This should be interesting

Today Dad-E and I are at home (he's working from home, I'm just playing with Ru), and getting things ready for our trip to Ohio tomorrow! We are going to be making the drive back north, which in total is about 12 hours up to Findlay, but we'll be breaking it up to spend some time with his family too in Cincinnati and our friends in Dayton. So, it'll "only" be about 9-10 hours for our first leg of the trip. Well, I take that back... it would be 9-ish hours if it were just Eric and I driving... but, with an almost 7 month old and an overly excitable golden retriever, I'm sure we're in for a long haul. We're going to make the best of it though, no complaints! We are just excited to see our family and friends... especially those who have yet to meet our lil Ru! Thank goodness for having my moms SUV to drive home in, we'll have a lot more room for all of us... I'm just dreading the drive back to SC in my Nissan, especially if it still looks like this...

Yep, this is my back windshield blown out from horrible hail storms they had up in Findlay yesterday. What great luck! My poor mom... she's had my car (somewhat unwillingly and I know she misses her big SUV!), and since she's had it she has had to get a new tire, and now this! Go figure. Time to go car shopping for me...

Anyway, we probably won't be updating for awhile because we'll be at home enjoying time with our family and friends, so don't miss us too much! And wish us luck on this long, fun drive home...

Props to Pops

While most of you were sitting on your couch watching some dude pass out while trying to win the heart of last season's reject on The Bachelorette last night, you know what I was doing? I was changing a circuit breaker with a flashlight in my 100 degree garage. Ah the joys of home-ownership...

On Sunday night after giving Alli her nightly bath, I headed into her bedroom to get things ready to put her to bed while Mommy B dried her off and got her in her onesie. I flipped the light switch on the wall, and nothing. Great... now what? Luckily it was still light outside so I was able to see my way around, but I could tell that nothing was kicking on. No night-light, no lamp, no clock, no ceiling fan. Even though we had power in every other room of the house, I knew this posed a pretty big problem. Not only are we leaving town soon, but it was 95 degrees here yesterday.... today is supposed to flirt with the record high of 97. I don't care if people think Alli is coddled, but a 7-month-old needs a fan on when they're sleeping in this kind of weather. So I knew what that meant - Dad-E was looking for the nearest phone booth to change wardrobes into Super Dad.

I tried flipping the circuit breaker a couple times to see if it had been tripped, but got nothing. I tried leaving it off for the night in hopes that something had been tripped and needed to be reset. I checked things again Monday morning, still nothing. I even busted out my latest birthday present from Mommy B - a Voltage Tester. That's right Followers, last Christmas she got me a car jack and stands and this year a voltage tester for my birthday. Needless to say I'm not much of a video-gamer...

Anyway, I flipped the breaker back on and tried the voltage tester in every single outlet in Alli's room. Much to my surprise, every single one read "hot", meaning that I was getting juice to her room - but not enough to power a night light? This meant that there could have been any number of culprits - a bad switch, a wire touching another somewhere, a wire shorted out, a fried circuit breaker or heaven forbid, a wire that has been chewed through or frayed in the wall somewhere.

I came home from work and tried a couple more things to no avail. So before I went on a wild goose chase, I called the man - my dad. Followers might recall that this guy can fix anything. He ran me through a couple things to test to narrow down the cause, and we both decided it would be best (and easiest) to replace the circuit breaker all together and go from there. After a quick run to Lowe's, I was ready to rock and roll. Mommy B fired up Skype on our laptop and Pops did on his end as well. With the power completely off in the whole house, it was a race against time before Alli's room became too hot.

With Mommy B holding the laptop and flashlight, Pops walked me through removing the old circuit breaker and replacing it with a new one. We flipped the main power back on, then flipped on the new breaker. The new breaker was fine, but the moment the juice started flowing, Mommy B and I saw the culprit. There was a neutral wire that was not completely connected to the grounding tree - and it was sparking slightly. We could tell right away that it had been that way for a while, as the end of it was completely fried. We just knew that this was our gremlin...

Again with Pops' careful instructions, I killed the power, cut the fried wire off, stripped the plastic coating and found another spot to reattach it. We flipped the main power back on, and Mommy B went up to Alli's room to check things out. She came back down to the garage with a big thumbs up, which meant we were back in business. Thank god - because I'm no electrician and I didn't feel like punching holes in the drywall tracking down a frayed wire.

