I had been trying to stay positive but that morning I decided to just revel in my misery.  Shortly after breakfast we got the call that Steph had gone into labor 2 months early.  Suddenly being a bit over-due didn’t seem like such a big deal.  I snapped out of my funk, and we headed to the hospital.  The doctors had stopped Steph’s contractions and the baby was doing good, but it was looking like she would be staying in the hospital for a while.  We stayed and chatted for a while, and headed for home a little after 2:00.  He offered to drive the car up to the front of the hospital, but I insisted on walking.  He suggested we take the elevator to the forth floor where our car was parked, but I wanted to climb the stairs.  By the time we pulled out of the parking lot I had my first contraction, and they didn’t stop until he was born, just before 11:00 that night.

The first year we were married I bought a small red Christmas photo album.  Every Christmas we take a family picture and I put it in the album.  On the back of each picture I write a short paragraph.  I usually tell where the picture was taken, where we are living, if I’m pregnant, the ages of the children, etc.  I counted the number of pages in the album and by the time we fill it up the boys will be 13 and 12 years-old.

The following are all of the pictures we have taken so far.  With the exception of the first two years which were not taken with a digital camera (hard to imagine!).

We all arrived with enough food to feed a family 5 times our size, and we pretty much ate the whole weekend.  Laying on the beach, eating,  taking long  walks…  my idea of the  perfect  vacation.  The  highlight of the trip for Big Brother was our trip to Gilroy Gardens (formally Bonfante Gardens).  It’s a beautiful theme park just outside of Gilroy that has been designed for small children (not that the adults didn’t enjoy ourselves!).  I think Baby Boy would have had more fun at Gilroy Garden’s if he hadn’t gotten car sick (all over himself and his car seat… not a pretty sight).

The down side of enjoying the company of family in close quarters, is we managed to share more than just food and fun. The stomach flu hit our happy little vacation house on the last night.  We also realized, after we had come in from the beach, that Big Brother was running a pretty high fever.   He  spent the  remainder of the night watching “Veggie Tales” on the couch.

All in all, a great time was had by all!

The boys were both sick this weekend, and a trip to the store was not possible, so instead I began hunting though closets and boxes.  I rounded up an old wreath, some red buckets, an old window Jess had given me, and with a little work (and some greenery from my mother-in-law’s yard),  they started to look very festive!

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Hoping we are all healthy for our annual trip to Pajaro this weekend.

Yesterday he was playing in the playroom with his legos.  I watched him get his tub off the shelf and carry it to the table.  He sat down and started to build; all by himself.  He made towers, and “campers”, and boats.  Then when he was done, he put all of the toys back into the tub and put the tub on the shelf!  HE LISTENS TO ME!  All of the times I sat with him and showed him how to put away his toys… and it’s finally paying off.

When you’re a mom you don’t get bonuses, or atta-boys, or plaques, but every once in a while you get moments like that!

We’ve been trying to potty train Big Brother.  I can’t decide if I’m just not giving it my all, or if he’s really not ready.  I think I’ll give it to the end of the week and then reevaluate.  A woman in the grocery store told me she potty trained her 2-year-old son in just one day.  She recommended Kit-Kat bars.  I smiled and thanked her, trying not to let her see the disbelief and discouragement I was feeling.  He has to potty train sooner or later… right!?

I didn’t take very many pictures this week.  Mostly because of our busy week, but also because my little one has been sick and pictures of puffy-eyed, booger crusted faces just don’t appeal to me.