The Perfect Combination

This picture depicts the perfect combination of Nigel and myself.

Reading. While surfing. Perfect!

Kingston's Pappy (Nigel's dad) gave Kingston his first surfboard. It is made of soft foam and has rubber fins. It is a safety board, of sorts. Great for learning on. In a few years. Hear that, Nige? IN A FEW YEARS!

He loves his surfboard and likes to say "boboard" over and over again. Whenever Nigel is left in charge, the board comes out and Kingston gets to play on it. It will be fun when he gets to ride on it. IN A FEW YEARS.

For now it will just be used for fun things like yoga poses. On dry land.

Mr. Breadman

My good friend Julie (aka Ball) gets really excited over seeing famous, nearly famous, and not-so-famous people. There was a restaurant in Chapel Hill called Breadman's (I'm salivating while writing this) that we would frequent. We may or may not have been hungover a good portion of the times we went there. I cannot be certain. Anyway, Ball would get super excited when she would see the owner (affectionately referred to as Mr. Breadman-I'm pretty sure that wasn't even his name) working in the restaurant. He was sort of a local celebrity, at least in our book.

My point? I had a Ball moment the other night while working a catering for High Cotton. Since lots of travelling is on the books for Nigel and I in the next few weeks, I wanted to work a little extra to make some extra cash. I catered the wedding of a girl that I have known for a few years and I would guess I knew 89% of the guests at the reception. The first guest that arrived immediately caught my eye as he help an elderly lady out of a golf cart. I knew him. Well, maybe not personally but I definitely recognized him. Tyler Hansbrough. You follow Carolina basketball? Of course you do. My blog readers have extremely good taste! I tried to get a picture of him discretely with my cell phone while texting all of my Carolina friends about my good fortune but none of those pictures came out. I did have my camera with me and did get one of him in the distance sitting with his girlfriend's family. He is the one in the blue shirt, just in case I need to spell it out! His girlfriend is a local girl and was a bridesmaid in the wedding.

I also snapped one of him going through the buffet line. Greg was just as excited about seeing him as I was. Can you tell? Tyler liked the food. He came back for seconds. I mean, not that I was stalking him or anything.

Proof! I was totally excited about my sighting and even dreamed about it that night! I'm over it now but, man! It was almost as good as seeing Mr. Breadman bussing some tables!

Can You Hear It?

That is the sound of Kingston's teeth rotting right out of his head as he falls asleep in his carseat while sucking on a lollipop. See?

I did end up asking him to hand it to me and he proceeded to crunch crunch crunch the last little bit, while still sleeping, and hand me the stick. So at least I removed the choking hazard. Give me a break!

And he settled right back in and slept for the rest of the car ride.

We were coming back from our big adventure to Target. The forecast called for rain and I was not about to stay in the house all day with Nigel and Kingston. Just wasn't going to happen. So Kingston and I ventured to Target. An hour away but well worth it! We got some essentials for our upcoming trip to Charleston (more on that later) and had lunch at Chick-fil-a. Man, I love that place! The cashier actually carried my tray to my table for me and asked if she could do anything else for me. And don't think it was some random hour when she had nothing else to do. There was a line. It was noon. I was impressed.

Kingston was going to town on his nuggets. He had gotten approximately 2 1/2 of them down when all eating and drinking and dip-dipping came to a stop. He spotted the indoor playground. I had planned on letting him play for a minute after lunch but he decided he needed to "play, play, play, play, play" and on and on and on, right. That. Minute. I crammed my sandwich down my throat (which really wasn't too much of a problem :) ) and took him to play.

