Downtown in the Sunshine

 We have been very blessed with wonderful weather for the past few weeks. Yes, there have been cool mornings and there have been days filled with pouring rain, but then there is the most wonderful sunshine. Sunshine and bright blue cloudless skies that call to you from inside to be out and about and to take it all in. We have answered that call and spent as many moments outside as we can. We go in at dinner time with "fun" under our fingernails, pink cheeks and covered in a mix of bubble mix and sweat and dirt. It is PERFECT.

Jack "hiding" inside a big box in the garage. Peek a Boo, I found you!

My boy has figured this bubble blowing thing out.

I feel like sunshine and bubbles go hand in hand. I know I have written about them before and how we love them and they make us smile. The truth is, I just can't get sick of them! Last year, Jack would "blow bubbles" by sticking the whole stick in his mouth. He would then sputter and spit out the bubble mix and drop the stick to the ground. Now, he is a pro. Just the right amount of air, just the right amount of space between his lips and the wand. He even tried to entertain Will with the bubbles (but was about an inch from Will's face, so he got sprayed with bubble mix or had the bubbles form and instantly pop in a cascade across his little face)-not so successful. I can't wait for him to teach Will how to do it too.

This weekend, we ventured to downtown Greenville to explore. Tom and Jack had taken Kay Kay here when she was visiting and I was home with my ear infection and Will. I was very excited to see what was down there.

There is a huge suspension walking bridge across an amazing water fall and park called Reedy Falls Park. 

The day was gorgeous. Perfect for walking around and seeing the sights. We found Reedy Falls Park and it was amazing. There is a huge waterfall with this amazing pedestrian suspension bridge over it. All under and around the falls is green grass perfect for picnicking. There are restaurants with indoor and outdoor seating  and even some live music. There were people everywhere! 

Relaxing, enjoying the view...with only one shoe on-classic Will. 

A view down Main Street.

A late lunch at Carolina Ale House

A Mum-Mum Tongue.

We window shopped and cruised up and down Main Street. We stopped for a late lunch (the kids had eaten at home before we left) at Carolina Ale House. The place was a perfect stop. Lots of sports paraphernalia decorated the walls (Clemson and USC of course) and there were large TV's broadcasting many different sporting events all over the walls. The boys had plenty to look at and keep them entertained while we enjoyed our lunch. Jack surprised us and practically licked his plate clean and then asked for dessert! Aaah fresh air stimulates an appetite in even the pickiest of eaters. He was rewarded with some M&M's from the Mast General Store and we all left happy campers. 

It was a perfect Saturday. 

As we drove home, I was filled with such excitement about getting to know this downtown area, the shops, the restaurants. It was exactly what I had been hoping for when I knew we were moving. I wanted an area that had a "cute downtown". A place we could take visitors, that we could explore ourselves, somewhere that broke free from the mall and places like Chilis' and Ruby Tuesdays and other chain restaurants. This was it! All of a sudden I realized that we were not here for the day to visit-but that this is ours! 

Stubborn

So I have come to see in the past few days that my little Will is as stubborn as they come. He is sweet, he is smiley, he is smart and boy is he stubborn! He knows what he wants and that is THAT! As I mentioned in the  last post, he took very well to our little middle of the night cuddle and nursing sessions and wanted to make them a regular part of our routine. Now that we can safely say that he is better it was time to toughen up and "let him cry it out." In the past, with Jack, I was pretty good at this. It would pull slightly at my heart strings, but I knew deep inside that it was what was best for him and for us. He is now a great sleeper and goes to bed very easily. With Will, it is actually harder for me for one reason- he and Jack share a room and a nightmare to me would be to have Will's desperate cries wake Jack up and then I have the 2 of them to get back to sleep. So we settled in the other night and I prepared myself and Tom on the game plan. No talking, No picking up, All business. We would give him 10 minute increments and then give him a little back rub and give him back his binky. The first night-he slept the whole night. I woke up energized after FINALLY getting a full nights sleep. The next night-he cried for 2 hours! Screaming at times! It was HORRIBLE. He was exhausted, but his stubborn side WOULD NOT LET GO. Just when we thought that he was falling asleep and silence would fill the house, he would let out a blood curdling scream. Thankfully Jack slept through the whole thing. At 4am, I had had enough, it was all I could take. I was terrified that if I let him keep crying, that at 5am we would all still be up and that Jack would then get up for the day and I would be a total zombie all day. So I caved and I nursed him and we both finally went to sleep. I felt like a failure. I thought-"Oh no, He is NEVER going to sleep through the night again. How are we going to keep going on like this?". In reality, it isn't that bad. He has had good nights with no waking up, he has had bad nights where he gets up once or twice. I have been able to get him back to sleep without having to nurse him, so I think we have broken the biggest "bad habit"  and are well on our way back to his old sleep patterns.

