Family Trip to Texas 12/15/12 - 12/17/2012

This weekend was our first family vacation to Texas.  Adam has been on a plane before with my mom and I to Chicago for my Step 2 exam, but we have otherwise only done some car rides up to Grand Rapids and South Dakota.  This was our first trip with all three of us together on a plane.  Adam and I have never been to Texas, so we were very excited!  Unfortunately, we had to be in town for Derek's company Christmas party with EMC on Friday 12/14 so we did not fly out until Saturday morning.

We flew to Houston, TX to see Derek's Uncle Mike, Aunt Margaret, and cousins Jeff and Michael before heading to Dallas for a residency interview.  Our first flight from MSP to Houston went well!  Adam only fussed a couple of times, but otherwise was a very happy baby.  We had to laugh, because he was flirting with the flight attendant.  She would smile at him and he just kept smiling and cooing at her!  He is now in a new mode of being very very talkative, so he will go on for 15-20 minutes just babbling.  She apparently caught his attention so he was pretty funny to watch!  We landed in Houston on Saturday afternoon and uncle Mike picked us up at the airport.  We went back to Mike and Margaret's house and chatted for the afternoon.  Derek wanted to learn how to smoke meat on Uncle Mike's smoker so we spent some time out by the hot tub while Derek and Mike smoked up some pork. Adam got to splash his feet in the hot tub, which was luke warm and fabulous!  This was the first time Adam was outside in something other than a full outfit and hat, since of course Minnesota is very cold now!  He loved kicking around and splashing!  Then we went to Pappacitas for Margaritas and chips while we waited for the meat to smoke!  We had fun chatting and getting to check out a little Houston culture!  After we got back, we enjoyed fabulous pulled pork and the boys all played ping pong!  Luck for us, Mike and Margaret had set up a crib for Adam, so we got a great night of sleep and Adam even slept in until 8!  We woke up to a day of rain, but enjoyed watching the football games and snacking around the Christmas tree.  We had a blast!  We were sad to have to leave already on Sunday night.

We flew to Dallas Sunday night and got into our hotel and ready for my interview the next morning at UT Southwestern and Children's hospital.  Adam and Derek spent Monday together while I did my interviewing.  Everything went well, though Adam got a little fussy for Derek and also had a pretty good blowout! (I laughed a good deal at that one :-) )  After my interview, we had an hour to spend before we had to fly back home, so we went to go see where JFK was killed.  We walked around the street where he was shot and got to stand on the X that they have continually marked on the road where each shot took place.  They also have left the window on the depository half-open that Lee Oswald shot from (supposedly?).  We got to hear about the different theories of his death and walked around with Adam.  Derek loves the history, so we had a great time!  Then it was time to head back to the airport and get on our plane back to Minnesota.

While we had a wonderful whirlwind visit to Houston and Dallas Texas, we were sure glad to be home again in our own beds.  Vicky picked us up from the airport and came to visit for a bit with Tracy.  Turns out, Tracy missed Adam already!  haha!  We are sure lucky to have her watching him!

      

     
                    

 

Road Trip to Sioux Falls, SD 11/6 - 11/7/2012

Even though we just got back from Adam's first trip to Chicago, it was on to his next journey.... a road trip to Sioux Falls, SD.  I was scheduled for an interview with the Sanford pediatric residency program, so my mom agreed to drive with us down to SD for the night.  We left 11/6/2012 around noon.  The car ride went very well.  Adam got up to eat about half-way there, but otherwise slept the entire trip!  Mom and I enjoyed sight-seeing our way to Sioux Falls, as I had never been there before and there were many small shops along the way.  We arrived at the hotel around 5PM and got settled in.  I had a dinner reservation with some of the other applicants and two of the residents from Minnesota, so I did not get to stay for long.  Once Adam and mom were settled in, I headed down for dinner.  It was nice to meet some of the ladies and hear a little more about their brand new residency program.  When I got back to the hotel room, it was time to hear more about the election, as this happened to be the night President Obama was re-elected.  Adam and I cuddled a little before heading to bed.  Since Adam had his bassinet along for the trip, he slept much better than he did in the port-a-crib in Chicago.  This was helpful, since I had to be up early to go to my interview!  Interview day went well and then it was back in the car to head home!  It was nice that the drive is only 4 hours.  This time Adam slept the entire ride!!

