We're Back

We're home, I'm exhausted. Sorry for the lack of updates, but mom doesn't have high speed, and I don't have the patience to wait on her internet. I'll write more on the trip after I get some much needed sleep.

Our Trip to Colorado: Book 1

Monday: The Day of Rain

When we woke up Monday morning packed and ready to go, we learned that leaving Houston might be difficult.

Apparently, Houston was flooding. Luckily, our flight wasn't until after lunchtime, so hopefully the water would subside by then. Hobby airport had suspended all flights which I am sure sucked for all those people, but we were leaving from Intercontinental. Amazingly, Intercontinental got no rain at all, and the flights were all on schedule.

When we got to the airport, check in was surprisingly smooth, and Barrett and I, along with the stroller, car seat, car seat base, and two carry ons, headed to security. We only had to wait in a short line when a man said, "Hey, lady with the baby, come over here." He took us in our own private line which turned out to be for everyone else because we had to put EVERYTHING through the scanner thing. So, I had a lot of disassembling to do. Although, he was nice enough to help me restack all our stuff after we were cleared.

All of that stuff went way too fast because Barrett and I ended up at the gate with almost an hour and a half to spare. We walked everywhere we could with our mound of crap without having to go back out security.

Barrett was amused for a long time chasing the bomb sniffing dog around. (His police man keeper was on a break and really friendly! But, his story about the dog almost biting a man's arm off once made me a little nervous about Barrett smacking the dog's head.) Once the dog had to go back to fighting crime, we still had 45 minutes to kill...

Eventually, 30 minutes later than expected, it was time to board.

Barrett and I walked down to the plane and everyone told me someone would help us. Apparently, Someone had the day off. I did manage to lug everything minus the stroller on the plane alone. I planted Barrett in an empty seat while I put his carseat in.

After it was in, a stewardess came to see if I needed assistance. I decided to let her put ice in Barrett's bottle and get me a Diet Coke since I already did the hard part alone.

Once I put Barrett in his chair, he was as happy as could be.

I am glad a got him his own seat because he was happy and the flight was packed with people that were sent from Hobby. Barrett fell asleep as we took off and woke up about an hour into the flight. He would have slept longer but the kid in front of us was screaming her head off. Geez, must people fly with screaming kids! Barrett ate a few animal crackers and watched cartoon network (Frontier airlines has Direct TV, I watched the gameshow network while he slept!).

As we began going down, Barrett got back in his seat with no complaints and went back to sleep. The landing was really rough and people were getting sick, but Barrett didn't even move. He woke up as we approached the gate.

We waited for everyone to get off the plane before I blocked the aisle with all our stuff. As I was carrying everything again, the same worthless stewardess thanked me for flying with them and smiled. I politely smiled and thanked her for all her help. I think the car seat might have bumped her a little hard as we made our way past her, oops!

Everything else went smooth, and we were in the car with my mom headed to Colorado Springs in no time.

Tuesday: Day of the Living Dead

Barrett did not sleep at all Monday night. I did not sleep at all because of Barrett and because I was still sick with the head cold thing. Mom did not sleep. We were all tired, but we managed to go shopping for a while. I decided I was too sick, and we came home. Fun vacation, right?

Wednesday: What is With This Head Cold?

Wednesday was bad. I did nothing. I barely got out bed. I coughed, sneezed, blew out more snot than I could imagine, and slept. Barrett was grumpy. Mom was grumpy. Everyone was pretty much worn out. Fun, fun, fun!

Thursday: She's Back, He's Out

Yeah for taking a day off. Mom, Barrett, and I shopped all day. We were all rested, and besides being REALLY grumpy all morning, Barrett did pretty well.

After our shopping marathon, we were all relaxing while Barrett played golf and torturing mom's dog, Einstein.

Suddenly, the mood took a major turn.

Barrett had his first REALLY bloody boo boo. He was trying to crawl out on the deck to enjoy the 60 degree weather, when he hit the door frame, with his face. More specifically, his top lip. His lip bled for about an hour. There was blood everywhere, all over him, me, mom, and our clothes.

Once we were able to stop the bleeding, we could see the damage. I have to say that when Barrett does things, he does them right. It was cut from the top of the front around to the inside top. I blame the top teeth that have given me and Barrett so many problems already. His lips looks a lot better today. :)

Friday: Thank God It's Friday

We made it to Breckenridge today since I am finally well, and so far the altitude hasn't bothered me one bit. Barrett has enjoyed crawling around and hanging out on the deck.



Now he is napping, and I am enjoying a little break. I'll hopefully be updating again soon. But, now, I am headed out to have a drink on the deck! I hope all of you back in Houston are staying cool.

