My Mom's Visit

My mom and I haven't been doing too much during her visit other than playing with Carter a lot. He's been getting lots of love! And I have been catching up on lots of things around the house.

Saturday was a nice day so Brian and I worked in our yard while my mom watched Carter. When it warmed up in the afternoon they played in the yard and went for a walk using Carter's wagon.

It rained most of the day on Sunday so we went shopping for furniture for our front porch. We randomly stopped by Fowler's Furniture and Carter found himself a giant playground. They had wooden animals around an ark that Carter loved screaming at. There is a train going around the entire store that hangs from the ceiling that Carter liked watching. And someone gave him 2 balloons - so much fun! We got home in time to watch the UT game. UT lost to Michigan State by one point - we really thought UT was going to pull it out and advance to the Final Four. My mom watched Carter after the game so Brian and I could go out to dinner.

On Monday I took Charlotte to the vet first thing in the morning to get her rabies shot. She got so freaked out being at the vet that she hid in our closet the rest of the morning. My mom watched Carter while I took Charlotte so I didn't have to wrestle with Carter in his stroller and Charlotte freaking out. We did some shopping around town between Carter's naps and played at home the rest of the day.

I had an OB appointment this morning and my mom watched Carter so I didn't have to take him with me. I had to do the 1 hour glucose test but my overall time at the office was actually shorter than normal because I didn't have to wait all that long. My BP was 110/62 and the baby's heatbeat sounded good. I saw the Nurse Practitioner today (my doctor does surgeries on Tuesday and I think the other doctor was off). I've seen the NP a couple of times before. I like her enough but wasn't the biggest fan of her today because she basically told me I was gaining too much weight (I'm up 25 lbs). I was gaining just as much at this point with Carter and my doctor thought it was fine. Also, I saw the other doctor 3 weeks ago and have only gained a couple of pounds since then and she thought I was fine too. I know my doctor is okay with my weight gain because I was really concerned about it with my first pregnancy and was told every time not to worry and that I should gain more because I'm small. I just don't like getting conflicting information.

It was warmer today so my mom and I spent a lot of time with Carter outside. She bought Carter a toy lawnmower and a bubble wand that they had fun playing with. Though Carter still prefers sticks and rocks to anything else.


I think we're going to the zoo tomorrow. Should be lots of fun!

San Francisco - Day 5 - Fort Point, Pier 39, & Alcatraz

On Friday (March 5th) Carter woke up early at 4:30 am but luckily went back to sleep until almost 6 am. Brian was planning on only going to the morning session of his conference and skipping the afternoon keynote speakers so we could go to Alcatraz. However, after thinking about it further that morning, Brian decided that he wouldn't benefit from anything in the morning session (a lot of people leave Friday morning to get back to the east coast by Friday evening so the last day usually isn't great). So Brian got to hang out with us all day!

When we left the hotel, Carter fell asleep in the car quickly so we drove up to San Bruno Mountain State Park which was close by. We didn't stay long. We took a few pictures and headed back down the mountain.

Facing northeast ...


Facing west ...


Next we headed over to Fort Point National Historic Site. It's part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area (so we got Carter's national park passport stamped) and is under the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge.

This is a huge old fort that is really well maintained. There are some museum exhibits in the interior of the fort with information on it and the Golden Gate Bridge construction.

It was a cool morning with lots of clouds but we bundled up Carter and he had fun exploring and climbing around. He really liked the canon mounts but we had to keep him away from most of the other areas that were too dangerous for him.

The fort lighthouse with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background ...



When you get up to the top level, you have a good view of the underside of the bridge ...


Carter liked pointing at the bridge (as well as the large cargo boats going under the bridge) ...




Brian and Carter looking at the seagulls and surfers at the base of the fort ...


The Golden Gate Bridge ...


Brian and Carter ...


The interior of the fort ...


After Fort Point, we headed over to the Pier 39 area. We walked around for little and then headed up to Bubba Gump for lunch. I have been craving a shrimp po' boy forever and finally got one (a very good one too!). Carter did good at lunch. He liked looking at the boats and pelicans out the windows.


After lunch we went over to the sea lions. There weren't all that many on the docks and Carter wasn't all that interested in them so we didn't stay long.



Out next stop ... Alcatraz ...


We walked over to Pier 33 for the boat ride over to Alcatraz. We did the last afternoon tour of the day at 1:55 pm. Carter did really well in the line waiting to load the boat - there were a couple of other kids screaming the whole time.

Carter liked the boat ride. We stayed inside because it was cold and overcast outside. Carter liked looking at boats and birds again.


When we got off the boat, we got Carter's national park passport stamped again (he got lots of stamps on this trip!) and then walked up the hill to the cell house for the audio tour.





