So the last post ended when Wesley goes down for a nap. So we will start there!
When we finally get Wesley to go down for a nap that’s when we can finally take care of ourselves a little. Take a shower, eat some lunch, work on a hobby, get some homework done, etc. When this all started, we had no idea how long this would go on for. I decided to build a raised garden bed as a hobby.
I was supposed to build a shed a long time ago and never did. We also took apart my old bar that was like 8′ by 4′ so believe it or not, I already had most of these materials that I needed. I worked on this for about an hour a day during Wesley’s lunchtime nap and it turned out great. The last picture here is actually from this morning (April 7th) so we are still waiting for a harvest. We have two kinds of tomatoes, garden beans, cucumbers, peppers, and peas. I may have to build something around the top with some chicken-wire to protect it because we do live close to a large river and there are rats around from time to time. So we will see what happens next.
Once Wesley wakes up it’s normally about 2pm. I work from 2-3:30pm while Wesley plays and does arts and crafts things with Erin. This is when he normally plays with play-Doh, finger paints, or makes Easter cards for family. We have bought him a variety of toys to try and spice things up for him during these times of isolation.
After I am done working at 3:30pm, we normally go for a nice walk to start off the afternoon. One of our neighbors took a cute picture and sent it to us.
So far we are surviving and getting through these tough times. Like a smart woman (Erin) once said the comeback is always stronger than the setback.
Our world has changed drastically in the last three weeks. As of writing this post we are now finishing up week 3 of working from home and taking care of a dog and a 17 month old. Each morning we wake up to Erin’s alarm around 6:30-7am. We very slowly get out of bed, one of us might brush their teeth. Okay Erin brushes her teeth. I make my way to the kitchen and start us some coffee. I also get Wesley’s milk going. Erin made a schedule for us.
She works from 7am-9am while I watch Wes
I work from 9-10:30am while she watches Wes
I watch Wes from 10:30am – 12pm while she works
He usually naps between 12-2pm (If we are lucky)
I work from 2:00-3:30pm while she watches Wes
She works after that until around 5pm
The schedule at least lets us know who has Wesley duty when. So I normally start my day with a cup of coffee while she is working and I get maybe thirty minutes until Wes starts to wake up. When he wakes up I go change him and feed him his morning milk. We either have some local news on or some acoustic guitar music for Wes so he can strum his guitar. Right now he is torn between his guitar and his new hockey stick. It’s very much like when Andy from Toy Story got Buzz Lightyear and started playing with it more than Woody. He loves his hockey stick. Every morning he goes over to where he last left it and waved goodbye to it. He also uses two koozies as hockey gloves (we think). I try as hard as I can to entertain this little guy. Whether its chasing him with his shark puppet, helping him play his guitar, listening to records in our “record room”, chasing him around with our tiny drone, checking the garden we just built and planted vegetables in (I named it ‘The Parden’), going outside, playing on the slide, or his favorite thing, watching me play hockey on the Xbox. Every time I score a goal we both celebrate by yelling “Wooooooo”.
He wants me to play this so much that even I have gotten sick of it. He will point to the TV and go “Ooooo”, point to the framed picture of Detroit Red Wing player Dylan Larkin on the wall, point to the Xbox, point to the game case, and even after all that he will go and sit where I sit when I play. If you try and play stupid at this point he will stare at you and you can hear him thinking “How do you not understand what I am trying to tell you right now?” If I try and play a different game you can see the look of disappointment on his face when the hockey game does not start.
At 9:00 Erin takes over and I start working from home online. I bought a new printer since our old one finally stopped printing. I have it set up on the floor behind me so that I can print anything I need and its right there. This also is a problem because the power button is a bright blue light and every time Wesley walks past it he just loves to press that pretty blue button. Most morning Erin will take Wes for a run in the jogger while I am working.
At 10:30, I take back over until its time for lunch. He usually eats around 11:30, plays a little bit, says good bye to his toys and goes down for his nap at noon.
That pretty much concludes the morning routine. Afternoon routine to follow.
A few weeks back the family went on a vacation to see Aunt Sarah and Uncle Thomas in Hermosa Beach, California. We decided to pay for a direct flight from Orlando, Florida straight into LAX. It was about a 5 hour flight but we would rather do that instead of switching planes with a 9 month old. We got through security, got to our gate, and had bottle ready for Wesley so that he would nap for the first bit of the flight. In case you have not heard, Wesley is a very good baby. We knew that if we could just get the timing right that he would sleep for a good bit of the flight.
