The Big Brother

I actually was flipping channels earlier and saw that tonight is the premier of the TV show Big Brother, so it's kind of ironic that happened to fall the day that I took Austin to his Big Sibling Class at the hospital where we will be having Katy delivered.  All in all it was a great experience and I'm happy that I took him over. 

The one tiny little thing that was disappointing was we showed up at L&D where the email I received said to meet.  The lady working the front desk didn't have a clue about where the class was being offered.  She called someone and sent us to a L&D room and no one was there.  15 minutes later with a stir crazy 3 year old I went back and asked her and she finally was able to figure out where the class was and took us there, so we missed the first 10-15 minutes.  I guess all they did was introduced the class and read a story book, so it's not such a big deal, but it aggravated me since I just drove so far and was there in time.

When we came in the kids were just starting to work with the dolls and they learned about putting a diaper on and then how to wrap the baby in a blanket.  They had a big pile of fleece blankets and let each kid pick a blanket to practice with and then take home.  Austin picked a blue blankie with pink butterflies.  He wasn't the least bit interested in putting the diaper on and refused to hold the doll after I wrapped it in the blanket, but he watched and watched everyone else in the class too.  There were about 15 kids in the class and most of them were in the 3-4 year old range.  The youngest was probably 18 months and the oldest was about 8 years old.  Of the 15 kids there were probably 8-9 unique families because some had multiple siblings.

Then we took a tour and went to a Mom and Baby recovery room first.  Those silly nurses were showing the kids about how the controls moved the bed around and then told them that when Mom was there she would let them check it out.  As we passed the nurses station the kids got a little gift box that had a box of crayons and candy in it. 

It was cute when we were moving from department to department you have to take the elevator and the nurses taught the kids to call the elevator after they pushed the button.  The kids would yell "elevator, elevator" in unison and then cheer when the door opened. 

Next we went to L&D and toured a room there.  The kids got to sit on the sofa and drink an apple juice.  We finished back up in the classroom where they gave each kid a coloring book to take home with the rest of their loot.  The whole thing took about 45 minutes. 

Next we went and got the paint at Lowe's and then went to Target where Austin picked out a blankie lovie that has a star on it for Katy.  I also let him pick out a toy and he found a little Batman figurine set.  We finished up our adventure with dinner at a Japanese Hibachi and that end up being a really BAD idea!   If you haven't been to one they put some kind of flammable liquid on the grill and light it to make a big showy flame before they start cooking the food in front of you.  Austin flipped out at the fire and he just wanted to get the heck out of there.  I felt so bad because he was obviously beyond terrified that they were going to make another flame.  It's too bad too because we were seated at a table with a family that had four girls and one of their friends and the girls were chatting with Austin and enjoying his company until he got freaked. 

When we left the restaurant it was crazy smokey and windy.  A monsoon storm had blown in and apparently sparked a fire nearby.  When we got on the highway it started to pour rain on us and was crazy stormy for about 20 miles or so of the way home.  I was sure we would have rain at home, but we really hadn't gotten much here in town, so I hope in the coming days we get some monsoon activity.