Kansas City

Sean met up with Brett and his son, Evan, at the T-Rex Cafe while we were in KC. Brett and Sean are college friends and now they both have boys about the same age. It is too bad we don't live closer so they could get together on a regular basis. Carter had fun playing "dinos" with Evan.

Mimi & I took Carter to play at The Grove at Zona Rosa so he could blow off some steam. We had all gotten cabin fever from being cooped up during the three-day storm & this is just what we needed! Davis was happy to sleep through the entire outing. What a good boy!

Check out the cool tree house slide!

riding Bambi--giddy up!

We went to Crown Center to visit Kaleidoscope and the Hallmark Visitors Center one afternoon. I can remember going when I was a kid, so it was fun to take the boys. We will have to go back when Davis can appreciate it a little more.

Carter loved the bow-making machine! He was a bow-making fool!

Waiting for the finished product to drop...

May I have my bow now, please?

Carter's favorite spot in Kaleidoscope--the "paint cleaning station" (aka: sink)

Sean & Carter with the gingerbread village at Crown Center

Milne Family Christmas

Thomas came to Mimi's house!

Sean & I decided to do the unthinkable and make a road-trip home to Missouri with a newborn and toddler during the middle of Winter. The trip home was a good one and we are hoping the return trip is just as easy. First stop, Kansas City! We stayed at Mimi & Grampy's house for Christmas and had a wonderful time.

Mimi, Grampy & the boys

Mom getting some snuggle time in with Davis

Uncle Josh & Sean

Aunt Sister playing with Davis (in Christmas outfit #1) while Natalie watches

Me with Carter & his Great-Grandpa Ted

Say "cheese"!

Carter with his Uncle Josh

Daddy with Davis Claus (Christmas outfit #2)

Davis modeling Christmas outfit #3

Dear Mimi, Grampy, Aunt Sister & Uncle Josh,

Thank you so much for the LeapFrog books, fun (and noisy!) games, cool toys & cute clothes (especially the MU gear!). We are really lucky boys to have so many people who love us. We had so much fun playing with everyone and our Mommy & Daddy enjoyed going out for a movie while Mimi took care of us! Thanks, Mimi!

Love,

Carter & Davis

date night

The happy couple before our night out on Saturday, courtesy of Dad & Nancy. Can you tell it's been a while since we've been on a date?

new kicks

Our friends Jessica & Jarrod got Davis these baby Puma tennis shoes. They are so adorable, I just had to post a picture. Thank you, Reimers!

brotherly love

The boys were on their best behavior for this shot...keep it up boys, Santa is watching!

Bonner Family Christmas

Dear Grandad & Grandma Nancy,
Thank you for my new Handy Manny tool bench! What a cool gift--I love it! I will try to take good care of it until baby brother is ready to play with it, too. Merry Christmas!

Love, Carter

Grandad & Grandma Nancy came to our house to meet Davis and celebrate an early Christmas with us over the weekend. We had a great visit! They are such over-qualified babysitters and treated Sean & me to a night out (their treat!) while they stayed home with the boys on Saturday night. It was wonderful! The boys enjoyed the special attention and Sean & I loved getting out of the house, sans children!

Dad, Carter, Nancy & me before Sean and I left for our night out.

Three generations: Dad, Carter & me

Grandad with Davis

Grandad with his two favorite Beilmans

Just the boys (I think this was taken while Sean was busy working on the addition to the dog kennel out back, but that's a whole other story...)

Can you tell these two are related?

Daddy & Davis

Davis loves to snuggle, he is such a sweet baby. Here are some shots of him with Sean.

I love how his little hand is reaching for Sean's arm.

Looking up to Daddy already!

Santa Sighting #2

Every year, Sean's office has a special visit from Santa. He is fortunate to work for a very family-friendly company. Carter has gone the past two years, but last year was kind of a disaster as Carter screamed bloody murder when Sean put him on Santa's lap. This year was a big improvement...we didn't get a smile, but there were also no tears.

