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I’ve been really busy lately with work, travel, being a dad, husband, etc and haven’t really posted anything significant in a while. So what have I been up to?
Last month, I took a long weekend trip and flew to Seattle to visit Sean and Tim and Bridgette’s family, and go to a Mighty Mighty Bosstone’s concert (YAH!). While in Seattle, Sean and I visited one of my co-workers, Debbie, at her parent’s cafe – Chelan Cafe. Its a great place with AWESOME food. On our way out to the cafe, we drove by an import dealership and saw this parked on the street:

Its a VERY rare BMW M1 and it was in awesome shape. In the sun, you could see the carbon fiber reflecting back under the pearlescent paint.
So after our brunch at Chelan Cafe, Sean and I got on the road for our drive to Portland, OR, to visit Corey, Aija, and their newborn daughter Zora. I haven’t seen Corey and Aija since Stephen’s wedding, and have never been to Portland. on the way up, we passed this weird sculpture:

Its a very pretty city. We had some good meals there (especially lunch the next day!) and hanging out with old friends made the weekend worthwhile.

While in Seattle, I got to hang out with Tim, Bridgette, Rylee and Tyler. Turns out Rylee and Brig are big fans of So You Think You Can Dance, which is my anti-masculine guilty pleasure TV Show that Emily got me addicted to. Rylee LOVES the show. She knows every name, dance style, choreographer, etc of every person on the show. The three of us watch the show while Sean and Tim played some PS3 game
I got to swim in the Snohomish (?) river. The river was VERY high and the curretn was so strong that sean and I couldn’t get more than 10 or 15 feet from the bank without getting a chance of us getting swept away. A great public park..things you just don’t see in this area. Another thing that was great? I actually got to see the sun shine in the Pac NW. The three or four times I’ve been up there, its always rained (surprise!).
So the last night there, Sean, Tim, and I went to see my all time favorite band, The Might Mighty Bosstones. They got back together and this was the main purpose of my trip – to see them again. Of all the concerts I have been to, I”ve seen them the most. I think this was my 5th or 6th time seeing them. This show did not let me down. I’ll post some video and photos (ala cell phone so not great…) at a later time.

So fast forward to a week or so ago. For Father’s day, Emily got me a gift cert for Boi na Braza (sp?), a Brazillian steakhouse in Cincinnati. For those not familiar, these places charge a flat rate and you get a pretty decent salad bar. Also, they have waiters walking around with 15 different cuts of meat – sirloin, lamb chops, chicken breasts, filet mignon, and plenty of others. It was amazing. While NOT cheap, one of the things Emily and I enjoyed the most was the personal time. The wait staff doesn’t bother you. Because you let them know when you want more food, they basically stay away from your table unless you need a refill on your beverage. We had a great time talking all night without some person interrupting us to see if we wanted to buy something else. And MANY thanks to Aunt SheShe for watching Sean so we could have some time out. Oh..and the deserts are freaking great too! I love a perfectly cooked flan. Their wine list is pretty decent also. We had a nice pinot grigio.

Coming soon – my twin brother Sean is flying in from Seattle for a visit over Labor Day weekend. When he is here, my mom, Megan, and Megan’s boyfriend Matt, plan on coming down and we are hoping to see Stephen and Amy as well. (Little) Sean is going to have a BLAST!

Tonight, I gave Sean one of my die-cast cars. Its a Porsche that I got when I was in the 8th or 9th grade as a Christmas present from (I think) my grandmother’s brother, my Uncle Jack McNaughton (the Scottish side!). Sean LOVED it. Its bright orange. When Emily picked him up to take him to bed he cried. He wanted his car! So she gave it to him and carried him upstairs. Up in his room, she tried to get him to put it down on his dresser so they could get ready for bed. He wanted nothing to do with that. He was hugging and snuggling her…while hugging and snuggling his new car!! I knew I loved this kid for a reason!!

Can’t wait to see what happens when he finds out I have 20 or 30 diecast cars in storage He likes that orange Porsche 959 so much he may go into overdrive if sees the others!

Last night Uncle Phillip and Gramma got back from their trip to the Cabin and NYC and Phillip brought Sean back a present! Sean is now the proud owner of some Air Jordans!

