Vacation!

We are planning a trip to Las Vegas in July (like my new background?).  I know that I am talking about this 2.5 months in advance but I am such a planner that I have to talk about it (or I'm just super ready for vacation).  Here's the situation....me, Sean, Hunter, my brother and his wife, Jessica, Sean's stepmom (Nana) and his Dad, Jim, Sean's sister, Ferrell and her boyfriend and Sean's sister, Marnie are planning on coming on our trip.  Nana and Jim (Grandpa) live in C.A. and his sister, Ferrell lives in Colorado so they will be meeting us there. We are staying in our timeshare that is off of the Vegas strip and it is a very family oriented resort (they don't even have a casino) so that assures me that taking Hunter there at 10 months old will work out nicely.  Luckily, we will have the help of our family to watch Hunter while we are there. Not saying that they are going to watch him the whole time but at least Sean and I can have a little bit of a vacation.  I'm so excited! I can't wait to see everyone and have a good time.

Right now, we have everything booked except for the flight.  We prefer to take Southwest Airlines because they allow you 2 bags free and we are going to have to take a lot of stuff out there.  I check everyday (seriously, everyday) and the flights roundtrip leaving from Fort Lauderdale are still at $1,000! We were also planning on Hunter having his own seat because at 10 months, I can't imagine him trying to sit on me or Sean's lap buuuut I called to see how much extra it would be for him to have his own seat and it was $525! No way!  I understand that we are traveling across the country but we will be broke before we get there with just the costs of the flight.  I have checked at every different hour of the day because they suggest looking at midnight on a Thursday night or something like that.  We've considered flying the day before or after we planned on leaving and it doesn't make a difference.  I'm hoping that they will go down here in the next month. If not, I guess we will have to pay that much money (minus getting Hunter his own seat...yikes!).  I have looked on other travel sites and they are cheaper but by the time we add all of the extra baggage fees it comes out to the same amount.  I'm thinking that I'll just give it a break for about a week and see what happens.  

Also, I am really nervous with flying with Hunter at 10 months.  It's not like he is 3 months old and can nurse on me the whole time and be fine. Plus we have a long flight! We definitely have decided that having a layover is most likely needed.  I just think that Hunter is going to be squirmy and want to crawl and not want to be on our laps the whole time. He already is getting like that.  We are also considering taking a overnight flight where we could take a non-stop flight and Hunter would sleep the whole time (well, hopefully).  I already have a stash of new toys that I will be bringing for the flight and in Vegas for him.    So that should help. I've read on my message boards of all the things that you should bring so I think I have that covered.  Just hoping Hunter will cooperate but oh well, if he doesn't.  He will be 10 months old, he is going to cry, he is going to yell and be a baby.  Now I will be one of those parent's that will be traveling with a child hoping that they will cooperate.  So this is definitely going to be an adventure. 

Another thing, we are hoping that we are moving before this trip because it would be exhausting to have to come  back after vacation and move.  Right now, looks like we should be in a new house in early June.  Let the packing begin! 

My pumpkin! Thinking hard about something.

Un-Eventful

Right now, our lives are pretty hectic but are pretty much uneventful.  I'm not saying that we need to have something going on at all times but I guess it's because we have so much going on that we can't really plan on anything. Plus, I have to admit working full time is pretty stressful difficult. I don't know if its because of my long commute or getting up everyday at 5:30 am (I go to bed about 9 pm) and dealing with a busy department all day or what.  Hunter by no means is difficult at all when I get home so it has nothing to do with him (honestly).  Then by the time the weekend comes and we get the house in order, catch up on some sleep and go out to dinner and a few other places, Monday is here again!  Even before having Hunter I knew the weekend came and gone really fast but for some reason I feel like it flies by even faster. Maybe I really am becoming old....30 is right around the corner. I guess it is true what they say, "the older you get, the more faster life passes you by".  Which leads me to believe that Sean and I need to get a move on and start planning some stuff!  Well, not right away, Sean needs to take his Lieutenant's exam in two weeks. His Nana Hapgood is coming down to visit right after that so I'm thinking that Sean and I could possibly take a little family get-away after she leaves and before my Dad and his wife come down to visit at the end of May.  Now that I think about it, other than visiting my family in December and getting married down in Key West this time last year, we have not had a weekend get-away.  For crying out loud, we live in South Florida there are tons of places to visit!  I'm going to talk to Sean and see where we could go. I want to go visit a friend in Vero Beach who has a son about Hunter's age that we could stop there and then travel to Naples or something.  Oh well, either way, I'm thinking that a nice little family get away could do the trick.  Especially now that we need to start packing up the house again. Ugh.  So unmotivated but ready to move out.  I'll let you guys know where we decide. 

On a side note, Hunter is just about ready to crawl.  He can definitely move around in his own little way but he is definitely trying to figure out how it works (which btw, I need to baby proof the house like this weekend!). Here is a video that we taped of him when Sean and I went for a stroll down to the marina and had a picnic near the water.  Check it out:

Easter, Our 1st Anniversary, Hunter 7 months

Sunday is a big day for us.  Its Easter Sunday, our first anniversary and Hunter will be 7 months old. When we got married, I was 18 weeks pregnant and found out a few days before we got married that we were having a boy.  I was so thrilled! Now my little guy is turning 7 months old! He is eating like crazy! He eats 3- 7 or 8 ounce bottles at daycare in between his naps and he eats 3 jars or tubs of solid baby food there also.  He also nurses before I get out of the house and off to daycare and then eats another tub of food or whatever I can puree for him for dinner and then nurses and drinks another 4 ounce bottle before going to bed.  I have been having to give him his last bottle before he goes down for bed of formula.  My freezer stash which was once a whopping 800 ounce milk buffet has definitely gone down to around 40 ounces now.  A lot of this was occuring because daycare was feeding him a lot more milk and we realized that he needs to eat more solid food because there was no way I could keep up with him. Every now and then they add some formula to his bottles of breastmilk while he is there and I’m totally fine by it.  I’m at the point now that whatever breastmilk I can give him is fine. Not sure how much longer we will go but I will go until either he doesn’t want to or my body decides that it can no longer produce.  I’m just excited that I’ve made it to 7 months with him! I give myself a pat on the back.   Hunter is doing very well and has even started to drink from a sippy cup.  I give him about 1-2 ounces of water a day to help with his digestion. I’d rather give him some water than feeding him prunes or something along those lines that make him pretty gassy.  He has even started having interested in drinking water from my cup!  Usually my water has a lemon or lime in it and after he drinks it his face has this super cute funny look on it, like, “what is this mommy?”. 

