One Down, Fourteen to Go

Mason's last day of his first year of preschool was last week. It was funny to think back on how I cried after dropping him off for his first day, when I almost wanted to cry because it was his last day! He really liked school and learned a lot - mostly social skills which is exactly what we were hoping for. Selfishly, I will miss those two mornings a week. I had them to myself for the first few weeks. Then along came Lauren, and I was able to spend that time to just focus on her (or take a nap).

To commemorate the school year, his teachers came up with what I thought was a great idea: a personalized photo album with pictures of various events throughout the year. There are pictures of Mason at Halloween, Christmas, pancake and pajama day, Easter, and even his birthday. He also got a t-shirt with hand-painted bumblebees - one for each kid in the class labeled with their names - which says: We'll always 'bee' friends. Too cute.

Here's the first and last day pictures. You can tell a little bit about how much he's grown in 9 months...

Mason will be going back to the same preschool next year, but he'll move up to three days a week instead of just two. I suspect after a long summer break, I won't be crying when I drop him off on the first day.

A Week in Pictures

Mason has found new entertainment with the couch cushions in our living room. He likes to make "pillow forts". Last Saturday, Lauren got in on the fun.

Lauren's 7-month picture with Winnie the Pooh

Lauren's first wagon ride

Yesterday we joined the MOMS Club for our annual strawberry picking outing. Mason was able to really take part for the first time. Since I was taking care of Lauren most of the time (where I learned it's not so hard to nurse a baby standing up in a strawberry field) he picked all his berries all by himself.

Mason and his berries. They were half eaten by the time we got home.

Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day as a mother of two. And this year, the kids gave me the most wonderful present: a decent night's sleep. I think they got together sometime yesterday and made a pact to both sleep all night long last night. The sleep training we've been doing with Lauren the past few nights seems to be working, and I couldn't be happier. I just hope their little pact continues more than one night.

We didn't do anything especially out of the ordinary today. Dave made a family favorite for breakfast: french toast. Then we went to church and came home to enjoy the beautiful weather. We played in the backyard for a long time and later enjoyed a stroll around the nearby goose pond. The kids were worn out from all the sunshine and were both in bed by 7:30 (another present).

Despite the hardships that come with motherhood, I love my two babies and couldn't ask for anything more. God sure has blessed me with a wonderful family.

Adventures in Sleeping

For those of you who have seen me in the last 6 1/2 months, you have probably detected some bags under my eyes and a crazed look on my face. That's because I'm the proud mother of a non-sleeper. I can count on one hand the number of times Lauren has slept more than 6 hours at a time in her life. And none of those times have been recently. For awhile it was just a couple times up a night, but lately, it's been 3 or 4 times a night. Combine that with a son who wakes me up sometime during the night to take him to the potty, and you've got one sleep deprived Mommy.

I've known in the back of my mind that we'd have to go the Crying-It-Out route with Lauren as we did with Mason. I wasn't dreading it quite as much this time around because 1.) I've done it before, 2.) she's generally more laid back than Mason is, and 3.) unlike Mason, she has the capacity to fall asleep when someone else it holding her and it doesn't always have to be while nursing. My biggest worry was Mason, who's a pretty light sleeper, waking up from the noise.

I've been waiting to do it with her until after she was able to roll over both ways (since she sleeps on her stomach), after she started eating solid food (so I wouldn't worry about her being hungry at night), after her first round of teeth came in (they seemed painful), and after her neck rash cleared up (she always scratched it at night). With all of those things checked off my list, and with the frustration with her in the middle of the night at an all time high, I picked last night as the night to start.

She fell asleep while nursing around 7:30 so I put her to bed. She usually gets back up around 10:00, but this time it was 8:15. I was sort of glad because both Dave and I were still up, and I didn't have to listen to her on my own. So I went in to her room, cuddled her for just a minute and put her back down to sleep without nursing. I watched TV while she fussed and cried for about 30 minutes. Finally there was silence. Thankfully, she never screamed too loud and Mason never woke up.

Throughout the night, I woke up on my own around the usual times Lauren wakes up. And each time I looked at the clock, I said a quick prayer of thanksgiving that she hadn't woken up yet. At 5:30 when I heard her moving around and making some noise, I waited awhile to see if she'd go back to sleep, but I could tell she was awake. But I didn't mind getting up. It's the most sleep both of us have had in a really long time.

And the ironic thing about her getting more sleep than usual last night? She had an extra long nap this morning and she's back down for another nap now. Sleep begets sleep.

Hopefully tonight will be smooth sailing for us.

3 Year Check-Up

With Daddy home with the baby during his lunch hour, I took Mason for his yearly visit with Dr. Smoak today. I was a little worried about how he'd do since he's only been once in the last year, and of course there would be a vaccination involved. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The hardest part was getting him to stand still while the nurse measured his height. He measured 38lbs and 38inches - a perfect square according to the nurse. He's 90th percentile for weight and 50-75th percentile for height.