If you look closely you can see the 2 little teeth on the bottom! 

He hates being in the "seat", but loves being underneath. 

Brothers.

Since I have not been working since November, I have been able to exclusively nurse Will. It has been great. I still pump in the morning to help to replenish the supply of milk that I had to throw out after our drive down to SC and to use when I make him cereal. I like having some back up milk so that Tom can give him a bottle or sippy if I have run out. The other morning I went out for a few errands and I get a text from Tom-Will is refusing to take the milk in a sippy or in a bottle. Stubbornness prevails and he just wants his Mama! I am shocked. He drinks from a sippy at every meal with no problems, but it always has water in it. I have an overnight trip planned for a few weeks from now and I started to get worried that he wouldn't drink ANY milk while I was gone. A new plan has been put into action. I am going to give up my favorite feeding-the before bed one-to Tom so that Will can get used to taking milk from someone else. I will break this kid in! I also started giving him some milk in a sippy with his dinner. I switched the type of sippy we were using too. Both of these efforts have helped and I know my chubby bubby will not go hungry when I am away. Daddy will just have to figure it out :).

Until next time here are some new pictures of the boys.

Love.

Getting out and about in Greenville

So just when we thought we had made it through the germ cloud, we took another hit. Tom, who had been feeling 'ok' through all of our other ailments caught up to the pack. What started as just a head cold, turned into a horrible sinus infection. We had another man down! I brought out the Lysol again and hoped for some warm enough weather to open up the windows and air out! GERMS BE GONE!!!

Since returning from our Christmas trip, my goal has been to get out, see Greenville, meet people, become part of the community. However, 2 sick kids, a sick self and then a sick husband has left us all stuck in the house.  As the 3rd week of someone being sick began, I started to have this crazy feeling start to build up inside me. I NEED TO GET OUT OF THIS HOUSE! I was hoping for some "alone" time out during the weekend, but with Tom being sick, I ended up running my errands with the boys. Tom worked for a few hours on Monday morning and I planned to be ready to go to the gym as soon as he returned. I just needed to clear my head, do something for myself-ALONE. He came home feeling miserable, but seeing me sitting on the floor of the playroom twitching, he knew I had to get out too. I made a dash for the door and it was perfect. Just what my body and soul needed. I let the music take over and I was able to clear my head as the sweat poured down my face. I decided during that workout time, that we were going to get OUT this week. 

Tuesday morning I made what has become my weekly, Tuesday morning call to the pediatricians office. I took what has also become our usual 11am appointment. I thought for sure Will had another ear infection. He had been up the past few nights a number of times, crying and difficult to get back to sleep. I noticed him doing the classic ear pull too. Of course, my mind was racing way ahead of where we were as we drove to the appointment-did this mean he was going to have to have tubes? What antibiotic were we going to try this time? Is this because of the way that I wash his hair? Thankfully, all the panicking going on in my head for put to rest when the doctor gave us the good and bad news of the visit. The good news-NO EAR INFECTION, his ears look great, all healed up, lungs sounded great too! The bad news-HE IS A CON ARTIST! He has been conning me! Over the past few weeks of him being sick, he has not been sleeping through the night. A huge change to what we are all used to. Of course, because he was sick, I would get up with him immediately, not let him cry very much. Give him a breathing treatment and end up nursing him to settle him down and get him back to sleep. The doctor informed me  I had created this little night monster and now it was up to me to break this bad habit if I wanted my good nights sleep back. Knowing that he was fine, definitely was going to make this easier. So far we have had good nights and bad nights. I will hope for more good nights to come. :)

