Holiday Greeting

The holidays are a busy time for everyone and it's no exception with our family. I've been able to send out a few Christmas cards to friends and family who live out of town, but I don't think there are enough hours in the day to allow me to send one to everyone as I would like. I hope those of you who read my annual holiday update here (with a few minor edits) instead of on paper will chalk it up as a contribution to "go green" and save trees...

Greetings From Our Family!

Our family has been blessed this year with good health and fortune on both the home and job fronts. Dave has continued to be very busily employed with BASF, and although we’d all like to reduce the amount of time he has to spend on work, we are very happy he continues to have a great job he enjoys. I am still very much involved with our children as a stay-at-home-mom, and our first full year as parents of two little ones has been both a challenge and a delight.

Lauren has gone from a 13lb baby last Christmas to a 22lb, 14-month-old toddler this Christmas. We celebrated her baptism in March and her 1st birthday in October. She began walking at 10 months (and can really move now), has 8 teeth (and loves to eat – especially cheese), and has begun to say a few words (especially “Dada”, but not “Mama” nearly enough). She loves music, books, Mickey Mouse, being outside, and playing with her big brother. It’s so wonderful to see the two of them interact so well together.

In April, Mason turned 3, stopped taking naps, and completed potty training all at the same time. He has really become our little engineer. He loves watching “New Yankee Workshop” on PBS and “How It’s Made” on the Science Channel. He constantly wants to know how things work or where they come from and can spend hours working with tools and building forts out of the sofa cushions. He’s really enjoying going to preschool three days a week and will start going four days with the beginning of the new year. I’m constantly amazed at how much he knows. Vocabulary, reading, math – he’s definitely one smart kid.

Although traveling with two kids has proven to be quite an undertaking, we’ve made a few trips this year. We joined my family at a cabin in Pigeon Forge, TN early this year, made a couple more trips to visit both Dave’s and my parents in Florida, and met my parents in North Myrtle Beach twice. We also made a couple weekend vacations as a family of four to Raleigh and Lake Lure, NC. For the first time, we celebrated a quiet Thanksgiving at home this year, but will join all of our family for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

We’ve certainly had a wonderful year, and we hope your home has been as blessed as ours. We wish you a joyous holiday season and a happy new year.

With Love,
Karen, David, Mason, and Lauren

Recap

I've not been in the blogging mood lately, and honestly, I'm still not really in the mood, but since the kids are in bed, Dave's working, there's nothing on TV, and the cold that I have is preventing me from doing anything productive, I thought I'd post a quick recap of the past couple of weeks...

Dave did a lot of traveling in November. He had a couple of multiple-day work trips as well as a fun trip out to Seattle for a friend's wedding (which I mentioned rather jealously in my last post), so I was on my own with the kids a lot. Let me tell you, I love these kids, but this single parenting thing is one tough job. Major props to all of you reading this who do it on their own.

Mason had a couple of additional ear infections. He had his first one the previous month and I guess he just never really got rid of it. Mason has never really been sick, and has never had any antibiotics, but after round three of this, Dr. Smoak gave us some antibiotic ear drops (which we preferred over oral ones) and it seemed to do the trick. I hope it doesn't come back, because as much as it's a pain for me, I know it's 10 times worse for poor Mason.

My parents came to visit for a few days and while they were here to watch the kids, I went to the dentist. I hate going to the dentist, and this time was no exception. I was told I have not one but TWO cavities that need to be taken care of sooner than later. I haven't had any cavities since I got my braces taken off back when I was a kid. Since I haven't really done anything different where my teeth are concerned, this is yet another thing I blame on having babies (along with my straightened hair, wider hips, and red "beauty" spots that have popped up all over).

And speaking of the dentist, I took Mason for his first visit. I was ready for a fight, but he did much better than I expected. And unlike his mother, he got a very good report on his teeth. He did get a comment about a misaligned bite and possible orthodontics down the road, but since he is my child, I'm not surprised.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at home for the second year in a row. Last year we were home due to the 1 month old baby we didn't want to travel with, so Dave's family came here. This year, we had no visitors since we're planning knocking out visits to both sets of parents in one shot over Christmas. So instead, we invited our very nice across-the-street neighbors over for dinner and had a great time. When you can't be with family for holidays, it's so nice to have friends with whom you can celebrate. Mason was in heaven since the family includes a baby. Mason has told me many times lately he wants to be a baby doctor when he grows up and he's all about "taking care" of little babies, singing to them, and playing with them. I have a hard time getting him to keep any kind of distance from babies.

Finely, for the past few days, I've been battling a cold. It started as just a runny nose just like the one Lauren had for several days last week, but now it's progressed to the watery eyes, sneezing, and cough that won't quit - especially at night. I never get enough sleep at night as it is, but this cough is throwing me over the edge. Mason woke me up at 3am last night when he wanted water after what I suspect was a bad dream. Since I moved out of bed, I was up coughing for the next hour. I finally settled down and felt like I could sleep when Lauren woke up at 4:30. I settled her down to sleep pretty quickly, but I was up again until about 5:15. I had just gotten to sleep when Lauren was back up at her usual 5:30 wake up call.

Maybe one of these days, I'll be back in the mood to do a better job of keeping up with this blog, and I might even throw in a picture or two. I suspect though it won't be until I get some sleep in, some of the piled up dishes done, or the sickness over with. I'm afraid to think how long that will be.

Moms Miss All the Fun

Why is it that as the Mom in this family, I have to miss all the fun?

Last week Mason was sick with his second ear infection in a month (and never had one before that) which caused us to miss two dinners with friends and a fun outing to tour the new hospital complex right behind our house.