We did everything perfect. The flight boarded a little late so he fell asleep while Erin was feeding him at the gate. We very quietly and carefully boarded the plane. We strategically had Erin carrying Wesley and me carrying all the bags. We even planned who was in front of who while boarding based on the seating arrangement. We got to our seats, we got our bags in the cubbies and under our feet, we sat down. Wesley was still passed out. Then, just as Erin and I were looking at each other, giving each other mental high fives. A speaker right above heads went “THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING AMERICAN AIRLINES. THIS WILL BE A FULL FLIGHT THIS MORNING. PLEASE TAKE YOUR SEATS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE SO WE CAN TAKE OFF”. That’s when Wesley’s eyes opened wide. He looked around and did not know where he was and immediately got fussy. So that was cool. Thank you American Airlines for that. Maybe turn down those speakers a tad? Truthfully the flight there was really not that bad.
We aren’t gonna be on this plane long right?We made it!
Wesley had a tough time adjusting to the 3 hour time difference. We were constantly up at 4:30am and would go for walks so that we did not wake up Sarah and Thomas. It was exhausting but it was also nice to spend some time chatting with Erin and the view wasn’t too bad either.
We also got to do some early morning shopping since Wes was up so early.
What do you think Wesley is looking at here?He is looking at apple sauce. Lots and lots of apple sauce.
We went for lots of walks on the beach. Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach were right next to each other so we visited both. Hermosa Beach was gorgeous and Manhattan Beach had an aquarium so both were pretty awesome. There were also a few houses for sale right on the beach there if you are interested and have like $15 Million to spend.
That looks like it would taste really goodForearm rolls
There was also a lot of time spent relaxing and recovering at Sarah and Thomas’s apartment that was nearby. They were only like 10 or so blocks from the beach which was really convenient. Only part that was not convenient was the humungous hill that you had to walk up to get back. We live in Florida where there are no hills. So any hill in general is a hike for us. But holy moly was this hill steep. And we had to push Wes up this thing!
The second to last full day that we were there I guess we decided that we had not walked enough. Even though I had averaged like 15,000 steps per day we decided it was time to go for a hike. The place that we hiked at was called Terranea Resort. It is right on the beach with amazing views. I did notice a lot of dogs on leash as well so huge bonus if you are a dog owner and want to travel somewhere cool with your pup.
Action shotYou look that way and I’ll look this way.
This was such a nice hike. It was very sunny and hot but it was not humid at all. In Jacksonville, we are used to at least 50% humidity daily so this weather was not too shabby at all. Wesley seemed to enjoy being out of his stroller this time and he let us know the whole hike. There was a lot of chatter coming from him that was basically “blah blah blah. Dah, blah blah blah”. It will be fun when we can finally hear what is going on in that 90th percentile head of his.
With all this walking, we gotta pop in for drinksErin with the photo bomb!
Obviously we had to plan a beach day while we were so close to the ocean. For those that do not know, going to the beach with an infant, is hard. You have to pack all the things. The stroller, diapers, sunscreen, baby food, water for the baby, a hat, clothes, extra clothes, doggie bags for poopy diapers, extra towels for the baby to lay on, umbrella, etc. Strollers do not push well through sand either so plan on carrying that. We made it though. And after we put down like 8 towels for Wesley to crawl, he immediately started separating them and finding the sand. Most parents are probably not as crazy as I can be but I did not want him getting sand on his hands. He is still at the age where he does not understand no exactly and everything goes in his mouth. So I was not looking forward to him eating sand and getting it in his eyes. But its fair if you just call me crazy.
They brought fruit!Please stay on the towels buddyHey this is pretty fun guysWhat a cute family
We also had some time to visit some family that we only see about once a year normally. They were a bit north of where we were but when do you get the chance to drive on one of the most busiest interstates in the world? Well, I guess a lot of people do. We decided to avoid rush hour as much as we could and take a short trip to see Kira and Pierrick. I really wanted to see them and the house that they had just bought had a hot tub. My calves were still screaming from all the walking and hiking so I am gonna get in that hot tub.
The drive there was really just over an hour and I learned fast that anywhere you drive in California, is probably at least an hour or so. Their house was amazing, we were so happy that we made the trip. I already mentioned the hot tub, but they also had a pool to go with it, lots of outdoor space, a huge kitchen, and a HOME THEATRE. I’m just saying, I have a lot of ideas about the room that is currently my man cave. I know we said we would turn it into a play room for Wesley but there has to be a way to make it a theatre playroom… maybe? It was sick. Before we hit up the hot tub, we needed some lunch and you cannot go to California without at least one stop at In and Out Burger right?
