Chuck E. Cheese

It seems that once you have kids you'll eventually have to make your way there, and tonight Filson & I took our first trip to Chuck E. Cheese for our neighbor Curran's 4th B-day party. It must be the hot spot for 4 yr olds, as it's also where my niece, Jaya, wanted her party for her 4th birthday this month in Arizona. The kids all loved it! Filson's eyes were huge when we walked in & he saw all the action. I gave up taking pictures after the first few minutes & the ones I did take didn't turn out well. As quick as he moved from game to game, by the time I had the camera out he was already on to something else. Tomorrow afternoon he has to go to the drop-in daycare, Giggles, for awhile. Between that, the Children's Museum and Chuck E. Cheese all in one week, it will be a miracle if he escapes without picking up some nasty germs by the weekend!

Children's Museum

I took Filson downtown to the Wilmington Children's Museum today. It was our first time there & he had a great time and checked out every exhibit they had. Pushing the cart & running the register at the grocery store & jumping around on the soft mats in the toddler area were a couple of his favorites. He was worn out and fell asleep in the car as soon as we headed for home.

Batter, Batter, Batter.....Swing

Yard Work

Here's a little video of Filson with his rake "assisting" John a couple days ago. You can tell he hasn't quite yet figured out what the rake is to be used for. The other is one of the shots John got of him in the house the other day & I laughed when I saw his expression.

It's been a long week at our place as John unfortunately came down with a nasty stomach bug on Sunday night & basically quarantined himself in our guest room until Wednesday afternoon, trying to keep Filson & I from catching it. Not that there is ever a good time to get sick, but this was especially disappointing to us as Thursday morning we were to take off to NYC for our first childless getaway. The good news is we can reschedule our trip and, thankfully, John is finally today feeling back to his normal self & it appears that the rest of the fam has been spared from the bug.

Today, the three of us were able to get out & spend a great day together. We first hit the Cape Fear Wildlife Expo where Filson saw all kinds of neat things including snakes & fish & some very fancy ATVs that he was especially impressed with! We then went out for lunch & took a drive down to the beach. The little guy fell asleep on the way home & now, 2.5 hrs later, is still sleeping. We must have worn him out well!

On the Road Again

We hit the road with John Tuesday & spent a couple nights in Charlotte. Wednesday morning John headed out early for his trade show & Filson & I hit the Barnes & Noble across the street from our motel & checked out their train table. We started to cruise around the mall, but Filson fell asleep in his stroller, so we headed back to the motel where he crashed for over 2 hours. We would not usually hang out in the motel just for him to get a nap in, however our little guy had decided to stay up watching tv until after 11pm our first night in the motel (long after his tired parents had turned off the lights & crawled under the covers!), and had been up bright & early around 6:15am that morning, so I knew he was in need of sleep & Mom was ready for a little rest too! Once rested, we took off for an afternoon in downtown Charlotte. The new train station was just a couple minutes from our motel, so Filson & I hopped the train and headed downtown. He loved both being able to watch the world go by outside the window and to people watch as everyone was getting on and off at each stop. We walked around the city, grabbed lunch outdoors & enjoyed the gorgeous day with a temperature that reached the high 70s. After meeting up with Dad and his coworkers for a bit at an Irish Pub, Filson & I were able to meet my cousin, BreAnn, for dinner. He enjoyed all the attention from her & we had a great time. We took the train back to the motel & all slept hard after our busy day. Yesterday morning we dropped John off downtown at his show & then headed to the new IKEA store to meet Anna Leigh, Vada and Donna who were coming from Raleigh. We were very excited to get to visit with Donna on her trip out from Iowa! Vada is growing up so fast & has the best little personality. Filson had fun playing peek-a-boo with her, trying to make her laugh & testing out her toys. We had a great day & could have kept cruising around the store for a couple more hours had we not had to go back to get Dad & head for Wilmington. Probably a good thing, as Filson's space in the backseat was pretty cramped for our 4 hour drive home & I don't think we could have fit one more purchase in there!

Boat Day

The weather was gorgeous and we were able to spend a nice Saturday morning out on the water. We are all excited for summer!

We All Scream For Ice Cream!

With the chilly weather here this week, Filson & I kept very busy doing things inside like playing at Marilyn's house, meeting friends at Fit for Fun & story hour at the library. However, I think his favorite day was yesterday when we headed downtown to John's office to meet him for lunch. He had come home late Thursday night, so it was a rare day that he was in his Wilmington office & it was fun to get to visit him there. John thinks Filson is taking after his mom & Grandma for his love of ice cream, as his favorite spot was "The Scoop", the cute shop we visited behind John's office. It warmed up to the 70s yesterday, so we were able to get outside in the afternoon to play ball. We had played A LOT of ball inside all week, as you can see them scattered around his room in a couple of the pictures, so it felt great to get out in the fresh air and have a change of scenery! We're looking forward to what is supposed to be a gorgeous weekend here in NC & then will pack our bags & hit the road with John this week!

Rainy Days

It started raining in the night Friday and has been coming down ever since. Therefore, not a whole lot of activity outside for us this weekend. We did head out for dinner with some friends last night & had a fun time. Here are pics of Filson from the last couple of days. He likes to pretend he has a screwdriver & "helps" screw things in. He's working on the door with my keys in one shot.