Date Night!

The birthday boy

On Saturday night, Steve and I went out on our first (of hopefully many) date night. The last one that we went on was so long ago I can't remember, and it was well before Hugh.

Steve asked our neighbor that pet sits for us, and she was excited to come over and watch the boys. We decided to have he come around 5ish and then she'd only have a little over an hour with the boys before bed at 6:30.

We went to Longhorn for dinner and it was AWESOME. I mean, to just sit and relax and talk and focus on each other was incredible. Something that you forget about when one of you is feeding a baby and the other is wrangling the preschooler. 

We had firecracker chicken roll ups for an appetizer (part of their two for $40 deal) and then I had their warm bree salad and it was frigging delicious! Steve just had a regular side salad. Then we each had filets and we were able to get a free sundae to share for his birthday. It was so great.

There are a few movies out now that we had wanted to see, but they're "fluff" movies and I figured if we're going to see something in a theater, it needs to be something good that we can't watch with the boys and can't spend several days trying to watch. We chose The Wolf of Wall Street.

First of all, I love Leo. Always have, always will. He did NOT disappoint in this movie. In fact, he was outstanding.

The movie was three hours long and moved so quickly that we didn't realize that it had been three hours. It was non-stop interesting and had us hooked. 

There's a LOT of nudity and drug use, and a lot of swearing, but it was such an interesting and honestly, quite funny a lot of the time. I highly recommend it!!

It was so nice to hold my husband's hand during the movie and to snuggle and enjoy a movie together. It reminded me of our days before children. We love movies and would go weekly to see a movie. It was nice.

Our movie was at 7pm and I was reminded instantly that I haven't been out at 7pm on a Saturday in ages. The theater was busy and there were people everywhere! It was so crazy! We must be the only people in the area that don't get out (EVER). LOL

After our movie, we headed home (it was after 10). When we walked into the house, the living room was clean. Our sitter cleaned up and it was so sweet.

When we came in, she was up in Hugh's room and brought him downstairs. He was hungry, so she was going to feed him. He was so excited to see us and I was excited to steal some snuggles before putting him back to sleep. She said the boys were good and went down without any problems.

It was such a great night. We've decided to try to do a date night every month. I think it's a great idea and I really look forward to our date in March!!

Date Night!

 

The Zombie Queen

 

Steve and I went on our first real date night last night. We've gone to the movies a few times while one of the sets of grandparents watch Gus, and we've even left him with his cousins in the care of my parents while we double dated with my twin brother and his fiance, but we've never left Gus alone with a non-family member for any period of time. EVER.

A few weeks ago, Steve sent me an email with a Living Social deal for "Terror on the Trail" at Sims Lake. He asked if I was interested and if I thought we could find a sitter for Gus so we could go and enjoy a night to ourselves. I checked it out and thought it looked fun, so I told him to go ahead and order the deal. For $15, we got two tickets for last night.

He contacted our neighbor to see if their daughter would be available to watch Gus, but since it was Hooch's Homecoming, she was not available. I asked Lesley if she'd be willing and to my utter surprise and delight, she said yes! Gus knows her (and Logan and Jason) and I thought it'd be a 50/50 chance that he'd be okay. 

We headed to their place at 7 and I took his iPad and some popcorn for her to have as a last-ditch effort should he be very distraught. He was interested in all their toys and went into the livingroom with Jason and started playing with the shape sorter. We took it as a perfect time to leave, and said our goodbyes to Lesley. She promised to call me if there was a problem.

We headed to Suwanee and we had no idea where we'd eat dinner, but figured that we could find something close to Sims Lake. I have to say, there's not a lot to choose from in that area. We ended up at Red Brick Oven (a Mediterranean-style place) and thought we had plenty of time to enjoy our dinner (it was 7:40ish when we arrived). Our food didn't come out until 8:30 and we had to be at our assigned tour time at 8:40. 