 

Adam's First Plane Trip 11/1/12-11/2/12

As part of my step 2 medical exam, I had to fly to Chicago to take the Clinical Skills part of the exam.  Since Adam is still so little, I had a really hard time thinking about leaving him home without me.  Luckily, my mom offered to fly with us and watch Adam while I took the 8 hour exam.  So off the 3 of us went to Chicago.  We left on November 1st.  Adam did great on the plane ride, he ate on the way up and was sleeping on the way down, so we didnt have much to worry about in terms of screaming little guy on the airplane.  Once we got to Chicago, we took the shuttle to the hotel.  Apparently the hotel had just undergone some major renovations, so they were having a big party for all of their customers to check out their new look.  This meant free food and drinks for us! We tested many yummy dishes and desserts and then decided to head upstairs for bed.  The hotel was nice enough to give us a crib for Adam to sleep in and a refrigerator for his milk, which made life a lot easier.  This was going to be my first full day away from Adam, which I was really not looking forward to, so it was nice to have everything organized the night before.

Adam slept okay, he did wake up a few times.  It appeared he did not like this new crib with open sides, since he is very used to his bassinet which is smaller and enclosed on the sides.  I got enough sleep to function the next day and take the Exam.  Mom did awesome with Adam and getting the hotel all packed up since they wouldn't let us get a later checkout so that I could help pack up... BOO.  When I got back to the hotel, Mom had Adam all set and ready to go, so we headed on the shuttle back to the airport.  Our plane was a little delayed, but Adam was very patient and enjoyed flirting with the young girls across the seats from us in the waiting area.  He would laugh and smile at them, which they thought was just the greatest thing.  Then he crashed out, and slept the whole way up in the airplane.  Yet another ride without any crying! I was so impressed and glad that he was so wonderful.  It was also a nice test of how easy it could be to travel with him.  We will be doing it again in December when we head down to Texas for a residency interview, so it will be interesting to see if he still behaves as well!

 

 

 

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Halloween 2012

While I was unsure if I was going to buy Adam a costume for halloween or not, my mom decided that she was going to pick one up.  She found a very cute Superman costume that fit him perfectly!  Our adventure for the day started out with a Halloween trip to Derek's office to show off Adam's costume!  We picked up Chipotle for lunch and Caribou coffee, and then brought some back for Jerry.  While we were sitting in Jerry's office chatting, Adam had a serious diaper blow-out!  You could hear it loud and clear.  It was so bad that it went all the way up the back of his Superman outfit!  Haha.... not the first outfit that has been destroyed by the pooper king!  

After our adventure at the office, we went to Grandma & Grandpa Kelley's house to wash Adam's outfit and play so that I could get some studying done.  We had some fun and played on the floor.  Adam is very smiley and fun to play with now, so he spent some time playing on the floor with Grandma and reading stories.  Then it was back home to be ready for the trick-or-treat kids in the neighborhood.  We had lots of adorable kids come to the door all dressed up and got to meet some of our neighbors that we have yet to introduce ourselves to.  Grandma Johnson also came to visit so that she could see Adam's costume.  We enjoyed Adam's first Halloween all cuddled up in the house.  I am sure next year will be a different story!

 

 
 
 

First trip to the Pumpkin Patch 10/27/12

IT has been a very long time since I last blogged.... partially because Adam is a busy guy, but also because I have been studying for my Step 2 medical exam and I finally have that finished.... so now it is time to catch up on blogs from the last 6 weeks!  Here goes....

We went on Adam's first trip to the pumpkin patch on 10/27/12.  A couple of years ago, we decided that it would be fun to start a tradition of going to the pumpkin patch with Russ, Krissy, Trevor and Gwen.  I always had a tradition of going every year with my parents, so I wanted to start something like that with our family.  It just so happened that the weekend we decided to go was the coldest one yet this year.... not super exciting... but we went anyway, all bundled up!  Adam slept most of the time, but we got to take him through the corn maze and on the hay ride, so that was fun.  We also got the delicious apple cider and mini donuts.. yum!  Then it was time to play and pick out pumpkins!  Gwen and Trevor had a good time trying to find the most perfect and biggest pumpkins they could.  Russ and Krissy had commented on only being able to get a pumpkin the kids could carry... which made it even funnier as Trevor tried to lug the heaviest/biggest pumpkins over to show he could do it!  We had a blast!  It was nice to finally have a pumpkin on the porch for halloween.

 

     

10/17/12 - Adam at 6 weeks

Adam is now 6 weeks old.  It is incredible how quickly he is changing!  Over the past week, I have started to see how much he is growing, starting with him growing out of his newborn sized clothing!  This was slightly sad for me at first, but I am coming to enjoy the other changes that have accompanied this growth spurt.  First of all, Adam has been much more alert and playful during the days.  He is now laughing and smiling while you are talking to him occasionally, instead of just while he was sleeping like he did before.  Also, his vision has gotten much more clear.  He will now follow you across the room with his eyes, and can much more easily spot his dad when he comes home!  It is nice to know that he sees and hears us without being a foot from his face.  He still does the snort when he cries, but he has perfected the scolding cry!  He very rarely cries producing tears, instead, he finds it much more fruitful to hollar at you.  I will have to video-tape it because it is hard to describe this scolding cry, but it surely makes us laugh!

Yesterday, Auntie Krissy was up to visit so that I could get some stuff done.  This is a wonderful gift that Krissy has given me, as I look forward to a few hours of getting showered, or cleaning the house, or even just sitting down to visit with her!  Since Adam has been much more playful and okay with being on the floor without crying after 5 minutes, we decided to open up his baby einstein play gym.  He LOVED it!  He layed on the floor watching the light-up star above him and staring at himself in the mirror for at least an hour and a half!  I thought maybe he would get bored, but he didn't!  He loved it so much that I put him down on the floor to play several more times during the day.  He was awake most of the day because of this, and slept 7 hours without eating last night!  I am hoping we are on to a new trend!  I loved my extra sleep, and even felt rested enough to get on the computer and blog this morning before 10AM!

Today, Adam had his first set of social smiles.  Derek was talking to him and he just started smiling and laughing at him.  It was so cute!  I hope we get to see more smiles in the coming weeks!  He is so fun!

 

 
I am supposed to be studying for my Step 2 of the medical boards, but it is awfully hard to do when all I really want to do is watch Adam!  It seems like he is doing something new every day!  Now to get ready for Halloween.... we still have no pumpkins and have not got to the orchard yet!  Lots to do!!

Adam is 1 month!

10/5/2012


It is hard to believe that it has been a month since baby Adam was born!  It is also hard to believe that I have not posted on his blog since then!  I guess I have been enjoying cuddling with him as much as possible, which means not having both hands available for typing!  Oh, to recap the past month!

Well, I will just go over some of my favorite things that Adam has been doing.

1.  Adam has decided that he loves bath time.  Derek installed a heat fan in the middle bathroom, which Adam loves! He rarely cries in the tub, and seems to just enjoy being toasty warm!

2.  Adam has this adorable snort when he gets really upset.  As much as we hate seeing him cry, it is hard not to smile at how adorable his tiny cry and snort sound!

3.  He loves being cuddled up to his Dad in the morning.  He seems to know exactly when 7:30 AM rolls around, and he will cry to get out of his basinet, but then will stop crying and go back to sleep the second he is cuddled into the crook of dad's arm.  The two of the will rest together until dad has to get up to go to work.  I love waking up to the two of them all cuddled in!

4.  Adam rolled over from his tummy to his back for the first time on September 29th.  He got himself so frustrated with his little fists all balled up, and pushed himself right over.  He seemed to surprise himself.  He has done in twice since then, which seems to be incredibly early to be rolling on his own.  I guess I should be prepared for this strong little guy to be on the move early!

5.  Adam has found his thumb!  He has not quite gotten the understanding of balling up the rest of of his fingers so that they don't end up in his face yet!  So now,  he sucks his thumb with all of his fingers up in his face near his eyes and nose, and occasionally scratches himself when he tries to move his hand.

As for sleeping, Adam does pretty good, usually 4-6 hours at a time.  Can't complain about that! :-)  He is definitely an easy-going baby!

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