Running Update

YES! I am still running! I have consistently ran 3 times a week for the past 8 weeks.  For anyone who knows me - that is a HUGE accomplishment.  This is by far, the longest I've stuck to some sort of exercise regimen.  I can actually say that I enjoy tolerate running.  I don't like thinking about doing it, but when I'm out there doing it, I don't mind it (but boy am I always happy to be done!).

In the past 2 months I've logged almost 50 miles!  That seems pretty crazy for me to admit.  In the beginning, I'd maybe run 2 miles (some days just 1.5); now I'm running almost 3 miles each run.  My pace has dropped from around 11:20-10:40 (with the stroller). I don't know what my pace is without it!  Sometime in the next few weeks, I'd like to try to sneak a run in without Bean, but we'll see.

My favorite time to run was in the early morning, right after Bean ate breakfast - even on Saturdays! I let Steve sleep in on Saturdays, and didn't want to wake him up to watch her so I could run, so I just started to take her with me.  Then I realized, why run on Saturdays if I'm still taking her with me?!  So now I run MWF.  I've also changed the time.  I no longer run right away (even though it's the time I'd prefer).  I now wait until around 10 to go run which corresponds to her nap time.  Typically, I'd like her to sleep 10am-11am; but on run days, she gets 30 minutes of sleep in the stroller sometime in that time frame.  That way, it's a little warmer for her and more convenient for her to sleep.  It's been working out pretty good, especially since it's achieving one of my running goals -- to run for my daughter!  I literally am running so she can nap - what motivation!

I have lost zero weight since I've started this endeavor, which makes it tough for me to keep going.  But then I'm reminded of the good it's doing for me as a person blah blah blah from Steve.  Ha.  And don't give me any lectures about muscle weighing more and eventually it'll burn the fat.  Save your breath.  I'm still running, right?  And don't even say the diet word. Okay fine, I said it.  Ha - I'm not dieting, but I'm more aware of what I'm eating.  Other than a new addiction to coffee with vanilla caramel creamer most mornings and waffles, I really don't eat "bad".  I try to make smarter choices throughout my day and don't plan on any real diet.  After all, I'd need a whole lifestyle change in the food department than a real diet, and I'm really liking my Dr. Pepper, occasional chips and cookies.  So we'll just leave it at that :)

Now I have a new goal I'm working towards -- I signed up for the Indy mini in May!  WHAT?!  My sister is a pretty convincing person and threatened convinced me to do it.  Hahaha, man I'm loving the strikeout feature a little too much.  Really she just told me she was doing it and I figure, why not?!  It'd be a nice life item to check off.  Plus I should do it now before another kid is discussed.  Who knows how to run with 2 kids?!

So there you have it.  I still run.  I tolerate it.  I'll keep going until it's too cold for Bean.  And then maybe, just maybe, I'll run in the evenings while Steve is home to log some cold miles.  Regardless of what winter looks like running, I'll have to pick it back up to work towards the mini in May.  Yikes.

(Bean all bundled up for a run.  Usually I just put a jacket with a hood up on her, but sometimes we'll go crazy and do a beanie.  Although, on our last run she ripped the beanie off and held it in her hand.  I always take a blanket and rig up the sun shield to be more like a wind blocker.)

(My view while running.  Great motivation right?!  The longer I run, the more she sleeps, win-win! This is also a better view of the blanket/cover wind/sun blocker I make for her)

A Wedding, Airplane, and Another Bee Sting

Last weekend, we headed back to visit my family in Indiana to go to a cousin's wedding.  Steve was able to take Friday off (he has a big China trip coming up and wanted to fit in some more time with us) so we headed out Thursday night.  Bean was supposed to take a good afternoon nap, and then we'd head out with her hopefully awake and playing in the car.  However, she had different plans and ended up not napping at all on Thursday.  Then she crashed in the car.  We let her sleep until a dinner stop halfway.  After that, she played, and sort of whined until we got to my parents.  We let her stay up a little later.  She had a decent night, but did get up once.  Oh child.

Friday just consisted of hanging out around my parents all morning.  After Bean's morning nap, she, my mom, and I went and picked up lunch to take to my sister Amber.  She officially has a new job working at their church, so we hung out with her there for a little bit.  We got back home for naptime.  That evening, Gabbie came to stay the night at Ahm's and got in lots of time with Bean.  This was probably Bean's best day in awhile! Two great naps, and then she ended up sleeping through the night! Score.