The vaccination came at the end of the appointment. I debated with myself how much to tell him about it ahead of time because I didn't want him to be scared to go to the doctor's office, but I also didn't want him to be caught too off guard. I'm pretty sure he doesn't remember getting any vaccinations since it's been almost a year since his last one. If he did, he didn't let on. I did finally tell him a bit about it before the nurse came in, and he seemed fine. He sat nicely on my lap and only teared up a little bit afterwards. He said, "Mommy that hurt" but quickly felt better when I told him Dr. Smoak gave great suckers to everyone who gets shots. He jumped down and said "I want a blue one to match my shirt." So that's exactly what he got.

Beach Vacation

As I mentioned in my last post, we spent a few days down in North Myrtle Beach last week. We left Wednesday after Mason got out of school and came back Sunday morning. My parents are there every spring and fall for a week each time, and they always get a large condo with plenty of room for all of us.

The drive down was somewhat of a harrowing experience. I've quickly learned traveling with two small kids is not for the faint of heart. Mason was recently potty trained and this was the first trip we've made sans pull-ups. I was a little nervous because he still has a fear of public restrooms. About halfway down, I new he had to go, but he kept saying no when I tried getting him to the bathroom.

At one point, we had to pullover in a church parking lot to calm the screaming baby. It turned out she pooped and had a blowout. We took the opportunity to try to get Mason to pee in the grass, but still no luck. As soon as he got back in the car, he was doing the pee-pee dance in his seat, so I knew he was in dire straits. We stopped at one of those Myrtle Beach welcome centers and we both tried for several minutes to get him in the bathroom. I even bough some M&Ms from the vending machine for bribery... still no luck. Finally I took him kicking and screaming into the largest stall, pulled down his pants and waited. When he just couldn't hold it anymore, it happened. He peed all over himself, all over the floor, and worst of all, all over me.

You know the trip is pretty rough when three out of four people in the car needs a change of clothes before you get to the destination.

Once we got close to the beach, we started seeing the smoke from the wildfires that were all over the news last week. At first we thought it wasn't too big a deal, but when we woke up smelling BBQ in the middle of the night and couldn't even see the ocean from right across the street due to all the smoke in the air, we knew it must be bad. The fires were across the waterway and not in our immediate area, but we saw the smoke all weekend. Ash and burnt debris washed up on the beach shore for several days and the smell was in the air the whole time. It was such a blessing that only homes and property were lost, not any lives.

Since that day was my birthday, Mom and Dad had pizza and birthday cake waiting for us when we got to the condo. Mason and I blew out the candles together since his birthday was on the 6th.

Mom and Dad were busy doing their Shag Club thing, so we were on our own most of the time. Each day we spent doing the same thing... outlet shopping in the morning, beach in the afternoon. On the second night there, we put Lauren to bed and my Mom and Dad handled Mason's bedtime for us while Dave and I went out for a birthday dinner. We didn't go anywhere too special... just Olive Garden, but it was a wonderful meal. We split a dinner so we would have room for wine, dessert, and coffee (which we usually don't get). We haven't had a date night since before Lauren was born and even then, it was a rare treat.

Mason loved playing at the beach this year. He had fun building sand castles, chasing after birds, but most of all, playing in the waves. I thought the water was pretty cold, but he didn't seem to mind. Last year he was rather scared of the waves, but not this year. Lauren loved playing in the sand too. At one point I accidentally let her fall face-first into the sand and she ended up swallowing some (as evidenced by her poop the next day) but she seemed no worse for the wear. Just like Mason before her, she seemed to really like nursing and sleeping out by the water.

The trip back home Sunday morning started off pretty good. Lauren slept and Mason sat nicely watching his DVD. I knew the potty issue would come up again and it did. We stopped at a rest area, but we couldn't get Mason to go in of course. He really needed to go, so I suggested we just pull his pants down outside in the grass and wait. He did go, and I think it was a little less tramautic this time. We drove for little while longer and then he asked to go pee in the grass again. So we pulled off the road and this time, he did it with no problems at all. I think he liked "watering the flowers". We're definitely going to remember that trick on our next trip.

I think both kids had a great time. Dave and I did too. Thanks to Mama and Daddy for having us join them. We'll meet you down there again in September!

1977 Was a Good Year

It was the year I was born. Since my birthday was last week, I thought I'd share a few of my baby pictures. These are all courtesy of my mom who recently scanned in her old school slides.

I was born in Memphis, TN. Here I am day or two old, still at the hospital.
I'm told this one was on the first day home from the hospital. My Grandaddy is holding me. I think my brother is not too sure about having a baby sister in the house...

..but I guess he got used to the idea. Now it looks like I'm not too sure about having a big brother...

We eventually warmed up to each other. I'm around three months old in this picture. I see a lot of Lauren in this one.

For my birthday, we had nice little vacation at North Myrtle Beach this past weekend. I plan to post some pictures of our trip in my next blog. We stayed in a nice condo with my parents who were there to take part in the yearly spring Shag festivities. Mom made a nice birthday cake for me and Mason (who's birthday was on the 6th), and she and Daddy watched the kids for us while Dave and I enjoyed a very rare dinner date. I also enjoyed shopping at the outlet mall and hanging out on the beach. Dave was even able to get by without working too much on our vacation. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday.