Scott Davidson & Nicholas Allen

Day 3

2009-09-14T18:47:47Z

Day 3: The swelling has gone down almost completely. One side of his lip is still a little swollen, but most of the chin swelling is gone.

Tipping his chin up so I can see the bruising. Even this is fading already.

Showing me that the inside of his mouth looks much better. The first day I didn't look, the second day it looked like raw hamburger, this morning it was all white inside. Now the injured skin has sloughed off and it's healing nicely.

Scott lost his first tooth!

2009-05-03T15:06:57Z

April 11 - Scott tells me he has a loose tooth. I look in his mouth and discover that the permanent tooth has erupted behind it. I swear it wasn't there the night before when I brushed his teeth!

April 30 - The tooth is now so loose that he can push it out with his tongue or his other teeth.

April 30 - The permanent tooth is even more apparent behind the baby tooth.

May 2 - After some pretty serious wiggling, and some actual pulling (Scott, not me), the tooth popped out! He was so excited!

May 2 - The new hole in his mouth. Hopefully the permanent tooth will move forward to fill in the hole with no further help from us.

May 3 - The tooth fairy left Scott a glittery envelope and a little note, plus a dollar in quarters. He was pretty psyched :)

January 2004 - Scott was seven months old and this tooth was his first, and only for quite some time.

Vancouver Island Trip - Day 4 - Bug Zoo, Victoria, BC

2009-05-02T05:37:21Z

Our last stop of the day was the Victoria Bug Zoo. I expected that Scott would be the one who would get the most out of this, but it turns out we all enjoyed it!

There was a tour in progress that we joined when we got there. Scott got to hold some kind of beetle right off the bat.

Rainbow colored beetle.

Nick enjoyed looking in the tanks and finding the bugs. Some were hidden and some were in plain sight.

Ezri wasn't too sure about the bugs.

Scott holds a hissing cockroach.

Ezri thinks she doesn't want to touch the cockroach.

But she changes her mind.

Nick checks out the colony of leaf-cutter ants.

Scott gets up close with a giant leaf insect (like a stick bug, but camouflaged to look like a leaf).

Nick checks out the big tank of stick insects.

Scott spent some time drawing insects and then telling me all about the special powers that his bugs have.

After the bug zoo, we headed out (at about 4 pm) and the littles both fell asleep in the car. We ate dinner (shrimp stir fry) back at the resort condo and got the kids to bed. Mine were both pretty wiped out and went to bed at a decent hour. Ezri was up after a late nap, so Dawn and Tone drove up to Parksville to check that out and let her play at an awesome playground that we took all the kids to the next day. Then they picked up a bottle of wine, came back to the resort, put Ezri to bed and took a Jacuzzi bath together :) I stayed up too late and watched Wall-E.

Vancouver Island Trip - Day 4 - Undersea Gardens, Victoria, BC

2009-05-02T05:26:58Z

From Beacon Hill Park we walked downtown to the Undersea Gardens. I didn't get a picture of the outside of it, but it looks like a big boat anchored in the harbor. I was expecting a glass-bottomed boat, but instead it is filled with closed aquariums full of all kinds of creatures from the Pacific.

Dawn tries to get Ezri to touch a sea star.

Ezri gamely gives it a go.

Scott pets a sea star.

Then there was a show where a diver came down into the big tank and showed us various sea creatures.

Octopus!

Then we were treated to a free show when we went to leave. The diver was sitting on the dock outside and had attracted a friendly seal.

The diver got in the water with the seal and we watched them cavort for a good while.

Vancouver Island Trip - Day 4 - Beacon Hill Park, Victoria, BC

2009-05-02T04:56:30Z

The resort we were staying at was up the eastern coast, north of Nanaimo and south of Parksville. It was about a 2 hour drive south to Victoria. There's tons to see and do in Victoria, but it wasn't worth being in the car for four hours every day, so we decided to make the trip every other day and let the kids have a "day off" in between. So Monday was our first day down in Victoria. We got up very early so we could leave the resort by 8 and be in Victoria by 10 am.

Our first stop was Beacon Hill Park. We wanted a place to let the kids get out and stretch their legs and play after being cooped up in the car. We also packed a picnic lunch to eat there.

Nick immediately fell in love with this Jeep play structure and stayed on it for a long time.

In the meantime, Ezri was sliding.

Soon enough, Nick was ready to slide. This "small" metal slide was just too fast for him, so he poured his body down it very slowly.

All the way to the bottom.

Then he'd climb back up and do it again.

Finally the little daredevil was hanging on by the top bar, although he never did drop down and slide from there (thank goodness).

After lunch we decided to leave the van parked and walk through the park to downtown Victoria.

Lots of ducks.

Mallard. I believe we also saw an American widgeon, but I didn't get a picture for positive id.

Pretty stone bridge.

Dawn, Tone, Scott, (Nick and Ezri) on top of the stone bridge.

Everything out there was lush and green and blooming all ready.

Beacon Hill Park.

A native Beacon Hill Park resident.

Day 3 - Time at the Playground

2009-05-02T02:18:12Z

After our morning walk, we went back to our room for lunch and to attempt to get the littles to take naps. Nick did not nap at all. After that, we took the kids to the little playground that was right down the hill from our unit.

The playground equipment was shaped like a pirate ship.

Misbehaving children were sent to "walk the plank."

It was a pretty cool playground.

Ezri said her favorite part of the whole vacation was "whee." Which is Ezri-ease for "slide."

Ezri at the bottom of the slide.

Nick enjoyed the sliding too.

Nick slides again.

Scott goes down the twisty slide.

At first, Nick needed to be spotted climbing up.

But soon enough he was stepping off the ladder all by himself.

And Ezri was right behind him.

After playing for a good hour, we decided to do some swimming in the indoor pool, and then have dinner. I didn't get any pictures of the swimming from Sunday, but did get some on later days. I also didn't get any pictures from the restaurant that night, but have some from the restaurant from a different day. I do, however, have a couple more pictures from walking over to the restaurant.

Nick, Ezri and Scott hold hands while walking to the restaurant on the grounds.

I tried to get a picture from the front, but Nick was done by then.

Day 3 - A Walk Along the Seawall

2009-05-02T02:04:18Z

After sleeping in a bit on Sunday morning, we all got up, breakfasted, and got ready to explore the resort. We had gotten a map and decided to head for the point and check out the seawall that went all the way around the point, just above the beach. The tide was out when we headed out.

Just a short walk from our unit put us on the path right to the beach.

The whole resort was kind of in this protected harbor, with one big point that stuck out into the harbor. There were kayaks you could use off to one side, and then a long beach on the other side.

Looking toward the kayak beach.

Continuing our walk through the gardens down to the point.

The kids brought along some sand toys.

I was continually amazed by how much greener everything was there than in Minnesota.

Right at the point there was a large deck area that had a hot tub, grill and picnic area. Looking out from there you could see this big rocky point that was basically covered by water when the tide was in except for a big knob of rock at the tip. This picture was taken when the tide was out.

Scott had a blast climbing around on these huge rocks.

Nick got right in and started digging up sand.

He was having fun just flinging it everywhere.

More climbing around on rocks.

We did see some wildlife. There were mallards, seagulls, and I believe this was a red-breasted merganser. I did bring a bird book, but I should have brought my binoculars.

Even the littles got into climbing around on the rocks a bit.

Scott found the claw of a crab.

Ezri was just having fun exploring, despite the cold and wind.

Scott climbing on the big knob of rock on the point.

So proud of himself for getting up there.

Ezri wanted to get in on the climbing.

So Papa (Uncle Tone) climbed up to the top with Scott and Ezri. (Nick was still shoveling sand.)

Scott found some kind of flower up there and picked it and brought it down for me. Every day he went out and picked me fresh flowers :)

When we were done on the beach, we continued to walk along the seawall path to a pretty waterfall. Our unit was not too far from the top of this waterfall.

Pretty.

The kids had fun playing on the little bridge by the waterfall.

Nick :)

Looking up the river. Water was flowing all the time, but it didn't look like much when the tide was out.

