Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Little Esther Williams


Brad and Baby Olivia started Parent/Child swimming lessons Mid May and they had a blast. Leigh is the photographer and loves watching father and daughter bonding time. Olivia is the youngest in the class, probably by a good 8 months and has no fear, the other little ones were hanging on for dear life, not Olivia though, she was kicking around, splashing herself in the face, it was adorable to watch. She only has two more lessons left.

The painting is done and we love the "new" Family Room.




Zack celebrated his Second Birthday with a Fireman Party and Cake. Olivia celebrated by giving us the "Touchdown" sign over and over again....




Olivia is teething again, her top toothies are trying to pop through and she has been a flowing river of snots (gross, we know) and drool.






The family went on a field trip to Maymont, we had a blast hiking and strolling around, the weather was perfect. Baby Olivia's favorite attraction was the fish pond, we are guessing in another few months she will be madly in love with all the animals, but this trip we focused on getting exercise and enjoying our picnic.




YaYa and GaGa gave Olivia her Birthday Present early, a blow up baby pool for the backyard, Olivia and Leigh are hoping to use it this weekend, its going to be a hot one. Brad is heading to Winchester, Virginia this weekend for Matt Bloyer's wedding, he is looking forward to some guy time with his frat brothers.






Olivia is looking forward to next weekend, her Grammie and PawPaw are coming to visit. Brad has a race on Saturday so the whole family will venture out to cheer him on next weekend.




Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The ER....The Vet and San Francisco


Boy oh boy, what a week. Last time we blogged Olivia was just coming down with Bronchitis, well it started to get better, and then it got much much worse. On May 2nd she went to Dr. Shook for her 9 Month Check Up got a shot and turns out her lungs were still full of "junk", she was put on a Nebulizer (every 4 hours). The poor thing ran a fever all weekend, we took her back to the Doctor on Monday morning, big bag Ear Infection was causing the fever, so back on Antibiotics she goes, poor thing. It was a rough rough weekend and a rough few days before the big bad trip to the ER on Wednesday, she hadn't had a wet diaper in roughly 15 hours and the Doctor said fluids were a must, dry diapers isn't a good thing for a baby. Olivia was so brave, tears were only shed when the IV went in and came out, and they were shed by both Mom and Baby. 9 Month Olds shouldn't have to go through that, our prayers go out to parents that have to watch their sick children in the hospital every day, its heart breaking. The good news is, Olivia was waving "Bye Bye" to Dr. Jordan (that was his first name, he was a PA and reminded us of Zack Braff from Scrubs), after the fluids she had a lot more pep.


During all of this Brad and Leigh were debating whether they should cancel their weekend jaunt to San Francisco to stay home with sick Olivia. Turns out trying to change Brad's flight was going to cost a small fortune so we decided to continue on with our trip, Brad's parents arrived Thursday evening to spend the weekend with Olivia and luckily for everyone Leigh's parents were still down to take over Olivia duty on Sunday and Monday until Leigh got back on Sunday night.


Then the kicker happened....it was 5:30pm on Thursday night, Leigh was trying to get things organized and she went to put "lotion" on Riley's ear, she felt his ear, and it was big and fat, gross actually. So after a call to the Vet the family rushed off to take Riley in for what could have been emergency surgery. Diagnosis: a broken ear, the poor guy had shaken his head so hard that he fractured the cartilage in his ear causing it to fill with blood, luckily it was a mild cause so we chose the drugs instead of surgery, it was a long long visit to the Vet and by the time Leigh and Brad got home, after stopping at Pet Smart of course to get one of those huge dome collars, Olivia was getting ready for bed so Leigh and Brad said their "night nights" and kissed her goodbye, they were leaving for San Fran at 6am the next morning.


Brad and Leigh left Richmond at 8am and arrived in San Fran after taking a bump from their Chicago to San Fran flight, which BTW only caused them to arrive 30 minutes after their original flight, oh yeah, and they got two free tickets, Leigh is already busy planning their next long weekend, however this time Olivia is coming with them, they are thinking somewhere warm and sunny this Fall.
Friday in San Fran - late lunch/early dinner at Brad's Choice - In and Out Burger...he really knows how to treat a girl on Mother's Day Weekend, doesn't he? Then we hopped a cruise to Alcatraz for the evening tour - we loved it.





Saturday - Wine Country here we come, we spent the day Vineyard Hopping, and loved every second of it. The weather was beautiful, much warmed inland, San Fran was frigid. We shipped a case home and can't wait for it to arrive.




Sunday - we started Brunch with a yummy Grapefruit Mimosa at a little French Restaurant in Pacific Heights, then got Ice Cream at Cold Stone, took the Duck Tour (We are dorks, we love Duck Tours), walked around Sausalito and then hung out with the Sea Lions on Pier 39 before Dinner at the Crab House, it was a great Mother's Day.
Leigh left the hotel early Monday morning to head back East to Olivia...and work. Brad will be spending the week in San Fran for training and will be back late Friday night.

GaGa Worden is heading to the Ranch in Montana for a few days to help with Branding, so YaYa is going to spend a few days with Leigh and Olivia, girl time, we can't wait. They will likely head back to Northfield before Memorial Day weekend.

We have a busy weekend ahead, Megs will be in town, Olivia can't wait to see her Auntie Megs. And its Olivia's local boyfriend Zack's 2nd Birthday Party this weekend, she can't wait, she has already picked out his present.
House Project Updates: Brad has finished the chair rail molding and Karl is going to start painting on Thursday, we can't wait.

As for Memorial Day weekend, no big plans, we are looking forward to a quiet weekend here at home.