You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

It’s a long one, but worth the read…

We left Gastonia around 2:30 today to make our 4 hour trip back to the beach to be with Mark. I enjoyed our time in Gastonia but how true it is for me… “home is where my husband is.” The girls and the dogs are good car travelers for the most part, so I really don’t mind making the trek alone although numerous people think I am nuts. I do drive the smallest car ever so even me with short arms can normally tend to minor “incidences” in the back seat.

Audrey is getting more teeth so she has been in a “mood” all day. Both girls slept the first 2 hours of the trip, with Audrey waking up occasionally with a sudden scream, the poor girl just didn’t feel good. At 4:30, Audrey woke up and was inconsolable. She felt hot, her Tylenol was wearing off, and the sun was shining in the window on her so I gave her a few pieces of crushed ice from my cup. That just made her madder, and so she cried harder and got choked on a piece of the ice and started gagging. Well the gagging woke Madeline up just in time to see Audrey throw up, 3 times back to back, all over herself and her car seat. It took Madeline a minute to realize what was happening but she snapped to it the minute one of the dogs, Eleanor, sat up and looked like she might eat it. At that point Madeline started screaming… okay it was more like a high volume lecture at the dog.

Okay… not a big deal. Find somewhere to pull off, go clean up Audrey and get back on the road. Oh, that’s right… I’m in the middle of NOWHERE!! So, I pulled off the side of the highway as far as I could and headed to the back seat to assess the damage.

There was NO WAY I was taking Audrey out of her seat while in the car, the mess would have never been contained. (I can’t believe how much was in that child’s stomach!?!?) Using all legs, arms, and other  body parts, I attempt to get her car seat out of the car while keeping the dogs in. HA!! No chance. Now I am in the middle of nowhere with a NASTY baby and two dogs running on the side of a busy highway!! Seriously, am I on candid camera?!?

Luckily Eleanor behaves quite well and listens to commands and George quickly followed. Okay back to the vomit scene… Audrey is still screaming. It is at this point that I realize that Audrey had some of Madeline’s ramen noodles at lunch and slurped them down whole without chewing. Yup, one piece was coming out her nose and the other end of it was coming out her mouth! DISGUSTING!! Why are kids SO gross?!?

I used all the baby wipes I had in the car to clean her and her car seat. She was still toasty warm so I put her back in her “clean” car seat in just a diaper after I bounced her around on my shoulder on the side of the highway trying to get her to calm down. Besides being out of breath, she was okay. Back in the car she went. This time no dog escapees.

As I get back in the front seat I tell Madeline “sorry, it smells so bad in here.” She has been having major issues with smell lately and it smelled AWFUL in the car. She replied with, “it doesn’t smell bad in here, mom.” I thought that was odd but she then asked me to get her chap stick that she dropped on the floor before we left, so I thought nothing of it. I got back out of the car, opened her door and reached over her legs to get her chap stick. At that point she tells me, “EWW! Mom you stink. And what is on your back?!” Sure enough all over the back of my left shoulder is Audrey vomit. Oh, now I know why it smelled so bad, she puked on me while I was “consoling” her on the side of the road.

Hmmm… where are my baby wipes… oh that’s right… I used them all. At this point I was laughing hysterically. I walked back to the other side of the car, crouched down, took of my shirt to shake off the vomit and used an old Wendy’s napkin out of the glove compartment to wipe it off. Did I mention I had on a white shirt today?!?

The last two hours of the trek were smelly but much less eventful! I arrived home to my fabulous husband making dinner and I got the question… “Do you want a glass of wine or the bottle?” Love him!!

Audrey and I got a shower, her clothes and all the clean up materials went directly into the trash. I never really liked that outfit anyways, clean up just wasn’t worth the effort to me after all we’ve been through today!

So I think the title of the post says it all…. and I’m going to bed!

***Forgive me for not having pictures, I was certain you all would understand.****

Rewards

The main reason we’ve been in Gastonia this week, other than Irene sending us away from the coast, is that Madeline had her 3 year check up this morning.

She’s always loved going to the doctor but last week when I mentioned it she got quite upset and said she didn’t want to go. Knowing this morning might go poorly, I did some pre-planning that might be used as an incentive for good behavior and bravery at the doctor’s office. Sunday night I created a last minute “event” on facebook—what did we do before facebook?!? - to have a playdate with all of Madeline’s best buddies at the mall after her appointment. Okay, maybe it wasn’t all for her, I really needed to see my best friends too!

With a little talk of our activities after her doctor visit, things went fine. She was a little bashful at first but warmed up to her normal chatty self quite quickly. Turned out she didn’t even need any shots this time around! Even better news. I thought we were due for at least one.

Her 3 year stats are: 29.8 lbs, 36 3/4 inches! She’s right in the 40th percentile on both.

On to the mall!! With such short notice I figured we’d have a few people show for a playdate, but actually we pretty much took over the play land! I can’t thank you girls enough for rearranging schedules to come spend some time with us— it did my heart WONDERS!!

I know that one day I’ll have friends where we live, but these girls (and their babies) are so near and dear to my heart… we’ve been through a lot together.