Our jubilation was short-lived, however. I had opened the garage door a couple feet to let some air in, but not enough that the entire mosquito population of South Carolina would want to join us. This provided just enough room for Scarlett to take herself on a walk. So just as I put everything back together and put away, off Mommy B and I went into the neighborhood to find our crazy dog in the darkness. Oh, and she hasn't worn a collar since Alli was born - so it was a real treat trying to find out where she went. I never thought I'd miss that jangly dog collar...

We were able to find her rather quickly, and she came right to me. We made it back to the house and got everything back to normal. Alli had her night light and fan going again (even though she had slept through this whole ordeal). Major crisis averted, thanks to modern technology and a dad that knows a few things. Also, I didn't electrocute myself and everything is in working order for when we leave town.

Overall, I took it as a real learning experience. I got to unearth some of my troubleshooting and critical thinking skills from my past job in Customer Support - but more importantly I learned even more about electricity than I already knew. If a situation like this ever happens again, I'll know exactly what to look for and know how to fix some of the (easier) possible culprits.

I think that's what you really strive for as a parent - to teach your kid how to analyze a situation and how to work their way through it to a resolution. That way, if they ever face a similar situation in the future, they'll know how to deal with it properly. So, props to Pops - job well done.

Cartoon of the Week

This is perhaps the best idea I've ever heard of!! For those of you who don't know, our whole downstairs of our house is hardwood. We have one large rug in the living room that usually serves as Alli's play area... but also serves as Scarlett's favorite place to lay... which presents the dilemma of dog hair, everywhere. We vacuum that rug at least once a week, and when I say vacuum, I mean, we vacuum it for like 15 minutes. One rug. That's how much dog hair our loving, sweet golden retriever sheds. So needless to say, Alli is down on her belly, scooting around, usually coming up with hands and mouths full of dog hair. Awesome. I love this idea in the comic, to add lint tape to her onesie... pictures to come.... :o) Just kidding! I think...

I just miss her...

This week has been a crazy one. With my new jobs starting in the past few weeks, it's been a bit chaotic. My Meduflex position at the hospital is an interesting one... I'm able to sign up for shifts whenever I want, knowing though that I'm the first person that will get cancelled if hospital census is low. So, Monday and Tuesday, I got cancelled. However, I'm also coordinating a project called 'Nursing Your Career Camp', where Charleston County high school students that are interested in nursing come to MUSC for 3 days and shadow nurses, work in the simulation lab, get their CPR certification, and hear specialized nurses give speeches about their areas of expertise. I am organizing it all, and it's a bit overwhelming, but exciting too. So, I worked on that camp for hours both Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday I had my first day orienting for my home health RN position. It was with a wonderful family and a sweet 6 year old boy, a very interesting and new experience for me.

Today, I worked on the cardiac floor and had to perform chest compressions on a 2 month old cardiac pre-op patient who was going downhill fast... how scary and what an experience. But how rewarding to see him doing well by the time I went home today. It's just been quite a busy, crazy week. And all at the same time, my little girl is learning new words/sounds, saying dada like it's her job, and just growing like crazy. I feel like I'm never around to see it all... most nights I get home, and she's already asleep. It's exhausting, yet my job is so rewarding too. I just wish I could work because I want to, not because I have to. Then I could be here for all her big moments, and little ones... I just don't want to miss a thing.

First words... for real this time!

That's right folks, our little Alli girl has technically uttered her first word. Naturally, it was the "dada" sound that 95% of babies manage to say first. After Mommy B picked her up from daycare yesterday, she took her home to hang out for the afternoon. While opening up the refrigerator with Alli in one arm, she began curling her tongue just a bit and made a "dadadada" sound. She did it only briefly, but Mommy B swore up and down to me when I got home that she "spoke".

I came home a little early and we decided to take the whole fam damily for a walk around the neighborhood. Avid Followers might be noticing a trend here... I love running, Mommy B loves pushing the stroller, and Scarlett.. well, going for a "W" is her favorite thing in the world. Mommy B and I have resorted to just calling it a W because she's learned what the word "walk" means. Anyway, Alli was being a little fussy in the afternoon and wouldn't take her afternoon nap - so we decided a family walk might help sooth her a bit.

While Mommy B was getting changed and getting the stroller ready for the walk, I was playing with Alli on the floor. All of a sudden, she curled her tongue just a bit and began babbling "dadada" at me. I almost freaked out! I called to Mommy B and told her to come post haste so she could hear it too. Of course, by the time she got there it had trailed off a bit and was just baby talk at that point. However, we both knew we were on to something at that point... as we had both heard something that resembled words.