There was an obnoxious little girl sitting on top of the slide who immediately informed me over and over that "he" had to take his shoes off. I mean, if I had wanted to hear something over and over I would have sat at my table a little longer. "Play, play, play. . . " I climbed up into the tunnels with Kingston the first time just to make sure he would be fine by himself up there. He totally would have been. That is until all 20 of the nearly-too-old-to-play-in-the-indoor-playground kids came in. I was up in the intersection of the tunnel and Kingston had gone down one of the tubes to play in the car when I nearly had a panic attack. It was really stuffy and smelled like dirty socks. There were big kids squeezing by me, coming up from the stairs as well as the slide. They were screaming and thumping heavily on the plastic tunnel. I had to step out to the stairs and get some air before going back in to get Kingston. I crammed him down the slide and could not get to the bottom fast enough. Especially since there were large children coming down the not-so-slippery slide behind us.

Yuck. Kingston had a blast. Me? Not-so-much. I will know next time we go there to send him up on his own. He could definitely handle it. I couldn't. I'm hyperventilating right now. Breathe. . .

OK. So we had a great adventure today and got home in time to lay in the bed and watch Finding Nemo in lieu of finishing the nap started in the car. Dinner, playtime, books and now Kingston is fast asleep. Back to work tomorrow. But it will be a short week. But more on that later, remember?

Kingston at 20 Months

A few days ago Kingston was officially 20 months old. I can't believe we are counting in the 20's now! Pretty soon he will be 2 and we can drop the months totally and just stick to years! So much easier and non-kid-having friendly.

So what does this particular 20 month old do, you ask? Well.

Kingston's consistent vocabulary includes words like:

Bye-bye (which sounds very cute and very southern. Oops.)

Hat

Ball (over and over and over again)

Milk

More

Dad or Dada

Mama

Nana

Grandpa (or some version of that)

Pappy (which sounds more like Popeye)

Truck (which sounds more like cruck)

Banana (which sometimes gets confused for Nana)

His occasional vocabulary includes tons of different words. One day he will point to something and identify it clearly and other days he acts like he has no idea why you are trying to get him to identify something that he has absolutely no idea how to say. He still uses the occasional bit of sign language but it is usually pared with the verbalization of the word as well. One more reason for being in favor of teaching at least a few signs early.

Kingston loves to stack blocks and is really good at it! He likes to build with his Mega Blocks and drive trucks around the floor. He still loves a good book and Nigel and I have enjoyed describing books for him to retrieve for us. He always comes back with the book we have described. For instance, we asked him to get the book that had the owl on the back page and sure enough he came back with the lift the flap train book that shows a night scene on the back page. He came over "whooo-whooo-whoo"-ing, quite proud of himself.

I will admit that my kid really likes to watch movies. We are guilty of having the TV on most of the time and it is often tuned to a kid-friendly station. We need to get better at turning on some music and turning off the TV. After all, Kingston loves to dance and pretend to sing to music of pretty much any kind. I'm sort of impressed (in a slightly defensive way used to justify our slackness) that Kingston can pretty much sit through a full-length cartoon movie with only a few distractions. At least he has a good attention span, right?!

As much as he likes to watch movies, Kingston also loves to play outside. He can play on playground equipment by himself now, without me worrying that he will simply step off the side that is open. He is more aware of his surroundings and is fairly cautious in his movements most of the time. He loves to swing and go down the slide. He really wants to be able to climb trees so I feel a few heart-stopping jumps from branches in the near future!

Kingston is not so much a picky eater as a finicky one. Saturday night he ate steak, rice and broccoli like it was going out of style. I'd bet money he wouldn't touch any of that tonight for no apparent reason. He seems to eat loads of food at daycare but not as much for me. My general rule is to put whatever we are having for dinner in front of him and if he eats it, great. If he doesn't want to touch it, he just might be a bit hungry later because I don't usually fix him something else. I think he may have more of his father's attitude toward food (eat to live) than my own (live to eat) attitude! That is a good, if not totally frustrating for me, thing.

Pop? Did you say pop? Be it a lollipop or a Popsicle, Kingston is totally obsessed with anything sweet and on a stick! Oh, add "Pop" to the list of things he likes to say. He does not get pops daily as we try to save them for special occasions and shopping trips! But don't say popcorn or use the word pop in any other context or his ears will surely perk up and he will smile and say, "pop?".

