Today I received yet another Jawbone UP. It is my 2nd replacement band for my 2nd generation UP so that makes me on UP #4.
My Dad’s 70th Birthday
Today was my dad’s 70th birthday. My sister and her family and MC, Teagan and I were supposed to meet up with my parents for dinner near my parents house. As I was going to catch the train and meet up with MC she called that Teagan apparently had a fever. I knew she spit up earlier but didn’t think anything of it. Turned out she did it 2 more times. MC had to go home and I went to dinner by myself.
The dinner was good. We went to an italian place near my parents that my dad likes. it was good to see Carrie, Michael and the kids as well. My dad liked his present. My sister and I got him an autographed football that had the autographs of 3 Giants players on it. He is hard to shop for so I am glad we found something he liked.
After dinner I got a ride home from Michael. By the time i got home Teagan was sleeping, but she got up briefly later on and we gave her more meds. Hoping she feels better tomorrow.
Rocking Horse Ranch
This weekend MC, Teagan, & I went away to the Rocking Horse Ranch with my parents, sister and her family to celebrate my dad’s upcoming 70th birthday. It was the first trip away together since my mom’s 65th birthday in Wildwood. I worked a half a day at home Friday so we could head up in the afternoon. I am glad I did. the rid up took almost 3 hours with traffic. We ended up changing our route a few times and we stopped for 45 minutes at a diner to be able to feed Teagan.
It was raining most of the day and we were just glad to get to the place. Carrie and the kids didn’t arrive till later than us so MC, Teagan and I ate dinner with my dad and my mom waited to have dinner with Carrie. Nothing else really eventful happened Friday.
Saturday it was rainy all day. We got up and went to breakfast after Teagan had her morning bottle. The food was pretty good. We loved the honey butter on our english muffin’s. It blew my diet but very tasty.
We took Teagan into the pool for the first time today. She really loved it. We got a bunch of photo’s and video. MC, my mom and I took Teagan on a horse drawn carriage ride. Teagan liked seeing all the people but was a bit sleepy.
Saturday night dinner we ate as a family for my dad’s birthday. It was nice. Carrie arranged to have a cake. Morgan and Zack gave little speeches. It was very cute. After dinner we got to get a few rare family photos with everyone.
Sunday the weather was a bit nicer. We were able to get outside for a good part of the day. MC took Teagan on another horse drawn carriage ride while I went with Carrie, Michael, the kids and my dad to play mini golf. Zack declared himself winner but everyone contested at least privately and some publicly the fact that mathematically there was no way he could have won.
For lunch there was a big BBQ. We ended up getting food and eating indoors because it was a bit cold but it was a decent BBQ. MC took Teagan back into the pool. I got some more photos but decided to stay out of the water this time.
We got to see some horses up close and Teagan got to pet them. We also saw a few other animals. Teagan also got to play on the swings for a little while and I was able to feed her outside in the afternoon even though by then it got a bit chilly.
Monday was the nicest day we were there, but we unfortunately only got to be there in the morning. Everyone else stayed a bit later and got to goto the outdoor pool since it was finally nice enough. We decided to take off at Teagan’s mid day nap to get home before all the anticipated traffic. We avoided all of it and were pretty happy we got out when we did. We probably could have stayed a bit later but we were glad to get home early. We ended up going to the grassy area behind out building and sat out on the grass and played with Teagan. It was nice.
Overall it was a great weekend. One take away from the weekend was we realized the reason Teagan hasn’t been sleeping through the night recently and has been getting up early is because the sun comes into her room and wakes her. With the hotel privacy curtains she slept till 7 2 out of the 3 nights and for the 3rd night slept pretty close to it. We realized she wasn’t getting up because she went into a phase in March. it was because the time zone change in early March made it lighter earlier. That revelation will get us to buy black out curtains for her room.
The Queens Zoo
We missed going to the Central Park Zoo when we were there a few weeks ago and then we had plans with family and friends for a few weekends. With this free weekend we wanted to give the zoo another try. This time we headed to the queens zoo. It was a fast 20 minutes on one bus and a few blocks walk. It was the perfect day. Teagan was up the entire trip to the zoo and then fell asleep right when we got there. MC and i got to walk around a bit and then walked around Flushing Meadow park. We were about to leave when Teagan woke up so we went back to the petting zoo part of the zoo and MC fed some animals and Teagan just watched intently.