One of our college friends is getting married in Seattle. We considered taking the whole family, but finally decided the logistics of it all would be too tough, so Dave gets to go and I get to stay home with the kids.

I haven't been to Dave's office Christmas party the last three years due to you know who. Dave's been going stag. At last year's party, he won the grand door prize: a free night in a local hotel suite. But since we don't have anyone to leave the kids with over night, and I couldn't even if I wanted to do to nursing the little one, it will probably go to waste. Dave is considering staying in the suite with Mason (so that he can swim in the indoor pool) while I get to stay home with Lauren.

And I don't know how many cocktails, Mom's Night Outs, choir practices, gym workouts, and chances to ride roller coasters at Carowinds I've missed, all due to the kids. I used to play tennis pretty regularly BC (Before Children), but since then, I haven't picked up a racquet.

I just realized the other day that I've been pregnant, nursing, or both for the last 4 years and 4 months. And since neither Lauren or I are ready to quit nursing yet, it will be a few more months. One day, I know this will all be behind me and and I'll miss it. But until then, I'm looking forward to getting a chance to be in on some of the fun again.

Over the River and Through the Woods

This past weekend we took a long weekend vacation to Lake Lure, Chimney Rock, and Bat Cave, NC. It was the first vacation we took as a family of four while not visiting extended family.

After doing a little research online, we found a cozy little cabin in Lake Lure at a bed and breakfast called Grafton Lodge. It was about the size of a single wide trailer, but it had two bedrooms and a little kitchen. A very nice place.When we got to town, we stopped at the only gas station we could find. I didn't know these pumps still existed, so I had to take a picture...

The main reason we chose this area was because the Old Cider Mill in Bat Cave. Mason has recently been really into watching a show we recorded off the Food Network that shows how fresh apple cider is made. He's borderline obsessed with it and has asked to watch it daily for the past couple of months now. So we figured it would be a good learning experience for him to see a real cider mill in action.

We stopped here first, but they weren't pressing that day. They told us to come back the next day, so while Lauren was napping, Dave took Mason to watch. You can see the apples lined up to go up the little apple escalator to the grinder, and the 'mash' falling down the chute to the press below. The fresh cider was so delicious, we bought 1.5 gallons of it over the course of the weekend. Dave said Mason was riveted by the whole thing.

Later that afternoon, it was raining, so we headed over to the kids museum called Kid Senses in Rutherfordton about 20 miles away. I wasn't sure what to expect for a little museum in a small town, but it greatly exceeded expectations. I highly recommend you go for a visit with your little ones if you're ever in the area. Here's Mason inside a bubble.

And inside a kaleidoscope of mirrors...

Lauren enjoyed the bananas (her favorite fruit) at the grocery store...

On Sunday before we headed home, the weather cleared a bit, and we went to Chimney Rock Park to enjoy the gorgeous views and beautiful autumn leaves.

This is in the tunnel heading to the elevator that will take us to the top of Chimney Rock. Lauren and Mason enjoyed hearing their echos in there.

On the walkway heading to the top of the rock...

Our family on top of the rock...

Chimney Rock, elevation 2200 ft. I wish I could show in better detail how beautiful the views are here. The leaves were so pretty. We hit it right at the peak time for the changing colors.
After heading down off the rock, we rented a backpack for Lauren and headed out for a little hike to see the Hickory Nut Falls, also in Chimney Rock park. I wasn't sure if Lauren would be up for this, but she did great. It wasn't long after we started walking that she fell asleep.
The path to the falls was so beautiful. It was about a 1.5mile round trip, and I wasn't sure if Mason would make it, especially after walking around on the top of Chimney Rock, but he did great. He got a little tired and whiny at times, but he made it better than I expected.
The bottom of Hickory Nut Falls. Scenes from the movie Last of the Mochicans were filmed here. The picture doesn't do it justice.

By the time we got back to the car after our hike, everyone was tired and hungry. We stopped for some pizza for lunch and headed home. Lauren slept the whole two hour trip.

It was a great little vacation despite the rainy weather we had most of the time, and not getting enough sleep due to Lauren's nighttime antics and the dreaded time change. We've learned it's pretty hard to take two little kids, especially with one that still naps, on a vacation, but even though it's tough, it's worth it to me to expose them to new things and to get away to spend some family time together. I'll be looking forward to visiting this area again sometime.

Best Homecoming Ever

October 20, 2001 - the date Dave and I officially became engaged. Since yesterday was the 8-year "anniversary" of that special date, and since I doubt Dave even remembers it's significance, I thought I'd post a little picture to commemorate it. This was taken by a passer-by right after the big moment.
We met each other in Atlanta for Georgia Tech's homecoming festivities that weekend. At the time, Dave was working in Texas and I was in North Carolina. We had been long distance dating since he graduated in June of 99 except for a few short months when we both worked in Charlotte.

On that beautiful Saturday morning, we joined my parents and brother\sis-in-law\new nephew at the Ramblin Wreck parade on campus. Then we had breakfast at the Silver Skillet right next to campus (featured in a Travis Tritt video as well as a classic episode of Good Eats) and walked around for a bit.

Before the game started that afternoon, we stopped by "our bench" next to the Tech Tower where we used to go when we were dating. It is a very nice courtyard area right next to the football stadium. Once upon a time, Dave carved our initials in that bench, but when we sat down, we saw they had recently replaced it (due probably in part to our vandalism). And that's where he popped the question. I knew it was coming and of course I said yes. (After all, I had been ready to say yes for the last four years.)

Then we went to the game and shared our news with the family. Mom and Dad already knew since Dave had called them ahead of time. After the game (in which Tech beat NC State - the tickets are displayed in our playroom) they surprised us with a little champagne celebration at our hotel.

