A morning at Canandaigua Lake

Last Friday night the boys and I were going to go with mom and dad to Canandaigua Lake for a nice evening stroll but long story short, they didn't have a car seat for Callen and I didn't want to unhook mine it was already getting late. So we went home.

But I now had the longing to go to the lake so I decided to take the boys myself on Saturday. We had breakfast and I packed some snacks, fruit and crackers and we headed out around 9:00. It was a perfect morning, just a little breeze and not to hot yet. Since daddy was in NC with my car, we drove the truck which was perfect since my double jogging stroller doesn't fit in my car.

We ran to the pier where we made a pit stop to have some snacks, all three of us. We just sat on the bench and watched the boats, kayaks and ducks. It was so beautiful, I felt like I was in a different state on vacation. I hadn't been to the dock/pier area on Canandaigua Lake in many years and it was so gorgeous.

After our snack we headed back to the car but not before we stopped to play on the playground, chase the seagulls, see a mommy duck and her ducklings and finally throw rocks into the lake.

"Come back birdie. Come here."


I stopped to take this picture as it looked like it belonged in a movie or from a book. So serene, a lady with a big sun hat reading her book on a bench, a guy running with his dog on a beautiful sunny day enjoying the soft lake breeze.
And since I promised ice cream, we stopped at McD's to get ice cream and then to Tim Horton's so I could spoil myself with an iced coffee. Yes, I know, a nice morning run and I put all the calories back on with an iced coffee. But hey what is a "vacation" if you can't spoil yourself.


At this point it was around 11:30 already and I knew Chase was sleeping. Well, I was right. I turned around and this was what I saw. I clearly pooped him out. I had to pull over so I could get his ice cream cone and yes I finished it. But I never got myself an ice cream just a coffee and parfait which the parfait I never did eat.

Well since we had the rest of the day to spend together, we headed on over to Nonnie and Papa's house. My sister was there with her kids and Chase just adores Makayla. They all got their swimmies on and jumped in the pool. We stayed just a few hours as we had a birthday party to go to. Gracie Ann was turning TWO!

After a quick shower we were off again and this was all on a 30 minute nap for Chase. We played on Gracie's new specially built playground. Her daddy built it just for her for her birthday. It is quite the playground.

But no pictures of the party from my end. I was pooped and didn't want to maneuver a camera anymore. Such a party pooper, I know.

Chase getting milk for Callen

As I am putting away the dishes Chase grabbed some "dishes" from the counter. Then I hear "Mommy I am getting milk for Callen." I turn around and this is what I saw.
As far as I can remember he's only seen me pump once when Callen was first born. Apparently it was enough for him to remember but not entirely correct, obviously.

Friends, Family and Water Fun

This past week I had to fly solo while Brad had a business trip to Las Vegas. It was me and the boys on our own from Monday night to Thursday afternoon. It went very well, not that I didn't think it wouldn't, but it can be exhausting to do everything yourself and with a newborn, it could have went either way. Well except for Tuesday night, it went well.

Tuesday night Chase decided to get up in the middle of the night, well more like 3 am. And after I consoled him, Callen then woke up, once he was fed we both fell asleep, but then Chase woke up again. Let's just say this went on for 2.5 more hours. I was so extremely tired as I would get woken up after only being out for 15-30 minutes. Finally I got upset with Chase and told him I wasn't going to accept him getting up anymore and to go sleep. Thankfully he and Callen slept in that morning, which meant I did too.

Anyway back to the Friends, Family and Water Fun.

Tuesday we met up with Katie and Julie and the kids at Burnaps to enjoy some yummy food and let the kids play. We ended stay for almost 2 hours. It was a beautiful day and the kids enjoyed themselves as did the mommies.

After Burnaps, Chase and I headed to Geneva to meet up with Nonnie, Cara, Cara's new boyfriend and the kids at the splashpark. It was past his nap time when we left Burnaps but I figured he'd nap on the way to the splashpark, which he did and be ready to play. Once we got there he had to wake up and was a little hesitant on doing anything.

