St. Patrick's Day Weekend

Saturday we went to the St. Patrick's Day parade downtown. We 1st dropped Baylor off with my parents as we did not think he was quite ready for this occasion. Maybe next year! He had a great time with my dad as you can see from his little smile! Meanwhile, we met the Antley's and Alecia & Jake downtown. It started out as a very chilly morning. The sunshine eventually found us and it turned out to be a beautiful day! We ended up running into quite a few friends who we had not seen in a while, so that was nice! The parade was okay. It kept the kids entertained although they were very disapointed that no one threw them any candy :( Brighton, Jameson and Michael quickly forgot about the lack of candy after the parade. They danced a jig to the bag pipes and ran all around the courtyard while the rest of us had lunch and Irish beers. The dancing wore them out. Look at these two bums in downtown Charlotte! .jpg" imageanchor="1" > We all went back to Aunt Lacey's after the parade and grilled out and enjoyed the weather. On Sunday, Jason took Brighton to visit Gigi and Pop and Baylor and I ran some errands. When I returned home, I got out some of Brighton's baby clothes bins to go through for Baylor. Its kind of unfortunate as my boys were born in totally different seasons, so Baylor cannot wear all of Brighton's stuff, but some of it has worked and will. It was really fun to go through the clothes, especially some of the cuter, dressy outfits that take me back to specific moments in time of Brighton's baby life. I hope that Baylor is able to wear some of them soon. I dug out a little pair of sandals and put them on Baylor. He could not wait to take them off!! He was determined. This was his 1st time wearing shoes and he thinks socks are bad enough, so you can imagine. We ended the weekend by eating our traditional St. Patrick's Day meal at my parent's house, corned beef and cabbage, of course!

Seeing Green

We are having some nice weather this coming weekend!! I was just thinking back to last year. Right around this time, I was at the end of my 1st trimester of pregnancy. Went to Savannah for Billie's bachelorette weekend and then the next weekend we went to the St. Patrick's Day parade in downtown Charlotte. We will be returning to the parade this year. The kids will love it. Jason and I have come a long way since our early days of partying it up in Columbia for St. Patrick's Day weekend! Speaking of green, I just wanted to point out that Brighton's eyes have officially changed from blue to green. Just like his mommy! Can you tell?

Around the house

We had a good weekend. Very productive. It was chaotic at times, as usual but fun and busy. This is how I found Sugar Bear Friday when Michael and Brighton were playing together in Baylor's room! Fun times. Saturday Jason put up our new mailbox that we got for Christmas, as well as numerous other projects outside. While he was doing all of this, I was able to do a little bit of spring cleaning inside. On Saturday, I was able to get away to go to my sister in law, Kelly's baby shower. It was thrown by her sisters and mother. It was a beautiful day for a beautiful shower! Not to mention the beautiful Mama To Be! When I got home I was surprised to see that Jason had hung my new mini chandelier! While we were picking out the fan for the bonus room last weekend, he shocked me by buying me the fixture that I had been eyeing for our bedroom! It is my early birthday gift. This replaces this one that we had in the little sitting area of our bedroom. Former one is below. I picked it out when we were building because the price was right but always knew I would want to replace down the road when I found the right one. This is the new one. It is a bad picture and hard to see, so here is a more clear pic of it. It looks perfect! Also over the weekend, Baylor started feeling much better! He is sporting his band again (with improved shamrocks!) as well as eating his new formula well.