We managed to eat a bite and then grabbed boxes for our food and headed around the corner to the park. We had just enough time to get to the gate, use the bathroom, and get checked in just in time. 

Our group had three obnoxious teenagers... maybe they were in college, but I'm thinking they were probably not in college because their mom was waiting in the car to pick them up when we were finished. They were awful. 

The premise was to walk around the lake on a guided tour and we made several stops and heard various tales of terror from actors from the Aurora Theater. We were amazed at how awesome the actors were. We honestly were expecting teenagers to be dressed up and jump out at you along the trail, but it was definitely classier. At the beginning of the tour, the Zombie Queen told us that she had trapped seven souls and they would be sharing their story with us. All the stories were to align and all make sense at the end (since I'm a visual learner, I didn't follow the story at all- it was all oral). Thankfully, Steve got it and was able to explain it all to me.

 

The Zombie Queen posing for pictures

 

The first trapped soul was that of Lucy Sims

 

A zombie prom queen led us from Lucy to the next soul

 

Each of the story tellers had their own way of telling a story. This one was really good... all were good except for one guy, he just wasn't great.

 

This guy was awesome. 

 

Not all the trapped souls allowed us the opportunity to take pictures, but a few did. This guy was just creeeeeepy. His story was that he killed a family and then assumed their name and went on to live as them. His story had a lot of gore and at the end he "cut" his hand and blood ran down his arm.

 

Another zombie teenager leading our group

The tour was about an hour and a half and we were entertained. It wasn't "scary" but we had fun. I like that no one jumped out at us or chased us with chainsaws. :-)

While we were out, Lesley sent me two texts:

1) at 7:22

 

"Look mama! No tears! He's looked for you once or twice, but he's not upset at all! Have fun!"

 

Totally made me relax (we were just down the road when she sent it). I felt at ease and so glad that he wasn't flipping out.

2) at 7:47

 

"Still okay!"

It made me so happy to know that Gus was good. I trust Lesley and Jason or we wouldn't have asked them to watch Gus for us. I'm just glad that he had a good night and wasn't a problem for them. She said that Logan went to bed at 7:45. LOL.

We got to her house at 10:15 and Gus was excited to see us. She never had to break out the iPad or the popcorn and he didn't eat any of the snacks that I packed. She said he sat for a bit and watched tv and looked like he could fall asleep, but then he perked right up.

I think date night is overrated, but it's nice that if there's something that kids cannot come to (like a haunted walk), it's nice to know that we have someone that we can count on to watch Gus for us. We owe them a night of sitting for Logan. We also saved $$ because she watched Gus for free and we'll watch Logan for free. :-)  Perfection!

What A Day

 

Our Morning Captured in a Picture

We had Gus's two year appointment today. I was quite eager to talk to the pediatrician (Dr. Bear) about his speech and language development, and just to get more info on how he's doing. 

We waited in the lobby for maybe five minutes and this is what Gus looked like while we waited. FUN. And we had not even gone back yet. 

Now, you'd think that his reaction is from associating getting shots (pain) and the doctor, but he hasn't had a vaccine since his appointment in November, and he was just in last month to see Dr. Bear. So I don't know what caused the crying, but he was not a happy boy as we waited to go in.

Once inside, he cried as I undressed him. He cried while the nurse tried to weigh him. In fact, she tried to get me to hold him and weigh myself and then weigh myself without him. I passed on that... no thanks!!

In the end, he was able to get on the scale and he weighed in at 29 pounds. This puts him at the 63rd percentile. His height is now 36 inches (THREE FEET TALL!!!!) and that's the 87th percentile. Lastly, his sweet little head is 18.9 inches, which is the 32nd percentile.

Here are some pictures while we waited for Dr. Bear to come into the room.

Today we discussed Gus's eating, she said he's exactly where she wants him to be with his weight. Not too big and not too small and she said to keep up the great work on that. That's a HUGE relief actually.