Day 3 - The Resort

2009-05-01T14:57:00Z

We settled the kids in fairly quickly on Saturday, having a quick dinner of ravioli and garlic toast in the unit, baths for the kids, then bed. We didn't have a chance to look around much. But what we could see we were very impressed with. We were all eager to get out an do some exploring the next day, Sunday. Here are some pictures of the unit we stayed in. It had everything! Two fireplaces, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, three tvs and dvd players, washer and dryer, full kitchen, nice dining room, and a great view!

Living room.

Fireplace in the living room, and the big lcd tv.

Dining room.

Tiny, but full, kitchen.

Master bedroom, looking out toward the patio with a view of the Sound.

Master bedroom, looking in toward the fireplace.

Gas fireplace in the master bedroom, along with the giant closet and looking into the huge bathroom.

Jacuzzi tub in the master bath, with the other side of the fireplace. The kids loved taking baths in it!

Second bedroom, where Nick and I slept.

Little sitting area in the second bedroom.

This part of the unit could be rented separately from the main unit, so it had it's own sink and mini fridge.

It also had it's own sliding door going out into a tiny courtyard.

Said tiny courtyard had a single plant in it.

The unit from the outside. You can see the sliding glass doors from the dining room and the master bedroom, leading out onto our patio with table and chairs. We had a little garden area, and a great view. More pictures of the view to come.

Vancouver Island Trip - day 2, part 3 - The Ferry

2009-04-28T06:40:36Z

After the zoo, we headed for the ferry terminal in plenty of time to catch our ferry over to the island.

Up on the sun deck of the ferry.

Ezri poses with her Papa.

Mountain view from the sun deck.

Nick enjoyed the ferry ride very much.

Scott complained that it was cold and windy, which it was.

So we retired inside, where we found a nice children's play area with no other children in it.

The littles had fun looking out the window at the water and occasional boats or sea birds.

The also had fun playing on the toys.

A view of the lighthouse just before we pulled into port.

Then we drove to the resort that night. I have a few pictures from that night, and many more from the next day, that will go in another post.

Vancouver Island Trip - day 2, part 2 - The Zoo

2009-04-28T06:16:08Z

The goal of the first leg of our trip was to visit the Greater Vancouver Area Zoo before heading out to catch the ferry to Vancouver Island later in the afternoon. Because of our late start, it was a bit of a whirlwind trip at the zoo. Nonetheless, we saw tons of stuff and had lots of fun.

We have arrived and are in search of zoo animals.

Tone and Ezri check out the lions.

Nick also checks out the lions. He is impressed.

The Zimmerman family poses for a picture.

Scott checks out a black panther/jaguar.

Lions.

Black swan.

Parrots.

Tortoises.

Wallaby mama with a baby in her pouch.

Giraffes. There were a mom, dad and baby.

Hippos.

Caiman in the reptile house.

Marmosets.

Feeding time for the marmosets.

Guinea fowl.

The boys pose for a picture on the back of a giraffe statue.

There was a raptor show about to begin, but we were off to catch the zoo train.

We stopped to get lunch and see the monkeys. Despite the sign saying "Do Not Feed the Monkeys," they had obviously been fed as they were begging us to give them tidbits (we did not).

Despite appearances, Ezri very much enjoyed the ride on the zoo train.

Scott poses for a picture on the zoo train engine after the ride.

We tried to get a picture of all the kids together, but failed. I'm not sure we got a picture of all three kids together the entire vacation!

We had a little time to kill before we had to leave to catch the ferry, so we checked out the reptile house. Here, Nick is peeking in at the giant python.

There were marmosets in the reptile house, and they found Ezri's shoes fascinating.

Heading back to the van.

Scott and Ezri holding hands.

Awww.

Vancouver Island Trip - day 2, part 1

2009-04-28T06:04:22Z

We woke up early in the morning and spent several hours loading the giant van that we had rented for the trip. We finally got on the road a bit later than we intended.

The van was a Dodge Caravan, which I called the "smuggler's special" due to the hidden cargo spaces under the floor boards. Yes, we crossed into Canada, and no, we weren't searched.

Side view of the van.

