On the Loose

Harrison is a crawling machine (it only took him forever to learn!)  We have two sets of stairs in our home here in Alabama.  Those stairs, I swear, call to him, begging him to crawl on them.  He's a maniac.  This boy eats his Wheaties! 

Quick Pics of our Alabama Home

**Be prepared, there are a TON of photos.**

This picture was taken by the previous owners, but you get the idea.

Master Bath

Master Bedroom--needs pics and decorating

Another view of Master

Spare room (and Dakota)

Spare room (for all our guests!!)

Little Man's room

Little Man's Room

Hall Bath

La Cocina

Cabinets are a little old, but it's definitely more than we had

Looking up in our backyard

The yard is fully fenced with a boatload of trees

Love it!

New washer and dryer--LOVE them! 

Playroom

Playroom again-this is supposed to be a family room

We just didn't have anymore furniture!

Looking up stairs

Living room-I love all the windows and wooden blinds

Again needs a little decorating

Looking towards dining room

I still need to take pictures of our dining room, but honestly, it's just your average dining room Nothing fancy. It was hard to spend a ton of time/money decorating this place knowing that in less than 12 months, we will be packing up and doing this whole moving thing again.  Brian, thinking he was some sort of superhero, insisted on packing and driving the 22 foot moving truck down here (getting lost on the way despite having GPS).  Midway through loading the truck, he said we will NEVER do this again by ourselves.  Thank you very much... I only said that we should hire movers 20 times.  I win!  I called the day the guys rolled out of town and arranged to have movers meet them at our AL house to "help them out."  Apparently they had all of our belongings unloaded in 1 1/2 hours.  Men and their superhero capes... 

Adventures in Alabama

We had quite the interesting drive to Alabama.  Harrison did fantastic.  There were only a few meltdowns that were easily fixed with a little Baby Einstein DVDs.  The dog, who I thought would be the biggest party-pooper, slept the entire way.  Ozzy, on the other hand, almost found a new home in Illinois.  I had gotten a prescription for kitty Xanax, thinking that would knock him out.  No such luck.  I took a video of the incessant meowing, pseudoseizure looking behavior and drooling.  It's hilarious now, but we will NEVER travel with the cat again.  Ever.  

We are mostly settled into our new house.  We are getting acquainted with our new surroundings.  I am happy to say that I have found a nearby Target and an awesome mall.  We also bought a cute baby pool for Harrison, which he adores.  I hope to take pictures of the house today and will post them soon.  For now, here are a few photos of the boy.  

Happy baby in the pool

This is his new face when he sees the camera

The oh-so-very-cool pool

Beanbags in the backyard

Hawkeye baby (in Madison)

Cormac and Harrison (last dinner out in Madison)

Cuddles with Aunt Keri -like the new couch?  :)

The army crawl

A quick video of Harrison doing his new thing... army crawling! 

PICU family

Dear PICU peeps,

I am going to try not to be too much of a sap.  Try being the key word. Because I know most of you have blogs and because I know I won't get to see all of you before heading out, I thought I would send out a message on Baby Lud's space.  Thank you thank you thank you for welcoming me into the crew.  I came as a fresh young nurse, scared to make any assessments of my own.  I had a bit of a rough start... well bagging a kid with room air is always a bad idea.  But I feel, now that I am leaving, that I have learned a tremendous amount of info about myself and how to take good care of kiddos.  It is so hard for me to say goodbye to a job and friends that I love.  I will miss late night market runs for sodas and popcorn and trying not to laugh when Sam has CP Jack make her another milkshake.  I will even miss Julia s-s-slurping her slushy loudly.  I will miss talking everyone into ordering Burrito Drive and feeling awful for the rest of night.  I will miss "Chinese here" and Nickel nuggets.  (Apparently I am going to miss food more than you all.... :)) 

I will miss more than anything your friendship.  You were my support system, my second family.  I knew I could call, say for example, Stacie on a Friday night when Brian was out of town to ask if I needed to take Harrison to urgent care because he was wheezing.  I knew I could yell out for help when my trauma was sitting up in bed--intubated.  I knew I could always count on you to back me up.  And I could always count on you for a good laugh, gossip fest or a shoulder to lean on.  I hope I find another ICU that treats me as well as AFCH.  I will always remember the fun times we had.  

Stay sassy!  And stay in touch!

"Why you acting so crraaazy!?"

10 months!

It's so hard to believe our baby boy is almost 10 months!! A little update on the boy:  He is now army crawling everywhere.  And boy, can he book it!  He walks fairly well while holding your hands and can stand while holding onto something for a good 10 minutes.  Favorite toys lately include tupperware and spatulas.  If it even closely resembles something made for a baby, he has no interest.  Oh, and he l-l-loves the dog.  He still isn't saying too much... mostly "ga" and "ca"-- I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is a sign of higher intelligence later in life.  We are experimenting with new finger foods.  He loves mandarin oranges, chicken, and ravioli.  Check out his hair--it WILL NOT stay down... poor kid is going to have a buzz cut for life. 

As for Brian and I, we are in the midst of packing up and heading out.  Brian takes boards on Thursday of this week and we will then be in full packing mode.  We hope to be moved and settled in Birmingham by next Saturday.  Wish us luck on our drive across country.  I will have a cat (medicated with a little Xanax, mind you) and a baby (hopefully a sleeping, quiet, happy baby) in my car.  Auntie Keri, who is so awesome for volunteering to come with us, will have the dog in her vehicle.  And Brian will be driving a semi, that is our moving truck!  This will be nothing short of an interesting adventure...

Baby in a box--this entertained him for at least 30 minutes

When all else fails, let him play with newspaper