Rough Week

We have had a rough week at our house lately. Brighton was sick with a cold last week. He stayed at home on Thursday and Friday to recover. We are used to him catching these things though. He has a runny nose these days more than not! Unfortunately, he passed what he had along to Baylor. Baylor has had a MUCH harder time with it. He hasn't been able to breathe, and because of his fever, and inability to sleep while stopped up, we had to remove his band for a few days, once again setting us back with that! If all of that weren't bad enough, the virus has made his already bad projectile vomiting even worse. He was not keeping anything down and then just stopped trying to eat all together. So, not only did we go to the specialty Dr. this week, we also went to the pediatrician. There was nothing they could do but tell us to let it run it's course. They did say that due to his cold, his vomiting was worse but at this age he should not be vomiting as much as he does and recommended a new, very pricey formula. Yesterday was his 1st smile since Saturday. He started doing a lot better last night. Since he is eating again, I am trying to gradually introduce the new formula to him. He seems to take it well now, mixed half and half with his other one. As soon as I feel he is 100% feeling better and can breathe well, I will try to give it to him straight up. I really hope this helps! The projectile thing has been so stressful on POOR Baylor, Jason and I as well as our furniture (We are having it all steam cleaned soon!). I am hoping that he will start eating solids soon. Dr. recommended that we start trying a month ago, but he just spits everything out! Even though he has not felt well, Baylor has been trying hard to roll over and sit up. You can't really tell from this picture, but he is sitting up in his swing. Don't worry, he is strapped in!! Once again, we are starting over with wearing the band.

I married a carpenter

I meant to blog about this a couple of weeks ago, but it got lost with all of the excitement surrounding Brighton's birthday. We were given a couple of quotes on finishing the bonus room a few months back. I have to say that we were a little sticker shocked. As I reported earlier, Jason decided to take it upon himself to do the insulation. That turned out good. My brother in law Mickey is pretty handy. He convinced Jason that they could do the dry wall themselves. My dad showed up early that Saturday morning for the job as well. The 3 of them went to work dry walling for 13 hours!! Since the room consists of mainly sloping ceiling/walls, the job was extra hard as they were not working on level ground but over their heads! There were some profanities yelled, and a couple of times I thought I was going to have to take someone to the hospital, but by the end of it, somehow, they were all cutting up and laughing. They got it done!! I am proud and thankful to all of them for doing this. So, the rest will be left up to the professionals. They have been painting it this week, and next week they will do the floor and lighting, and it should be finished!! As for Jason, he has already moved onto his newest project, which is improving our dock, getting us ready for boating season. After that, he has another project he is eager to start on! It never ends!

March is FINALLY here!!

Happy, Happy March everyone! I have never been so glad to welcome the month of March. February, although technically the shortest month of the year, has been the longest. I only wish that I had counted the number of days that it actually rained. We have had so much rain in January and almost the entire month of February that it has been seriously depressing. I have literally ruined 2 pair of boots that I just got for Christmas due to walking in rain puddles. Uuuugh. So, with all of that being said, welcoming March is a breath of fresh air. It is still cold and rainy some days (so far)but I know that warmer times lay ahead! Speaking of heads... Baylor is doing okay with his band. As I mentioned last week, we had a set back but that was only for a couple of days. He went back to wearing it and is doing pretty good with it. Over the weekend, Brighton went to stay with his GiGi and Pop some, so I took Baylor with me to the mall and to run some errands. Since this was our 1st public outing with him wearing it, I was scared that we would get stared at, or worse, people would pretend that they didn't see him. I am the 1st to admit that I have done this before. I decided to jazz it up a little bit to make him seem more approachable with these shamrocks. Not my best work, but I did not have a lot to work with. It turned out that he got so many compliments from strangers on how happy and cute he was!! No one mentioned his band, just his huge, smiling blue eyes. This made me feel better. Unfortunately he came down with a bad cold Saturday evening, so we are struggling with that. Last night was rough so I hope he is feeling better soon. Went to the doctor today and they think they can already see early progress from the band in a week!!