(Bean loved being pushed around on this little car by Gabbie.  These two had a ball playing - and bathing -  together!)

Saturday, was a different story.  Bean refused to take her morning nap.  Typical. I had let her sleep in a little (8am!) and that seemed to be just enough to throw her off.  The rest of the nieces came over for lunch.  Once we were done eating, we loaded up and headed to a local airport (like 5 minutes from my parents) to see my dad.  Everywhere, there's a big fundraiser at the airport and a lot of planes fly in and out.  It's an uncontrolled airport, but they like to have someone directing the flight traffic on big days like this one.  So my dad always volunteers and loves it (he has a private pilot's license).  My mother had gone earlier to bring him some stuff and had warned us that there would be bees present; however, her warning ended with a "they're sweet bees and won't bother you".  Suuuuure.

While holding Bean and talking to my dad, all of a sudden I got a sharp pain in my arm. I realized that I was being stung!  I freaked out and couldn't communicate what was going on to Steve.  He finally took Bean after my "TAKE HER!" finally sunk in.  I had to pull the bee and stinger out.  Ugh.  Right away, there was a welt and mark from the bee and my arm was stinging.  Later on , a good portion of my upper arm swelled up and hurt the rest of the weekend.

(Just hanging out with Abo while he tells pilots when to take off and land)

("Don't worry Abo, I got this under control")

I haven't been stung since I was really little, and now I have 2 stings in a month!  The first one was a month ago and happened while running!  I wasn't sure what had happened other than something hit me in the head and I had immediate sharp pain.  Luckily, I was close to my house and just bolted inside sobbing and grabbing my head.  The next day, my neck really hurt, I had a large lump and couldn't turn my head.  Even though I had definitely been stung in the head, I ended up with an infection in a lymph node in my neck! Seriously?!  Now after the bee at the airport experience, I am definitely sure I was stung by a bee while running and now while standing still.  Since both were pretty large local reactions, I went to the doctor this week about it.  She confirmed my suspicion that I may be becoming allergic to bees.  They can't say I'm actually allergic until I have an anaphylactic response.  Uhm, no thank you.  They gave me an epi-pen perscription anyways.  With winter around the corner, I think I'll hold off and evaluate next spring.  For now, I just carry Benadryl around with me.

So back to the weekend - Amber and the girls stayed longer so that the girls could jump in the bounce house.  Steve and I had to take Bean back to the house so she could nap.  Since she didn't take a morning nap, I hoped she'd take a good afternoon nap - wrong-o.  She slept only about an hour.  Good thing there were lots of other people to help entertain her.  We got ready and headed to the wedding.  It was an outside wedding, which made it nice for Bean! She got to play around in the grass with cousins until it was actually time.  The ceremony was quick, and we got to enjoy some BBQ and crazy dancing from one of the nieces.  A storm was rolling in and we didn't want to be caught in a big tent when it hit. So we called it early, stopped for some ice cream as a family (because why not?), and then finished up the evening with my parents.  Mom got the joy of putting a stubborn Bean to bed that night.  Took almost a full hour.  When the girl doesn't want to sleep, she REALLY doesn't want to sleep.  She woke up a couple times that night - big thank you to Steve for taking night time duty :)!

We headed back to Ohio Sunday morning.  We timed it so that Bean would take her morning nap in the car.  She slept a good chunk, and then woke up.  I had to bribe her with some snacks the rest of the way, but at least I didn't have to climb into the back.  My arm drove me crazy all Sunday, and really affected my sleeping.  I had to sleep with an ice pack all weekend.  I finally got wise and took some Tylenol.  That helped, too.  By Monday morning, the swelling was gone (but the redness/warm touch still there).  That's why I went ahead and got in with the doctor.  Just to double check it was healing on its own.  Now I can add a new nemesis to my list after deer -- bees.

(My lovely bee sting.  I got stung about midway on my inner upper arm.  The area the size of my hand swelled up around it, was very warm to the touch, and painful.  Ice packs got me through!)

