Florida Vacation Nearly Complete

Florida Vacation Part Two

Well it is now Sunday and I am sitting at Orlando International Airport at Gate 102 waiting for our 8:30 flight to Baltimore and then on to Manchester. It feels good to be connected to the rest of the world again. Since I last wrote we stayed with Jennifer's grandparents in Leesburg for a couple nights. They had never met Kaleb and were so excited to get to spend time with him. It turns out our timing for a vacation couldn't have been better because Kaleb has been walking now more than ever. It is now officially is preferred means of transportation. The transformation became apparent while in Leesburg, where he just walked everywhere. Its very exciting and so nice to be able to go walking somewhere outside and not having to carry him.

After Leesburg we drove all the way to the Atlantic side of Florida and spent the afternoon with Meme. She gave us a walking tour of the clubhouse and fed us a yummy chicken lunch with her classic mashed potatoes. Unfortunately we had only budgeted a few hours and had to head back towards Orlando to check in to the hotel right near the airport. We ordered room service for the first time which was really nice when compared to eating in a restaurant with a baby.

Now we are at the airport calmly waiting for our plane. In only a few hours we will be back up north.

Keeg

Florida Vacation Part One

Hi all,

We have taken a quick break at Panera to recharge and upload some photos. Here is a link to the album:

Florida Vacation Part One

We have had a great time so far. Kaleb slept through most of the flight down and while awake was a very good boy. Port Orleans at Disney World was really great and such a change of pace, its amazing how it is like a different world. I went to the Rays game last night, which they won 5-3. We all went swimming yesterday and Kaleb was unsure about it the whole time, he didn't have a sad face or a happy face, just his timid look about the whole thing.

We are now off to Nanny and Papa's for a couple days in Leesburg and then will spend the afternoon with Meme before returning to the airport area on Saturday night.

Hope everybody is doing well.

Keeg

Back to the Beach Again

Yep you guessed it we went to the beach again today, remember we have a big sandbox to fill and only one pail. Jamison and Megan drove up for a day of fun with Kaleb. We started by playing at our house for a while, Kaleb had just woken up from a nap so he was a bit shy at first. We then took the car and went down to the Salisbury Reservation. They two of them had a great time playing in the sand and trying to stay out of the water. Afterwards we drove over to Newburyport for lunch at "Not Your Average" Joe's. It was pretty good even if I did get a mango iced tea by accident.

Here are some photos from today:

Beach Day with Jamison

Kaleb Walking at the Waterfront

Kaleb Sick Again

Yes its true, Kaleb is feeling under the weather again and sporting a sporadic fever. It started in the evening after I took him to the beach last week. So again he is a little fussy and downright miserable at times. Jennifer and I both think it is related to some more teeth coming in.

I started vacation yesterday, well sort of. Technically I don't have to work again until a week from Monday, but I have been doing some work today to help get a project out the door. After this though I will be done and enjoying my time off.

Time to finish up, I will have some photos up later.

Keegan

Day at the Beach

My mom had to work Monday and Tuesday so I had to watch Kaleb. Yesterday was a pretty miserable day so we didn't do much, except for travel to Newburyport for lunch. Today, however, was a different story. It was sunny and in the upper 40's. So we went down to the beach to lay with Kaleb's new shovel and pail. He pretty much thought it was the best thing ever, he liked the sand not only playing with it, but also eating it. We wandered all over the place. We also stopped at Christy's on the way home and Kaleb got to have his first piece of beach pizza.

Overall it was an exhausting for me and Kaleb has been super tired too. I did have a great time with my boy and also got tons of good photos from the beach.

Day At The Beach

Busy Weekend

It was a busy weekend for our family. I went up to Sunday River....

Parrot Head Weekend

and Jennifer and Kaleb went down to take care of Jamison while Megan was feeling under the weather.

Play Date with Jamison

Kaleb continues to experiment with walking, but isn't using it as his primary means of travel.

