Holidays in PA!

 

Another First, Actually a Couple!!

 

 

The weekend after Christmas and before New Years', we ventured to Lancaster, PA to visit Chris' parents aka JJ (Joan) and  DadDad (Alex).  We purposely left Va Beach around 1pm on Friday to hit the road around Wesley's afternoon nap.  He had a different agenda which made the trip a little bit more challenging!  We decided to take Rt. 13 up the Eastern Shore which is usually the way to go (vs. 95 and DC traffic) but this must have been an exception.  We hit every traffic light from here to PA which didn't help the situation.  We ended up stopping a few times which was fine until we got back to the car when Wesley didn't want to get back in his car seat.  Who could blame him?  So, we succumbed to bribery with arrowroot cookies.  He finally fell asleep 45 minutes away from their house!  The problem with Wesley is that he is a great cat napper, sort of.  If he dozes for even a few minutes in the car, that is it...there is no way you are getting him back down once he wakes up.  So...once we arrived at JJ and DadDads', he was raring to go!  A new environment, happy to see his grandparents and happy to be out of his cage (car seat).  We've been on equally long trips and not had as much trouble but we have also been on much shorter trips and it's been worse.  So...we'll just keep trying.  This was his FIRST trip to PA and JJ and DadDad's house!!!

 

The next day, Lancaster got a beautiful snow fall that ended up to be about 4 inches.  It is a different world to me as they are VERY prepared and used to the white stuff.  Joan and Alex's driveway has markers along the edges with flourescent markings so that the snow plow guys know where the driveway is vs. the grass.  I am sure this is VERY common but being from VA, if it ever got to where we couldn't see where the driveway ended and the yard started---life as we knew it would stop for a few days and we'd hunker down and enjoy it!  Not so much in the land of snow and plows!  When the snow gets above 4inches, they have a service that comes to clear the driveway and walk.  Since this snowfall was just shy, Joan was out shoveling on her own.  She was joined by her neighbor, Mr. Fury, who had a real snow blower!  I gotta tell you, this is serious stuff and I have no experience with this kinda weather.  4 inches of snow would shut down our town, to Lancaster it is just another day.  Their driveways were cleared in no time!  The other benefit to seeing Mr. Fury was that he was kind enough to loan us a sled!  He has grandchildren and a super hill between their houses which I am sure they have enjoyed many a time.  Well, we did too!  As you can see, JJ had the most fun, with Chris and I close behind.  Wesley seemed to enjoy the first run before the camera but either got scared by the hill, or scared by our screams of excitement!  Regardless, he had his FIRST sledding experience and FIRST jaunt in the snow! 

 

 

We had a wonderful visit with JJ and DadDad and Wesley did MUCH better on the return trip!  He loved his vist, too!

I love JJ and especially when she reads to me!!!

Alex viewing the beautiful snowfall!

Mommy having a ball, Wesley sort of...

More fun with Daddy!

JJ having the time of her life!!!!!

 

Cold but SO much fun!!!

Let it Snow!!!



Love my Bear Hat!!!



Playing with JJ and my Bear Hat!!!

That snow will just wipe you out!

Happy Hour!!

 

 

 

Christmas at Home!

 

Merry Christmas Everybody!!

 

I can't say that Wesley really understood Christmas this year.  That didn't mean he didn't have tons of fun and enjoy everything about it.  He was great about the Christmas Tree and understood that he shouldn't touch the ornaments.  He would point to a few of them and call them by name; we had a few dogs on the tree!  He was enamoured by the lights not just on the tree but on the neighborhood houses.  Mrs. Sheila had a tree decorated on their front porch that we would have to stop at each night to touch and take in.  I think he will REALLY enjoy Christmas next year...this year was the joy for Mommy and Daddy!!!

We tried hard to tell Santa not to bring too much...Daddy was much better about that than Mommy.  He has way too many toys as it stands but it wasn't stopping Mommy!  Spoiled, yes!  He wasn't much in to opening the gifts which we thought he would enjoy.  It was a lot of fun for us, though and I can't wait until next year.

His big gift was his new chair.  The unfortunate part and as you can tell from the photos is that he had a very rough morning with his congestion/throwing up.  He started in the PJ's that my sister made for him in the first photo but they were the first of four by the time we got through the morning.  He had three sets of Christmas pajamas and went through all of them, plus one.  His new chair was even washed and dried (cushions come out) before Mimi and Pops woke up.  Keep in mind Wesley wakes up no later than 6am.  We managed through it and had a great Christmas morning.  Mommy had an L.L. Bean Christmas with some gorgeous new boots.  Daddy's big gift was his new tablet. 

