Froggie Goes To Ireland

We traveled 5000 miles to take all these pictures of Froggie!


Froggie decided he'd like to try his hand at driving on the left hand side. He talked our Ring of Kerry tour bus driver into letting him try.


Froggie has fun storming the Blarney Castle. It was a nasty day and Froggie was glad to be inside out of the rain.


Froggie was the only one brave enough to kiss the Blarney Stone. (Sorry there's a rain drop on the lens.) He now has the gift of gab...just what we need, he already gets in trouble for his songs.


Froggie ran into a bit of trouble, literally, in Cork and had to go to the Garda station in Kinsale to file a report.

When Froggie came out of the Garda station he had a nice lunch and then saw this church across the street.


He decided he needed to pray for forgiveness for all his "wild" days.

All that praying made Froggie thirsty.



The next set of pictures are what happens when Mommy's busy. Daddy, Connor and Froggie got a little bored while Mommy was busy helping Aunt Lydia get ready for the wedding. Note to self...don't leave the camera with a bored Froggie.

Froggie got into the whiskey supply of Lord Muskerry's, the baron of Springfield Castle.

Froggie found this little gong in the castle. He thought if he rang it the butler would bring him more whiskey.

It didn't work so he rang this bigger gong.

Froggie got frustrated so he rode into the closest village to buy his own damn whiskey!

Froggie realized he'd spent all of his Euro trying to bribe the Garda earlier in the week, so he asked Lord Muskerry if he could borrow a few Euro to get them some whiskey.

Froggie tried to get a few Euro out of the other locals.

Froggie tried to dare his new friends into doing shots.

Froggie's glad he didn't end up like this guy, but he went ahead and shared his whiskey with him.

Who invited this guy to the party? Froggie figured he was a little over dressed.


We had a great time on our trip. I'll try to put up the rest of the pictures and our "story" in my next post.

Missing Sophie

Yesterday I took Sophie to our friend's Laura and James house to stay during our trip. Sophie LOVES to go over there because her best friend, Molly the beagle, lives there. Molly and Sophie run and play and have a grand old time. Sophie usually sleeps for the rest of the day after coming home from Molly's house. I'm not sure what will happen when she's there for over a week.

Laura called last night and made me just listen. Sophie was "talking" to most of the dogs in the neighborhood. I mean who could blame her...she just wanted everyone to know she was there and ready to play. I guess James also tried to take her on a walk. (I requested that she weigh 5 lbs less when I come back to get her!) Laura said it was more of a drag than a walk. It seems that Sophie got tired (it's hot out...today was something like our 50th day of over 100 degree weather) and she sat down in the middle of the street.

I'm not sure what's going on there today. We have been playing phone tag all day. Maybe Sophie ate the phone! Anyway, I hope things go well there (I dying to hear the stories of the trouble she causes someone else)! We miss her here! Our house is eerily calm and quiet. Marley seems to think she's hit the mother load...wait until she realizes that if there's no Sophie then there's no family either.

Thanks Laura & James! We owe you big!

Baby Popsicles

They make some really cool things for babies these days. Connor has some of the little mesh things that you stick fruit in and he can suck on. So at Whole Foods today I bought some frozen peaches. We had to stop at the mall on the way home so I just plugged one in and he chewed on that the whole time we were there.

He really likes to share his popsicles with Sophie. Mommy doesn't think it's such a great idea.

Mmmmm!

I love to feed myself!

Sophie has her own version of a popsicle.

Mommy and Connor like to play!

Nora loaned me something called a Hip Hammock. It's a baby carrier for large babies! Why did I not find this before? I think this may be a saving grace on our trip to Ireland. Speaking of Ireland...we leave on Sat! I was planning on taking my computer so I could update our blog each day, but I think I've changed my mind. It's just one more thing to drag through customs and I'll be very upset if something happens to it. So, if we find a way to update the blog from Ireland, we will. But, I wouldn't count on it. I'll keep notes each day and update when we get back!

Today is the one year anniversary of my father's death. I can't believe it's been a year. It was such a hard time. I just hope that he has found "Peace At Last".

Baby Signs

Our friends MacKenzie, Jason and Corbin came over last Friday to loan us some luggage for our trip to Ireland. MacKenzie took some pictures of the boys playing together and posted them on her blog. These are the pictures I found on her blog.