I think that about sums Kingston up in a nutshell. Anyone want to know anything else about my 20 month old baby boy? I'd be glad to tell more. Or "Mo? Mo? Mo?" ask Kingston likes to say.

As for right this minute, he is napping. After lunch he was so tired he laid his head down on the carpet while he was playing. I asked him if he wanted to take his Choo-choo blanket that Nana made him and go take a nap. He got up, grabbed his blanket and headed to his room. In there he reached up for his crib. The boy was tired. Obviously he still takes an afternoon nap and is a big fan of it.

Please sleep for hours, Kingston. Mama wants to finish the trashy novel she is reading and needs to do the dishes from Saturday night's steak dinner. Oops.

It Had Been Too Long-Updated!

** Update**
After a great night of sleep, Kingston woke up with only a bit of a fever and in a pretty good mood. He was ready for his nap pretty early-around 11:30- and is still asleep. I think he is feeling a lot better. I'm glad I didn't take him to Ms. Cindy's today just to be sure. I'm almost certain he will be ready to go back on Thursday.

We are planning an afternoon adventure to McDonald's for a cheeseburger (Give me a break-the kid loves a cheeseburger and he should have one. He's been sick!) and then WalMart for some necessities. We might even stop at Wink's on the way home for a Tootsie Pop. I'm going with the theory that he needs to be spoiled a little since he has felt so bad the last few days.

Thanks for the concern. I think we are on our way to well.

----------------

It had been too long since Kingston had been to see Nurse Karen for a sick baby visit (as opposed to a well baby visit). He was missing her so he decided he would contract some strange disease that caused a fever and sores in his throat just so that he could see her again! Kingston spent last night with Nana and Grandpa's and woke up this morning burning up with fever and needing lots of attention and loving. There is never a loss for either of those things at Nana and Grandpa's house, thank goodness!

I stopped by for a quick visit this morning before heading to work for a bonus day of waiting tables (cash $) and saw how sick he really was. I asked Nana to take him to the Dr. if he got any more lethargic and sluggish and at about 12:00 she called to say he was definitely worse. She took him in to see the Dr. and Nurse Karen and it seems he has Fifth Disease. Again. Looks like he might have Hand Foot and Mouth Disease symptoms as well. Again. High fever and mouth blisters. Yuck! He is on a Motrin/Tylenol regimen, as there is nothing you can really do to treat either disease.

I think he was feeling a bit better tonight but he pretty much asked to go night night after he watched his nightly episodes of Curious George. I tried to rock him for a bit in his room but he just wanted to lay down in his crib and he pretty much went straight to sleep. I hope he gets a great night of sleep and feels better tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will be staying home with Kingston instead of taking him to Ms. Cindy's and going to work. Hopefully we will have a good day around the house and things will be back to normal by Wednesday.

Super big thanks to Nana for taking care of a sick little boy on her last free day before her school year officially starts. We would be lost-and day care broke-without you!

Beachin'

Kingston, Nigel and I spent the morning at the beach today. It rained really hard last night and was sprinkling this morning but we decided to try the beach anyway in hopes that we would get at least an hour in.

Three hours later we were on our way home with our John's Drive In take out, sleeping in our carseat. Well, Kingston was the only one sleeping in his carseat, but you know what I mean.

The beach was gorgeous. A little overcast when we got there but it ended up being the perfect beach day, and the perfect morning to take really good photographs. If only I had a really nice camera and lens I would have taken fabulous pictures. But my little old point and shoot didn't let me down. If you can peel your eyeballs away from the really cute kid, take a look at the clouds in the background. Amazing.

We have another big day tomorrow with brunch with some friends and then a beach party in the afternoon. Should be a good time.

Poo? No, Pooh!

The swim diapers Kingston wears to the beach and to the pool have either Nemo or Pooh on the front. Kingston has just recently noticed the two characters, and he is definitely more interested in Pooh than Nemo. Somehow he has come to quickly identify Pooh whenever he sees him.