*Side note, on Wednesday, I did a good deed and picked up lunch to take to Steve's work for his group.  While loading up the car with the food, a bee flew into the car! I had to swat it with a tissue box to try to get it out, but then it landed near Bean in her seat.  So I freaked out, had to open multiple doors, and finally got it out.  Seriously - 3 bee experiences in a month?!  Had I gotten stung a third time, I would've bought a lottery ticket.

11 Months!

Ahhhh, 1 year is just around the corner (and even closer now that this post is a week overdue)!  How is this even possible? Okay, really, it seems like her birth was forever ago.  We've packed a lot in with this child and have made tons of memories, so I actually do know where all the time has gone!

Bean has had quite the month.  We've packed in lots of stuff - visits with family (both Steve's & mine), visits with friends, and some not so fun stuff like sickness - boo! It seems like this month was filled with extremes -- some of the best days (and sleep) mixed with the worst days (and no sleep).  Notice a correlation?

At the beginning of the month, Steve's family came to visit and while they were here, Bean was off and had a terrible time sleeping.  I figured out she had a fever, and when the fever broke, she had a rash for a few days.  A call to the doctor confirmed my friend's suspicion that she had Roseola virus.  Poor girl.  We've been blessed to have a healthy baby until August hit, and then she's been sick 2x.  And now, she's currently dealing with a very runny nose and some congestion, we're hoping it's just allergies.  Oh well, better now than when she was itty bitty, right?

Bean isn't walking yet, but getting more curious about it.  We try to make her take our hands and walk.  She gets very excited that we are excited, but she's not necessarily excited because she's walking. She can "cruise" around between the couches and around the coffee table.  She also loves to take our Ikea footstool and push it around while walking.  We're hoping she'll be walking by her first birthday, so we're starting to get a little more intentional about working with her.

Her favorite food is still cottage cheese with strawberries as a close 2nd.  We've been doing more of the baby food grabbers with her, and boy are those convenient!  I always keep one in the diaper bag, just in case ;).  She's also eating a lot of pasta (Gerber raviolis all the way to boxed mac'n'cheese).  I've tried to give her some meats like chicken and ground beef, but she's not totally into them.  She also goes through phases on loving and hating veggies like carrots and green beans. She now eats all her meals naked.  I use a rubber bib that "catches" food, which has helped minimize waste and mess.  I finally got wise, bought a shower curtain, cut it into 4, and use it underneath her chair.  A couple days a week, after the curtain collects lots of debris, I switch it out. The old one gets shaken off and washed and ready to be used again.

Like I said earlier, sleep has been either really good or really bad - especially naps!  Bean went from sleeping 1.5 in the morning, 1.5-2 in the afternoon, and 11+ hours at night to maybe sleeping an hour during the day, and still 11+ hours at night, but gets up and cries a couple times.  It doesn't help that we've had a busy month - 2 weekends of visitors, 2 weekends being gone -- with a mix of sickness.  I've been caving a lot and giving her Advil and Tylenol before bed.  She has been doing a lot of chewing, so I'm guessing new teeth are coming in.  During her awake times, she seems happy; but once it's time to sleep, my child is replaced by a baby that will do anything to not sleep.  She'll arch away while I try to rock, play/stand up in her crib, pull out paci and throw it on the floor, and babble non-stop to fight sleep.  She tests my patience A LOT.  Thank God she's cute, or things would be a whole lot tougher.

The past few days, I've tried a different routine: Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday's we do 2 set naps - morning nap about an hour and afternoon nap 1-2 hours.  Monday/Wednesday/Friday we do a 30 min nap in the stroller while I run in the morning and a (hopefully) 1.5+ hour nap in the afternoon.  Sunday is survival day :).  It seems to be working, we'll see how long it continues.

Bean loves to talk, but doesn't love to use English. Ha!  We've been trying to work with her on words, like "cow" (a favorite toy) and "momma".  But she refuses to say it.  I totally have caught her saying "ma-ma-ma-ma" before, but immediately stopped when I said, "say momma!".  I'm pretty convinced that tonight she said "duck", well it was more like a "duu"; but she said it repeatedly as she held her bath duck.  She'll also communicate "all done".  Whenever she's done eating, she'll put her hands in the air and shake them.  Steve thinks this one is made up, but I worked with her on it from the time we started her in the seat to eat. We've also changed dinner routine a little bit.  Now I make dinner just a little earlier and we all sit down and eat together around 6 (before, she ate leftovers while I made dinner for Steve & I.  Then we'd eat in the living room while she played).  Now I feel like we have more time in the evening since dinner production is no longer an hour+.