Wednesday was a breakthrough day for us! I had done some Internet searches and found the library near us had a story time on Wednesday mornings. I had tried a number of times when we were in Providence to go out and attend one of these, but I always found something "better" to do. As I said before, my workout gave me the push I needed to get us out of the house and find a way to meet people. We were going to story time. I got Jack all excited and even gently woke Will up from a nap to attend. We walked into the library, using our quiet voices, and found the children's section. It was full of toddlers and preschoolers reading books, playing on computers, playing with toys, toddling around. It was great! We entered the story time room and found a perfect spot on the floor. The next 40 minutes were filled with stories and songs and dancing and INSTRUMENTS. It was loud, it was crazy, it was amazing. Jack, our sensitive little one, took it all in quietly, getting embarrassed for ME when I started to sing along, or dance. Will stood in my lap and "danced" and squealed with delight and clapped. He had a ball. I loved watching the two of them. I loved looking around and seeing other moms like me. I love that the whole ride home Will kept saying "clap, clap, clap" and that Jack could retell one of stories that we heard. I love that we went. I was so proud of myself for doing something new. I hope that by going every week, some of the faces will become familiar and that we can make some new friends. I am putting myself out there-my biggest challenge. 

We let the South Carolina sunshine spill over us on Wednesday afternoon with a trip to the playground and a snack on the driveway. The windows were open and the house was aired out. Jack and I investigated how a worm wiggles and moves it's way back into the soil while Will took his afternoon nap. It was a marvelous day. 

As the week comes to an end we are all looking forward to feeling better, getting out more and really seeing what South Carolina has for us. We know that our family and friends back in RI are bundling up and shoveling snow. We hope to send some of the warm sunshine home to them soon.

Pictures to come soon....just have to dust off the camera! 

Will is 8 months!

During this crazy holiday season, Will turned 8 months old. We left SC with a few tricks up our sleeves and we returned with many more! It is still so amazing to me to see how much a baby grows and changes and learns in the first year. Every new trick is so cool. Here are the 8 month stats!

At our last doctor's appointment, Will weighed in at 20lbs 4oz. We love every little roll and those kissable chubby cheeks. He is sitting up fully unsupported and crawling like a maniac. We can not take our eyes off him because he is so fast. He still crawls with his belly on the floor, but that does not slow him down. Over the holidays he figured out how to get from laying on his back or belly back up to sitting. Once we returned from RI, we lowered the mattress in the crib after finding him sitting up in the morning a few days in a row. He has pulled himself up to his knees just a few times. He will stand with minimal support (while holding onto a toy, the couch or our ottoman) and "dance". He will take steps, marching style while you hold both his hands, but we don't think he is quite ready to walk yet. Will can wave hi/bye and during the holidays, every time he heard someone say "bye" he would start waving and waving and waving-even to characters on TV. He says "Mama" and "Dada" and loves to squeal. He does "SO BIG", sometimes so big he topples himself over backwards. Our newest trick is clapping and when he claps or sees you clap, he starts saying "clap, clap, clap", although it sounds more like "cla, cla, cla". We are starting to work on sign language with him like we did with Jack. "More" and "All done" are what we are doing right now. He makes the sign for "more" but sometimes it looks like he is clapping. Either way, we get all excited for him and he in turn gets really excited too. Jack loves to make the signs too and see Will's response. 

