A Weekend Getaway

My best friend (the bride) and I planned one last 'single gal' hurrah for her. AKA an excuse to go away for a weekend. We went to the hotel out in the desert where we went for 5 years when we were in high school/college. Our tradition was to stay a night in the 5 star resort and spend the afternoon poolside. After sufficiently baking ourselves (cautiously to avoid tan lines and severe burns for the wedding that is in single digits from now) we get dressed up and head to a Japanese Steak House down the road. My mother happily volunteered to watch my little guy so that I could lounge poolside stationary and not running around chasing around Ace. My mom and Ace joined us for dinner and then Ace stayed the night with us.



The view from our balcony.
The pool was wonderful. The drinks ended up being free (I told them to charge them to our room and they failed to do so, yippee!) The weather was perfect on Sunday afternoon, great sun to tan in but not dripping in pools of sweat. The water was refreshing. The dinner was amazing as always. Ace did great and loved the hotel room. He hogged the bed in great fashion. In the morning we headed down and Ace got to swim. He got his first taste of sand. He wasn't a fan. It was a bit chilly by So Cal standards, but for the NW standards it was a-ok. Ace was chilly after swimming for over an hour. After swimming we checked out of the hotel and headed home. It was a great trip.

Survival

Yes, we survived. My shoulder is a tad worse for wear - but otherwise all is well. The airline had their staff out at the curb so I was able to unload my gianormous suitcase straight away to them. Thank goodness because I'm not sure I would have made it. In fact just walking the 50 feet from baggage claim to the pick up curb once in California ended up being nearly impossible resulting with a lot of dramatic drop-all-at-once when I made it to the waiting spot. So to say I was glad for curb-side check in is an understatement - that and the added bonus that they don't check the weight there :-D

The flight itself was booked full. In fact this was our first flight that we've had a full full flight. Every other flight we've managed to have at least the middle seat free. Not this time, but luckily we had a very understanding lady that was happy to be nudged every now and again by my little active boy. And active was he ever. I attempted about 30 minutes into the flight to get him to sleep walking him back in the beverage staging area - and I got him to sleep - then the flight attendants came and banged their cart and awake again he was. But he was happy and just squirmy so we went back to our seat and he occupied himself in all sorts of fashion. He did great. He made two new friends. The guy in front of us and the guy behind us were very great in making faces, giving high-fives, and in general entertaining my little guy.

Take off and landing was the most amusing this time. He got SO excited. As we were landing and taking off he was doing his little bouncy dance on my lap and when we landed he was waving to the ground. It was so cute - he probably waved for a solid 2 minutes as we landed and taxied to the gate. He did great with his ears, he understands that he needs to drink in order to get them to pop and while he doesn't typically drink during the decent (he's too busy bouncing and waving) he will eventually take a moment or two to take a swing and correct the uncomfortable ear issue. As soon as we were in Shell's car he was out like a light.

Once again, Ace has proven he is a born traveler.

Leaving on a jet plane

Today starts my son and my adventure to California. Yes, we're leaving dad behind to work and we're headed down for pre-wedding festivities. Another flight to California happens in another few hours. Hoping for good results again. To date Ace has been on six different flights and has done wonderfully on all of them. He's a good traveler. I'm hoping that it will continue to trend in that direction.

My issue at the moment is the fact that I am carrying luggage about double my weight and mass wise it exceeds me by 3xs. I have the largest suitcase I own full to the gills, but hopefully less than 50lbs otherwise they're going to charge me $50 extra dollars on top of the $15 I already paid! Eek! THEN I have the 'diaper' bag that is an oversized shoulder bag in order to stuff the extra baby-needs in it. Then I have another wheeling bag to carry on that has the laptop and all the other electronic bits. Then I have Ace's backpack of toys. Finally I have Ace in his carseat that will wheel to the gate. It's insane. MADNESS. I've done it before but everything was on just that much smaller of a scale.