Madeline was so excited to see all her friends. Every time someone new would show up she would come tell me “Now I have two (three, four, five, etc) friends here!!” She ended up with about 12 friends to play with. She was in HEAVEN!

Audrey is still too small to know what’s going on, but she still had fun playing, especially with her little buddy Noah.

A few of us went to lunch at Chick-Fil-A… I love this picture of the kids walking to the food court.

All of you should have stayed because evidently it was my day to buy lunch for everyone. Two certain moms, which I’ll leave nameless except for the fact that their kids are in the picture above, conveniently left their wallets at home today and realized it at Chick-Fil-A while ordering. Coincidence?? I think not. Evidently I have to buy my friends!! :) The lady taking our order even asked if I would buy her a Coach bag. We all got a good laugh out of the situation, that is for sure!!

Turned out to be a great day that is for sure. We will be looking forward to our next visit home when we can catch up again with everyone. Like I’ve said before it’s great to have friends where you can just pick up right where you left off.  I appreciate you girls more than you’ll ever know!

Summer Treats

We were up in Hickory visiting with Oma and Opa for the day and the girls got a special treat… ice cream in cones! This was a first for Audrey and of course she loved it!

She was surprisingly neat with eating her ice cream, although she did have a little help. Here’s the video clips for you:

I’m sure there are several of you out there that were gagging as you watched that video. Not everyone likes dogs like we do!

Audrey loves her dog friends and was more than willing to share, as you could see. Don’t worry we cleaned her up after all was said and done, she was left with minimal dog cooties.

Thanks Oma and Opa… we enjoyed our ice cream and had a great day visiting!

Long Time… No See

The girls got their Aidan “fix” tonight. They’ve been missing their best buddy.

Before our very eyes they’ve grown up!! Madeline and Aidan play SO well together now and Audrey doesn’t cry when Aidan gives her open mouth kisses anymore, instead she returns the favor!

I am so thankful to have friends that you can pick up with right where you left off… even if the time between is longer than you’d hoped it would be. True friends like these are indeed hard to find!

Dairy Queen

**Disclaimer: This post is about breastfeeding... not ice cream. For many casual readers this will be considered TMI! Consider yourself warned.**

I've reached the end of an era. Yes, the end of breastfeeding. I breastfed Madeline and Audrey for the first 13 months of their lives... 26 months total... approximately 780 days! Multiply that by 6 times a day (less towards the end) and now you know why I titled this post "Dairy Queen." Really, I could have moved in next door to Bessy at the local dairy farm.

Anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that a contributing factor to my longevity in breastfeeding is that I am CHEAP! Not having to buy baby formula, EVER... count me in!! Now, don't get me wrong... the health benefits for the girls was well worth it, I never had any of the issues that a lot of moms that try to breastfeed have, and being a stay at home mom made it even more convenient.

BUT... something about those moments of quiet and peace throughout the day with nothing to focus on but a sweet little baby, just made the choice to breastfeed the only one I would EVER choose. Don't get me wrong... there were days I hated it... there were nights I told Mark that he should try and see if he had mammary glands because mine were worn out...but overall I'm glad I toughed those instances out. It was the perfect choice for me and my girls.

Like I said though, it's the end of an era. This body of mine will not be birthing any more babies so these "working" breasts are being retired! Madeline and Audrey both weaned themselves shortly after their first birthdays, I was lucky that they just quit on their own and it wasn't an issue of me having to decide when they would stop.

The switch to regular milk was like night and day between the two of them. I had to bribe Madeline to even try cow's milk at age one. We tried it cold, room temperature, warm... white, chocolate... different cups... the final fix: strawberry milk. To this day she still has to have a tiny splash of strawberry syrup to drink milk. That child is PICKY!! (I can't blame her, I don't drink milk either.)

Audrey, like most everything else, has no preference. She'll drink whatever you give her, she could careless. We're holding out hope that this will continue!

A big thanks to my wonderful breastfeeding supporters along the way! There are many people who made me feel like I nursed my girls too long. Let me just say that it is a choice every mom makes based on their situation. There are people who look down on women who don't/can't breastfeed and then other people who judge those who breastfeed their children past the "acceptable" age. Cut us moms a break! We have enough worries of our own, we don't need to feel judged by others on top of that. ** stepping off soap box now **

I am extremely grateful that God gave me the ability and desire to breastfeed my girls BUT I am more than glad to FINALLY be reclaiming my boobs as my OWN... well almost! ;)

In a Hurry

The picture quality is HORRIBLE but all I had was my crappy camera phone to get a quick shot of this "Mommy in a Hurry" mistake.

Yup, in my big rush this morning to get everyone dressed, packed up, and on the road ahead of hurricane Irene, I put an additional pair of underwear over the pair she slept in. And I didn't notice until we went to get our jammies on tonight. I thought her pants looked a little snug today!

On another note... the girls, the dogs, and I made it safely to Gastonia at about 1pm. Mark actually got out of work early (gov't shut down at noon) and was able to make it to his parents house in Salemburg (a good distance inland) before things got too rough on the coast. Thanks for all the prayers, fb messages, calls, and emails-- we are safe from the storm and won't be returning till next week.