Wesley and AnnabelleDon’t worry. It wasn’t too hotWesley after swimming
Pierrick also showed me his new bicycle that had some kind of rider assist function. I do not know what that was but if you live somewhere that has hills, buy that freaking thing. It was the weirdest sort of satisfying mixed with bewilderment feeling. The bike sort of propels itself when you pedal. Think of how bikes have gears, but then pretend that superman is also flying behind you and pushing you while you are pedaling. That’s the best description I can give you. Now that I think of it, that’s exactly how it feels.
Our last night that we were there, Wesley woke up at 12:30am and would not go back to sleep. We had fought with him in the middle of the night to get him back to sleep the previous two nights so we were extremely exhausted at this point. Erin finally put him on the bed where he was only supposed to be momentarily but then he passed right out. So we gave him plenty of space between us and just let him crash there. We did get some rest after that but it was not good sleep. we were both worried we might roll over on him or something so we were trying to be extra careful. But it worked, little man slept like that until we had to wake him up to go to the airport.
Sleepy baby
So we packed up and headed back to LAX to take our flight back home. This one was a little shorter, 4 and a half hours. Thank goodness Erin is the best Momma in the world and thought to bring Wesley and extra change of clothes in case he had a blow out, because he did. He had a blow out in the airport before we even got on the plane so he would have been wearing just a diaper for the whole flight if it weren’t for Mom. Dad certainly does not think about that stuff until it is too late.
So here goes nothing, time for flight number two. I will say one thing about 9 month olds. They are smarter than you think they are. You try putting a 9 month old on an airplane when he just had his first airplane ride in his life 5 days earlier that was 5 hours long and see what happens. As soon as Wesley woke up from his nap, looked at the seats, the windows, the people, he knew immediately where we were and he was not happy. He was fussy and crawling all over Erin and I for about the first hour and a half, maybe more. Then he finally got tired and fell asleep. Thank goodness.
Now I just gotta figure out where to put all this crap
After 4 and a half long hours we finally landed back in Orlando! We had used the airplane’s lavatory to change Wes a couple times but once the plane starts descending and the stewardess says stay in your seat, they mean it. So even though there were things happening in Wesley’s diaper, he had to wait. Oh, and there was also lightning in the area, so they would not get our stroller for us. We were stuck carrying this 23 pound wiggling bowling ball through the airport. So we found the nearest bathroom we could and Erin went inside and changed him. And guess what.
Blowout #2
Even the best Mom in the entire world had not accounted for the possibility of not one blowout, but two blowouts! Come on man! Ugh. Now we look like the crappy parents that just carry their kids around in a diaper. Oh well, at least Erin had a baby blanket laying around so that it was not too embarrassing.
Waiting for our bags during a lightning delay with no clothes on
What a trip though. Traveling with a 9 month old is not always easy but we made the best of it and now have memories with Wesley that we will never forget. We had so much fun visiting with Sarah and Thomas and loved their new city. They make really good tour guides if anyone is looking for one.
Seriously, if you were a stomach bug could you find a cuter host? The 2019 stomach bug originated from an unknown child at daycare and attached itself to our cute little Wesley. What an innocent, cute little face for a virus to attach to. We have warned family members but if you saw this face, would you take the risk? Could you say no to this face? We left the beach yesterday and so far nobody else has gotten it. This thing was relentless. So far, including Wesley, there have been 8 victims.
Victim #1 was Erin unfortunately.
I got a call from Erin while at work that was a “you need to come home right now” kind of call. Once I got home Erin was not able to move and was laid up on the couch. I was stuck taking care of Wesley all by myself. Then I started to feel a little strange…
Victim #2. Me
Dangit Wesley, I thought we were buds. Knowing I was about to be as immobile as Erin was, I called Erin’s parents who were already supposed to be visiting for the night, and told them they needed to get here ASAP. I was worried that I was about to be down like Erin and poor little Wesley would be all on his own and they had a 2 hour drive. So they started on their way. But, did I mention that Aunt Beth was taking care of Wesley before Erin had come home?
Victim #3. Aunt Beth was nice enough to come and care for you Wesley. And this is how you repay her?
Aunt Beth had been taking care of Wesley for a couple days once he was too sick to go back to daycare. So as soon as Erin had called her and told her she was feeling sick and on her way home early, Beth already knew that she was in trouble. I think she was able to even puke backwards off her hand at one point. So it had to end here right? Wrong.
