Man Cub is 10 months old... I'm not even sure how that is possible. I feel like I was just 41 weeks 6 days pregnant and pleading with the little guy to get out so I could avoid induction. Ü And here he is, 10 months old, standing up all over the place, threatening to take his first step, calling me by name when he wants something and mimicking everything we do. I love this little guy so much!!

Road Trip In Numbers

Home sweet home! We pulled in just before 9pm yesterday and boy, is it good to be here! We had a fantastic trip, and while we were sad to have it end, it does feel good to be sleeping in our own beds and attempting to fall back into our routine.

I have lots of trip details to share, but for now, here are a few statistics...

Days away from home: 13

Miles driven: 2507

Hours in the car: 50 hours 50 minutes

States visited: 3 (4 if you count the drive through Nevada)

Photos taken: 1512

Teeth Man Cub has been working on getting: 8

Highest elevation reached: 10,340 feet

Waterfalls played in: 2

Picnics in the mountains: 2

Novels read: 6

Degrees in temperature change: 48 (no joke, on the drive home it went from 114-66 degrees in less than four hours of drive time, then it was back up to 100 degrees as we rolled into the Phoenix valley)

Surprises from Bruce Wayne upon arriving home: 8

Amazing memories made as we spent time with Nana, Papa, aunts, uncles and cousins: too many to count! 

Road Trip

Excuse the crickets around here. The wee ones and I are on vacation. We left last week and drove from Arizona to Utah, where we are visiting my parents for two weeks. While we are here, we are also taking side trips to Idaho and Wyoming. 3 states, 13 days. And really it's 4 states if you count the hour and a half we spend driving through Nevada. Ü

So far the trip has been fantastic. We've done lots of fun things, enjoyed some slightly cooler temps than back home and spent time with friends and family we don't often see. My wee ones have been excellent travelers, cloth diapering while away from home hasn't been nearly as difficult as I anticipated...really the only downside of this trip has been missing Bruce Wayne. Thank goodness for cell phones and Skype!

I probably won't post much, if any, until we are back home. But once we are home, expect post and picture over load. 

For now, I'll leave you with this beauty... An untouched, unedited iPad photo from our day in Idaho. Pretty sure I'm ready to move. Idaho is breathtaking! Many more pictures from Idaho and the rest of our trip to come. 

Stitches for Beebs

July started with a bang in our house... well, more like a bump. A bump that led to a parenting first for Bruce and I- a trip to the emergency room and stitches!

Stitches seem to be a right of passage for most kiddos, but up until this point, we have managed to avoid them. Beebs is our accident waiting to happen child, and honestly, now that I think about it, I'm surprised she hasn't needed stitches sooner.

She made it three and a half years.

The (somewhat) quick version of the ordeal- we were at a pool party, Beebs fell on the pool deck and her chin hit a step, pretty darn hard. Initially, our concern was that she had knocked her teeth, but Bruce quickly realized that her teeth were not a problem. The gaping chin wound? That was a problem.

We hurried to the car, leaving Sunshine and Man Cub in the care of our friends who were hosting the pool party, and headed to our local children's ER. Love. That. Place. 

Upon our arrival, we were checked in and a tech took Beebs' vitals. Then Beebs and I got matching "bracelets" and we were shown to our room. Now, the entire drive to the hospital, Beebs was hysterical... She had overheard me ask Bruce if she would need stitches and she freaked out. By the time we got to our room, she had calmed down but we immediately let the doctor and nurses know to avoid the words "stitches" and "band aids". (I think Beebs is the only 3 year old in the world who doesn't like band aids.) The staff obliged and that alone helped tremendously in keeping her calm. Other things that helped- wearing her jaguar hat and getting to watch movies and play on the iPad. 

The nurse cleaned up the wound and then put on a topical numbing stuff (that's the technical term, right!?). The numbing stuff was great. I expected them to give her a shot, which would have been a disaster, so when it turned out to be some gauze taped to her chin for thirty minutes, with us occasionally putting a little pressure on it, I was so relieved. 

Once the numbing stuff had done its job, a tech came in to wrap Beebs up. He had her out on a "cape", more commonly known as a pillow case, which pinned her arms to her side, then he burrito rolled her in a sheet. I had to smile when Beebs got all excited and insisted that she didn't want to be unrolled. We explained to the tech Bruce plays the burrito game with our kids, where he rolls them up and then unrolls them quickly so they spin. They love it, but Beebs was not in the mood, with her injury and all. 

Once she was rolled up, the tech hugged her to the bed and the doctor came in. She just chatted with Beebs as she started sewing her up and I don't think Beebs even realized what was going on. In fact, I know she didn't, because two stitches in, in the middle of telling the doctor about her siblings and our pet chickens, she fell asleep! She didn't wake up until the stitches were done and we unrolled her (carefully!) from her burrito.  At that point, she was given a Popsicle and she got to pick a toy from the "Owie Cart" which she loved. 

I'm acutally very surprised by how well Beebs handled the whole thing. We thought for sure that she would fight the stitches with everything in her, and despite her tiny size, she is strong! I was dreading the struggle. But she took it all like a champ and now tells us she liked having stitches. I think the My Little Pony from the Owie Cart has something to do with that. 

Bruce removed the stitches on Saturday, and everything looks great. Beebs is going to have a scar, but I doubt it'll even be noticeable. And now Bruce and I can cross "stitches" off our parenting bucket list.

We've Moved!

After 7 years and 800+ posts, our family blog has moved! This move is bittersweet, as we have so many memories, photos and stories recorded on our old blog, but let's face it- I'm rotten at managing the readers on our private blog! There are people who want to be added as readers, and haven't been. There are people who haven't read in years, that are still on the reader list. Really, it's just become a pain to keep up. So here we are- public once again and you'll notice one pretty major change- I am the only person in our family who will be going by my "real name". Everyone else will go by their nicknames, for our family's Internet safety. I will also not blog much about Bruce's job, but we still love to talk about what our superhero is up to, so if you'd like to hear work stories, just ask!

Things will appear a little sparse around here for a bit, but in time, I will have everything up and running. Thanks for stopping by for a visit! We hope you'll come by often!