I also think she had a growth spurt at the beginning of the month.  She went from wear 6  or 6/9 month clothing to 12 or 18 months!  Seriously?!  I put away a bunch of her clothes a few weeks ago, and got very sentimental over all the teeny tiny baby clothes.  Thankfully, we get hand- me-downs from my sister-in-law/brother.  Those clothes have been such a blessing!  Almost all her summer clothes are put away, and all the fall clothes are pulled out.  Now I just got to get my butt in gear and do that for Momma & Daddy :)!

Other notable cuteness -- Bean will shake her head (like saying no) just to be cute.  It's really funny, and she does it all the more if you do it back to her.  Only problem is, when I have to really tell her No! and shake my head.  She'll shake her head back at me and laugh.  Ooops :).  After we had our college friends come visit, Bean started to crawl up in her Ikea chair (just like one of the other kids did), so now I have to worry about her getting in it and falling out.  We also caught her sitting in the bottom toy drawer, which could have ended badly.  She'll also do this thing where she'll cock her head to the side on one shoulder, and sort of make a crazy smile face.

(Just a typical day in our household.  Puffs out of control all over the place.  Bean can use her snack cup correctly, but chooses to hold it open and shake out the puffs all over -- that is when she's not stuffing random things like socks into the cup.)

(My shopping buddy!  She is such a big girl at the store! She of course makes tons of new friends and typically goes crazy in the cart -- yelling, shaking her head, and just being crazy.  I have to bribe her with snacks towards the end.)

(Go Peyton!  We still love you even if you couldn't beat the Seahawks again.)

(Big girls bathe in big tubs!  Bean is doing great bathing in the tub.  She moves all around, plays with her ducks, and drinks the water out of a cup -- eww!  We've only had 1 incident with poop in the tub, haha.)

(Can you tell her daddy's an engineer?  He rigged up that little bowl to help tip up her bottle while we were out to eat. Oh and I seriously love my cart/highchair cover.  It's so nice! I just leave it in the car all the time so I always have it when we're out.)

(Bean taking her turn in the Ikea chair after her buddies Wilson and Montgomery taught her how to climb.)

(Sometime this month, she's turned into quite the ham.  Okay, maybe she's always been that way, but now that she's bigger, it's so much cuter.)

(Doing her adorable head tilt.  If you tilt your head, she'll do it back.  She also does a crazy smile face, but I couldn't catch the face in a photo.)

Friend Weekend 2014

Every year, we try to get together with a group of our college friends.  These aren't just any friends, these are the other married couples that we got the honor to participate in a married Bible study with during our senior year.  Coordinating everyone's schedule is difficult to make this weekend happened, and this year proved especially difficult.

One of the couples moved from Illinois to Ohio, while the other couples are located in Indiana & Wisconsin.  The couple from Wisconsin are awaiting the birth of their 2nd child soon.  With them not able to come, it made our house the central location -- works for us!

Everyone arrived on Friday night (minus Mr. Kempson who was busy demo-ing their new house) and was able to stay until Sunday afternoon.  There were 5 adults and 6 kids ranging from 6 years to 9 months -- we were outnumbered!  While they were here we had beautiful weather! We managed to eat a ton of food, enjoy s'mores by the fire, go for a walk, craft time, random internet videos, football, and catch up on everyone's life.  We had a great time and look forward to next year's reunion! (I say we coordinate the date now before the next round of babies comes!)

(Bean with her buddy Wilson! Potential arranged marriage??  I'd be down with that!)

(The living room was quickly turned into play land!  The kids had a blast and I think they tauht each other new things.  Check out Gummery climbing in the Ikea chair. Next climbing the chair was Wilson, followed by Bean once everyone left).  

(Pretty sure this was the one time Roman voluntarily sat on the couch.  Any other time he was on the couch was for time-out.  Haha, that kid was just not meant to stay quiet! With three little ones needing naps, it seemed like the bigger kids were constantly being told - shhhhhh!)

(Meals were a joint effort.  Everyone brought food to provide a meal, and then I provided the rest.  Alice's meal consisted of frozen pizza - since she works for Nestle!  Only problem was the cheese from the pizza dripped off and made a mess in the oven.  I personally didn't care, but it bothered Alice, so she cleaned the oven.)