It was really hard going our separate ways the next day, but we would soon be together again. I moved to Texas a couple of months later, and the rest as they say is history.

One Year Update

Since Lauren turned one yesterday, I was obligated to take her for her one-year well-child visit at the doctor's office this morning. Originally, I had it scheduled for her birthday, and I'm so glad I changed it to today. Poor girl shouldn't have to be subjected to needles on her birthday. Here are her stats:

Height: 29.5in (50-75th%)
Weight: 20lbs, 13oz (50th%)
Head Circ: 46cm (75-90th%)

After Dr. Smoak declared her perfectly healthy, the nurse came back in to give her the shots. She also snuck in an anemia check - the finger prick test I always dreaded as a kid. At least now they don't use the equivalent of a thumb tack. Instead they use a little contraption that punches the little needle down on the finger to draw the blood. That part didn't seem to be a problem with Lauren. It was the way the nurse was holding her arm and squeezing her poked finger while she got the blood to go in the tiny vial. This went on for at least two minutes while Lauren screamed and cried the whole time. My poor baby made me want to scream and cry with her. And when the nurse came at her finger with a Bandaid, that really put her over the edge.

And what was worse, the finger test was followed up with not one but two shots. (We usually only do one at a time with the exception of the IPV and HIB which we do together and happened to fall on this visit.)

Needless to say, Lauren was not a happy camper when we left. She was so worn out from crying, she fell asleep in the car on the way home (after unsuccessfully trying to take off her finger bandage). I got her in bed and she slept for another hour and a half until I had to wake her up to go pick up Mason from school. (I always hate having to wake her up for that.)

When we got home from school pick-up, she had some pizza and milk (which she started drinking yesterday!) and she was once again her bubbly self. Hopefully, she won't remember these doctor's office visits as she gets older.

Happy Birthday Lauren!

She may be a year old now, but she'll always be my little baby! Happy Birthday to my sweet little girl!

Photo album of Lauren with her favorite Pooh Bear taken the 13th of each month of her life...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Beach Vacation

It's been a couple of weeks, but I finally got a slideshow together of our recent trip to North Myrtle Beach. Thanks to Grandmama and Pooh Pa for always letting us come crash at the condo with them twice a year! We always have a great time.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

She Walks!

September 8, a few days before she turned 11 months old, Lauren took her first steps. She walked three paces from the ottoman in the living room to me sitting on the floor. She didn't walk more than one or two steps for another few days, but it didn't take her long after that to really get moving.


Here's the first walking shots I got on camera, taken on the day she turned 11th months.


Over the last week, she's gotten better and better every day. This past weekend we spent a few days with my parents at the beach, and she went from walking 5 or 6 steps at a time to walking across the room by the end of the trip.

By yesterday, she's walking more than she's crawling and even turning corners without falling.

I don't really remember Mason picking it up so quickly. And it wasn't until his first birthday that he took his first steps. I guess it's true that girls really do walk faster than boys - in this family it is anyway.

Who Needs Sleep?

Apparently the people around here think that I don't. Let me just describe to you my night last night for example...

Got the kids in bed at 7:30 and made a late dinner for Dave and I to quickly enjoy before he started doing work. (He works several hours every night after the kids go to bed - even weekends these days - since he can't get everything done in the 10-12 hours he spends at the office during the week. Our "quality" time is sitting next to each other on the couch with our laptops. Exciting Saturday night, huh?)

I went to bed at 10:00. Lauren woke me up at 1:00. Nap #1: 3 hours. This one turned out to be the longest of the evening. After a couple of minutes of praying for her to go back to sleep, I went in to give her a quick snuggle (and rule out the usual reasons a baby wakes up in the middle of the night) and put her back in the bed. Of course she laid down so nicely and quietly until I left the room and then she screamed. This has become a nightly routine over the last few weeks.

So since there's no sleeping with a crying baby in the room next to yours (unless you're my husband), I went downstairs to wait it out. Dave was still on the couch working, so I laid down on the couch and watched some more football until the tear-fest subsided. I finally deemed it safe to go back to bed at 2:00.

I laid down and started feeling kind of queasy with a headache. Dave came to bed about 2:15 just as I got up to go downstairs to get come crackers and a little Coke to try to make myself feel a little better.

At 3:00 I finally felt good enough to go lay back down. It took me another half an hour to get back to sleep thanks to my headache and Dave's snoring.

At 4:30, Mason called me to take him to the bathroom. Nap #2: 1 hour. I helped Mason and went back to sleep pretty quickly.

At 5:20, I heard the dreaded call of the baby. Nap #3: 50 minutes. Since it had been 10 hours since she last ate, I figured she was just hungry and if I went in and fed her a bit, she'd go back to sleep. She ate, but she didn't sleep.

So we came downstairs and had breakfast and played together. At 7:30 she was sleepy so I put her down for a nap just in time for Mason to wake up for the morning.

Finally, Dave came downstairs at 8:30 and I was able to go back to bed until 10:30. Nap #4: 2 hours.

Total sleep for Mommy: 4 naps of 6 hours, 50 minutes.

One night like this wouldn't be so bad, but I've had a string of them for about 3 or 4 weeks now. I'm not sure what's going on with Lauren, but she's been getting up every night lately. I think it's a combination of teething, just learning new walking skills, and the fact my dreaded monthly cycle just returned causing a wave of new hormones infiltrating my milk supply.

I just keep telling myself that she will eventually sleep through the night. I'm hoping that one night soon, she actually will and I will get to too.

Back to School

Year two of preschool has begun!