But it didn't him long to embrace the splashpark and have a ball. Aunt B took him out first while I fed Callen, then he came back for a quick little snack, then it was mommy's turn to go. It is such a fun place because you can enjoy it with your kids and not get wet.

He just randomly got up and sat and looked right at me. Too funny.

Look. Here it comes. Here it comes. Right there.


On our way home we stopped at McD's to finish the day with a yummy fudge sundae. Yes, I knew it would be a messy occasion as he enjoyed his sundae by himself in his car seat. But ice cream washes out and you can't round out a summer fun day without ice cream.

Brotherly Love

"Chase hold baby brother." This was their first picture together alone. Notice both are smiling. Callen was 7 days old in this picture...May 27, 2010.

First Family Photo...5/22/10

When we left the hospital we had to have a family photo shoot. We did this with Chase before we left the hospital so of course we had to with our new addition Callen Michael. Oh and one thing I forgot to mention about his delivery. When we arrived to the hospital and got checked into our room, the first thing we noticed was that we were in the same exact room that we delivered Chase in 2 years and 15 days earlier. How cool is that? Of all the rooms in the delivery maternity ward we were in the same exact room.

ATTEMPT #1

ATTEMPT #2

ATTEMPT #3

ATTEMPT #4--Almost there.
Yeah! Even though daddy didn't smile.

Yeah again but now Chase isn't smiling.

Welcome to the world Callen Michael

Chase's baby brother finally made his arrival on Thursday, May 20 at 6:54 am weighing in at 9lbs. 8oz and 21. 5" long. The whole delivery was fast, from nothing to baby in just 6.5 hours or so, which is not long compared to over 36 hours with Chase.

I had been having false labor for just about a week or so and I was for sure I would be going sooner that what I did. I had "false" labor with Chase and it turned into real labor in just one day. It was a very stressful week because I was concerned that I was overdue and already delivering a 10lbs. baby in my first pregnancy, I was afraid of a bigger baby and being overdue was not exciting.

Yes, those are BIG feet and LONG toes.

I went from Tuesday of having very hard Braxton Hicks anywhere from 5 minutes to 10 minutes apart but the times varied, not consistent at all. But when I woke up on Tuesday they were pretty good and slightly in my back so I told Brad to stay home. False alarm. He just ended up enjoying a day home.

Then Wednesday came. Nothing, absolutely nothing. Chase and I walked to Katie and Gracie's and enjoyed a fun afternoon there and then we walked back, about 3 miles or so all together with big hills. Still nothing, maybe one or two Braxton Hicks.

After Chase's nap we drove to Lowes to get stone for the flag pole that Brad was putting up. It was his birthday/Father's day gift. The stones I picked out were pretty heavy but I loaded and unloaded them myself. I was hoping all the physical labor would put me into actual labor. Well, nothing until......12:30am.

My belly was getting extremely hard, Braxton Hicks again but no pain. Not alarming just annoyed at this time that they didn't hurt. Well, just 15 short minutes later...pain in my back, not real bad though. But wait another 5 minutes....pain again but worse. Yeah, this was it. I was finally in labor.

I asked Brad what time it was, 1:17am. Ok I said don't fall asleep for the next 5 minutes. Sure enough 5 minutes later another strong contraction, stronger than the one before. Ok, yes these are real but how real? 5 hours from now? 10 hours from now? So Brad fell asleep but I kept watch of the contractions. Goodness another very strong one five minutes later, stronger again.

So I laid there contemplating if I should wake Brad to go and call my mom to stay with Chase or wait another hour or so. Oh what to do? I quietly went downstairs and made sure everything was in my bag added my toothbrush, contacts, makeup, etc. and then went up and woke Brad. It's time, we've got to go. By now it was only 1:45 but they were even more stronger but still five minutes apart.

I called my mom. No answer. I called her cell phone. No answer. Oh no are you kidding me. I tried the house phone again. Nothing. Cell phone again. Nothing. Ok now what. Dad. Try my dad. Yes finally. Dad, get mom it's time. Five minutes past and I called my mom again to make sure she was hurrying, they were coming faster and stronger by the minute.