I Can't Think of a Title Today

Ok, I just typed a long blog that disappeared. I don't have the time, and I am not in the mood to retype it. I'll summarize what I said:

1. I'm sick with a head cold and at least one ear infection.

2. Barrett and I are flying to Colorado tomorrow.

3. That will suck for me and my ear.

4. I originally only bought one plane ticket, but I wised up and bought Barrett his own seat earlier this week.

5. I hate the terrorists. If they would have left us alone, Doug could walk me and all the junk I have to fly with to the gate (stroller, car seat, car seat base, overloaded diaper bag, camera, camcorder, Barrett, and whatever else I think of in the next few hours). BUT, instead, he can't. I'm stuck trying to to figure it out because some foreigners hate the US.

6. I will hopefully blog while I am in Colorado, but if not, I'm sure I'll have some great stories when we return on the 28th.

Ahhh, that's the basics of what I had written.

Happy Father's Day!

The Pattern Continues

Barrett is still odd.

Most kids have a pacifier, a blanket, or their thumb, but Barrett isn't most kids.

Barrett has attached himself to a phone cord.



He started chewing on it a few months ago while Doug was trying to hold him and type on the computer. When Doug noticed it kept him occupied, he disconnected it from the phone so Barrett could play with it.

Now, there is a phone cord with us pretty much all the time.



He doesn't need it to sleep (he usually likes a burp cloth then), but he likes to have it with him when he's awake. He'll drag it all over the house. Sometimes it gets hung up on something, and he has it stretched as far as it will go. Usually that ends with the cord flying and hitting him, but he still continues to love it.

I'm really ok with the cord except when the phone is ringing and I can't find the cordless phone and the other two phones are "cordless". I also have to endure lots of women giving me looks in the store because my kid is gnawing on a phone cord, wrapping around his head like a head band and laughing, or stretching it and grunting.

He is finding something else he LOVES thanks to Daddy.



I might have to only cord carrying, Dr.Pepper addict 10 month old in the world. I am so proud!

Splish Splash

I know we haven't been posting anything lately, but our church's VBS was this week. I was so exhausted every afternoon when we got home, I was lucky to get myself organized for the next day. I do have to say that I had an amazing experience, and I was blessed with the best group of teen volunteers. Some people thought I was crazy running the games for 500 kids with no other adults, but it couldn't have been better. The only major injury, a nose that the x-ray said wasn't broken, was the result of a 3 year old jumping on one of my teen volunteers. :)

So, Barrett and I are back to our normal, slow life this week.

Today, we went to Cindy's house to swim with her two kids. It was Barrett's first swim, so I was really excited. Barrett seemed to like the water. He wasn't excited just content to sit in his chair thing.



The real excitement started when Barrett's eyes started getting red, really red. I assume that sunscreen got into his eyes, and obviously, his eyes don't like it.

We played a little longer then we came home. On the drive home, his eyes got worse. So, I called the nurse line. She told me to flush his eyes out with water, which I had already done numerous times as I was holding on the phone. She also said to put saline drops in his eyes. I called Doug, gave him my order, and waited while Barrett whined and squinted to see me.

Luckily, Doug couldn't find saline drops, (big surprise!) and he asked the pharmacist where they were. The pharmacist then told him that some other drops would work better. When Doug came home, we put the drops in, and within minutes, Barrett was laughing, talking, and climbing.

I guess we'll try swimming again one day soon. I just need to switch sunscreen or convince Barrett to leave a hat on his pale little head!

Ouch!

Barrett took his first spill of the changing table Friday morning. The worst part of the whole experience was that it happened when he was with me and not his daddy. Doug walks to the closet with Barrett on the table all the time, and I gripe that one day Barrett will fall off and get hurt. Doug always ignores me with the typical, "ok, ok, ok..."

Now... How do I say, "I told you so," when it was my fault?

I was standing right there, and I did catch him before he hit the ground. Unfortunately, I didn't catch him before he smacked his head a drawer knob.

He screamed and cried, and so did I. He actually recovered quicker than I did. (The animal cookies worked again!)

After the swelling went down, he was left with two dark red marks on his forehead that later turned to nasty bruises. After I calmed down, we left the house to run errands.

While we were out, a woman commented how cute he was, and she said that I must just kiss on him all the time. I agreed and continued shopping. A few aisles later, another woman commented how cute he was, and said something about kissing him too. To be honest, it was getting kind of weird.

When we checked out, the high school girl laughed and commented that he had lipstick on his head. It was then that I noticed how his two dark red bruises looked more like kiss marks than bruises.




(I took this picture much later in the day, so the redness had worn off a lot!)

Now those two other ladies didn't seem so weird. It all worked out for the best. Barrett was ok, and two strange women thought I loved on his too much instead of banging his head into drawers.