We had a bit of a rough start today. Just as Dave walked out the door to head to the airport for a two day business trip, and just as I started nursing Lauren, Mason woke up an hour early and was very upset after wetting the bed. I should have predicted this would happen since I changed his sheets yesterday. He only has accidents on fresh sheets. I'm tempted never to change his sheets again.

So I had to put the hungry, crying baby down to help Mason clean up and get the sheets in the laundry room. Then I tried to get Mason in the bath so he wouldn't smell like a potty on his first day of school, but he wouldn't have it. I had to settle for wiping him down with a wet cloth. Finally, I got everything done and was able to nurse Lauren.

After eating Mason's favorite pumpkin muffins we made yesterday for back-to-school breakfast, and a few pictures, we were off.

For the first two days of school, parents are to walk in with their child, so once we arrived, we all headed inside. Mason is definitely familiar with his school since it's at our church and he was in the 2-year-old room last year. We also visited the classroom during open house last week, so he had no problem this morning. We hung up his bookbag in his cubby, I let him work a puzzle with Lauren, and after a quick kiss for Mommy and sister, I left my 'baby' at school.

Last year, I made it back to the car and proceeded to blubber like a little girl. Since I was pregnant at the time, I blamed it on that. This year, no tears whatsoever. I'm excited about the fun Mason is going to have and all the one-on-one time I get to spend with Lauren.

Not long after I got home from dropping Mason off though, Lauren decided to take a morning nap. So much for one-on-one time with her. No matter - I enjoyed my first quiet morning since the last school year instead. Well, as quiet as it can be with wet bed sheets in the washing machine that is.

Piece of Cake

This past weekend, our church put on our annual Yard Sale and Barbecue. As usual, Dave and I signed up to help with the activities, splitting our shifts so one of us could be with the kids. My shift was 10:45am to 1:00. I picked that particular time because I figured it would be between Lauren's two naps.

This was the first time I left both kids (while they were awake) with Dave for that long. Yes it was only two hours. And yes, I don't get out much. Mason is almost three and a half, and the longest I've ever left him by far was when I was in the hospital giving birth to Lauren. And I don't really call that a vacation. (But I did bring home a nice souvenir. :-)

Lauren's been in a transition stage from one nap to two lately, so I wasn't sure what time she'd want to go to sleep. I was a little nervous when she didn't take a morning nap. I figured she'd want to go to sleep before I got home, and since she nurses right before she naps, Daddy wasn't going to cut it.

But when I got home, Dave proceeded to tell me how easy it was to hang with the kids and this stay-at-home-mom job was a "piece of cake". He took them to the grocery store and had a grand old time. Then they both ate and played nicely after they got home. "Did you do any cleaning?" I asked. Dave was proud he could say "I unloaded the dishwasher!"

Wow.

Sure it was only a couple of hours, and I know he was sort of kidding with me and he does appreciate what I do at home, but maybe one day I should just not do anything to show him what it takes to do this stay-at-home-mom job. The kids wouldn't starve... Mason would pillage the pantry to find the animal crackers and feed Lauren the plain Chereeos (the sweetened ones, he would save for himself.) Mason would go back and forth between watching TV and playing on the computer while Lauren pulled every book off the shelves and ate toilet paper. Meanwhile, the dishes would pile up in the kitchen and the laundry would pile up in the rooms (because no one put it in the laundry basket).

Granted, I'm not a great housekeeper, but I do like things to be somewhat organized and tidy. I might not have floors clean enough to eat off of (despite what Lauren thinks) but I like to give that impression.

And what's up with the kids being on their best behavior for Daddy? I'm constantly having to keep Mason from smothering Lauren with the sofa pillows or knocking her over like a bowling pin when she attempts to stand up on her own. And Lauren gets so fussy when she's nearing a nap, I can't keep her occupied with anything else. It's not fair that Daddy is such a novelty that he's like a big, new toy to play with, and the kids act like angels with him.

I think would be interesting to switch places with Dave for a little while. I'd like to get out of the house for more than two hours, even if it was to go to work. And I'd really like Dave to try being a stay-at-home-dad for more than two hours.

I'm sure after a few days, both of us would want to switch back.

Happy Birthday Grandmama!

Make a Smilebox postcard

Blogged The Year Away

Can it be a year since I started this blog? According to the date, it is!

Although, I'm not one to update very frequently, I definitely have kept it up much better than I thought I would. Since little Lauren came into our lives, I've felt a bit out of the loop on many things. As it turned out, this blog has been my little outlet to the rest of the world. It has also made it much easier to share our adventures with friends and family who otherwise would not hear about it (because I'm not good at keeping up via phone or email.)

Since my little writings began, Mason started preschool, Lauren was born, we celebrated Mason's 3rd birthday and my 32nd, and I'm still surviving despite many a sleepless night without my overworked husband around to help.

Here's to a new year of ramblings!

A Brave, New Boy

Mason is almost 3 1/2 now, and it seems like he's grown up so much in just the past couple of months. There are so many things that he used to be afraid of that he's completely turned around and loves.

One of the most notable things is the car wash. He used to totally freak out when we went through one (which was only a couple of times with him in the car based on his reaction). Dave even had to take him out of the car seat to comfort him once. It got to the point where he would say "I don't want to go to the car wash" whenever we just passed by one. But the other day, Dave decided to try it with him again and this time, he thought it was fun. Now he says "The car's so dirty, we need a car wash" whenever we drive by one.