We headed home after that but I started getting a Migraine and MC was tired from being up a long night, so the rest of the day was low key.
T Sitting Up?
She has been sighted sitting up now and again but it is not a regular thing. Like rolling over when she did it every so often we are waiting to see when she will just start sitting up on her own constantly.
My UP is Broken
Today when I went to sync my Jawbone UP I discovered the end that you plug into your phone was recessed a bit. It made it difficult to plug into my iphone. In the end i was able to sync it but it was obvious the device was broken. I contacted Jawbone support and they are going to send me a replacement unit since this one is under warrantee. I have to just keep this one working until I get my replacement unit. It may take a week to 10 days to get.
Breakfast in The Park
Today we got up and got bagels (and some scones from the farmers market near austin) and walked with Teagan to a park off askan that is very grassy. We sat out on a blanket and ate breakfast. Teagan was tired so she didn’t play very much but it was a gorgeous day out so we were glad to be outside and relaxing. We grabbed coffe at the french bakery off of Austin st and went home to hang out for the rest of the day.
It was good to get outside and then have the day to play with Teagan.
Apartment Reconfiguration
I knew this day was coming but was delusional that i could put it off indefinitely Teagan’s play area has grown and displaced my office area. Today MC and I moved her desk into our bedroom out of our Foyer. We then moved my computer desk into the Foyer so there is more room in the dining room / office / Teagan’s play area. It is great that Teagan has more play area, and with MC’s desk in the bedroom I even have somewhere i can work from home when i need to and not have Teagan distracting me. On the down side I don’t know how cool it will be in the Foyer durring the summer. I hope its not too hot but we may need to get a fan to circulate air better.
The hardest part of the moving stuff was cleaning the dust we saw when moving one carpet. Everything fit pretty well in their new locations. I now just have to remember to walk to they Foyer when I want to goto my computer. I keep walking to the play area and are disappointed when I realize my computer isn’t there.
The next reconfigurations we need to make is move the step cabinet we have out of the play area before Teagan can craw. The last thing we need is a piece of furniture that screams climb me to a kid that just learned to move around.
Saturday in Forest Park
Today we decided to take a trip to Forest Park. We wanted to goto the carousel and check out the park. After debating the best way to get there (walking or public transit) we ended up taking the bus since the trip was just too far to walk with a 7 month old.
The bus trip was uneventful but we had trouble finding an entrance to the park. We found a horse trail entrance but we couldn’t take the stroller down it. There was a nice playground next to the trail that we went to and sat on the grass and played with Teagan. She also got to go on the swings. We then asked and got directions to were the carousel was but as we were walking there we realized it was way too far away to walk and it was taking us ever further from home and the bus. At that point we called it quits and headed back towards Austin St. We were going to find a lunch spot to hit up but when we got back we realized we were just in time to take Teagan to Gymboree so we went to a class. Teagan had a blast even though I only got fuzzy photos of it.
After all that excitement Teagan had a 2+ hour nap not at her regular time. She was wiped out. It was a great day!
Bose Cinnemate Speakers
For a while now I have know I need to get rid of my stereo. It is a great stereo. I probably wrote about it before but aren’t 100% sure. Either way I love it and it has served me well for years. The problem is with Teagan getting ready to crawl we know we want to get rid of it. At first I was looking to get a sound bar speaker “system” since it is one speaker and a subwoofer. The idea has been to get rid of all the wires and speaker stands that are all over our living room right now.
Several months ago I picked out a decent sound bar but wasn’t 100% convinced to buy it. Flash forward to today and that system is now not available and comparable ones are more money than I thought was appropriate for the quality I would get. I know what I have (an Onkyo 5.1 receiver and speakers) is overkill for our apartment but i also knew how much a downgrade the sound bar was. When i found a well reviewed sound bar in the $250 price range i thought that was good. Then when that wasn’t available a decent one was more money and the reviews weren’t as good. At that point my friend Jayson convinced me to go and get a Bose Cinnemate II system. It was much more than i wanted but the reviews were much better than any of the cheaper sound bars. I know many people have polarizing opinions of Bose but i have had good luck with them in the past, so I went to buy them. As luck would have it they were marked down in price. The higher end version was around the price of the lower end ones, and the lower end ones were marked down even more. I opted for the higher end model and just got them.
I have been happy so far, but the real test will be when I get my new TV that i have been planning on getting for a while and put on a good movie!