Daddy Daycare

While I was in Mechanicsville for the Sullivan Conference, Shane took two leave days to watch Trevor.  They had a blast while I was gone!  One of the things they did while I was away was take a trip to the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk. 

First “Business Trip”

Last week I went on my first business trip for my job.  Every year, the Office of Christian Formation for the Diocese of Richmond hosts the Sullivan Conference.  For the conference, they usually bring in a speaker to talk about some sort of catechesis, as well as have breakout sessions, opportunities for prayer and fellowship and visits from different vendors for our textbooks and other materials.  This year, the Office of Christian Formation teamed up with the Office of Worship to plan the conference.  The theme was “Mass as Catechesis” and focused on the changes that are going to be taking place with the new translation of the Roman Missal.

The keynote speaker for the conference was Fr. Paul Turner who is a pastor of a parish in the Diocese of Kansas City—St. Joseph and has done much study and writing on the revision of the missal.  His four presentations were wonderful, and shed so much light on the new translations that will be going into effect sometime in the next two years. 

Attending the conference was such a great experience for me.  It was so nice to be surrounded by many others who have chosen to dedicate their lives to passing on the faith, whether it be in the educational field as I have, or in the area of worship.  I was able to bring back many ideas and new resources to improve my programs for the upcoming year. 

The conference lasted for two days, and in addition to Fr. Turner’s presentations, included mass celebrated by our bishop, morning prayer celebrated by our bishop emeritus, breakout sessions presented by many of the diocesan leaders and a stand-up comedy act by one of the priests.  It was a really good time!

The conference as not all roses and sunshine though—one of our prayer writers fell while she was there and ended up in the hospital.  She is at home back in Norfolk, and is recovering well, but please keep her in your prayers. 

Splish Splash!

Last Thursday-Saturday is was HOT HOT HOT! Here we were in the 90s on a couple of those days.  We had finally gotten the electrician out to hook the motor up to the pool so we were able to get in each of the days for some nice afternoon swimming to cool off!

Trevor LOVED the water and was so happy to float around the pool with us in his ‘baby boat.’

(I promise Shane had just let go of the raft to wipe off his face—Trevor doesn’t get to float around on his own in the pool :) )

Let’s Go Swimming!!

Well, maybe not yet—but in a few weeks!

When Shane and I were looking for the house, one of the things that we were most upset leaving at our rental townhome was the pool that was in the complex.  So, when we looked for homes, they had to have a backyard where we could put an above-ground pool in. 

So, we bought a house with an obnoxiously large yard (which I have mowed….fun.)  Today though, that yard got a little smaller—the pool was finally installed. And BOY, was it something to watch!

In a little under three hours, our yard went from this:

To this: 

And Trevor supervised the whole thing from the back door:

Blowing Kisses

Trevor on occasion will blow kisses and I finally caught a picture of it. 

 

So there you have it—a kiss from Trevor!

A Family Tuesday

Shane had watch last night from 1:45am until 8 this morning, so once he was off of work he was able to come home and spend the day with us.  Of course, he had a bunch of stuff to do before he could actually leave, so he left work around 9 and met us at home just in time to go to Trevor’s one year check up.  I know that Trevor’s birthday was almost a month ago, the doctors office was booked solid and this was the soonest they could get us in.  The appointment went great!  Trevor is doing everything that he should be for is age, and even more!  He weighs 23lbs and 4oz and is 31 inches tall.  50th percentile for both, so he is average for his age.  He had to get a few shots, but only cried for a few moments until we all fussed over him, and then once he realized he had everyone’s attention, he was done. 

After we left the doctor’s, we headed over to the mall to pick up some summer sandals for Trevor.  He has cute little white sneakers that still fit, but I think he looks kinda funny with shorts on with his socks coming up so high when he wears shoes.  In two months, Trevor has gone up a half size in shoes, and we were told that we need to make sure to come back in about 3 months to get him fitted again.  Once we had his sandals, we headed over to Lowes to pick out the new carpet for the house—finally!—That took a little longer than expected—who knew that carpet installation required a novel’s worth of paperwork?  Once we finished at Lowes, we grabbed some lunch and headed home so that Trevor could take a much-needed nap. 

While Trevor was sleeping, Shane and our friend Carl went over to the pool place to pick up our pool!  It is currently sitting in our garage in a bunch of boxes (how an 18’ round above ground pool, pump, filter, and all of the chemicals and accessories fits in there I have no idea)  Tomorrow morning I am going back to the city hall to get the building permit (???) for the pool so that we can hopefully get it installed next week.  Joy.

We have since been spending the evening playing here at home with some of the new toys that Trevor got for his birthday.  We didn’t give him everything right up front so that he wouldn’t get bored with everything at once and that has been working out great for us. 

Here are some pictures from our day:

getting ready to stand up

taking a break to snuggle with daddy

now its time to snuggle with mommy

Trip with Trevor

On Monday, Trevor and I got in the car and headed to Connecticut to visit my family.  Shane and I were really nervous about me making the drive on my own with Trevor, but it went great.  We got on the road at about 6am and headed up the Eastern Shore.  We arrived at my Grandmother’s in CT at about 2:30—not too bad.  The only traffic that we ran into was at the toll right before the GW Bridge in NYC.  (I hate that freaking bridge)

Our time in CT was a lot of fun.   We spent a lot of time with my Grammy, and did some visiting with my cousins and aunts and uncles.  We even took a trip to the Beardsley Park Zoo!  Here are some pictures from our trip: 

We left to come back home yesterday morning at 6am and arrived home at 1:30 in the afternoon.  The trip only took 7.5 hours, which was great!