Everyone loaded into the van.

Scott and I sat all the way in the back.

The little kids sat in the middle row of seats.

Dawn drove and Tone acted as navigator. My official position was "child wrangler and retriever of thrown toys and sippy cups."

First day of our trip

2009-04-28T04:39:13Z

On Friday, we got up extra early in the morning, drove to Hibbing, and got on an airplane :) We spent the day on airplanes and in airports, finally landing in Bellingham to spend the night at Dawn's house.

A few pictures from the first day:

Scott on the first leg of the flight. It was a tiny airplane with one row of single seats opposite a row of two seats, so Scott had his own seat next to the window.

Nick, all buckled in and ready for takeoff.

I had Scott take a picture of me and Nick in our row.

We flew from Hibbing to Minneapolis, then got on a 747 to Seattle. The boys were entertained for a while looking out the window.

Then they got bored.

Pretty soon they started wrestling around. All in all they were pretty good on the plane though.

When we hit Seattle we had a decent layover. Nick fell asleep in the stroller, Scott and I got a snack in the food court, then we found this neat play area.

He had a lot of fun there, and Nick napped for about an hour.

Nick woke up in time to ride the subway back to our gate to catch the last airplane of the day.

Last flight of the day put us into Bellingham a little later than scheduled. Then my suitcase was damaged and we had to spend another hour getting it replaced. Then we had to pick up Ezri from day care and head to Dawn's house. I guess I didn't take any pictures at Dawn's house that evening. We had pizza for dinner and went to bed early in anticipation of a busy day the next day!

Finally, new pictures!

2009-02-15T21:30:57Z

We changed internet providers - now we have high speed satellite! This means I needed to find new hosting for pictures for my blog. I canceled the old host, although I see the pictures are still up (for now - who knows when they'll discover that oversight and delete them). So I'm playing around with Flickr (and also a new camera, since Nick broke my pocket camera the other day). For your viewing pleasure...

Scott's first day of preschool

2008-09-08T20:50:32Z

Scott had his first day of preschool this morning. He has morning preschool this year, 8:15-11:15. So we were all up early to have breakfast, get ready and get out the door on time.

He's grown a lot since last year.

Same backpack as last year.

New shoes! Lace up shoes even.

One of his teachers. There are two teachers in his room this year because they have a full compliment of 16 kids!

Mr. Goof Ball.

They seem to have a pretty cool classroom space.

He tells me he had fun. They played, had circle time, played, had a snack, played outside, then wrote their names. He was "starving" when I picked him up because the teacher wouldn't let him have seconds at snack time. But then he just wanted to play when we got home rather than eat lunch, so I guess he wasn't starving.

Nick and I bought eggs, fed the poultry, worked in the garden, came back to the house to change into dry clothes and warm up and read some books before it was time to pick Scott up. Nick is really getting into books lately and it's too cute. He'll get a book and bring it to you, and about three steps away he turns around so his back is to you and back up until he can plop down in your lap :) Now if he'd just nap, I'd be a happy mama. I'm thinking today is a total loss though in that department. We're in a vicious cycle of night waking and no naps or fighting naps for longer than he actually naps for. After two hours today, I'm giving up :P

Not Scott or Nick, but I just had to share

2008-09-08T20:48:17Z

I can't believe Ezri is going to be one on Saturday! Mom and dad are flying out for two weeks on Thursday. I know I just saw her, and my sister and BIL in July, but it seems like forever.

She has a little ritual with her daddy of walking to the mailbox every day. Here, she just got a birthday card from her great grandma Iona :) Her first birthday card!

griggskids @ 2008-06-30T04:36:00

2008-07-01T05:37:23Z

Not technically pictures of Scott or Nick. Dawn and I went and got pedicures today and took Ezri with us so she'd have an idea of what a day at the spa is all about for when she's a bit older :)

griggskids @ 2008-06-28T23:28:00

2008-06-29T04:28:25Z

Dawn and Ezri arrived at my parents' house late last night. We went over after naps this afternoon:

Ezri was eating lunch when we got there.

Then we headed over to a local park where they were having a festival, and we got to stand in a loooong line to meet Bob the Builder.