Another big one is public bathrooms. This used to be a major problem - especially on vacation. (See a previous post about our trip to North Myrtle Beach back in April for an example.) For a long time, the only place I could get him to pee when we weren't at home was outside in the grass. We've stopped in many a grassy area over the last few months. (Thank goodness he's a boy.) But now, in just the last couple of weeks, he's had no problems wherever we've gone. We just got back from a weekend trip to Georgia, and this time, the trip was no problem whatsoever.

He's even gotten much better at tolerating loud noises. (This is probably a main reason the public bathroom issue is resolved - those potties can be loud.) Usually when I get out the coffee grinder in the morning, he goes running with his hands over his ears when he sees it. But yesterday, he actually got up on the step stool so he could see inside while I was grinding the beans. I can even get him to do some vacuuming for me now!

I got a little teary eyed the other day when I let Mason go off to play on his own at Plaza Fiesta, and he had a grand old time. I've never seen him so willing to play at a place like that without Dave or me. He's even going down the big slides by himself. It wasn't that long ago that he started going down the slide on our own swingset.

Mason will be off to 3-year-old preschool soon. This year, he'll be at school three mornings a week. At least I don't have to worry about him being scared.

No, She's Not a Vampire...

... she's my daughter.

Lauren finally has some new teeth popping through... the upper incisors. Since she currently only has the bottom two middle teeth, it's going to look like she has fangs in a couple of weeks. She's a little early for Halloween, but if nothing new comes in before then, I guess she can go as my little jack-o-lantern. :-)

10 Months

I can't believe my baby is 10 months old today! The time certainly does go by even faster with the second child. Here's her 10 month Pooh picture

These days all Lauren seems to want to do is walk behind her push toys. I don't know how many times we walk around the circle of the bottom floor of our house with her little push wagon and airplane each day. She and Mason have gotten pretty good at doing it together...

She's also gotten pretty good at giving kisses and will usually do it when I ask. But watch out, she likes to slip you the tongue!

Porch Redo

For several weekends, Dave has been hard at work on our little porch project. I helped him a little here and there, but my job mostly was to supervise (the kids). He successfully removed all the old screen and horizontal beams, stained all the wood, installed the a whole new screening system, hung and stained a new door, painted the floor, and paid for new chairs and a rug.

As you might remember from a previous post, we've been using the porch over the last couple of weeks, but this past weekend, we finished the floor, and I moved the furniture back in today. I'm excited about our new room and feel like we've expanded our living space in the house. Here are a few pics...

Now if would just cool off a few degrees, we might actually be able to enjoy it again.

Nine and a Half Months

I took Lauren for her 9 month well-check (a couple of weeks late) at Dr. Smoak's office on Monday. Her latest stats are: 28in (75th percentile) and 19lbs, 12 oz (60th percentile). It looks like her height is picking up while her weight is slowing down a little bit. The weight part is a bit of a surprise to me since this girl seems to eat any and everything within reach.

Recently, I showed Mason some of the little videos I took of him as a baby, and then I started to feel bad when I realized that I don't have as many of Lauren. So I've been on a video recording kick lately. Here's one of her walking with her little wagon - the same wagon Mason learned how to walk behind.

Tub Trouble

Saturday night, Mason had a bit of trouble during bath time. He was trying to get both feet into something they shouldn't be in, all while standing up in the water-filled tub. So of course he slipped face first onto the side of the tub which resulted in a gash on the chin.

For the record, Dave was in charge of bath time while I was getting the kids clothes and rooms ready for bedtime. However, I don't blame him for not paying close enough attention. Bath time is usually a bit crazy, especially when you have to watch the baby who is doing everything she can to climb in the tub and the kid who is doing everything he can to empty the contents of the tub onto the floor.

At first, we didn't think much of Mason's injury. It wasn't gushing blood and Mason wasn't complaining too much. Once we did see some blood on the towel, we got Mason out of the tub and took a closer look. Although the cut was probably only a couple centimeters long, it looked pretty deep, so we opted to head to the Urgent Care which was closing in about 20 minutes. Mason became most upset when we tried to cover his injury with a Bandaid.

I stayed home with Lauren while the boys went off for the chin repair, so I don't know details about what happened there. However, Dave said Mason did really well. They wrapped him what looked like a burrito wrapper to keep his hands away from his face while the doctor super glued his gash together. (Thank God the regular stitches weren't required.) Dave tried keeping Mason calm by blowing up latex glove balloons. The doctor said it should heal beautifully with no scarring.

After a quick stop at the Harris Teeter for some blueberries to reward Mason for a job well done (my favorite part of the whole story), they were back. I was expecting Dave to be carrying Mason in the house since by this time it was way past bedtime, but Mason was all keyed up and excited to show me his blueberries and tell me what happened at the doctor's office. He rested well that night and by the next day seemed no worse for the wear.

If I could get Mason to cooperate, I'd take a picture of his chin just to document the occasion, but he's not too keen on showing off his injury.

Back Porch Cafe

This afternoon while Lauren was napping, I decided to treat myself and make a pot of coffee. (I figured I was justified since I skipped having morning coffee.) Mason has recently enjoyed sips of our iced coffee on the rare occasions that we've had it, so he asked if he could have some cold.

Now, I usually don't let him have his own cup of coffee - in fact I've never done that before - but today I was looking for something fun and different to do while Lauren was sleeping. So I made a cup of hot coffee with a little milk for myself and made a cup of cold milk with a little coffee for Mason. Then we took our cups and a game of Chutes and Ladders out on our spiffy new refurbished back porch (more on that later) and pretended we were at Starbucks.

We enjoyed our little game together. Each time I said , "It's your turn", he would say, "Nope, not yet. It's coffee time!" and take a sip, then he would proceed to spin the spinner. I told him he would make his father proud.

Here he is enjoying our game. He was proud that he won.