Victim #4. Elizabeth left in a hurry one night…
Elizabeth later described the experience as feeling hot flashes and immediately getting away from people in case she was contagious. She texted Erin a couple hours later and said she felt fine. The next morning we discovered that she had gotten the Beach Bug. Tim had to take care of her, and you know what that means…
Victim #5. Tim looks so happy here
Tim tried his best to stay away from Wesley while he was sick, but the Beach Bug really, really wanted to get him. And it did. Trying to keep his distance from Wesley while he had symptoms was hard enough but after Elizabeth came down with it, he knew he was in trouble. Speaking of wives passing the Beach Bug to their husbands…
Victim #6. Uncle Roger
I woke up one morning to make Wesley his morning milk and saw Roger sitting on the couch with his golf gear on. He and his son had a tee time that was non-refundable. I did not think he looked too great, but thought he could also just be really tired. It was about 6am after all. That turned out to be a golf game that he will not forget… So now that the Beach Bug has gotten Wesley, Wesley’s parents, and all the people that originally took care of him, along with the husbands and wives, this thing has to be done right? Wrong.
Victim #7. My poor Mommy.
One night the whole family minus my mother was on the back porch drinking wine and telling stories. I realized Mom was missing and texted her “Where are you? Back porch, family party – you”. After a few minutes of her not responding, I called her. She answered and sounded half alive and I heard her say she had been sick. I was terrified. The Beach Bug had now spread to more than just the original people involved. How far would this thing spread? The Beach Bug was determined to grab one final victim…
Victim #8. I know buddy, I know…
The Beach Bug had circled back around to the original host. After a sleepless night, Erin and I decided to call it a vacation and head home. We were not going to let this thing take out the entire colony. So after bad weather (that likely kept us inside, closer to this), a broken hot tub, and watching our family slowly get taken out singing along to ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ in my head, we decided to pack up and head home. We did not bother to hug many people on our way out. There is no doubt, the 2019 Beach Bug will be talked about for years. I had include a pic of maybe the smartest person from this outbreak.
MVP. GranDad
Just look at this picture. You don’t live long enough to have a great grandson without intelligence. Sure GranDad volunteered to hold Wesley but his technique is flawless. Leaning away long enough for a family photo opp and passing him on, surviving the Beach Bug. Well played sir.
Good job little buddy
We’ve now been home for a few days and Wesley is getting back to normal. Eating lots of milk and food to the last drop. So we think the Beach Bug is finally over. Or is it?…
One day I decided that I was reaching 30, still single, and looking for the woman of my dreams. Even more so today than back then, meeting people through the internet has become fairly normal. So I decided to sign up for a 30 day membership on match.com. I figured, if I didn’t find what I was looking for by 30 days, then it wasn’t gonna work.
After a couple failed dates, I came across a lovely strawberry blonde that had a 97% match score. I decided to send her a message. I had noticed in her profile that a plus was making her laugh. So I sent a well thought, message that I wish I had saved but did not. When you are trying to find someone like this online its a bit like writing a resume. It can’t be too long or she might not even take the time to read it. It can’t be too short because it won’t get the point across. So I spent a good amount of time writing out the best message I could. I remember at the very end of my message writing “and I bet I can make you laugh”. A few days later, Erin replied. Now I wish I had saved her reply as well and even though I did not I can remember it exactly, “how much you wanna bet?”. That was it. That was her whole message. Her strategy was clearly different from mine but it worked.
We decided to go out for a beer and that turned into a few beers and dinner at European Street. Needless to say that we clicked right away and talked all through dinner and drinks. This date turned into a 2nd date at a putt-putt course where we shared our first kiss (she turned me down for a kiss on our first date). I also would like to mention that this is no longer a putt-putt course. So now every time I drive past it, I remember we had our first kiss, right there, in a minute clinic parking lot. Things got serious when my match account auto renewed right after our 2nd date before I had gotten Erin’s phone number. I was out $50 because I had not asked her for her phone number yet and was still using the site to contact her. I later found out that she had used a groupon and gotten her 30 day membership for half price, meanwhile I had paid full price, twice. Then things really got serious when Erin was invited to a friends’ wedding to be a bridesmaid and she asked me to go as her date. I cleverly used this as a way to officially promote myself to “boyfriend” status. I told her if we decided to make it official, we would avoid the awkward introductions to everyone. Instead of “this is my friend Jason” and making people wonder just how good of friends that we are, we can just go straight to the intro as boyfriend and skip the questions. Somehow that worked.