Nick took to Dawn right away, and Ezri took to Nicky.

She was very interested in her cousin, who is 6 months older, about 4 inches taller, and 6 pounds heavier.

They played very nicely together.

Well, he stayed on his side and she on hers, but that's what babies do at this age :)

She did steal a few toys from him.

She was having a lot of fun manipulating Nick's activity table.

And she's so darn cute! She even let me hold her at one point, even though she's been having a lot of stranger anxiety lately. She seems to sense that we are family, even though we haven't seen her since she was tiny.

Nick was happy to have Auntie Dawn read him a book.

Then Ezri got curious about the book.

So Dawn read it to both of them.

Meanwhile, Scott took Uncle Chad upstairs and they built a space shuttle out of KNex.

There were some cute photo opportunities of Scott with Ezri, but I had already put my camera away by then. We'll see them again soon, as much as we can while they are here :)

Nick has spots!

2008-04-03T02:06:08Z

Nick came all over in spots yesterday morning! We weren't sure what it was, but the doctor said it was a rash from the amoxicillin that he just finished for an ear infection, and that it was really common and nothing to worry about.

This is what he looked like yesterday morning.

I gave Nick a baking soda bath last night when he started to get kind of fussy, and got him ready for bed. His rash had been looking progressively worse throughout the day.

They were especially concentrated around his left ear, and that seemed to really be bothering him. (This was the best picture I could get.)

But I managed to get him down for bed just fine, so I didn't give him any Benedryl at bedtime. He was running a slight temp (99.3), so I gave him some ibuprofen.

I got him down at 7, and he was up again at 9 while I was in the middle of washing diapers. I could tell immediately that he was going to have a hard time settling down, as he couldn't seem to get comfortable to nurse. I gave him a dose of Benedryl at 9:10 and then tried to nurse him and get him comfortable while we waited for it to kick in. He was wailing and flailing and miserable. I finally brought him out to the living room, and eventually put him in another baking soda bath to try to calm him. He was really freaking out. I had Dave call the ER to see if we should bring him in. But by the time the on-call nurse called us back, the Benedryl had kicked in and he had started to calm down.

Then he was just up up up and couldn't get to sleep. And after an hour-and-a-half, the Benedryl started to wear off and he was mr. miserable again. He was up all night, crawling all over my and unable to get comfortable or sleep.

When I woke up this morning, this is what he looked like:

Some spots were just solid.

It's mostly concentrated on his head/face/neck, torso and back and his shoulders. He's getting more in his diaper area as the day progresses though.

His poor face :(

So we were back to the doctor this morning. Our doctor wasn't in, and the computers at the clinic were down. I didn't wait for them to come back up and make an appointment. I took my horrible-looking baby up to the front desk and they got me right in! The nurse practitioner consulted with the pediatrician on duty and now Nick is on five days of Prednisilone (steroid). So far it seems he's feeling a bit better. He did take two naps today, but he's got a lot of sleep to make up for. Hopefully he'll sleep better tonight.

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T20:17:25Z

"The Easter Bunny was here! The Easter Bunny was here!"

The Easter Bunny put jelly beans inside plastic eggs for Nick, and left them in easy to find places.

No candy was actually eaten by babies, but much fun was had by all :)

He got a little trickier with his hiding places for all the chocolate candies that he left for Scott.

"More!"

Nick liked the way the jelly beans rattled inside the eggs.

Scott helped Nick locate the last few eggs.

Quite a haul!

Let the whining for candy begin!!

griggskids @ 2008-03-20T22:11:00

2008-03-21T03:11:51Z

As soon as I woke up this morning, I was thinking "At this point last year I was hugely pregnant and in labor!" All day long I would kind of glance at the clock and think about what we were doing at that time last year. What a different day it was today! Nick is one year old :)

Minutes old.

Less than one day old.

Scott meets his new brother for the first time.

The brothers today :)

I ended up going to Walmart and getting Nick a Dora the Explorer foam sofa. He loves it! It was so cute, in the store I pulled it off the shelf and he climbed right into it. So it's a little purple ;)

Hamming around wearing Mama's shirt.

