theo's first trip to orange county

in the beginning of june we took the family down for theo's first trip to orange county. someone (me) came up with the genius idea of leaving after theo's doctor's appointment, thinking it would be right around sully's naptime and he would sleep the whole way.


well.


sully was having a hard time falling asleep in the car AND we got stuck in hideous l.a. traffic. we ended up pulling over in carson so i could feed theo, then we had to put screaming kids back in the car and drive for another hour. the whole journey took over 5 hours when on a good day you can get to o.c. in 3 1/2.

grandma nonie meets theo for the first time! she loved meeting the newest member of the family. we spent a nice afternoon at the jenssen's.

grandpa got a blow-up pool and sullivan spent hours and hours hopping in and out of it and playing with his ball.

the jenssen's were also in town so we spent one morning in dana point harbor. sullivan refuses to hold my hand, but he will hold iris's hand all day. they looked so cute running around looking at all the boats.

sully goes to gymnastics!

i thought gymnastics would be a fun father/son thing for ryan and sully to do while ryan was on paternity leave. ryan got mono and was only able to take him to one class which was unfortunate because he LOVED it! i think all the trampolines were his version of heaven. and ryan said he was an animal...even when all the other kids sat down to take a break, sully was still running around and jumping like crazy. i would love to be able to take him but i don't know if i can watch him and participate while also tending to theo. we'll see, maybe in a few months when theo is a little older.

i posted the pictures backwards; this last shot is actually from when they first arrived and sully is looking into the play area. ryan said he threw a little tantrum before the class even started because he wanted to get in there so badly.

june pictures

i was going to do a separate post for all these different things we did, but just the thought of it was daunting and i knew i would never post very much. so i am posting a little bit of everything.

here is the first picture with me and both of the boys. i have perfected the move of picking up sully while i am already holding theo. i should do it more often; it's like doing squats while holding 30lbs.

ryan is the luckiest guy in the world because he just happened to be on maternity leave during the 2010 world cup! ryan took this picture of early-morning sully with a game on in the background.

later that day, sully watching a game with my dad. 'goooooooaaaallllll!'

look at the beautiful sparkly ryan got me! all i had to do was give birth to his child. it is GORGEOUS. the big stone is theo's birthstone, alexandrite. it is really beautiful because it changes colors in different lights; sometimes it looks green and sometimes it is more of a purple color. i love it and wear it all the time. i need to figure out a way to wear the one i have for sully at the same time.

here is auntie mere on one of our first outings with both of the boys. i want to say this is the first time we got out after sully's virus. we were only at the park for a few minutes--sully wanted to play but still wasn't feeling well and had a meltdown. by the time i got theo into the baby carrier it was time to go. poor sully just wasn't ready yet. it was good practice though, for dealing with traveling with both boys.

here's some video of sully and my dad watching soccer.

a fallen superhero

the week we brought theo home from the hospital was one of the most challenging times for me and ryan. we were dealing with a newborn, i was recovering from birth and it was one of the hottest junes on record. and to make things even worse, sully came down with a nasty virus. when he wasn't sleeping, he was crying or throwing up. it was TERRIBLE. ryan and sully were quarantined from the rest of the family to make sure no one else got sick. poor sullivan was already feeling a little slighted when theo came home and once he got sick i couldn't hold him or give him much attention at all.

i can't remember the situation now, but ryan and i went out for a little bit and left my parents at home to watch sully, who was taking a nap. when we got home this is how we found sully and my mom. my mom said he woke up screaming mad and stumbled around the house yelling 'mama....! daddy....!' Eventually he collapsed into a heap on the floor and fell asleep.

at the time ryan and i told ourselves that someday we'd be telling people the story of when we brought theo home from the hospital and we would be laughing, but we aren't QUITE there yet.

theo grey has arrived!

theo grey woodward has arrived! he weighed in at 7 pounds, 7 ounces and 19 inches long. i am so grateful that both my sister and ryan were here for the whole thing. they rubbed my back and helped time contractions. the below picture was taken a few hours before my water broke:

here is the new addition! he was born at 7:45 a.m. on june 2nd.

i promise more to come, i just wanted to get a few pictures on here.

easter!

we went down to orange county for easter and had such a great time. ginni bought the boys matching outfits for the occasion, and between me, jenny and ginni we took literally hundreds of pictures. they looked so cute! jenny snapped the best pictures but here are a few that i took that turned out okay.

neither aidan nor sullivan wanted to keep the bunny ears on, but how sweet does aidan look? i can't get over his expression.

if it resembles a ball, sullivan is going to throw it.

big smile!

look what i have mom!

the other notable thing about this day was the earthquake. i have experienced three or four earthquakes since i have lived in california, but this was by far the biggest. i was also upstairs taking a nap when it hit, and i think i felt it even more up there. it was like a big semi was driving by...but it didn't stop, and suddenly it got stronger. i was kind of groggy from my nap and before i could really react ryan came to get me and we all went into the back yard. later we found out it was a 7.2 and the epicenter was just south of the boarder in mexico. exciting, but quite unsettling at the same time. the ground just isn't supposed to move like that.

back from sabbatical

phew! it has been a long time since i've posted anything (obviously). the excuse for this is the same excuse i have for everything: i'm exhausted! chasing sully around tires me out when i'm not 8 months pregnant, and now that i have to maneuver around my exponentially growing belly it has complicated things considerably. i feel like a normal human being about 10% of the time, like when i'm sitting on couch, or sometimes driving around i hardly feel pregnant at all. the rest of the time, i'm trying to sleep or move around with a wiggly beach ball attached to my stomach. and i'm wondering, 'when can i sit/lay down/eat/nap?' i have also come to the grim realization that i had my last really good night's sleep sometime in february, and will not likely sleep well again until at least september.

with that being said, i'm really going to focus on keeping the blog relatively up-to-date. we take a ton of pictures and i enjoy doing it. i also know that my faithful readers (wink wink) love reading updates and seeing new pictures of sully and our goings-on up here on the central coast. so without further delay, i will get the first of a few new posts up. it's good to be back.