As we walked around the neighborhood, Alli would periodically babble - each time sounding just like the "dadada" that we heard earlier. Mommy B and I looked at each other and knew today was the day. Well, Alli decided that she was going to fall asleep as we neared the end of our walk - so we decided to keep going until she woke up. After all, she hadn't had her afternoon nap so we figured that as long as she was getting her nap in, we'd be in the clear. Scarlett couldn't have been happier when we walked past the house for Lap 2. Good ol' stroller worked like a charm.

We returned home sometime later, fed the Bottomless Pit and played with her for a little while longer. Then it was off to bath and bed, just an hour or so later than normal. Alli wasn't quite ready to pass out, so we left her to put herself to sleep like normal. From downstairs we could hear her talking. We both tip-toed back upstairs and stood outside her partially-opened door listening to her go on and on. Sure enough, "dadadada" was just about all she was saying.

I'm not sure where she picked it up, but it was just like a light switch went off and she started saying it. The part that really shocked us was that we've never heard her make any noises that sounded even close to that before - it was basically hearing her make a completely new sound for the first time. So not only was it a completely new sound, but it was a new sound that was really close to being an actual word! We know we're in for it now, because she's just going to start "talking" more and more and each day could potentially bring something else.

Either way, we're pretty excited for our little girl. She has hit so many milestones just in the last couple of weeks that it seems like someone hit fast-forward on her development. Long gone are the days of her falling asleep on my chest (heck, she doesn't even fit there anymore) and the days of back-talking and attitude are fast approaching. We'll have to make sure we curb that early on - she technically is a Southern Belle, after all. But being the offspring of two smart-asses could prove challenging for Mommy B and I...

Cartoon of the Week

Well, this isn't really a cartoon... but more of a slogan we've heard quite a bit down here...

We will be doing just that in just about 10 days! We're making the trip back home to Ohio for the first time with Alli (and Scarlett too... oh boy!) I am very excited to see our friends and family again, especially the people who have yet to meet our little Ru. We're planning on getting up around the normal time, 5:30-6am and hitting the road Friday morning, and getting into Cincinnati sometime that afternoon or evening. It's usually a 9-ish hour drive, but with a baby and a crazy golden retriever, I'm not banking on making good time, I just want us all to get there in one piece. We'll spend the night and next day in Cinci visiting Dad-E's family, and having Alli meet some family members she hasn't met yet! Sunday, we're headed up to Dayton where a whole group of our friends from college will be meeting up with us to say hi & meet the Ru-ster. That evening, we'll head up to Findlay where we'll spend the rest of the week. She's going to get to meet a lot of people, and I just hope she's not too exhausted and thrown off schedule by it all. But we're staying positive and hoping for a great trip!! It might even be nice to have a few nights where Dad-E and I can just go take a break... even if it's just going out to eat, get Archie's (yayy!! for those Findlay people, they know what I mean!!), or go to a movie without Alli... it will be a nice break. Not that we don't love the girl to pieces, but, we always have to take her everywhere with us and don't get much time to ourselves since we don't have family down here. Start to kind of feel like this window washer guy... (here's your comic for the week!)



Picture this...

You get out of work on Friday afternoon after a long week of slaving away for The Man. It's 80 degrees out even though it's late in the afternoon. As you're picking up your 6-month-old from daycare, your cell phone rings. Your best friend (and his girlfriend) invite you, your wife and your kid out on a sunset boat cruise around Charleston Harbor. You dash home, grab the wife, pack up a cooler with some snacks and Cold Ones and hop on the boat at a public dock 12 minutes from your house. You spend the next couple of hours slowing cruising up and down the tidal creeks of Daniel Island sipping Coronas while your kiddo takes it all in. Plenty of pictures are taken to document the occasion...

You wake up on Saturday and go for a leisurely walk around the neighborhood with the whole family (dog included). Then, you drop the pooch off at home and take your daughter to her first visit to the neighborhood pool. You sit with her in the shallow end while she splashes around and gets used to the water and you work on your suntan. Then, you and your wife take turns holding her in the air and "dunking" her waist-deep into the water as she giggles and smiles at the experience. Again, plenty of pictures are taken to document the occasion...

On Sunday, you spend the morning cooking a hearty breakfast and relaxing at your house - watching your daughter learn how to use a sippy cup for the first time and scooting around on the floor. She's so close to crawling, you just know she's going to put it all together one of these days. You then give the car a wash and detail job thorough enough it could pass a showroom floor inspection. You wrap things up by either heading off to the beach for the afternoon or taking another walk around the neighborhood (dog included, of course). To end the day, it's burgers on the grill as the sun sets and a cool offshore breeze blows through your hair.

No, it's not vacation... it's just the weekend.