We were also excited to have Mimi and Pops come down Christmas Eve to spend the holiday with us!  As you can see in the pictures, Wesley was as happy as we were to have them.

For Christmas Dinner we invited Vicky and Johan, Chris' sister and brother in law for dinner.  They spoiled Wesley rotten with Christmas gifts!!! They are also a ton of fun to be around.  I wish I had more photos of their visit...the Stuffed Rockfish seemed to make the cut instead.  What an awesome dinner by Chef Chris.  I think he may have started a tradition...who wants to come for Christmas Dinner next year???

 

  

PJs from Aunt Clai with my name---sure am cute! (Christmas Eve)

My New Chair and My New Doggy!!!

 












I love my new chair and I learned quickly that I can't stand in it very well!!!

Enjoying My New Toys in PJ #4

My New Pirate Ship---Arrggghh!

Daddy thinks this year is bad for putting things together.....

Later in the day...LOVE my Pops!!!

Enjoying my new Chair!

Thanks, Aunt Vicky!!!

 

As Pops would say, "makes your tongue slap your brains out"!  Boy was this delicious!!

 

Christmas at Mimi and Pops!!!

 

Santa Makes an Early Stop!

 

 

We were able to get most of my side of the family together for the holiday, a little before Christmas.  Clai, Brian and their children were not able to make the trek this year but we did our best with modern technology and skyping! 

We had my oldest brother, Quen, and his wife Daryl and their boys, Logan and Hayden, my younger brother, Carter, his wife, Betsy, and their boys, Preston and Luke all at Mimi and Pops house.  It was lots of fun exchanging gifts and playing with the new toys and our cousins! 

 

Marchant Family Christmas Chaos!!



My cousins, Hayden, Preston, Luke and Logan

Hamming it up!!

Sliding down the stairs....



The Nautical Santa!

 

If He Only Knew How Lucky He Was...

 

 

 

Hampton Yacht Club does a lot of great things for the younger members over the year, one of which is  Breakfast with Santa.  Of course, this is our first experience with the event but we made sure to take advantage.  Santa arrives by boat from the North Pole to the dock at the club and is then transported home in the same manner.  We were very lucky in that our very good friend, "Uncle Dave", was the one who volunteered his boat and time to deliver Santa and Mrs. Clause.  We watched Santa come in to the docks and enter the club where he let every child tell them their wishes.  He handed out sailboat ornaments and candy canes and was quite a treat for everyone.  The biggest treat of all and surprise was that Uncle Dave invited us to go on the boat to take Mr. and Mrs. Clause back to thier "sled" (at the city docks).  This was not only a special treat because Santa was on board but it was also Wesley's first real boat ride!  Below are a few of the better photos...our camera battery ran out just in time so our friends Leigh and Suzanne helped out.

 

Breakfast at HYC

Our good friend, Leigh and her son, Will

Waving goodbye as we left the dock!



My Visit with Santa!!



Visit with Santa!

Same Santa Background, Santa isn't as Jolly! 

 

 

The day after Wesley's Birthday Party, Chris and I took off of work to recharge but also thinking it would be a great time to take Wesley to see Santa.  It is truly worth the time off to not have to wait in line (we walked right up).  I was on maternity leave last year when I took him and same thing happened so that will be a tradition for us if we can continue to do so.  The only challenge is while it was nice to have some continuity with Santa or at least his location (local mall) year after year, he isn't the most genuine looking or friendliest Santa you have ever seen!  The second picture isn't so bad but in the first one, he looks a little rough...I shouldn't care because Wesley didn't seem to mind at all! This year or the prior...I posted both to compare.

 

 

November 22, 2012---365 days!

 

It's Official, I am ONE!

 

 

Wesley's 12 month check up went very well.  He is now 23 lbs and 31 1/2 inches tall.  He is in the 90% for Height and 70% for Weight...still sort of a stringbean!  Although it is funny because you wouldn't think that looking at his clothes.  He seems to need a roll up on his pants legs and the waist is always a bit snug.  Chris swears he needs "husky" pants...I just chuckle.  He's adorable whatever way you look at him and seems just right.  The doctor was pleased with his progress.  He has 8 teeth now and smiles often to show them off.  He is a pretty happy kid most of the time.  He is starting to push our buttons a bit when he doesn't get his way.  He is still doing the "revival fall" where he just falls backwards to initiate a tantrum.  This can be scary because he doesn't care where he is when this happens...in front of the fireplace, on the hard wood floor, on the tile in the entryway...so it could hurt.  The pediatrician told us that babies' heads were very hard in the front and very hard in the back for a reason.  Hopefully he will learn sooner than later. 