He thought they were so cool. He is wearing them to “school” today. Phillip has a matching pair so we’ll have to get a photo of them wearing them together. He is in size sixes now, and when he gets to size sevens he gets to wear his Chucks that Megan and Matt got him

Links for the various galleries related to the posts above:

Seattle Trip:

Sean’s new car:

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Back from my quick trip to Seattle. Crammed a whole lot of stuff into the 4 days I was there. Will post more details and some photos tonight.
Emily and Sean get back from New York tonight. Can’t wait to see them! Its been a long time since I have been away from Emily this long and I’ve never been away from Sean this long! Hope he remembers me!

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Sean and I have been in New York visiting my family since Thursday. We are having a really good time, despite the rainy weather that never seems to take a break. Colleen and Cate picked us up at the airport on Thursday and we headed out to Great Sacandaga Lake, where we have a camp. We spent Thurs – Monday there, hanging out, boating, fishing, making smores, hanging out with neighbors and family. Sean, who hates to walk in the grass, and heaven forbid, touch it with his hands, was running around in the woods barefoot by Monday. He loves pine needles, pine cones, little sticks and all the trees! He got to swim in the lake and throw rocks, and take lots of long walks up and down the camp road. We headed back home on Monday, getting ice cream on the way.

Dad, Colleen and Cate spent a lot of time redoing the playhouse that Dad built for Brian and me when we were younger. They put nice walls on the inside (it was always just 2×4s and plywood) and fixed it up so cute with a table and chair set, and Cate’s old Little Tykes kitchen set. Sean has a blast playing in there, cooking us meals and microwaving the fake food in the little microwave.

We are planning on heading back to the camp for this weekend, and then Sean and I return home to KY on Tuesday. It’s been a lot of fun so far and we have some great pictures! Click on the picture below to see.

Also, Sean sat in the little chair outside of the playhouse, where he sat when he came last fall. Look how much he’s grown up!

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Sean had surgery to probe and irrigate his blocked tear duct this morning at Cincinnati Children’s. It went really well, and Sean is doing wonderfully. The hospital staff were great and Sean ‘went out’ and woke up easily. We were in the waiting room for less than 10 minutes! When we got back to the recovery room, Sean sat up, downed 8oz of apple juice, then asked for his book and began to read! He’s so funny! It was impressive; I was expecting him to be very groggy and cranky, but he was cheerful and comical!

His eye looks good; looks like it’s starting to drain tears like it should. We have to give him eye drops 3x day for a week, which I’m sure he’ll hate! Thanks for the thoughts and prayers; it was a simple / fast procedure, but still worrisome

Here are some pictures of him in his little hospital gown:

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Sean and I had a great day today! Sean woke up at 8am and then woke up Dada (his favorite thing to do). We sat on the couch with Kitty and Sean’s blanket for awhile and watched tv and snuggled, then had breakfast. Sean played with his puzzle while I got ready, and we headed out to the toy store around 10am. I got him 2 new puzzles, since he’s already mastered the one he has, and when we got home, he was ready for a nap. We had some lunch, then went out and played with the ball in the yard. He walked around back, and asked to play on the slide. He went down the slide about 40 times, and then I had to come in to get the camera. I cant’ believe what he’s doing…he’s climbing up the slide and going down ALL by himself! Is he really big enough to be doing that?? It doesn’t seem like it! We got all dirty and sweaty outside, so we came in for a drink and a popsicle (which Sean LOVED). We played with Megabyte for awhile, did our new puzzles, went for a walk outside and then came in to cool down and have a snack. Sean fed his whole snack to Megabyte, who was very happy to help out! Sean had another nap around 3:30, then we played some more! It was a long but fun day. Hopefully the weather continues to be nice so we always have the option of going outdoors. Getting out of the house if definitely a nice break!

Check out the video of Sean doing the slide all by himself. Man, he’s so big!

These are the puzzles he got today:

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Sean had his visit to Children’s this morning. He does NOT like drops to be put into his eye, or people shining little lights in them by the way…:-)

His eyes themselves and his vision are all normal. As we suspected, they have to do a probing procedure to open up the tear duct. Very quick, whole procedure takes 3-5 minutes; similar to the amount of time it would take to do tubes in ears. His surgery is scheduled for June 24th. I’m really glad we could get him in so quick. The success rate is 85-90% for his age range. If the procedure doesn’t work, he’ll need to get stints put into his tear ducts.