Keeg

Kaleb's First Steps

On Wednesday afternoon Jennifer called to me from the living room and said that Kaleb took his first step. He had been holding on to the table and took a single step without using his hands over to the chair. Of course after that we couldn't get him to do anything more than that. Then yesterday my mom said he was standing by the bottom of the stairs at her house and all of a sudden he took a bunch of steps and walked over to the front door. Again no cameras were around so I don't have anything to show for that.

Once Jennifer picked him up and brought him home he really had no interest in walking, mostly because he was so tired and wanted to sleep. Today my mom was watching him and he did lots of short little walks throughout the day. So tonight we went into the living room to see if we could get a little bit of him walking on camera. It only required a little bribing, but he kept taking turns walking back and forth between Jennifer and me. I was able to get a couple short clips and have now posted them on YouTube for all the world to see. We are all very excited about this and know it is only a matter of time before he leaves crawling behind for good.

Kaleb's First Train Ride

Yesterday I mentioned taking Kaleb into Boston on the commuter rail to get his birth certificate. So today we left the house around nine so we could catch the 9:36 train out of Newburyport. Kaleb fell asleep in the car so when we got to the station about twenty minutes early I decided it best to just sit in the car. About five minutes before when the train was supposed to arrive I woke him up and put him in his Baby Bjorn. We braved the wind and stood on the platform for five minutes before somebody said the train would be 20-30 minutes late. So we went back to the car and I let Kaleb play around in the front seat until we saw the train arrive 25 minutes later.

We ran to the train and found a nice three seater, Kaleb really seemed to like it because when he stood up he could just see out the window. Of course the outside only kept his attention for one or two stops. Our next set back was with the speed of the train, for some reason the train had to travel slowly for some reason and by the time we made it to Boston it had taken about an hour and a half. Fortunately for me Kaleb did very well and only was mildly irritated at being in one seat for over an hour.

I put him back in the Bjorn and we walked to Quincy Market so I could get money from an ATM. We walked through all the food places and came across Kaleb's favorite place of the day, because of all the overhead fans. After getting money we walked over to City Hall only to find the Birth, Marriage and Death Certificate office is closed on Wednesday. I rolled with the punches and decide we would go to the Common so Kaleb could stretch his legs and crawl around.

Now I had my next dilemma, do we catch the 1:15 train back to Newburyport or wait for the 3:00 train. The 1:15 would have meant only a short break from the train before getting back on the train, but the 3:00 train would mean Kaleb could be completely exhausted and unwilling to deal with another train ride. I opted for the early train and we went to Boston Beer Works for lunch, it seemed to be the only place I could think of where I wouldn't mind if he crawled on the floor. Of course he didn't really eat any lunch and just threw stuff on the floor.

Just as we were leaving I smelled Kaleb's diaper and was nearly knocked out by the smell. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to change him in the bathroom and decided my only option was to change him on the train. So once we found our seat I quickly took care of the stink. The ride home was shorter than the ride in, but Kaleb's patience was also smaller. He never really cried or anything, just fussed a little bit. I did all I could to keep him entertained and I think it went as well as it could considering all the traveling we had done and the little sleep he had.

Once we got back to the car, he was unhappy to be there, but after about a minute he passed out asleep. Thus ending Kaleb's first train ride.

Kaleb's First Train Ride

Another Fever

It snowed again on Friday, which is kind of crazy considering it was March 28, but I guess that is New England. The weekend was just all-around chilly and not your typical spring weekend. We did brave the chilly weather on Sunday and took Kaleb to the park and the beach. Unfortunately he wasn't feeling well and didn't really enjoy either place.

We then came home and confirmed that he had another fever, his third in three months. At one point his temperature was up around 104, but was only their briefly. Similar to last time his temperature went up and down based on the medicine we gave him. The fever continued for Sunday night, through Monday and into Monday evening. Luckily when we woke up this morning he was feeling much better and was himself again. It is really sad when he is sick because he just sleeps and mopes around all day. It helps you really appreciate how much fun he is when he isn't sick though.

Tomorrow I am doing the babysitting and the current plan is to go to Boston to get a copy of Kaleb's birth certificate. I decided we will take the train in because it will be a good test of how well he may do on the plane when we go to Florida in a few weeks. I will be sure to update after are trip.

Here are some photos:

Wintery Spring Weekend