In this picture you an see a little preview of the redo of the screen porch we've been working on for several weeks. Dave has done a lot of work and we're almost finished. We just love it, and now we spend a lot more time out there. I think we've had all of our meals out there the last couple of days. The last step will be to paint the floor, and as soon as it's done, I'll post a better description and some more pictures.

9 Months!

My little baby isn't such a little baby anymore. It was nine months ago today that Lauren came into the world. Every day with her gets a little easier and definitely more fun. I love that her personally is coming out more and more, and she's showing interest in particular things.

Today she's crawling like crazy all over the place - including up the stairs as of yesterday! (Time to break out the gate for the bottom of the staircase.) She's also pulling herself up very easily and can cruise around the furniture without falling down.

She's already showing some signs that she's going to be a much better eater than Mason ever was (and still is.) At this age, Mason still only ate a few baby foods, and absolutely nothing resembling regular food except for Puffs. Lauren seems to like everything I've given her and is starting to even refuse some baby food. The more adventurous things she's eaten lately include cherries, cheese, yogurt, pizza crust, banana slices, pancake, and sweet potato chunks. Plus of course her favorite: mommy's milk. We are still happily nursing several times a day. I'm glad she's showing no signs of stopping that any time soon.

All of that eating is definitely making her grow fast! We're not due to go to her next check up at the doctors office for another few weeks (we split her 9-month appointment into an 8 month and a 10 month just to split up the vaccinations) so I just weighed and measured her myself today: she's 19lbs and 27" long. She's outgrown almost all of her 9 month clothes and is into 12 month sizes. I've almost exhausted all of our lovely baby gifts, and I'm enjoying shopping for her myself for a change.

She's making several sounds now and has said her first word: Dada. (Although, she says Dada all the time, so I'm not certain she's actually assigned that to her actual DaDa.) But she's definitely looking at family members when their name is called, and she knows her own name. She can also recognize "Buzz" (Georgia Tech's mascot) thanks to PoohPa during their last visit. I also hear her say "ya ya" and "ba ba" (but probably not meaning you just yet, Baba) quite a bit.

She's also much improved in the sleep department. She's pretty regular in going to bed around 7:30 each night, up around 4:30 for a quick snack, and then back to sleep until around 6:30. Then she'll take two naps a day, each for 1-2 hours. Occasionally she's up another time during the night, but thankfully I can just go in to give her a quick snuggle, put her back down, and she goes back to sleep on her own without a fuss. Another nice thing is that she usually wakes up happy and just plays a bit in her crib before "calling" for me. Mason woke up crying every time until he was at least 2 years old.

Still only two teeth. I can see a couple more trying to come out, but it just ain't happening yet. I can tell that she's pretty uncomfortable with them sometimes. She often has a rash around her mouth from jamming any and everything in there. Including her entire fist.

Her favorite thing to do these days is pull every book off the shelf and proceed to eat them. She does like to read them with me too though. She's gotten very good at turning pages. Her favorite book is one of her big brother's former favorites called Baby Food. (Thanks Aunt Anna!)

She also likes to crawl around in Mason's living room pillow forts and play with her steering wheel driving game which plays music. She's mesmerized my any sort of music. She loves to watch the opening and closing credits of Mason's favorite TV shows. And her faces just lights up whenever she sees Mickey Mouse.

As Dave put it today, she looks like a mini-human now. My baby certainly is growing up fast. Here is her 9 month Pooh Picture. (My Facebook friends can go to my profile to see her Pooh Pictures from each month.)

Falling Behind

It seems like I'm falling behind on everything these days. None of it is really important, but I still feel like I'm treading water sometimes. For instance, it's been a long time since I've had a chance to update this blog. Even longer since I've had a chance to clean my bathroom. I'm definitely realizing how much easier it was to get things done when Mason was in preschool - even though it was only two mornings a week.

Since my last update, Dave spent a week in Germany for work. I was dreading the trip since I wasn't sure how I could handle two kids by myself for 7 straight days. However, my mom and dad came up for most of the week to visit and help out. It was definitely a big help to me. I was able to get the car inspected and visit the doctors office without having to take the kids. It was also an enormous help to have them come with us to have professional pictures made. (Which was something else I've been behind on... poor second kid has a lot less pictures than the first.)

Now I just need to find the time to go grocery shopping, update Lauren's baby calendar, get my haircut, buy Lauren some new clothes before she outgrows everything, organize closets, figure out what to do with all the outgrown baby toys and clothes, change my sheets, finally finish the ongoing porch re-screening project, stain the new kids' table, scan pictures, and clean the floors.

However it seems like my projects for today are taking a shower, feeding everyone a healthy meal, and dancing with the kids in the living room. If I can get all that done, it will be a pretty good day. Everything else can wait until tomorrow.

A Raleigh Fun Time

This past weekend we went up for a quick visit to Raleigh. We've lived in North Carolina for almost 5 years now and figured it was about time we check it out. We left Saturday morning around 9:00 after stopping by the Harris Teeter (grocery store for you out-of-staters) for some breakfast muffins and a DVD to watch on the computer after the kids went to bed. We had a few nursing and potty stops along the way, but we made it up there around 12:00.

Our first stop was the capital building uptown. Dave was somewhat disappointed by the size, but I'm sure he was comparing it to the last capital building we saw in Austin, TX. (Think our nation's capital but bigger.)

After our little walking tour, we headed over to the Marbles Kids Museum for lunch and the exhibits. This turned out to be well worth the trip alone. It was a fantastic place for Mason, and he had a blast. I highly recommend our Charlotte friends to make the drive with their little ones if they haven't yet seen it. There are lots of interactive exhibits and things to climb on and water to play in specifically geared towards the toddler set.