Santa brings a stuffed animal & book to each child, with a little help from his elves.

Davis's first time meeting Santa! Less than a month old and already schmoozing it up with the big guy!

pizza party

Sunday evening, we had some of our friends over for a last-minute pizza party to celebrate the holidays and introduce Davis! We are so fortunate to have very dear, thoughtful friends...everyone brought over a "big brother gift" for Carter. We were blown away and Carter felt very special. Thanks so much to everyone!

Carter playing with car #1 from Jarrod & Jessica. Yes, they BOTH make a ton of noise!
Jarrod helping Carter figure out how to make the car jam out. Thanks, Jarrod!

Me with Kelly & Jessica. Too bad I forgot to get the camera out before Adam & Leah left. Leah is the cutest pregnant woman & I wanted to get a picture of her! We are excited to meet baby Owen in a few weeks!

Monkey Bizness

Over the weekend, we discovered a little piece of heaven on earth...Monkey Bizness. It is an indoor play area where toddlers & preschoolers can run wild while their parents sit by and sip lattes. Genius!!! I have a feeling this is the beginning of a long-term relationship.

Sean comforting Carter after a run-in with another toddler.
That orange balloon was quite a hit.

View of the jumping and climbing structure. Pretty cool!

Speed slide.

Sean was the only dad in the climbing jungle, but nobody seemed to mind. Davis was content to snuggle in the baby K'tan the whole time big brother was playing. This time next year, we will be chasing two rowdy boys around this place!

Santa Train

Santa Sighting #1...

While Davis & I were in the ER, Sean and Carter went to see Santa at the Railroad Museum. We were planning to go as a family, but Davis had other ideas. Sean said Carter did really well and loved seeing the trains. No surprise!

Playing with the coal door.

Check out this HUGE train!

I forget what Sean told me about this train, but it sure looks impressive! I'll have to ask him to fill in the gaps for our train-enthusiast readers. :-)

ER visit #2

After over two years with no ER visits for Carter, we have had our second visit in one week! Not the kind of stats I am proud to report. On Saturday morning, I noticed blood in Davis's diaper & called the pediatrician. Since they don't have office hours on the weekend, I spoke to the triage nurse who wanted me to take him to the ER right away. I was happy to wait & see if it would happen again because he was eating fine, peeing fine and acting fine. There was nothing of concern to me other than the blood. When it happened again, I knew we had to take him in just to make sure it wasn't something serious.

After three hours in the ER and some lab tests, it was determined that Davis has a milk protein allergy. We put him on soy formula to see if that would take care of it. However, a large percentage of kiddos who have a milk protein allergy are also allergic to soy. If that happens with Davis, he will need to be started on a milk & soy-free formula that is EXPENSIVE!!! Hopefully, that is not the case. So far, he seems to be tolerating the soy ok. We are going in for follow-up on Friday so I am keeping my fingers crossed!

3's

Before I became a nurse, I never really considered myself to be a superstitious person. That's all changed now. Now I know that: 1) working when there's a full moon means you're in for a CRAZY night, 2) saying it's a "slow" or "quiet" shift jinxes you and you need to be prepared for an onslaught of patients and 3)bad things come in threes. It's all true.

Within the past week we have had our run of threes in bad luck. Last Friday, our washer broke with a full load of whites during the rinse cycle. Off to Home Depot we went! Also last Friday, I found out that my FMLA from work was approved (which I already knew) but that my job was only "protected" for the first four weeks (stupid broken arm last year). Long story short, I am probably going to have to go back to work after eight weeks of maternity leave instead of the 12 weeks I was planning on. BIG bummer! Really big.

And for our third luck-buster, I took Carter to the ER at Children's on Sunday for a "raging" ear infection, according to the pediatrician. He had been running a fever for three days and was clearly in a lot of pain. I am happy to say that after several days of amoxicillin and TLC, he is feeling MUCH better! Poor boy!

So, the Beilman family is closed to bad luck business. We have reached our quota!