thinking the kid is taking his first steps or something equally as earth shattering. He takes me into our bedroom where he shows me our sleeping child, in our bed, on his stomach. He's so excited because generally G doesn't like to be on his tummy. This is mostly because Jimbo thinks its a good idea to put him on his tummy to "tire him out" when really he just wants a bottle, but that's a different story. Needless to say I took great pleasure at pointing out that he was breaking the "rules" and asked what made it okay that he was sleeping in our bed. His response was simply so that he could get another hour of sleep. Ahh victory, your taste is oh so sweet.