It makes for interesting conversation.

"Kingston, please pick up your Pooh diaper off the floor."

"No, Kingston, you don't need to wear that Pooh diaper right now."

And my most recent favorite, "That's right, Kingston. Those diapers do have Pooh on them."

Sometimes if you could hear our conversations without actually seeing what was going on, you would probably be really confused, and/or extremely humored.

Oh, Pooh!

A Gazillion Degrees

What do you do when it is a gazillion degrees (sorry for the use of such a technical term) outside with a heat index of 20 degrees above a gazillion? Well, first you play at Nana's house.



Ever see a man (well, a boy) read the instructions? Kingston is a very special boy. He is not like the rest of them!



And when did that same little boy turn into a teenager?! He looks about 14 here!



After a nap in the car. . .





. . . you wake up at the aquarium.





We were pretty pleased with our day. The aquarium was a big hit. Nana and I enjoyed it just as much as Kingston did!

Not Me! Monday

I would never neglect Not Me! Monday for weeks on end out of sheer laziness. Never. Not Me! It's been so long since I've Not Me'd that I've never even used the cute used-to-be-new logo/link for it.

Until now.




There. Now I am with it. Whatever "it" is.

I would never forget and/or neglect to change Kingston's diaper for hours on end for no apparent reason. And I would never really wish I had a scale of some sort when I finally did change it to see just how much said diaper full of pee actually weighed. I'm guessing pounds. And pounds.

After a really big rain that covered and flooded our drain field in our backyard and backed up some water into Uncle Mark's toilet downstairs, I did not not shower for days "just to be safe" and make sure it didn't overflow into his bathroom. I'm really careful like that and very hygienic.

I would never let Kingston watch waaaay too much TV just to keep him occupied at times. TV is not a babysitter and I would never use it as such.

I also would never let Kingston drag an empty 5 gallon water bottle around on the tile and laminate floor fairly early on Sunday morning as Dad-and Uncle Mark downstairs-were still trying to sleep off the extra beverages they had consumed the night before. That would just be cruel and unusual punishment and I would never condone such behavior.

Whew! I feel so much better now that I got that off my chest. Join me, won't you?

Oh, Dad

We miss you already. Nigel left this morning for Emerald Isle/Atlantic Beach for work. He will probably be back tomorrow but we still miss him already! I mean, who is going to lay on the floor and read books to Kingston?

And who is going to let Kingston sit on his lap-while on the toilet? (Sorry, Nige, I had my fingers crossed when I said I wouldn't post that picture on my blog. Oops!)

Oh, Dad. We miss you already!

Raleigh-In Pictures-With Captions

Pictures. In no apparent order. I have been working on downloading and getting pictures from Nana for the last hour. I'm over it! For now, here are just the pictures. Hopefully tomorrow I will get around to labeling/describing them.

Enjoy! We sure did.

Splashing at the awesome pool in Mere's neighborhood. So fun!

A bubble bath with Thomas the Tank Engine bubbles? It really gets no better than that.

A picnic of sorts while the rain slowed down a bit.

Let's hold hands and walk. Sam was a little more into Kingston than Kingston was into Sam. Sam is nearly a year older and into holding hands and hugging. Kingston-not so much!

My little fish! He was kicking and paddling like he had been doing it for years!

Look, no hands!

Playing in the drain water. Good thing he had those swimmies on!

Fancy new cup from Starbucks. No, there is not coffee in it!

Swimming at the hotel pool. Nana helped him jump off the side and a lady thought she had thrown him in. Little did she know that the kid loves to be thrown in!




Where did that other kid go? I don't know!

Blowing off a little steam in the hotel room.

Kingston and Sam in their matching jammies. Looks like Sam is trying to strangle Kingston. Don't worry. It was all in good fun!

And the traditional Sam/Kingston bath. One day they will hate us for these. . .