So big!

Happy Birthday Nick!

Nick @ 11 months

2008-03-06T18:45:10Z

At 11 months, Nick:

Is walking 95% of the time.
Still falls down if he gets distracted, or when he's tired.
Gets back up without having to hold onto something to stand up.
Has four teeth (two on top and two on the bottom) and is getting a fifth (another top one).
Loves a food one day and won't touch it the next.
Eats solids with some regularity, although some days he prefers to nurse, and other days he prefers to eat.
Has a pretty good pincer grasp and likes to eat finger foods.
Uses the same sign to mean "eat" and "nurse," although there's a sound he does with "nurse."
Won't use the sign for "drink."
Will sometimes sign "more" and sometimes "all done," although he tends to just throw food on the floor when he's all done.
Likes to stuff his mouth full of everything on his tray, chew on it for a while, and then spit it all out :P
Now that he's got the gross motor skills down, he's having a language explosion.
Says "Mama," "Dada," "bebe" (baby), "Ga" (Scott), "bahbah" (bye bye), "Cu" (cup), "Ca" (clock) and "Ba" (ball).
Uses the word cup to mean anything you drink out of - including bowls and breasts ;)
Uses the word baby to mean all books, whether they have pictures of babies in them or not.
When he says bye bye, he whispers it, and waves his hand (so you know he's saying bye bye and not baby, because they sound pretty much the same).
Does the sign for "light" - open and close hands.
Says "da" and points to ask "that?" when he wants the name for something.
Loves to look at pictures, especially pictures of babies.
Loves to take laundry out of baskets, one piece at a time, and hand them to me.
Is beginning to be fascinated by fitting things together, putting things into something and taking them back out.
Loves his shape sorter tool box if you start the shapes in the holes for him.
Loves anything with buttons.
Can climb stairs and loves to try to climb anything that looks remotely climbable.
Still loves people and is very social when we go out. No signs of stranger anxiety, but the separation anxiety has hit big time and Mama can no longer leave the room without dramatics.
Weighs 22 pounds 13 ounces with his clothes on.
I have no idea how tall he is.

And I give you, Nick at 11 months.

He always wants to touch the camera :P

Nick rides the rocking horse/zebra
Nick loves this old rocking horse that I dug out of the garage and cleaned up for him.

1.62 MB Windows Media Player video file
(video runs for 34 sec)

Nick is walking!

2008-02-17T20:17:05Z

My prediction came true: it is the end of the weekend, and Nick is mostly walking. He still falls down a lot, and if he needs to get somewhere fast he crawls. But otherwise, he's walking! He's mastering the fine art of steering to get where he wants to go, and I've even seen him turn around 180 degrees to go back to where he just came from (without falling down). Here's a cute video for you:

Nick walks
I pieced together two short video clips. He was so tired, and he's pulling at his ear, but clearly pleased with himself for being able to walk.

3.73 MB Windows Media Player video file
(video runs for 1 min 21 sec)

He's also really into flipping the pages in board books. He loves books with pictures of babies. So much so that he's a little confused about what books are called. We would point to a picture and say "baby," so now he calls all books "baby." I think that's his real first word. It's too cute ;)

And... he has teeth!

2008-01-26T18:22:55Z

After 47 attempts to get a decent picture ... here you go!

Two on the top. They are sharp too! Little stinker bit me on the leg this morning because I wasn't paying attention to him!

One on the bottom, and one more about to poke through.

And one more just because he's so stinkin' cute. Even if it is out of focus ;) He kept wanting to grab the camera :P

Things that make me smile :)

2008-01-22T15:55:50Z

Hand-me-downs :) This outfit was given to me for Scott at his baby shower by my Aunt Sonya.

Scott wearing it :) January of 2004 (7 months)

Nick wearing it :) December of 2007 (9 months)

Ezri wearing it :) January of 2008 (4 months)

griggskids @ 2008-01-09T16:32:00

2008-01-09T22:32:43Z

I'm trying to improve my picture taking, so I'm hoping to be better about posting lots of photos here :)

A couple of pictures of Nick with his daddy.