(Steve was project manager for the cleaning of the oven.  He looked up the manual online and told Alice the steps - prepping oven with damp cloth & selecting the right clean program - in how to properly clean the oven.)

(On Saturday afternoon, we were able to load up the kids and go for a walk in the neighborhood.  After the walk, the older kids were bribed to run around the house 10 times in order to eat a brownie!  I did a few laps with Bean and ate the brownie on her behalf - haha!)

(Absolutely love this group of people - and those who weren't able to make it!  Even if it's been a year since we've last been together, we quickly pick right up where we left off.  And I have to say, thanks to Mitch and Alice, I laughed the hardest I have laughed in a very long time.  Pretty sure they need to take their comedy act on the road.)

Sorry-We-Didn't-Celebrate-Anything-For-You Day

Usually, my siblings and I are on the ball when it comes to gifts for mom and dad throughout the year - Mother's Day, Father's Day, both their Birthdays, and then Christmas.  This year, I guess new babies took over and we didn't rally together like we should have.  So far this year, we missed Mother's Day, Father's Day, and my mom's birthday.  With dad's birthday around the corner, we figured we needed to do something big to make up for our absence of appreciation for great parents.

So we rallied together in true Willis kids fashion and pulled together another one of our famous Disney Days for our parents.  It started several years ago when we put together a "cruise" for our parents in our house.  We set up different rooms to be different parts of the ship and would re-enact things that happened on our first Disney cruise as a family.  Since that first Disney Day, we've done a couple more and always try to top ourselves.

Our last Disney day was in the Spring of 2008.  That Disney Day, we chose to re-enact Fantasmic (one of the night-time shows).  We danced around our parents in the yard and acted out the entire 30 min show - complete with all the characters, coloring pages subbed for the water screens, and costumes.  Steve and I had just been dating for a few months, and he came home with me for the weekend and participated with us.  He manned the camera for part, provided fireworks and bubbles, and even dressed up as prince charming.  I, however, didn't get to play Snow White.  Instead, my brother donned a wig and cape and danced with Steve.  Right in front of my parents, Steve dipped my brother and planted a kiss right on his lips.  That's when I knew I'd marry him - he fit into our family perfectly!  Hahahahah!

For this Disney Day, we chose to recreate Epcot in our parents' backyard and re-enact my dad's favorite nighttime show (Illuminations: Reflections of Earth) and their millennium parade (Tapestry of Nations) which has been retired.

We sent my parents away for awhile in the morning so that we could pull everything together.  My parents took Bean with them which was a big help!  They went to lunch and hung out at my grandma's house until we were ready for them to return.  When they did, we first had a "Food and Wine" snack bar set up.  (One year we went during Epcot's Food & Wine festival and dad and I used up our snack credits to try all this yummy food).

(Mickey greeted my parents on their return to the house. What a good mouse!)

After that, we headed out into the yard for a "Segway Tour of Epcot" just minus the Segways.  Ha, we didn't feel like pulling them out.  We had set up little attractions (I mean like a couple dinosaur figurines to count as Universe of Energy Ride, a Figment animal as "Journey Into Imagination", a bowl of sponge fish for "Living Seas", etc.  One of the stops was a couple of chairs encased with a card board car front, also known as "Test Track".  Mom and Dad sat in the chairs while we recreated the ride - bumpy ride on Belgian Bricks (shook their chairs), stopping with ABS (hit chairs back and forth), Heat Room (flashlights in their face), Cold Room (threw ice at them), Acid Room (Squirt Bottle - Gabbie got the honors), and we even had the barrier test (a couple of poster boards quickly spread apart to reveal a fan in their face - hahaha).

(Can't take a tour of Epcot without a quick stop at Spaceship Earth - and watch the monorail do a lap!)

("Journey into Imagination" with Figment.  By the looks of it, I'd say this ride was down, hahaha)

("Ellen's Universe of Energy")

(When "Test Track" was first created, there were Crash Test Dummie characters that would come and entertain the crowd during the long waits.  I decided Crash needed to come and assist with today's ride.)

(All the siblings even rallied together and wore our Disney shirts.  I'm not really sure what we were doing at this point, or why Emily looks frustrated - ha!)