We have had a rough couple of weeks in terms of being sick. As I mentioned in the previous post, Will had his first ear infection right before Christmas. He then got the pleasure of catching the cold that Jack had and this turned into a new double ear infection and walking pneumonia. We have been to the pediatricians or had phone conferences with the doctors and nurses many times in the past few weeks. It seems like the new medication regimen we have him on is working. We hope that he can be back to "normal" very soon. We hate seeing him struggle to breathe and be so unhappy. Through all of these sniffles and wheezes, his little smile will still find a way to pop out! Also, to add to his torment, he cut his first tooth this week! I happen to be feeling around in his mouth the other day and low and behold, a sharp little spike was sticking up! I felt again this morning and I think I can feel the edge of the neighbor tooth too. When it rains, it pours! 

As you can see by his weight, Will loves to eat. I am trying my best to be more adventurous with the foods that I present to him. I am not as nervous as I was with Jack. Everything we have for dinner, I put in front of Will. He loves to be able to pick the food up and "feed himself", although half of it ends up inside the highchair. He does not like to mix textures, but prefers them one at a time. He does best when he has things on the tray to work at picking up and eating, while I help supplement him with smoother baby food. He holds his sippy cup well and drinks water with every meal. Since I have been able to be home with both kids for the past few months, Will has received fewer and fewer bottles. We are taking this time to transition him off of the bottle altogether and just to a sippy cup. 

It has been rainy, windy and cold here for the past few days-good weather for laying low, watching movies and recooperating. The sun is shining today and it is supposed to warm up this weekend. We hope to be able to open the windows and send the germs on their way as well as get out and about in the fresh air. 

HAPPY FRIDAY!! 

WE ARE HERE, WE ARE HERE, WE ARE HERE!

One more my favorite lines from "Horton Hears a Who" by Dr. Seuss-"We are here, we are here, we are here!" and that is how we are starting off the new year. It has been a little rocky, but we are back! I started writing a few different posts over the past 2 weeks-detailing Christmas fun and our crazy travel plans from RI to SC, but I could not get them finished or get pictures up to go with them. I was constantly being kept from the computer by these nasty, yucky, stubborn GERMS that have invaded our family! Here is a quick review of where we have been hiding-Will had an ear infection before Christmas, Jack got the croup on New Year's Eve, delaying our trip back to SC. The croup turned into bronchitis and an ear infection that he passed on to Will. While they were both on antibiotics, Will ended up needing an inhaler to treat a stubborn wheeze. They both passed the germs to me (probably more because I have not had a complete night sleep since before we left for RI in December) and I woke up the other night with excruciating pain in my ear. A horrific ear infection had started. The doctor wanted to give me narcotics for the pain because he said it looked so bad. Since I am still nursing Will, I choose to stick with just Advil and Tylenol with these ear drops for pain control. You know it is not a good thing when you go into CVS and not one but 2 of the pharmacists know you by name (especially when you have only been going to this one store for no more than 3 weeks)! YIKES! Needless to say we have all fallen into bed by 7pm and been subject to many nights of sleep interrupted by coughing fits, steam shower treatments, nebulizers, humidifiers, medicine and many, many tears. Our days have been low key with lots of tv and movies, cuddling on the couch and in bed and many many naps.

So here we are on the road to recovery. We were very, very blessed to have our Kay-Kay in town over the past week. I am sure she was happy to go home yesterday and leave our little petri dish before she herself got sick. We were so lucky to have her with us during this very trying week. I loved having an extra set of hands, an extra set of ears and an extra dose of experience to help me navigate through the coughs and fevers and wheezes. Not to mention she can't sit still, so she kept our house in tip top shape, when we were not.

I hope that over the next few days I can get to posts I started 2 weeks ago finished and published-but no promises. I will say this-Christmas was fantastic! It was the perfect mix of craziness and relaxation with all the magic that it is supposed to hold. Jack and Will were loved on, played with, and spoiled by all our family. Isn't that the way it is supposed to be? :)

HAPPY 2012!

HAPPY MONDAY!