His Aunt Marnie came over last weekend to hang out with us and especially have some Q.T. with her nephew. We had a great day and ended up going out for a walk on what I later found out was the hottest day that we have had thus far (88 degrees!).

Our house is officially back under contract again and Sean and I are in the process of lining up houses to look at this weekend. I just recently got approved for a loan so we are very excited to start looking.   We have picked a few areas that we like and are already thinking that we need to start busting out boxes again and packing.  So here we go again!

We have a babysitter for Hunter this weekend so Sean and I are going to defintely enjoy each other on our anniversary and reminisce about the good ‘ole days....haha, just kidding.  No we are excited for us to hang out just one-on-one like the good ‘old days!

I love these two together!

Hodge Podge

In the past 2 weeks I have been out sick 5 of the 14 days.  I had a really bad cold the first week and the next week Hunter had a stomach virus in which I caught one day of his stomach virus.  So its been pretty rough.  The week that Hunter had his stomach virus, he would not eat at all during the day at day care and Sean had brought him to our pediatrician one afternoon and told us to feed him in small portions and try and keep some liquids in him as much as possible.  Sean had also worked Overtime (OT) a few of those days that week so I was having to leave work early to go get him from day care and try and feed him. He  would eat from me but not from a bottle a day care.  Then during the night he would wake me up every 3 hours to eat to make up from not eating during the day.  So that week was a disaster.  Not to mention that I went to get him early from day care on one of those days and my stomach had started hurting and I knew that I had caught it. Sure enough, I was sick that whole night.  Sean was at work. So I was taking care of myself and him.  I’m so glad that this is over with.  We had also brought Hunter to his pediatrician’s office twice that week and then I needed to take him this past weekend because he had a croup cough and was really congested.  I decided to bring our pediatrician’s office some donuts on Saturday on our way to taking him because at this point they know “The Hapgoods”.  Just say that name and they know.  I walk in with donuts and they looked at me as if there had not been any other patients that have ever brought them anything just to thank them.  They loved it and were very appreciative.  I told them that its from Hunter and it was his idea and that he wanted to thank them for taking good care of him.  I have to say that Hunter will not be waiting anymore in the waiting area for now on anymore...haha.

Enough about being sick. I’m so over being sick its not funny. I really do feel like it is the story of my life right now.  On a happier note, Hunter has finally cut his first tooth! He also has another one right next to it on the bottom that he is working on too.  I think that was another reason why he woke me up several times during the night in the past week. Poor baby.  I can’t imagine what that feels like.  I actually didn’t even realize his first tooth cut through until he was breastfeeding! Ouch! We had to have a little talk after that but now he understands and doesn’t hurt mommy anymore =).  He is also sitting up without any support at all.  Its so cute because he curls his little toes and feet towards his body to keep his balance.  He loves to get on his play mats now and just explore all of his toys and then in the meantime he looks to find Millie.  He loves Millie!  I think Millie just hasn’t quite figured him out yet but does go to Hunter and gives him a few sniffs here and there and that’s when Hunter starts to smile and crack up.  Then Millie walks off and you can see the expression on Hunter’s face that he is saying, “Hey, where you going? Come back!”.  Hunter is definitely loving the world around him and is very interested in anything that he can get his hands, look at or hear.  One afternoon it was raining pretty hard, so I took him out on our patio so that he could hear the rain hit the roof of the patio and he just stared and looked all around to try and figure out the sound.  He looked up and down and kicked his feet to figure out what it was until we went closer to the patio door where I think he put two and two together because he felt the rain. 



I finally cut my first tooth!  Wow, and it looks like I'm growing out of my little chair! Dang!



Our House.  We are still on a rollercoaster ride with this one.  We do have some buyers right now but we are trying to figure out if they are legitimate buyers or not. I know. Sounds fishy but they want to put down like 20% on an FHA loan that only requires 3.5% down.  According to our agent, that usually means that they have bad credit. So therefore, if we have to put our paperwork back into the system again, assuming that they DON’T have bad credit we may end up not getting approved because of them. So we are stalling a little to see if we can find some real-deal buyers. Ugh, such a mess.  Either way, Sean and I most likely will buy a new house instead of renting this time since we have a little more time to look for one.  I’m ready this time. Half of our house is packed up and I’m ready to move out now. 

At the end of April, Hunter’s Grandma out in California is going to come visit us for a week! Yay, to not paying day care for a week! Haha.  She nor Hunter’s Grandpa (Sean’s biological father) has not met Hunter yet. So this will be a real treat.  She will only be coming to visit because Jim has to take care of his business but it won’t be long before he gets to meet him because we will see them in July when we go to meet them in Las Vegas along with Sean’s brother and sister.  Then my dad and stepmom, another set of Hunter’s grandparent’s will be out to visit in May for a few days so we are looking forward to that too.  I’m excited for our family to see Hunter grow.  Especially the ones that do not live here.  He changes so much.

I like when mommy pushes me around in this!



Laundry time!