One if by Land, Two if by Sea, Three if by Air

Evie made her second trip to Boston via airplane this weekend.  The first time she went, she doesn't remember because she was in my belly.  It seems fitting that her first real flight was back to Boston to see our best buddies the Evans'! 

In all my comedic motherhood books, they will flat out tell you not to travel by plane with a child under 2.  You don't want to be "those people".  Well, we were, and it went very smoothly!  We timed our flights with her naptime, which worked like a gem on the flight up.  Evie served as the welcoming party on the plane, giving a smile to all passengers that passed by our seat.  As soon as we were in the air and the humming of the plane soothed her, we were golden.  The travel time is 50 minutes once in the air to Boston.  You can't beat that for our first flying experience with a little one.


My travel companions on the flight north

While in Melrose, we hung around the Evans' gorgeous house, enjoyed the screened in porch, watched the kids play, and sat around playing SORRY by candlelight.  Oh yes, we took our SORRY playing to the next level, romantic.  It wasn't planned that way... we lost power for 2.5 hours due to a wicked thunderstorm.

On Sunday we tried to take the "T" into Boston, but the line was not operating from Melrose.  We decided taking a bus with two strollers and all our loot for a picnic was a bit much.  So we drove in.  We had a lovely picnic lunch under a big shady tree in Boston Gardens.  Everyone around us was eating pizza from a local joint and our healthy lunch of fruit salad and tomato/moz/basil salad wasn't satisfying enough.  We did get a pizza, which I will admit was not as good as it looked.  We walked around the area a little longer then headed home.

I've been to the Boston area 3 times now and have yet to have lobster.  When Erin heard this, she insisted we get some steamed lobsters for dinner that night.  Besides some lobster meat here and there with dishes, I haven't picked apart a lobster.  Crabs... different story.  I liked the lobster, but there is something about a 2 hour crab picking marathon that I love.  Lobster is more satifsying to get a huge chunk of meat with little work.  And dipped in melted butter.  Yum! 

Monday was a wash out, literally.  It rained most of the day.  Our flight back to Baltimore got pushed back 1 hour.  Once we were on the plane, we sat on the plane for another hour while they fixed something (I couldn't hear the pilot), then we had to wait while Air Force One landed at Logan.  Evie was fidgety, but I think everyone was.  By the time we got in the air it was 2 hours past Evie's nap time.  She fell asleep as soon as we got moving again.  Besides the fact that I left my neighbor with very little gas in my car and we were driving on zero miles until empty for a mile or two, we made it home safely.

We made it back and forth from Boston without death stares from airplane patrons, we filled our tanks with some Evans love, and thoroughly enjoyed getting out of the mid-Atlantic for a few days.  I will classify it a successful mini vacation.

Boston Round 2

Crunching Numb3rs

Since we are both numbers people, here are some numbers to consider:

6:   How old Parker dog is today in years

50:  The number of times I say "Parker, no" or "Evie, no" a day
14:   How far along I am in weeks

12:   The month baby #2 is due

19:   Number of months between Evie's birthday and due date

16:   Number of months between my sister and me

0:    Number of typical pregnancy symptoms I've had so far (maybe my acne is one...)

213:  My glucose level after the 1 hour test

4:     Number of times I prick my finger a day to check my blood sugar

12:    Units of insulin I inject every night.

3:     Weeks between visits to the endocrinologist

4:    Number of close friends who are due between October and December, mostly old college roommates!! 


Yep!  Baby #2 is cooking away.  I found out on Friday the 13th (April) that I was pregnant.  By my LMP I am due 12/12/12.  How awesome would that be?!  Ultrasounds are putting my due date later.  We'll say mid December.  Don't EVEN say it, friends.  I know what you are thinking.  12/25 is not happening.  I have diabetes again so I don't think they'll let H2 bake that long.

H2?  I will give Nikki and Bob credit.  They are calling their second one R2 right now.  I think it's cute.  I'm not completely sold on it yet.  I exercise the right to change it when I want. 
We are excited, yet even after 3 rounds of ultrasounds, it still doesn't feel real.  Maybe because I wasn't a drill sergeant about trying to conceive this time.  Maybe I'm too busy running after Evie that I don't have time to worry like I did the first time.  It's kind of blissful. I want to feel more connected to H2 though.  I hope this will all feel more real when I feel H2 kick.  I understand why everyone said "enjoy your 1st pregnancy", it is so different this time around!

Due to popular or not popular opinion, we are planning on keeping the gender a mystery again.  I really liked that moment in the delivery room.  I like to give all of you a reason to read my blog come December.  We both want another girl.  I love having a sister close in age.  But the Hollencamp name will disappear if we don't have a boy.  For both these reasons, I think 3 kiddos might be in our future.  We'll see how the second round goes for us.