 

His asthma and excema seem to linger and flare up more regularly-the winter weather is definitely the culprit for the excema but not sure about the asthma.  He is on his daily inhaler which is SO much better than the electric nebulizer treatments---it's basically in place of that and Wesley and Mom and Dad do much better with the inhaler.  We hear that it is very common to grow out of both of these conditions so we will hope.  He has now had 6 ear infections so we have been referred to the ENT to get another opinion...more to come. 

 

He started walking the week after his birthday and hasn't stopped since. He points a lot to direct us to things he wants. He has several words that we can decipher. His first word was definitely "Dog".  His daycare has two of them, a yellow lab named Wrigley and a smaller terrier named Boomer.  Wesley is infatuated with the dogs and loves them!!!  After that, he uses 'sish' for fish which he says a lot. He calls Mrs. Shelia, "sheeee-ya" which we hear all of the time. In fact, that is typically how he wakes us in the morning from his crib, calling her name. He calls her daughter, Kenzie, "KiKi". He also says "boat" (yeah for dad), and has named his blanket, "teetee" (no idea!).  

 

It has been a great first year!  Definitely some hard times and challenges for Chris and me as new parents but the smiles, giggles and love from Wesley make us forget about the tougher moments. 

What is most important is that we have a happy, healthy one year old! 



Birthday #2...

 

Hey Sugar, Sugar...

 

Since Wesley's Birthday fell on Thanksgiving, we threw another party at our house after the fact to celebrate with friends and family.  His Grandmother, JJ, said he was smart before his time to be born when he was so that he could have two birthday parties.  This was quite a party for little W.  He had lots of friends from Hampton, friends from Duck, NC (Chris' college buddy, Jim and his boys), family from Delaware (Aunt Alex and cousins Holly and Lily), Mimi and Pops, most of his daycare friends and Mrs. Shelia and KiKi (Kenzie) as well as neighbors, Mike and Debbie.  We had BBQ and the fixins' from Malbon Brothers, cupcakes, cakes, chocolate dipped marshmallows, chocolate dipped pretzels amongst some other "healthier" items but it was a sweet day in more than one way! 

Wesley loved playing with his friends...there were a lot of children!  We were very lucky to have an unseasonably warm day so that the kids could play on the back deck. 

Mimi and Pops were a WONDERFUL host/hostess and helped us immensely with preparation, cooking, entertaining and cleaning!  We couldn't have done it without them!  It enabled Chris and I to visit with our friends as well...guess it was another excuse for us to have some friends by for a Sunday Funday!  Happy 1st Birthday, Wesley!!!

 

 

 

MY cake!!!  Happy 1st Birthday to ME!

  

The BIG Cake!

Wesley's "smash" cake (although he was pretty delicate with it)!



Cupcakes for my friends (thanks, Mimi!)

BBQ and the fixins'!



Mommy was worried about entertaining the kiddos...they did just fine!

  

My daycare friend, Chase, enjoying a marshmallow!

 

 

"Uncle" Dave and my friend, Will Chapman from Hampton

More daycare friends!

I LOVE CAKE!!!  Happy Birthday, Wesley!

Check Me Out!

Just Because...

We don't have our camera at the ready as often as we'd like.  I do have a phone with me most of the time and sometimes that is faster although lacking in quality.  Below are a few random shots of Wesley...

 

 

He loves helping out with the laundry.  While I am sure this will change by the time he is actually able to fold clothes, right now it allows me to get a chore done with him in my eyesight!

 

 

Our good friend, Mike Park, sent Wesley a NASCAR bib for his birthday.  Here he is below sporting his new race wear!!!  Boogity, Boogity, Boogity!!!

 

This is what happens when Daddy goes out of town for work.  Instead of enjoying his pre-breakfast milk and snack downstairs with Daddy, Wesley has to hang out in Mommy and Daddy's room while Mommy gets ready for work.  There are a lot of things that he can get his hands on...perfect for blackmail later! (my headband)

 

Wesley LOVES the garage!  There are a few things that he is very interested in...the outboard motor, his red wagon and Daddy's tool box.  He points at the door several times a day and begs for us to take him out there.  This particular morning (New Year's Day), the boys were playing with the hats in his stroller.   We have a house full of toys...the garage will always trump!