So I know that I have not signed for a few years, but I do remember this one! Where did my child learn this? Daddy? Froggie? TV? Is he in a gang?

Corbin didn't think it was funny and was working up a smack down! Connor, on the other hand, is just a ham!

So the whole sleep thing has really been weighing on me. Everyone else's kid sleeps in their crib for massive amounts of time (to me anything over 30 min. is a massive amount of time). I've talked to Connor about all this. I've asked if he read the baby books that say he should be sleeping in his crib for 12 hrs. at time now. I mean he had 9 months to get ready for this gig..what was he doing in there?

BTW, I just had to stop because he woke up after a typical 30 minute nap.

Anyway, I have tried many things to get this kid to sleep for longer than 30 minutes. We have taken the front rail off his crib and put a bed rail on so that I could climb in with him to nurse him to sleep in there. 30 minutes later...awake and screaming. We moved his crib into our room. We switched sides in our bed so that the crib was right up against our bed. I spent the night rocking, patting and nursing him to keep him asleep. He did sleep for 2 2-hour stints though. Then the next night I spent 2.5 hours trying to get him to stay in there for more than 10 minutes. He screamed and cried. I let him cry for about 10 minutes while I took out my contacts and brushed my teeth and it then it took me 15 minutes to get him to calm down enough to put his head on my shoulder. I finally just gave up and took my side of the bed back so I could get some sleep.

So yesterday I decided to move the crib again so that I can keep my side of the bed. Then if he's dead asleep I can move him to his bed. Good idea right? Well, each time I thought he was deep enough to move, he'd wiggle and cry. So I never moved him. But I did let him sit in there while I took a shower. He seemed happy.

I'm not up for letting him cry it out. I know that concerned friends and family (and all the baby books) tell me that I should let him cry it out, but they don't have to live with him. He does not know how to soothe himself yet and therefore I do not feel that he's ready for the crib. He doesn't sleep for more than 30 minutes without me. I don't know why but it seems to be a deep need of his to be close (kinda like Sophie). But I feel like I'm doing something wrong by keeping him close to me even though everything about him says that I'm doing something right. He is such a happy baby these days...which is very different from the baby we brought home from the hospital. We all get the sleep we need and I have the time (thank you Dave) to meet his needs during the day. And yes, I know, having a baby sleep in your bed isn't good for your marriage...but he does sleep for 30 min. alone!

So, I'm sure I will continue to struggle with this issue. And I know I will continue to work on it, but for now I just need to let it go and say, "This is what's best for my baby and it works for us!"

Baby Food

I would swear that baby food flies out of this house almost as fast as diapers. (I think there's a connection there...maybe.) But this is how Connor looks right now after knocking back his second four ounce jar of baby food today...it's only 12:30pm. I'm thinking he's got this eating thing down!

He's being very difficult about going into seats these days so it's just become easier to deal with him in the walker. BUT...it makes it harder to hit your mark.

And now that he's finished, he's making "presents" for Mommy. (I think this is where that connection thing comes in!)

Everybody's Gotta Have Friends

We have been very lucky and made some good friends with couples who also have 5.5 month olds. Corbin is in the middle both in the picture and birth order. He is the smallest of the three, but definitely the fastest. He's ready to crawl while the other two are not strong enough yet to support their "weight." Sawyer, on the right, already has two teeth and is the best sleeper of the three.

Connor was happy just to hang out. They all thought the six adults trying everything to get them to smile were pretty funny looking.

Poor Corbin wasn't happy to be the guy in the middle. Can't you just hear Sawyer saying, "You ok, dude?"

Aren't they cute?

Sawyer wanted to make sure that Corbin's nails were clean and safe to be chewed on. What a friend!

I guess they were ok. And Connor...just sitting there talking to his feet.

We had lots of fun getting the boys together and comparing "war" stories. We can't wait to do it again and look forward to watching them all grow.

Sunday Fun

Connor and Marley have started getting along. Marley really likes blankets...enough to let the baby touch her as long as she gets to lie on one. He's working on opening and closing his hands so it makes a nice "pet" for Marley.

Our new friends in the neighborhood, MacKenzie, Jason and Corbin went to the Driftwood Winery with us. We got to see Courtney and had lots of fun.
Corbin's a BIG drinker. What's in that sippy cup?

Of course Froggie had WAYYYYY too much to drink...again. Courtney had to hold his hair while he puked.

Connor liked just hanging out with Mommy.