We were really impressed by the audio tour. It was really interesting compared to a lot of other tours we've done. And most impressive and convenient was that Carter slept for the majority of the tour. If he hadn't, he probably would have been fussy having to stay in his stroller as we moved just a little and then would stand in one place for awhile listening to our audio tour headsets.


Downtown San Francisco from Alcatraz ...


After the audio tour, we walked back towards the boat and stopped by the other buildings on the island.



We took the last afternoon boat back to Pier 33. Even though it was cold, Brian took Carter out to the front of the boat for awhile and he really enjoyed it. When we got back to the pier, we walked back to the car and headed toward our hotel. We wanted to pack before Carter went to sleep so we did a quick dinner at In & Out Burger on the way to the hotel.

We got back to the hotel around 6:30 pm and had Carter in bed at 7:30 pm. Carter and I were really glad that we got to spend an entire day with Brian before we left San Francisco. We had fun on our own, but it's always more fun with Daddy!

Here are pictures of Carter's stamps in his national park passport book ...

Yard Work

We worked in the yard again today. My mom is here visiting (she got here yesterday) so she was able to watch Carter while we worked on the front bed on the other side of the sidewalk from the one we did last Saturday.



We got ambitious midway through our work and decided to put in bricks as an edger between the bed and grass. Amazingly we were still able to also finish that added project before dinner.


We still have several projects to get done this spring, but at least the yard is looking good from the street now!

San Francisco - Day 4 - Muir Woods & SF Zoo

Carter woke up early on Thursday - he was up at 4:30 am. He finally fell back to sleep on his own at 5:15 am only to be woken up by us at 6 am so we could get going.

Thursday was finally sunny all day. But it was cold in the morning (low 40s). We dropped Brian off downtown and then Carter and I headed over the Golden Gate Bridge to Muir Woods National Monument. Carter slept for part of the drive over there.


I bundled Carter up for our hike. In addition to his sweater and fleece, he had a toboggan, mittens, and blanket. We left the car around 8:45 am. The park was open but the ranger station wasn't open yet to pay the entrance fee. At this time there were only a few other people in the park. The trail we followed was paved so it was easy to push Carter in his stroller.

Carter in front of a redwood tree ...


All bundled up ...


On one of the 4 bridges ...


Carter and me (this is the best I could do with no one around to take our picture) ...


I missed my good camera. The lighting is difficult because very little sunlight reaches the ground. I still tried getting a few good shots with my point-and-shoot camera.


Carter between two trees ...


Looking up ...


Happy boy ...


Carter in a tree ...


We went all the way down to the 4th bridge before turning around. When we came back to the 3rd bridge, we crossed it and walked on the other side of the stream. We finished hiking around 10:30 am and we stopped by the visitor's center to have Carter's national park passport book stamped.

Since we were close by, we drove over to the Muir Beach Overlook.



We only walked part of the way out to this overlook because Carter was really squirmy and wanted to walk. There were steep dropoffs on both sides of the trail so he made me really nervous.


Carter took a nap on our way back in to San Francisco. Our plan was to go to the San Francisco Zoo next so we stopped by an Arby's near the zoo for lunch. This was the first time I'd ever taken Carter to a restaurant on my own. We've eaten out plenty of times but Carter's always been in his stroller or in his carseat and is usually the only one eating.

We got to the zoo around 1:30 pm. The San Francisco Zoo is part of the reciprocal program with the Knoxville Zoo so we got in for half price (Carter was free of course).

The first animals we saw were giraffes and zebras. Carter LOVED them. He kept screaming at them. He didn't want to leave the viewing area for them. Several times I started walking away and as I was turning the corner I would tell Carter bye-bye. Instead of following me or getting upset, he just waved bye to me.



There were lots of babies at this zoo, including 2 giraffes, a gorilla, and lots of monkeys.



Just one of the cubs ...



A pile of lemurs ...


The lions ...


We enjoyed watching this bear play with a stick ...


"I like bears" ...


I didn't know polar bears could climb steep stairs like this set out of the pit separating the exhibit area from people ...



The kangaroos were my favorite animals ...


I really enjoyed going to this zoo with Carter. Though he was a handful part of the time. Carter didn't want me to hold him at all but he didn't want in his stroller either. He just wanted to go where ever he wanted to (which was often behind split rail fences where we weren't supposed to be). We had several temper tantrums with lots of screaming. But I kept letting Carter out of his stroller because I wanted him to be able to see the animals better.

Brian finished up early so we headed out around 3:30 pm. The only part of the zoo we missed was the Children's Zoo. Carter took a third short nap on the way to get Brian. We stopped by the hotel and then went to Red Robin for dinner. Carter did really well at the restaurant again. We got back to the hotel early and had Carter in bed at 7:30 pm.