Chattanooga Choo Choo and the Aquarium

We decided to hit up Chattanooga, TN this past weekend as Ryan had a three day weekend (Fri, Sat, and Sun...not Monday...booooo). We visited the Tennessee Aquarium. This was our first actual trip with Charley. The last time we "traveled" he was 3 months old so I don't really count that. We learned a lot about this little man on our overnight trip...such as, he is much more delightful when he's exhausted and passes out in the car. We waited to leave our house until after his afternoon nap (and once I had gotten off of work). He's used to playing a lot so we had to pull over outside of Scottsboro so he could stretch his legs. Once to the hotel, the Chattanooga Choo Choo, we scoured the grounds of this historic hotel. I didn't get ANY pictures while we were there. My bad. The camera was in the car and it was raining. We also kept forgetting to grab the keys so we could get it. Oh well. This is Charley on our way there. The beginning of the trip.

Charley almost towards the end. Reading about the VERY hungry caterpillar.

We brought our bathing suits in hopes of using the pool. We got to after we had eaten dinner and it had stopped raining. It was late but we wanted to get a swim in. The pool was 20deg below zero, I kid you not. This child did not want to leave the pool. His lips had turned purple and he was shivering and yet he fussed when Mama and Dad decided it was too cold. We had been in long enough and it was late. We have since decided to look into swimming lessons for him. We also found out that Charley does not like elevators. I had visited a friend in the hospital a couple of weeks ago (she had a baby) and he cried a little on the elevator going up and back down. I had assumed he was just tired. Apparently, he just doesn't like elevators and our room was on the fifth floor. Lord help us if there was a stop between the ground floor and our floor. It wasn't BAD, he just cried. I'm really bummed I didn't get any pictures but the whole hotel experience was different. Having a crib in the same room as us was different. He's not the sort of kid that's just going to fall asleep especially if there was other things going on. So, we laid him down and we closed ourselves in the bathroom. We showered, got ready for bed. By that time, he had fallen asleep. We didn't sleep all that well, probably because we were afraid to move thinking it was going to wake him up. We all woke up at 7:30am, got ready, went to breakfast where he entertained a couple next to us the ENTIRE time. Played a little in the gardens, went back to the room for a nap where...I had forgotten to hang the "Do Not Disturb" sign and housekeeping in our building were the loudest folks I've ever had the joy of experiencing. Needless to say, we got a 20 minute nap and decided to be on our way to the aquarium. A couple of pictures as we were leaving the premises...

The aquarium adventure begins.

He loved the turtles...

On our way to lunch.

The Tennessee River. Next time, assuming there is a next time, we'll get to do the river journey. Charley wasn't big enough this time and I didn't want to be on a boat for 2 hours with him. :)

He was trying to pet the sting rays but they were at the bottom of the pool so he was having fun just playing in the water.

And the Butterfly garden was AWESOME. I think that was my favorite. We had to continually move because we were worried he'd grab ahold of a butterfly and crush them. He's not the most gentle toddler.

The penguins were fun. One of them just kept swimming back and forth in front of Charley. It was amusing.

The jellyfish were cool.

This is how we spent the ride home. It was a really fun trip and I'm glad we got the chance to go up there.

Somnambulation

It's the middle of the night and WHERE am I? When I was younger, I would sleepwalk. In fact, Scott (one of my younger brothers) also would sleepwalk. He did it a lot more than I did. I think I might have done it in college once and freaked out my roommates but since then I haven't had an "episode"...until pregnancy. With Charley, I didn't really sleepwalk, it was more of a panicked awakening thinking he was somewhere in bed with us and we were clobbering him. On many occasion I would wake my poor hubby in the middle of the night/morning, FREAKING out. We didn't co-sleep. Charley was always either in the bassinet or his crib. That subsided after...ah-hem...a couple of months.

Currently, I've been waking up somewhere other than my bed searching for Charley. That he's somewhere in our room, in the closet, fallen between the headboard and the mattress...I know what causes it but sometimes I can't help it. And every time it has happened to me, Ryan was not in bed yet. Which, when I think about it, is probably a good thing because I would have clobbered him trying to get out of bed. Now, sleepwalking wouldn't be so bad if it didn't take me 10 minutes to figure out 1) why I'm not in bed, 2) where the heck am I, 3) why the light is on, and 4) why I'm searching for my son. I'm a little concerned when I start finding my way OUT of our room. So far, we are safe. Let's just hope Charley didn't get my genes.

And since posts are so boring without pictures, take a gander of my little helper from the other day. Working hard on that floor. HA!

And playing outside...

Conversation with the check out clerk...

Him: "How are you doing today?"

Me: "Fine. Just keeping busy."

Him: "Ah, when are you due?"

Me: "July."

Him: "I was born in July."

Me: "Good month."

Him: "How old is he?"

Me: "Sixteen months."

Him: "Whoa. Cutting it kinda close, huh?"

Me: "Sure."

Him: "Have a nice day."

Me: "Thanks. You too."

*Charley waves to no one in particular as we exit grocery store....*

28 weeks ish

There really hasn't been much going on lately except a lot of work and a lot of chores which are never done. It has been incredibly busy at work for me and Ryan as well. I passed the 28 week milestone...woot woot! The picture you see is 3 or 4 days past the 28 week mark. Definitely bigger than the first time around. This pregnancy has more of the aches and pains but nothing major. I think this baby has dropped already. He/she is a lot lower as of last weekend. I can breathe a lot easier and I don't have heartburn/indigestion. Amazing. I think I've said this before but I don't think this child sleeps...at all. I love that he/she moves all the time. Also, I'm addicted to lather, rinse, repeat. I kid you not. My skin is going to fall off before I give birth. I love soap and lathering soap up and rinsing it off and starting all over again. Needless to say, I shower for a good hour right now to get in enough lathering. I guess it could be worse. Looking forward to the next two and a half months...see how big I get. :)

Charley is nearing the end of his antibiotics. He got an ear infection from some cold we both had. Ryan was really sick for about week. Luckily, he didn't give it to neither myself or Charley. Charley is climbing...everything. He can climb up, he just can't get down. He kept finding himself on the coffee table. We kept showing him how to climb off. He just couldn't get it so we moved the coffee table. Remember my last post about him liking to push carts and strollers and such? We were at the grocery store (quick trip for like 2 things) and it was evening so there wasn't a whole bunch of people there but enough. Ryan and I split up. Ryan ran off to get lunch meat...I went to get milk. Ryan had Charley. Apparently, Ryan had put Charley down on the ground. Charley found a lady's cart...decided he needed to push it. He ran off with another person's cart at the grocery store. I'm sad I missed it. Would've love to had seen the events unfold. Haha! Oh well...we just have to keep a close eye on this little dude around things that are pushable.

And he climbs things...but can't climb down no matter how many times we show him. Oh well, one of these days he'll learn.

We bought these converses forever ago and he finally fits in them. Bugaboo and Mama matched when we ran some errands! Now instead of ripping off the velcro, he chews on his laces. Yes, he's wearing a Queen's shirt. ROCK ON!!!