Mason loved the little post office\ package delivery section the best. I think he could have moved those packages down the rolling bars for hours:
He also enjoyed walling himself in with giant lego blocks:

And playing in the "peas and carrots" ball pit:

Lauren wasn't too impressed and she fell asleep:

After the museum, we headed to the hotel which Mason had been looking forward to all week. (He's been playing "hotel" ever since the last time we stayed in one.) We all enjoyed the pool for a little while and then got the kids to bed pretty early.

We got a room with a separate bedroom area so we were able to put Mason to bed and not disturb him while we watched the movie we rented on our laptop (while Lauren slept in her pack-n-play in the kitchen.

The next day we went back uptown to see the NC Museum of Natural Sciences which was right across from the capital. It was well worth the price of admission - it was free. The exhibits were much better than I anticipated for a free museum. There's even a full dinosaur skeleton on display. Mason was mostly interested in riding the elevator to go between floors though.

After the museum, we took our first stab at Geocaching. If you're not familiar, it's a type of world-wide hide and seek game where you use your GPS and some latitude\longitude coordinates to find an object hidden by some other geocacher. I looked up a coordinate and knew there was one right outside the capital, but I'm either not very good with my GPS or the hidden object was not there anymore. It was supposed to be a relatively easy find, so I'm going to have to try this again somewhere else. (There's supposedly one hidden very near my house, so that will be my next try.)

We headed home around 3:00 and were all warn out from our quick trip by the time we got home. All in all, it was a fun way to celebrate Father's Day weekend.

A Swedish Meatball, Cat Cookie, and Iced Coffee Day

It's been pretty hard to make church on Sunday lately. Not because we don't want to go, but because our daughter usually naps at the same time as the service. So this morning when it became apparent she wasn't going to wake up in time, we started thinking of alternative plans. We finally settled on a shopping trip to a couple of new Charlotte stores we haven't ventured to yet: IKEA and Trader Joes.

When we lived near Houston, we went to IKEA a couple of times. The gigantic home furnishing store apparently wasn't big enough for the likes of Texas (where everything really is bigger), so they were in the midst of building an even bigger one next door. Nevertheless, it's was one of the biggest home furnishing stores I've ever been in. We marveled at the winding maze of rooms, all with ultra modern furnishings we liked, but never figured out how to incorporate into our fairly conservative home. So although we enjoyed shopping there, we never bought a thing. Even so, it's a fun place to go, so we checked it out the new store in Charlotte today.

Let me tell you, if you've never been, you have to go just to see it. It's fantastic. We had a great time just looking at all the cool things. I think Mason even had a great time. Especially in the kids rooms. This time, we actually bought a couple of things: a new kids' table with chairs for our kitchen and some light bulbs. (Dave was tempted by the pickled herring he found in the grocery section, but decided it might get too hot in the car.)

About halfway though the maze of rooms, just when you get ready for a little break and a snack, you come up on: the IKEA restaurant! It's a self service cafe with some really great food. We shared a plate of the famous IKEA Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes and ligonberry sauce, and a slice of almond cake. Delish!

After IKEA, we headed over to Trader Joes. Although we've always heard good things about it, we've never been. There's never been one close to where we lived. I love to shop for all natural\organic things and there were lots of good things for reasonable prices. As a treat for Mason, we bought some Cat Cookies which we tried in the car. Turns out they are really good, and I wish we had bought some more.

And what goes good with afternoon cookies? Coffee! So we headed across the parking lot and got some iced coffee from Starbucks. We enjoyed our little snack all the way home.

And when we got home, I think Dave was a little hopped up on caffeine, because he finished the next step on the porch project we've been working on for awhile now: staining all the wood beams so they'll be ready for rescreening.

Hopefully, God will forgive our napping daughter for making us miss church this morning. Especially since we were able to spend such quality family time today.

Sleepless in Charlotte

Coffee is not an old friend. It's a relatively new friend that I've come to rely up every so often since Mason was born. I used to even hate the smell, but now I can tolerate it. Lack of sleep will do that to you I guess. Usually, I drink it only when Dave (a coffee addict) makes a pot. I only recently even learned how to make it myself. However, this week, I think I've set a new record for myself and made a pot of coffee every afternoon in a futile attempt to keep myself alert enough to function normally. All because sleep is not my friend this week.

Take last night for instance: I went to bed at 9:30, about 5 minutes after Lauren finally went down. (She was up late due to all the napping she did during the day to make up for the sleep she missed the night before.) At 11:15, she was up for who knows why. Maybe teething, maybe an upset tummy, maybe because she learned how to drive Mom crazy. I went in, cuddled her for a minute and put her back down to fuss herself back to sleep. She settled down after a few minutes, as did I. A few minutes after that, Dave came to bed (after staying up late working - or was that to watch the Magic game on TV?) which of course stirred me again.

I went back to sleep relatively quickly and all was fine until 3:15 when Mason called me to to take him to the potty. He only wakes up a couple of times a week to go potty, and I much rather he do that than wet the bed, but he always seems to pick the nights where I'm already getting little sleep. It's been suggested to me several times to just wake him up to go potty before I go to bed and maybe it will help him sleep longer at night. I'm afraid to do this because he's such a light sleeper and I don't want it to backfire on me. He usually gets upset when I try to take him to the potty when it wasn't his idea. Maybe one day if it gets bad enough, I will try it (except it would be pointless when I'm forced to go to bed so early as I've been doing the last few days.)