I will update with belly shots monthly. 

Surprise!

If this doesn't get people to comment, I might shut down the blog to those that don't comment ever.  I want to know who is reading!!! 

PS  I can't figure out how to fix the spacing.  Sorry about that

A Day to Celebrate Dada

I've decided I've turned into my mother or a grinch or both.  I'm so over the Hallmark holidays.  I'm tired of people asking "so what did you do for Mother's Day?"  NOTHING!   "Do you have anything special planned for Father's Day?"  N.O.  I didn't send one card this year for Father's Day.  It's not that I don't love my dad, grandfather, brother-in-laws, dad friends, father-in-law, or husband, I'm just not into these kind of holidays.  See, look at the list of people you could send a Father's Day card to... it's ridiculous.  It feels forced to me and I would rather tell Jason or my dad how special they are to me when I feel the urge.  Not on some Sunday in June.

On a side note, my mother used to be horrible about sending cards.  In her older age she has been on top of almost every holiday.  So maybe in another 30 years I'll be good about holidays again :)  Until then, don't make me feel bad because I didn't do something "special" enough for some made up holiday.  Thank you and have a nice day.

So what did we do for Father's Day?  LOL

For the record, it's Jason's 2nd Father's Day. 

Well, once I told Jason at 8 PM the night before I had nothing planned, I felt slightly guilty, then let it go.  We had an amazing Sunday, June 17th together as a family once I took the pressure off trying to do "something special". 

We started our day by getting up (that's for you, Jas), having a quick breakfast of banana chocolate chip pancakes (Jason's favorite), and took a hike with Evie on the trails behind our house.  It was such a pleasant morning weather wise and Evie enjoyed pointing to the great Patapasco River meandering next to the trail. 

After a nap and showers, we packed up some lunch for Evie and went to the Walmart parking lot at Port Covington to watch the air show as part of the Sailabration party in Baltimore.  The website said 1 pm as the start, so we got there around 12:45PM.  The first plane didn't appear until 2PM.  The breeze was cool, skies partly cloudy, and Evie was content eating, going in and out of her chair, and playing with my cell phone, so while I complained about the delay, it was like a family picnic (in a parking lot...)

The air show was impressive and I'm glad we waited it out.  The Blue Angels were pretty darn cool.

We topped off the night with flank steak (another favorite of Jason's) and Erin's yummy chard recipe.  

Jason commented how much he enjoyed our day together and my dinner.  I think I did pretty well for not having anything planned.

I like the no pressure Father's Day.  I'm going to do that more often on all these Hallmark holidays :)

Sailabration-Fathers Day

These Bare Feet are Made for Walking

At 12 months, 2 weeks old Evie is a walker!  She's been about half crawler, half walker for a few weeks, but now I feel comfortable saying she prefers to walk.  It's really difficult to get her to sit and play with her toys now.  She likes to carry around a toy or two while she does laps around the house.

Evie feels very comfortable walking in our house- on carpet, tile, and hardwood floors.  When we went to the park this past weekend she was excited to walk on the playground equipment as well.  We will continue to let her explore new surfaces because we are off to the beach in under a month!! 

I'm impressed how steady she is on her feet.  The smile she gives us when she's walking around is adorable.  She is so proud of herself for joining the world of walkers!

Sitting on the docks of the bay in Annapolis

Walking (in her socks...) to Dada

Peek a ZOO

The National Zoo is less than 1 hour away, so I think the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore gets a bad rep.   Yes, it's in a sketch neighborhood and small compared to the National Zoo, but they have polar bears people.  That's all the reason I need to go!

After driving past the boarded up houses in Druid Hill, we safely got into the zoo.  We thought going during the week before school let out would be perfect.  Despite seeing school buses filled with field trippers, the zoo wasn't that crowded.  I think the Aquarium takes the prize for being the worst place to view caged/tanked animals.  I need a drink after walking through that place.  The weather was warm and sunny, but not oppressive for humans and animals alike. 

There are two main exhibits that spark my interest.  The polar bears and the African Journey (I think that's the name).  I could watch the polar bears all day and be happy.  They remind me of my dog with their big furry paws.  The African Journey has a plethora of animals ranging from the big cats to the elephants.  We walked through both exhibits and enjoyed our packed lunch by the giraffe.  You can make it through both areas in about 1.5 hours.  The perfect amount of time for 3 kids under 4. 

Evie and Cole sucked their thumbs through most of the zoo.  Evie pointed and showed excitement towards some of the animals.  It's hard being in a stroller where you can't see through the railing at times.  Everyone was well behaved, the mommies' blood sugar remained at a non shake inducing level, and we got some exercise. Overall, a great way to start the summer with Evie's cousins. 

Maryland Zoo