Quick update

We had a nice weekend. Poor Jeremy is ill with whatever crud Rowan had, but a little worse. That didn't stop us from meeting our friends for breakfast on Saturday morning. Breakfast was tasty and I learned something: it is impossible to eat when Rowan is not in a high chair. His pal, Ansel, will be 2 in July and he handled the whole free-seating thing really well. I suppose our expectations were just too high for Rowan. It's not that he was being intentionally naughty, he was just trying to grab everything and climb all over the place. Thank goodness we were in a booth.

Next, we headed to the zoo. The boys seemed to have a good time. The weather was perfect - not too hot - and a lot of the animals were out and about. It wasn't crowded yet, either. We took the guys to the playground for a little bit and rode the carousel. Rowan remembered what that was all about. He started bucking on his carousel tiger, trying to get it to start moving. Then we all had a slice of trashy, outrageously expenisve pizza. We vowed to always pack snacks for the zoo, even if we have a big breakfast beforehand.

Aria, the daughter of Rowan's former caregiver (babysitter just isn't the right term), turned 6 on Sunday. She had invited us to her birthday tea party but Jeremy elected to stay home with his cooties. He didn't think it would be very nice to give a head cold to children, or their parents. Rowan and I had a great time visiting with our good friends and eating some tasty snacks. We did not join the gang for dinner at Aria's favorite restaurant, Ikea. That cracks me up!

We should have a fairly routine week. I have a few photos from the weekend that I will try to post this evening.

Easter Weekend

We went to General Coffee State Park outside Douglas, GA to spend the weekend. My parents and my godmother, Patty, and her beaux, Carl were there too. We had a really good time. The park has nice cabins with a full kitchen, 2 bedrooms with their own baths, screened porch, and satellite TV. Now that's my kind of camping! There was even a small playground across the street from our place. Rowan knew right where it was. He would point to it and say "Dat!". I think we have a slide addict on our hands.

My good friend from graduate school, Anna, and her family came to visit for the day on Saturday. She has a son that is 10 days younger than Rowan. His name is Zakary. We had fun looking at the pioneer village and checking out the farm animals and the pond. It was funny to see the boys together. They would play around each other but not really together. Maybe next time we get together they will interact more.

Saturday night, the adults played Cranium. The guys won all three games. I was surprised by and impressed with their puppetry and charade skills. Who would have guessed it? And, I am very impressed with my mom for guessing "Rock the Casbah" correctly after listening to me hum the tune. I would never have predicted that.

Rowan didn't sleep very well Saturday night. I don't think we got him back to sleep until 3:00am. He was cranky the next day for our drive home. Later that night he was still out of sorts. It turns out he had a mild fever (101 F) so I stayed home with him Monday. Monday night his fever went up to 103 F so I stayed home with him again on Tuesday. Poor thing. He had a runny nose and is cutting at least one tooth. There could possibly be another on its way. All of that, plus being exhausted from lack of sleep, made for one clingy boy. He was definitely not his usual self. He would get so upset at the slightest thing.

He's feeling much better today. I won't say he's back to 100%, but he's close. Hopefully day care won't tire him out too much. I would hate for him to experience a relapse.

We've got some fun things planned for the weekend. We're meeting the Carrolls for breakfast and the zoo on Saturday and attending Aria's birthday party on Sunday afternoon. Sometime in there we'll have to sneak in some house work, too. There is never a dull moment at our house. If any of you are feeling bored, feel free to stop by. I know I can find something for you to do. Besides, isn't cleaning more fun when you have a buddy?

Giggle Bug

Jeremy posted two videos of Rowan last night in which he is belly-laughing and cackling. Jeremy was tickling him with the fuzzy hair part of a stuffed creature - an anthropomorphized ear of corn named (you guessed it) Corny. Both of us were laughing nearly as hard as Rowan but were trying to be quiet for the video.

Be sure to turn your sound up when you view them. His laughter is infectious!

Day Care: Take 2

Today is Rowan's first day at day care, again. As you may recall, we started Rowan at the CDC/Emory/Children's Healthcare of Atlanta day care back in June 2008. At the time, we weren't thrilled with the idea of day care and I switched to part-time work so my good friend Wendy volunteered to help us with childcare. What a good time we all had with that arrangement!

But, like sands through the hourglass... so are the days of our lives. I have started back to work full-time and Wendy and her family will be leaving for a long vacation this summer. It was time to look for alternative childcare for Rowan. We had a few failed attempts at securing a nanny and have found ourselves back at day care.

Now that Rowan is older we don't mind the day care setup as much as when he was a baby. This does not mean that Jeremy and I are free from worry. We've both been fretting all morning about his well-being. Paranoid, irrational questions plague our minds, like "Would the day care lady kidnap Rowan and ship him off to eastern Europe?". How could they possibly take care of him as well as me???

Oh, the joys of parenthood.

Incidentally, Rowan was perfectly fine when we left him this morning. He was happily checking out the toys and looking forward to eating breakfast with his new friends.

The Zoo

Today was the first day of nice weather that we've had for awhile and Jeremy suggested we go to the zoo. What a great idea that was! It was crowded, but not too bad. We snagged an awesome parking spot, had a lovely stroll through the park, and took in the sights (and smells) of the zoo. I don't think Rowan gave much thought to the animals. The people, especially the children, were more to his liking.

Before we left, Rowan and I took a ride on the carousel. Rowan had such a good time. He said "Ohhhh!" when the carousel starting spinning. He chattered for the duration of the ride and clapped his hands a couple of times. I was laughing so much. It's a lot of fun to rediscover the world with your baby.

I posted a few pictures of our adventures, along with a video. We bought a family membership to the zoo so we will definitely be back. Now all we need is the for the good weather to stick around.