As usual, it took me awhile to get back to sleep after taking Mason to the potty. Finally I drifted off and what was probably a couple minutes later, at 4:15, he called me to take him to the potty again. This time I tried to get Dave to go, but he just said, "What?" and rolled over back to sleep. So I let it slide and got back up to help Mason. But for whatever reason, when I got him on the potty, he said he didn't have to go. He was more interested in looking at the toys left in the bathtub after Lauren's bath last night. I think he just never went back to sleep after the first time, and he was scheming for some middle of the night company. Back to bed again.

This time, I didn't get back to sleep at all when Lauren's 5:00 wake up call came from the next room. I got up yet again, this time making lots of noise and loud sighs to try to show my frustration to my blissfully sleeping husband. It was all I could do to fight back the tears of exhaustion.

After Lauren was fed and changed, I put her back in her crib to sleep. But go to sleep she didn't. I let her fuss for several minutes and finally realized, she wasn't going back to sleep. I reluctantly got up and took her downstairs. After about an hour, she was sleepy enough to go back to bed so we both got back down around 6:00.

Not long later, Dave got up to get ready for work. Thankfully, he was paying a little bit of attention last night, so instead of making lots of noise in the bathroom, he just went downstairs and waited until I got up (which was 8:15 when Lauren called again). He went into work a little late so I would get a little extra bit of sleep.

Things look better in the light of the morning, so I don't feel so frustrated now, but I'm certainly glad today is Friday and the work week is almost over. Not only have I not been getting enough sleep, but Dave's was out of town this week for 2 1/2 days for work and Mason and Lauren have both been extra whiny. I've also been busy trying to keep us all entertained now that school's out for the summer. Maybe I've been making us too tired during the day and it's affecting us at night. I think today and this weekend we'll just take it easy and try to get back to our normal routine.

But I will definitely keep my pantry full of coffee. I'm gonna need it.

Movin' and Grovin'

Lauren is getting bigger and more mobile every day. The time sure does fly by faster with the second one than with the first. It seems like just yesterday she was my tiny little blob I could just lay on the bed without worrying about her falling off. Not anymore. She'll roll off in just the time it takes to turn around to throw away a diaper (just ask Dave).

Just last week while we were on vacation, she learned how to go from her tummy to sitting up. She can also army-crawl like a champ now. It only took her a few days to master it, so now I have to keep my eyes on her at all times. She can move pretty fast too. In just a couple of minutes, she can make the loop around the bottom floor of our house.

Here she is pulling herself up on her toy box. I think she likes being able to actually see inside to get her own toys out. She's kneeling here, but several times now, she's pulled herself up to standing.

And just this week, I've caught her crawling on her knees. She still mostly does the army-crawl, but she's up on her knees all the time, even if she's not moving.

Another good thing about getting bigger is how much better she is at sleeping. There have been several nights now that she's slept from 7:30 until around 4:30 or 5:00. Then I'll feed her and she'll go back to sleep for another hour or two. And a couple nights ago she slept from 8:30 until 6:30 without waking up. It was the first night I've gotten almost 8 hours of consecutive sleep since I can't remember when.

It's amazing how much they change in so little time.

Seven Years Ago Today...

... I married my best friend.

Happy anniversary, sweetie! I love you!

Tour de Grandparents

For the last week and a half, we've been making the tour of the grandparents - both sets of which live in Florida. On Wednesday, we picked up Mason on his last day of school with the car loaded, and headed down I77 to Orlando to see Dave's family first. We knew the trip would take about 10 hours, so the thought was we'd leave just in time for Lauren's afternoon nap, then the kids would both go to sleep for the last couple of hours which is always the hardest. Our plan worked pretty well except for all the rain we got on the way. That made it a little hard with a son who won't go to public restrooms and insists on peeing in the grass (see a previous post about our trip to Myrtle Beach) but we made it with relatively few issues.

We visited with Baba, Grandpa, and Uncle Matthew in Orlando until Tuesday. We also got to visit with some very dear friends while we were there, but with all the rain we had, we didn't get to do much else. At least we were able to enjoy most of Memorial Day outside by the pool at Amy and Ryan's house.

Mason enjoying yummy cake poolside...

Tuesday morning, Dave flew from Orlando to New Jersey for work, so I loaded up the kids and headed north to Perry where my parents live. It was my first time travelling for any length of time with both kids, and I had only done it once with Mason before Lauren was born. The three hour trip took about five hours, but it was relatively smooth. We had a good time visiting with Grandmama and PoohPa. We even got to see Aunt Amy and cousins Kellon and Chandler, plus good friends Aunt Marge and Uncle Don while we were there.

Mason and cousin Kellon on the computer...

Cousin Chandler and Lauren...

Friday morning I loaded up the kids again and headed to Jacksonville where we were to pick up Dave who was flying back from New Jersey. I have a pretty good husband because his flight actually connected in Charlotte on the way. He was just flying down to be with me on the longest part of the drive home. His flight was delayed out of Newark as usual, but he made it to our hotel at 10:30pm. In the meantime, I visited with a good friend from high school who I haven't seen in 14 years. Saturday we made the long trip home, and I think all of us were ready to get out of the car by the time we hit South Carolina.

He must be worn out to fall asleep in the middle of a movie...

To cap off our vacation, we hit the Carowinds waterpark on Sunday. Mason had such a good time in the splash area, swimming in the wave pool, and going down the kids' slide. I think Lauren didn't really know how to feel about such a big bathtub. She did enjoy napping in the stroller though.

Mason and Daddy enjoying the waterslide at Carowinds...

Both kids were certainly warn out after such a busy several days an slept very well last night. It was wonderful to get to visit so many of our friends and family on our trip, but it is very nice to sleep in our own beds again and get back to our regular routine.