After Test Track, we did the Tapestry of Nations parade.  The real parade involved huge puppets that were operated and worn on the shoulders of those in the parade.  Our version involved babies on shoulders as the puppets, a hula hoop drum, flags, and some cute little butterfly dancers.  After the parade came the big show -- Illuminations.  All the siblings and nieces were hidden behind a banner on the deck, while Steve stuck to operating lights & fireworks (we go all out!).  My sister was originally going watch the show on the laptop and call cues, but I ended up being "cue" master.  I would call out if it was fireworks (which was us throwing socks, streamers, and cat toys up in the air), lights/water (my brother and Steve would turn Christmas lights on and off as directed, and my brother also manned the sprinkler for the amount of flow according to the fountains in the show), and the Earth ball (we used a big yoga ball and just slowly passed it around to each other over our heads).  This was probably my favorite part of the whole day.  Steve had found some fireworks in the garage and managed to have them timed perfectly to the finale!  It was so much fun just screwing around with my siblings.

(The beginning of the Illuminations show.  In the beginning, there is some naration that involves a guy blowing out a flame.  I used a candle to re-enact the intro.  Pretty sure Disney should hire me!)

We ended the day with a Mexican feast - which symbolized the Mexican Cantina - our favorite Epcot restaurant.  After the dinner, watched the real parade/show, hung out, and enjoyed ice cream and fun.  By the reaction on our parents' faces, I'm guessing we made up for all the special days we didn't celebrate this year.  We love you mom & dad!

(Bonus Photo -- Bean getting to play with cousin Oliver!)

(Oliver is 2 months and 8 days younger than Bean - can you tell?  haha, he's a pretty big boy!  This was the first time these two got to actually interact!)

Visit from MomMom & PopPop

Over labor day weekend, we had a full house of visitors!  Steve's family came for the weekend -- MomMom, PopPop, Scott, Ashley, and their dog Tyson, too!  We had a great weekend with his family, but time went by way too fast. While they were here we inaugurated our new fire pit, went to Findlay for a walking tour, and soaked up lots of Bean time! 

Steve's parents arrived first on Saturday around noon, with Scott, Ashley, and Tyson not too far behind.  After eating lunch and having a rendezvous about food and activities for the weekend, I stayed home with Bean & Tyson while everyone else went shopping.  Bean didn't cooperate like I had planned and had just fallen asleep when everyone came back.  She continued to sleep, but it definitely wasn't a good nap.  With the excitement of all the people, Bean pulled through and had a good afternoon.  

That evening, it took me a little bit to get her to sleep.  But once she was, I was able to join the others out at our new fire pit for some s'mores & campfire pie (pretty much hot bread with peanut butter, chocolate, and marshmallows).  After making sure the fire was out, I called it a night.  I had just fallen asleep, when I heard Bean crying around midnight.  I went in and rocked her.  She wasn't settling, so I assumed her teeth were bothering her and gave her medicine.  She fell back to sleep, so I went back to bed.  An hour later, she woke again, only this time Steve went to tend to her.  We did this pretty much every hour.  I wasn't sure what was wrong with her, but she wouldn't sleep.  Around 3am, I lost it and took her out driving around Lima.  She settled right away in the car, but woke up when I parked the car in the driveway.  I took her back upstairs and rocked her a little bit again.  She settled back down and slept til about 5am.  Finally at 6:30, we called it quits and was up for the day.  Ugh.

(Pass the marshmallows!  We don't own any fire pokers yet, so we resorted to old school sticks in the yard to roast our mallows.)

(Note the placement of the fire extinguisher.  Can't be too careful!)

(Steve's campfire pie.  He bought some crazy pie maker for $3.  You put in a couple slices of bread and then stuff it with various items like peanut butter, chocolate chips, and mallows for a rocky road pie.  I think I'll just stick to my s'mores!)

Bean seemed fine once she was up.  I had to be at church early for choir, and left her in daddy's care.  He tried to put her down for a nap while I was gone, but she refused.  We all got ready and headed for church (she of course fell asleep in the car on the way there).  After church, we decided to go home, change, then reload the cars and head up to Findlay for the afternoon.  Bean was able to sleep the 45 min on the way there.  She did pretty well through lunch (thanks to family being willing to walk around and entertain her!).  After bonus tops at a couple stores, we headed towards the start of a walking tour.  Scott & PopPop tag-teamed the stroller.  We got about half way through the walk when it was deemed dull and hot.  (okay, maybe those words weren't used, but it was almost unanimous that the tour had gone on long enough).  We split up to get back to the cars and reconvened at a local ice cream shop - yum!