This all eventually led to me decided that yes, she was the woman I wanted to marry and that, no, I had no doubts. So I bought a ring and was trying to figure out how to find the time to ask her father for permission to marry her. We planned a trip to visit her parents in Orlando for Christmas and my goal the whole weekend was to somehow be alone with Tim (Erin’s father) and ask him this very important question. We walked in the door, Erin’s Mom was in the shower, Tim was in his record room listening to records, and Erin volunteered to go pick up subs for dinner. Then she walked out. Somehow the opportunity I was hoping would happen before the end of the weekend had happened, immediately. I went into Tim’s record room and knew I had very limited time to do this so, I dove in head first. I told him I need to ask him something and he said something along lines of “sure thing, go ahead”. I told him that I loved Erin very much, she was the love of my life, and that I would like his permission to ask her to marry me. I did not know that at that moment Tim was using a razor blade to cut out a headshot of a photo to put inside a necklace for Elizabeth (Erin’s Mom). He looked at me and said “I guess I should put this knife down huh?”. After a short conversation he gave me his blessing and then I told him that I had the ring and I was going to ask her before we went out to see the family so we could tell everyone (was very, very confident I was getting a yes). So Tim and I came up with a plan together at that point because there was no way any master plan of mine was going to work as well as this one had. So he got Elizabeth out of the house and left Erin and I alone for about an hour before all the family visiting was going to start.
So there I was, sitting on the living room floor, Pirates of the Caribbean on in the background, ring hidden next to me, limited time to make this happen. Erin had taken a shower so I thought all of this was great timing and that she would be all dressed up, makeup on, ready for a proposal. Then out walks Erin, no makeup, wearing these very comfortable pink sweat pants, carrying a basket full of nail polish because she hadn’t decided what color to paint her nails yet. I think its about time I mention that I like to video tape stuff if I think there is a good reaction coming. So all of this is on video to this day. Those pink sweatpants are still around too. So I was like, this is it, it’s gotta happen right now, pink sweatpants and all. So I asked her and she immediately welled up with tears (I did too) and she said yes! Then we called her Mom to tell her the news and I still remember to this day how that went. Elizabeth answered the phone and said “what do you want I’m on the phone with Sarah (Erin’s sister)?” Erin replied with “Um, I just got engaged.” Then we just heard “What!?” Followed by “Did you know? (to Tim)”. Then she said “Hold on I gotta hang up on Sarah!”. The rest of that night was spent calling just about anyone we could think of to tell them the great news.
After almost a year of being engaged we got married on November 15, 2015. It was a fairy tale marriage just like Erin and I had imagined. We got married at the same venue (Highland Manor) she had been a bridesmaid at, telling everyone I was her boyfriend for the first time. We then had an amazing Honeymoon in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. The past few years have been so wonderful and amazing, I can’t put it into a blog post. We already had one dog (Jewels – Lab), we adopted another one (Maize – Golden Retriever), we sold my old house, we bought our first house, and then we had little Wesley on November 7th, 2018. We hope that you read on and enjoy our life adventures that we will be sharing. This is how we got here and we can’t wait to see what the future has in store for us. Hopefully, neither can you.
For Memorial Day the family decided to take a visit into the San Marco Square this morning. Today was predicted to be extremely hot so we decided it was best to go early. We got to the SMS at 9:30am and noticed that all the other parents with small children had the same plans as we did. So we decided to eat at Maple Street Biscuit Company. They have the best fried chicken you can put your mouth around so I decided to order a chicken biscuit with dill pickle cuts, smothered in honey mustard. Erin ordered some weird biscuit thing that had jelly all over it. All of the tables were full, but we were lucky enough to have two friends who were just leaving. So I went and grabbed a high chair for Wes. Naturally, you always want to put the baby on which ever side of the table is farthest from people traffic. In this case it was a back corner against a wall with at least 3 extra, unnecessary chairs all jumbled together. Moving the chairs around the other chairs, tables, and wall was not easy, but I at least tried to looked graceful. I could tell by the way Erin looked at me that it was not graceful. Wes had a great time dropping every toy that we gave him on the floor, unsuccessfully attempted to be louder than the baby at the table next to us, and stared at all the people that talked to him.
After we finished eating, we decided to walk to Landon Park and push Wesley on the swings. So we ventured out into the very hot and very humid weather with limited time for outside fun. Then about halfway to the park, Wesley decided it was time for his morning nap. We thought about turning back, but then I told Erin if he wants to sleep that’s fine. We can swing on the swings next to a sleeping Wesley and take pictures. Once we got to the park it was full of children and we decided maybe we would just let the kids use the swings. So instead of the park, we took a nice walk along the St Johns River. It was a very nice but hot walk. We decided to make our way back towards our car and stopped to take a pic in front of the Lion Fountain that SMS is so famous for. What a beautiful day.
house parsons 