We'll see how it goes! :)

Wordless Wednesday

1998

Monopoly and more MOH duties

Monopoly comes to McDonald's tomorrow. It's my favorite form of gambling. I eat there entirely too much for a nearly 30 year old, but I looove the fries. I think they've morphed into my DNA and it's a requirement that I eat them as often as possible and with the chance to win big (or a small fry) I tend to frequent there even more during the month of October. Yes ridiculous advertising gimmicks work GREAT on me. I'm well aware of this fact. So I don't feel duped, I feel I've made the conscious decision to imbibe and it's a-ok that way. hehe

I've been MIA from the blogging world because I've been in MOH task mode making the happy couple's slide show and might I say it's quite awesome - I mean look at my subjects then and now, they're pretty cute small and later in love. :) The bottom picture is one I took on their engagement photo shoot. One day when I get a slightly better camera and more disposable income I'll use this in my portfolio. :) Until then, I'll just enjoy taking some pictures and piecing together their slide show! Back to work! The wedding is in 12 days!

Banana Pancakes

Fall is here and on a chilly cold day a fun and warm lunch is in order. So why not pancakes and to make them even tastier let's throw in a ripe banana! Yum! Yes, I cheated somewhat because I did use the ever faithful Bisquick... because well, it's quick! It was quite yummy. My son enjoyed his first taste of pancakes, although his second bite was far superior and well received, most likely due to the fact that it contained syrup that time! Yum!


Banana Pancakes Recipe
makes about 15 medium sized pancakes
2 cups of Bisquick
1.5 cups of milk*
2 eggs
1 ripe banana

* add more milk to make the pancakes thinner or a half cup less to have thicker pancakes.

As usual make sure your pancake bubbles throughout before flipping it otherwise you could have a mess on your hands.

Piggy Flu & Bonks

Ace and I are quite the travelers these days. We headed to California and then back again. Two trips on the airplane and all the while in the back of my mind I was worried about little piggys coming to infect us... or something like that. I'm not typically a germ-a-phobe and in fact I think most dirt and germs are good for my little boy to be exposed to, so that he can fight of the really bad germs. We are not an antibacterial every 10 minutes household, but on the same note I don't let him lick floors in public places.

All that to say him and I came home on a plane on Tuesday night; and by Wednesday night him and I both were running fevers. All day Wednesday I was chilled and feeling blah. I cancelled a business call I was supposed to have because my brain was mush... and Ace required a dose of baby drugs to curb his fever in the middle of the night. My fever broke in the middle of the night and in the morning felt as good as new (albeit, still extremely sleep deprived) Ace's fever was gone, but he still had a cough and a few sneezes.

The cough persisted through the weekend, so I thought I'd better take him in. I wasn't in the mood for repeat of June. When we arrived they handed me a mask... to put on Ace... hahaha right. I tried and the results were expected. So we were banished outside. Seriously. So we waited for 30 minutes outside and then we were called and a room was ready. Ace was met with nurses in duck masks (or at least they looked like a duck beak) and then by one nurse in a biohazard attire. Literally. She was draped like she was prepped to perform surgery with a welding mask over her duck mask to boot. Overkill? Maybe. She positioned me on the table with my son's head in my lap, with me holding his head and the other nurse holding his arms. Then biohazard nurse swabbed with a tiny mascara brush (or so it looked) the inside of each nostrils. The tears were big for my little guy. He didn't like it one bit.

The doctor came in to see him and within 10 minutes the biohazard nurse peeked her head in to annouce that the test was positive. Ace has H1N1. Dun dun DUN!!!!!!! So while I was not tested the doctor is pretty certain I too have now had it. So what does it mean?! It means neither of us will require the vaccine for H1N1 -- well that's good since I wasn't planning on getting it or giving it to my son, so we save ourselves disapproving looks from his medical care workers.

So how has the piggy flu affected our lives? Probably the best scenario you could have during the piggy flu season. We had a fever and for the most part that was the worst of it. We didn't see anyone on Thursday and you're only contageous 24 hours after the fever breaks (or so they think) and even today Ace's cough is gone. All is well in light of our brush with the piggy flu.

Yesterday though, after my stubborn boy refused to take an afternoon nap, was running (literally) ragged and ran head first from our sunken living room into the wood landing. Needless today he has his biggest welt to date on his noggin' - poor little guy. We kept him up for a bit, and checked on him every hour after that. It was a really big bump. :( Today it is a beautiful shade of purple.

Enjoy this picture, Ace's nose looks like it has a tad side effect of the piggy flu in this picture ;-) and his bump is quite visible as well - but he's as happy as ever... piggy nose and all. hehe