(Starting our walking tour!  Had to wait for Bean to finish up a bottle before we could get started.  I think she ended up falling asleep in the stroller, too.  Which was a good thing after all her late night shenanigans.)

(MomMom is so silly!)

(Take two!  Bean especially loves her rubber ducky. Ha)

That night, we grilled out an Ackerman favorite - Santa Fe chicken!  Since we had a later dinner, I bathed Bean and put her to bed before we ate.  While rocking her, I discovered why she had been having such a bad weekend - she had a fever of 101! All her symptoms - crankiness/clinginess around sleeping, refusing to nap, crying all night, fever - all pointed towards her teeth.  She hadn't had that high of a fever with just teething, and thought maybe her molar was coming in.  At least I knew there was a reason for the rough night! We followed up dinner with a "travelogue" from Doug & Trisha on their recent European and hiking adventures.  I was pretty tired and called it a night.

I was a little more compassionate Sunday night with Bean.  She woke up about every other hour and just wanted to be held.  I made sure to stay on top of the medicine and checked her fever often.  It stayed around 100/101 with Tylenol & Advil in her system around the clock!  Eeeks!  The first time she woke, I just rocked her and put her back in her bed.  The next time she woke up, I brought her into our room, walked around a little, then put her down in the pack'n'play.  She stirred a few times while sleeping in there, and I was able to just turn on her singing glow worm and she would settle down.  The next time she woke up crying, she ended up laying in bed with us, where we all slept until she awoke for the day around 7.  Her fever was gone in the morning, although it came back later in the day.

On Monday morning, Scott was going to go run (he's training for a marathon and has quotas to fill, ha), then come back and get Ashley and Bean for his last few miles.  I like to get up and run first thing and had planned on just running on Tuesday.  But since everyone else was running, I was going to take advantage of having someone else Bean so I could run without the stroller.  So my plan was to just go out on my own while they were running.  Scott had other desires, haha, and rallied us all to go running together - and by all of us I mean him, Ashley, Me, Bean & Tyson!  He claims we ran a little over 2 miles, but after I logged my run, we definitely did 3!

(Definitely a pre-run photo.  Tyson was shunning the camera for some reason. Thanks Scott for taking charge of the stroller!  He quickly learned that they are a pain to run with because you can't pump your arms!  Things we do for kids.)

We came back from our run to some yummy french toast on homemade bread. Scott and Ashley left in the afternoon.  Trisha spent the afternoon trying to figure out how to take her Christmas gift back to CO!  While she was here, we gave her an early present -- a Cricut machine!  We have had one of their suitcases and knew they were wanting it back, so we took advantage of the empty suitcase to give her the gift now.  I have a Cricut and am quite surprised Trisha didn't have one.  It's a fancy electronic paper cutting machine that can be used for decorations or scrapbooking.  She finally figured out how to pack it in her carry on.  We headed out to dinner with Doug and Trisha before the hit the road (they stayed in Dayton to be close to the airport for their 6am flight!).  The both got in some last cuddles and play with Bean at the restaurant. 

("Don't eat my feet MomMom!!")

(Deciding which to eat with PopPop - cheerio, or puff?)

When we got home, I got Bean ready for bed and discovered a weird rash on her body (the fever was gone).  The next day I ended up calling the doctor to ask about the fever and rash.  They guessed that she had Roseola Virus (baby measles) and now that the fever was gone, there wasn't anything to do or worry about.  Since it was a virus, we just had to let it run its course (which is what I assumed, but just needed confirmation).  Not sure how Bean got the virus, or why it had to correspond with a grandparent visit, but it did.  Even with a sick baby, we had a great weekend and look forward to the next visit!

(Poor sickie survived the weekend.  It's hard to tell, but her torso is covered in red bumps.  A friend suggested her symptoms sounded like Roseola, so I googled it and agreed with her.  The rash wasn't itchy and didn't bother Bean at all.  It was completely gone by the end of the week.)