Then we talked about his behavior and she said that the "terrible twos" are caused by their brains working quicker than their mouths and their not able to speak their thoughts, so it causes a lot of emotion and stress and frustration. She said the baby sign is helpful and obviously it helps Gus get his needs met.

I told her I was worried about his language development, so she recommended we get his speech and hearing evaluated to be on the safe side. She said she's 99% sure he's okay, but it's better to find out and be 100% sure than to risk not catching something sooner. He has fallen a few times (could it be balance or just being a toddler??) and hates a lot of loud noises (he can obviously hear... but is there something else causing this??). 

I called the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and made appointments for a hearing evaluation (it's an hour long) for June 7th and then he'll go for a speech evaluation on June 20th. The speech eval is two hours long!!

Then we talked about vaccines. I'm so glad that we did, because now the info that I have and the info that they have is aligned. We're moving to a catch-up schedule with Gus and I'm totally fine with that. He'll go back in November for an appointment with the nurse to get his Flu shot and another round of catch-up vaccines. Then when he goes in for his three year appointment, he'll be caught up. :-)

Today they drew blood from his finger (every year they do a Hemoglobin check) and then he had the Pediarix (a combo of DTaP/IPV(Polio)/HepB) and then the Hib (meningitis).

I just got a new train app the other day and I'm SO GLAD I have it. It's just video clips of trains but Gus was sucked into it. He watched while the nurse pricked his finger and drew blood and while he didn't like the blood draw (who does???) he wasn't screaming as I expected.

She was fully expecting him to fight her on the vaccines, but he was watching the train videos and was fine. He cried a little (maybe ten seconds at the most) and then was okay. It was incredible. He cried and cried when he was being weighed and they got his head size and height... but nothing for the real pain.

So we left the doctor's office and headed to Costco so I could get some cat food, tp, ground beef, and snacks. We left and went across the street to Wal-Mart and I picked up a few things as well and we headed home.

While I was at Wal-Mart, Dr. Bear had called and left me a VM. Gus's blood work was back and she wanted to talk to me about the findings and wants him to come back in three weeks to check it again. She said I could call her and talk to her, or just call for an appointment. Hmmmm.

I called her as soon as I was home and waited on hold for about ten minutes. They said she'd have to call back because she was with a patient. Fortunately, her nurse (that did the vaccines) called me and said that Gus's white blood cell count was low. They don't know what's the cause. It could be anemia, could be Leukemia, could be nothing. The protocol is to go in again and have it done and if there's STILL an issue, we go see a blood doctor for more work.

I'm trying to stay positive, but it's still pretty scary. I just pray that he's okay and healthy. I literally do not know what I'd do if there was something seriously wrong with him.  :-(

After we got home and I unpacked the groceries and Costco goodies, Gus took his nap and I talked to my mom on Facetime. We talked for a while and then I hung up and started to attempt to clean the house a bit. It's a disaster.

Gus got up from his nap and we called my mom back so she could see him. We're excited to see her in two days!! WHOO HOOO!!! It's been nine months since I last saw Scott, Christie and the kids and it's been four months since I last saw my mom and dad! It's a long-overdue trip!!

It was like 5:30 and I wasn't sure what I was making for dinner yet. I decided to call Christie and get her enchalada recipe, but I got her voice mail. I decided that by the time she called back and I got started with dinner, I could have been at Taco Thursday and home already. :-) So Gus and I headed out for a date night.

We had a great dinner together. We played trains, cars, and drew together. He seemed to really enjoy himself. He ate well and it was a very enjoyable experience!

 

Nosey Walker

 

Choo Choo!!

 

My date

We headed home and shared a strawberry milkshake. :-)  It started to really rain so we went to the front door and watched the rain. It was a perfect ending to a stressful day.

We are more than ready for daddy to get home tomorrow afternoon. It's just not the same when he's gone, and hopefully he won't be traveling away from us for a long time.