2:oo am Brad and I are off to the hospital which is a 40 minute drive. Am I going to make it? They were now 3 minutes apart, this is crazy fast. With every contraction Brad steps on the gas pedal a little more. Thankfully it's 2 o'clock in the morning and there is no traffic. I called the doctor to give them a heads up.

We finally arrived and I can barely talk at this point. I get checked in and prepare to welcome our baby boy #2. Finally, I pushed and half laughed for a minute and a half and arrived Callen Michael. I say half laughed because the doctor said something funny and I started laughing and with my laugh Callen arrived. So maybe he will be the class clown as he entered this world with a laugh. What did the doctor say that was so funny? I couldn't tell you.

Quality time with my little man...

As we patiently wait the impending arrival of baby #2, Chase and I have had a few extra days of quality time together. I left work a few weeks early thinking baby #2 would be here by now and since I am only part-time, my presence wasn't as pertinent as it was when Chase was born. So I was able to hand my work off which left me with not much to do and frankly it is very uncomfortable to sit all day with my belly resting on my legs.

So we've had time to just hang out with each other. We've had some play dates, visited the Nonnie a few days, Katie and Gracie and then Clayton too when he arrived. And this past Friday I had another doctor's appointment since it was my weekly follow up. They originally had me due for May 13 which I didn't think was correct, I figured around May 20 or 21, one of those days. Anyway, the 13th came and went and nothing and knowing my history of a big baby, I was a little overwhelmed. I just can't go past my due date. Well, the doctor looked at my file and said that according to certain dates, my actual due date is May 17. Ok, so I know ultrasounds aren't always correct and I wanted to believe that my new due date is actually May 17 but then again was she just saying this to make me feel better? Well, it worked.

Back to our quality time. It was such a beautiful day that Chase and I stopped at a few garage sales, nothing spectacular, well nothing on my list but we got a few books and some onesies. I promised him we would go to the park so we headed to the Fairport park by the canal. It was getting close to his nap time but that didn't matter, we were going to have fun.

It was nice and quiet. I love that they had a little kid playground area where he could up the stairs and down the slide himself with very little mommy assistance. But either way he saw the big slide and wanted to go down which of course meant that mommy had to go with him. So we climbed the stairs and I finagled my way onto the slide and we went down together but I made sure he knew we were only going down once.



After sometime at the playground we walked up to the canal to feed the ducks. I found a nice sitting area for us on some rocks and we enjoyed our lunch together as we watched the ducks. And they were not disappointing, they gave us quite the show...fighting, diving under the water, landing in the water, eating some of our pb&j crust, and of course quacking. It was quite entertaining, we sat there for at least 45 minutes or more.

Plus two geese were there too to bring some entertainment. They actually almost came right up on our laps. I was cutting some apple and a piece accidentally fell into the water, a huge piece. I knew the ducks wouldn't eat it so we just watched it float. But then one of the geese saw it and started to nibble on it. I wasn't expecting that so of course we cut some more small pieces to feed him, I had two apples so we shared. Chase had so much fun, he has a pretty good arm and hit them a couple of times with the apple but then again some of them didn't even make it in the water but the geese came close enough to eat them.

As you can see Chase was enjoying the show too. I didn't have my camera so my phone pics will have to do.

Impromptu Family Photo Shoot

It was such a beautiful evening last Wednesday, 5/5, Chase's birthday, that I decided to do an impromptu family photo shoot before the newest Salatino arrived. It was just Chase and I at first, then daddy got home and I encouraged him to change real quick to coordinate and we set the timer up and here are the results.

Oh, and we were on our way to the hospital to see the newest Decker addition, born on Chase's birthday.

I wanted Jasper out of the picture but we wouldn't get out. But I love the picture, he cooperated with a smile on his face and it turned out adorable.



Patiently waiting for mommy.
Daddy's turn. Chase wasn't cooperating with me for this one.