School Daze

minute! Got to move on to the next thing! Baylor was doing okay with his new band, but we have haDays/weeks like this, when I am in the crazy hustle and bustle of running around from one place to the other constantly, while trying to take care of everyone and the home can be overwhelming. It seems life consists of getting up, making sure everyone is fed, running Baylor to specialty Dr., jetting kids off to preschool, then flying into work. 'Whoops...did I forget to put on my eye make up?' To do lists, constantly running through my head. Leave work, get home, do 80 loads of laundry, make dinner, sooth crying baby, get Brighton what he needs, try to clean up the house a little. 'Why did I come into this room again?'. Sometimes Jason and I can be like ships passing in the night, just to make it all work and get it all done. It works though. What makes it all worth it?? These two. My little sunshines. Here are their 2012/2013 Denver Baptist Preschool pics. Pretty cute huh? Looking at these pics puts a smile on my face and makes me exhale. But just for a d a set-back. He wore it off and on as instructed for the 1st two days. The 1st night was rough, but the 2nd night was a little better. By the 3rd day, he was not really noticing it much. He wore it all day yesterday. When I took it off though, he had a little mark that did not fade away as it was supposed to. Since the red spots are supposed to fade he did not sleep in it last night (and slept a full 8 hours!!!!). So, we have to go back to the specialist tomorrow so they can make adjustments. We don't want to suffer any more delays than we have to. We want to get this over with!! The sooner he can get used to the band the better. He really was not minding it at all yesterday though. Here is him playing with a giant ribbon from one of Brighton's birthday presents.

Brighton's Big Birthday Bounce!

Sunday was Brighton's birthday party. We had it at a bouncy/slide place called BounceU. It was super fun and they did a great job. Brighton and the kids had a blast. You will notice how red Brighton's cheeks are in the picture. Everyone was playing HARD!! BounceU was great. They had the birthday party thing down! The kids watched a safety video, then they let us all into a bounce room where we had our own private bounce time. This meant that not only could the children bounce and slide, but the adults too!! After the 1st room, there was a 2nd bounce room with a whole different set up of slides and activities. After the bounce hour, the kids were delirious with hyper activity overload. We went to a party room and had cake and sang Happy Birthday and opened gifts. It was a really fun time. Brighton could not have had a better party. He keeps talking about memories from it. It is very cute. Baylor is wondering when he can have a birthday party there!

And we thought that cradle cap was bad...

Over the last few weeks, Jason and I had to make a very hard decision concerning Baylor. His pediatrician recommended that we take him to Cranial Technologies for their opinion. His little head is flat in the back/top. It is nothing that would affect his brain or anything serious like that, but something that cannot be corrected once he is past 18 months. Of course, we were less than thrilled about the prospect of our precious little baby wearing a "helmet". He has enough problems with his acid reflux, spitting up and projectile vomiting, so we certainly did not want to add to his troubles. It turns out his "troubles" are part of the reason we are in this boat. Because he is so uncomfortable after eating, it is hard for him to do tummy time and he is only comfortable in certain positions (flat on his head) while being rocked. Soooooo, for the last 6 weeks Jason and I have been working with him as much as possible to have him sitting up when it is comfortable for him and of course he is now able to sit in the Bumbo which helps, but it just wasn't enough. Cranial Technologies thinks they can help him in about 6-10 weeks. It was scary at 1st. Looking at him having his images made from all angles and seeing the pictures of the helmet babies, but sitting there watching them take the pictures with all of their high tech machines (they reminded me of MRI machines) made me realize how lucky we are that he is healthy and that all of this is strictly for cosmetic reasons. We want him to be able to wear a football helmet one day, and to shave his head with the rest of the guys from the basketball team down the road!! Actually being there in the lobby and seeing all of the cute little helmet babies who were smiling and laughing with their individually decorated bands on was really heart warming and cute. Made us feel alot better about it. We ordered the band last week. "Band" is the politically correct term for this, by the way. I took him this morning to have it put on. This is Baylor after they put it on, strapped into his carseat. Both Poppi and Gigi commented how he looks like an astronaut about to launch into space! It is only day one and I hear the 1st days can be rough, but he will get used to it shortly and it will not bother him. We have to go back every week, then 2 weeks for adjustments. I am just hoping it works fast so that he doesn't have to wear it into the hot months of Summer. We will decorate it in a couple of weeks, once they get initial adjustments right. I told Brighton that it was Baylor's "Hat" and he likes it. Wish us luck!!

Happy Birthday Brighton!

Brighton is 3 years old today. He could not be more excited. He has been looking forward to this day since Christmas was over. Jason and I woke him up this morning by bringing him a little cake with candles for him to blow out. He gets to spend the whole day playing with his cousin Michael! We have his actual party planned for Sunday, but will probably take him to Cherry Berry this evening for a quick birthday treat, to make today special for him.