November Events

Since the last post, we have had some news and happenings as well as a trip to the ocean! The first bit of news we received came on the 6th. I had an ultrasound and amnio done to rule out the chance of Down's we had discovered on a previous blood test. Everything came back normal all around on the test and we found out we are having a GIRL! So we will have one of each and we are pretty excited! Alistair is even coming around on the idea of a baby. He will point to my stomach or pat it and say, "baby." We keep asking him about babies and if he wants one around and he keeps saying yes. We will see if that answer is the same next April! To lessen the chances of having a spontaneous miscarriage following an amnio, they suggest you do nothing or next to nothing for 24 hours after. Seth took Friday off and Seth's parents took Alistair for 2 nights. So we had some time to ourselves at home. It was a really nice break but I glad to see Alistair when we picked him up! David and Judy took him to a farm in Yelm. From the photos she sent, it looks like they had a grand old time!

That weekend we headed off to Cape Disappointment State Park with my parents for 3 nights. We had a yurt and they parked their trailer on our site where there are hook-ups. It made it really convenient for eating as the rain was never hard until the day we left, but walking around with food from site to site in some kind of rain isn't fun. My parents brought a card table and chairs and we put it up in the yurt for a bit more space to eat and hang out. We drove to Astoria and Seaside on Sunday. We hit up the local outlet mall and then found lunch in downtown Seaside. It was a real Washington Coast day (ie soaking rain), so driving around and staying warm and dry was good. On Monday we got up to blue sky and sun. It was gorgeous that day. We drove out to Ocean City and browsed through Jack's Country Store which has just about anything you could need and then walked around Long Beach. We hiked up to Northhead Lighthouse and it was beautiful - no wind, sunny and dry. We spent the remainder of the day enjoying the weather and being able to sit outside in November. We got up Tuesday to a complete down pour, which is always fun to pack up in!

This past Monday (the 17th), Alistair he had his cardiology appointment. Everything looks the same, no changes. That is good, change would mean it was getting worse. Dr. Lewin wants to see him again in 6 months and if everything still is the same, he thinks we can go to yearly appointments instead of every 6 months. Alistair did really well this time and I think it was fun for Dr. Lewin to have the interactions with Alistair that he did. Then at the end of the week (this past Friday), we found out Alistair might have an Inguinal Hernia, which is a hernia in the groin area. It doesn't bother him, but he gets swollen on the right side. We are going to get in touch with a pediatric surgeon this week about a consult to see if that is indeed what he has. If he does, it will be an outpatient surgery, at least for most. For Alistair it could be inpatient because of having to be anesthetized for it - he may need to be observed over night because of his heart condition. We will see. We aren't overly worried about, but it is weird to think a 2 year old has a hernia!

Alistair is also showing signs of wanting to potty train. He has already sat on his potty chair or the big toilet a few times and gone. But it has to be his idea, although the past few days we have gotten him to do it after heavy suggestion. He has also tested the toilets at a co-worker of Seth's house, Children's Hospital and Lowe's. So obviously public bathrooms are not a concern for him. He isn't consistent about it yet. He will go days without doing it and then will want to do it a bunch. It might be a longer process, but I think doing it when he is ready is better for everyone, knowing his penchant for being stubborn! ;)

Eating Adventures with Alistair

We had Mexican food tonight for dinner. Seth made a Turkey Enchilada Casserole and with it we had chips and salsa. Anyone who has ever had salsa at our house in the past years knows about the Martinson salsa. My parents make and can their own salsa and it is awesome. They will shrug their shoulders and say it good but I don't think they quite understand the manner in which it is regarded, at least among our friends! Well they made some this year - it has been a few years. We went down to help and now have our own little stock of salsa. Alistair likes chips and salsa so much so that he took the bowl of salsa from me (I was holding it over for him to dip his chip) and proceeded to bathe/baste his chip in the salsa with the spoon and also occasionally just eat it from the spoon. Eventually I got tired of handing him chip after chip and just handed him the bowl of chip bits. He worked on those for a bit and then when it became too cumbersome to dip each chip bit, he just dumped them into the salsa and then proceeded to eat them with the spoon! If that isn't an endorsement for how good the salsa is, I don't know what is! (:

Alistair also has taken a liking to eating, or attempting to eat, lemon and lime wedges. My brother got a good shot of his pucker when we were in Disneyland and I got a decent shot tonight of him with the lime wedge from my pregnancy-friendly cocktail. He always ends with a "blech!" and hands it back to me...but when he sees another, he wants to eat it. Glutton for punishment I guess! (:

Happy Halloween!

Alistair had a busy Halloween. We started off by meeting Grandma and Grandpa H. for breakfast where he received his trick-or-treat bag - which came in handy for the remainder of the day. After breakfast we cruised past Nana's office for all her co-workers to ooh and ahh at the cute dinosaur and give him candy. Then we were off to Burien to Papa's office. We did the circuit there which resulted in some candy, some animal cards and a Curious George DVD from Papa. Then we went to Daddy's office for our final stop. After a break there, we went to lunch and then dropped Seth off at the hospital and came home. Later in the afternoon, before the official trick-or-treat time started, we went to the neighbor's houses on either side of us and then across the street later on when she got home. I think he might grasp the concept of trick-or-treating more next year, it seemed to be lost on him this year. However, he did like carrying the bag!