More to follow!

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Next week starts my new job of stay at home mommy! I was officially done with work yesterday, but will be keeping Sean in daycare for the rest of the week so I can get my 12 page paper and 2 presentations finished for my summer class, and get the house in a little more order.
I’m really looking forward to spending time with Sean this summer. We have lots of fun stuff planned, like going to the zoo, the aquarium, Sunrock Farm (local petting zoo), Children’s museum, lots of walks, swimming and playtime. I bought Sean some new “big boy” thick crayons which he used for the first time yesterday. He really loved putting them in a tupperware so he could see them all, and picking them out one by one to color with. He has learned “purpur”, “buw” and “reeeeh” (purple, blue and red) and actually likes to color with pink a lot, despite what daddy thinks.

We have an appointment at Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati on Thursday to get Sean’s eye looked at. He’s had blocked tear ducts since his first month. One cleared up, but the other never has. Poor boy can’t even open his eye most mornings because it’s so gucked up. The exam is Thursday, and then I assume they’ll schedule a time soon to get the procedure done to open the tear duct up. It’s very very simple and takes less than 5 minutes, so I’m not too worried about it…yet.

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We were upstairs dancing with Sean last night and he turned himself in a circle for the first time. After he realized what he accomplished, he did it about 3 more times, and then proceeded to wipe out from dizziness. He’s been doing it again today as he dances; very cute but he can’t help but wipe out afterwards. hehe

Also, Sean and I were in the living room this morning and he flopped himself against the couch like he always does when he wants up. I didn’t put him up on the couch, so he flung his little leg up and pulled himself up! Boy, was he proud! He sat down on the couch and clapped and laughed as if to say “Haha! I did it anyway! So there!” He’s going to be a climber, we can already tell

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I really need to update on the cute new stuff Sean is doing more often. Here’s what he’s been doing in the last few days/weeks:
-Sean got a new tooth this past weekend, his 5th, it’s the top left one next to the front teeth.
-Sean is clearly saying Hi (eyeee) and Bye (BuhBuh) while waving to people. He’s always waved, but now has put together saying hi or bye at the appropriate time.
-He’s starting to put an “S” on the end of his yes. He used to say “ayah” for yes, now he says “ayah…..s” so cute.
-He’s really like cars now, he’ll drive them all over the floor going “MmmmMMmmm” His daddy loves this one
-Whenever he passes by a picture of me or paul he points to us and says “Mama” or “Dada” He is so proud that he knows who people are
-Sean is eating really well with a fork/spoon now. He can get food on them and most of the time make it to his mouth.
-Sean’s legs are finally long enough to propel himself on his ride-on toys!
-Sean’s Oma and Opa got him a puzzle for 2 year olds and up. It’s a wooden one with animal pieces. He’s mastered it and can complete it in about 2 minutes.
-Sean’s current obsessions are books and dancing. Loves both. Today we danced for about 10 minutes in the kitchen; he loves to hold my hand while he turns underneath it in a circle. We also read about 10 books about 4 times each when he got home. He likes to read every book he has downstairs, every day.
-My mom got Sean one of those old fashioned “popper” toys that you pull/push along. He will go around and around the rooms of the downstairs running with that thing. He loves it.
-Last but not least, Sean has taken after his “UmBye” with his adoration of ketchup. Sean will eat just about anything if it has ketchup on it. He goes nuts when he sees it in the fridge. So cute.

That’s about all the new stuff I can think of for now. I’ll try to update more often, as I know that everyone who doesn’t see him on a daily basis loves to know how he’s doing.

Also…I cant’ forget to wish Um-Bye (Brian) and SheShe (Ashley) a happy 2nd anniversary, and Philip (fi) a big congratulations on graduating high school last night!

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OK, so if you haven’t seen this already, Sean does this crazy thing when we ask him “are you excited?” You just have to see the video to understand. It’s kind of long, but well worth it! We keep asking ourselves…what is this? LOL

Next, a very cute video of Sean playing ball with Baxter and Megabyte. He was laughing so hard; makes me laugh just to watch it.

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