Irene

When we found out we were moving to the coast back in May, one of the first things I said was, “Well you can bet the NC coast will get a major hurricane this year.” And sure enough, comes Irene. While they are fairly certain landfall will be north of Oak Island, this still isn’t somewhere you want to be with the 12 inches of rain they are predicting and the heavy winds we’ll still receive.

Mandatory evacuation goes into effect tomorrow morning for OKI, so we will head out then. But today we enjoyed a fun morning swimming at the beach and tonight we went back to see the change in the ocean. It was major: the waves are already much bigger; the tide, much higher.

Lots of hurricane prep is being done… you know, typical boarding of windows. Some things though I would not have thought to tie down:

The sunset was beautiful tonight and we hope when we return, OKI will be as gorgeous as we left it.

Fort Fisher Aquarium

Tuesday morning we packed everyone up and headed to the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher. You can drive through Wilmington to get there or you can take a ferry from Southport. We decided to go with a ferry ride and it was definitely a highlight of the kids’ day.

 

We took a bag of cheese curls along to feed the seagulls-- Isaac and Madeline LOVED this!

One seagull took a nibble on Madeline’s finger so after that she was pretty content to just eat the cheese curls herself.

On to the aquarium! We’ve been to the one in Atlanta which is very impressive, so I wasn’t expecting a whole lot. However, I was highly impressed with what all they had.

The alligators were a favorite, Madeline especially loved their “painted” white fingernails which you can see in this picture.

The giant concave window was another favorite site. Audrey absolutely LOVED the fish swimming in the huge tank, she would have sat there all day watching if we would have let her.

Here Rachel and I are in the giant shark mouth!

This caused a huge meltdown for Madeline because I made her wait while Rachel and I took a picture by ourselves. Poor girl… I NEVER take any pictures of her.

As the two little ones grow older, it indeed gets more and more fun to take them all on these outings. They all have such distinct personalities that it is just fun to watch them interact.

What fun it is to hang out with cousins!

Animal Sounds

One of Madeline's favorite books when she was a baby has quickly become one of Audrey's too, My Friends by Taro Gomi. It is full of different animals which is a great teaching tool for animal sounds. Audrey has taken to the cat page quite well and has mastered a professional "meow." She is trying to make more animal sounds but most of them all sound like "meow" at this point.

Here is a quick video clip for you:

She's changing so much everyday and beginning to say more and more words. Currently her most clear words are: mom, dad, dog, bird, and..... POOP. When the girls are playing, Madeline will often come tell me, "Audrey pooped." This past week, when Madeline says that, Audrey will parrot her with "poop." Isn't it great being the little sister, you learn so much from basic observation of your older sibling?!?

Fun times are ahead for sure, it looks like I may have another chatterbox on my hands! :)

A Week With the Raynors

Aunt Rachel, Uncle Brian, Isaac and Lucas arrived on Friday and we are all super excited that they are taking a week of vacation to hang out with us at the beach. We’ve been busy since they arrived doing lots of fun things but here are a few of Sunday’s highlights…

1) Swimming at the point on Oak Island.

The point is actually quite rough with strong currents, but we were on the intracoastal waterway side of the point so there were no waves and the currents weren’t bad. This was great for the kids. Much more like lake swimming.

2) Our Geocaching Adventures.

The Raynors love geocaching so when we are with them, we like to go “hunt treasures” too! Tonight’s geocaches were on the road that runs next to/under the big bridge onto Oak Island.

Mark and Brian are the geocaching wizards, Rachel and I only step in and add our two cents when they can’t find it, here they are with their first find.

We let Madeline and Isaac climb around under the bridge for awhile and here they are flashing the gang signs Aunt Rachel taught them while standing by the graffiti art. Awesome things we’re teaching them right?! (Actually she just told them to show “3’s” but we thought it looked like gang signs.)

They waited in the car on the last treasure, they thought they were hot stuff being able to sit in the front seat of Aunt Rachel’s big truck.

3) Frosty’s Ice Cream.

Can’t have a fun weekend on the island without at least one stop for ice cream. Strawberry with sprinkles and mint chocolate chip were the flavors of choice on this visit.

Lots of fun to be had this week... stay tuned!

Audrey is WALKING

It's taken her FOREVER to get brave enough to do it on her own, but last night she finally did it. She's been taking a few steps at a time since before her birthday, and walking between things for a few weeks... but today she actually walked! A little motivation... her sister's shoes... and she was willing to take off. Here's a video for you:

Now I'm certain that whatever she wasn't into before, she will be now!

(Don't you love the high tech toys that Isaac and Madeline are playing with in the background?! So glad we waste our money on real gifts.)

Ketchup

It appears that the little one has found a new favorite thing:

Yep… ketchup!! And it makes her VERY happy!

Southern Blessed Stitches

A dear friend from our church back home and my ladies’ Bible study group sent us a package this week.

Not only was Madeline’s adorable flamingo princess hat enclosed for her birthday… see yesterday’s post…but also these two beautiful outfits:

Thanks Gina, their outfits are adorable and we got at least 5 compliments on them while we were out shopping today, I think I need a business card to hand out!

Look her up on Facebook, Southern Blessed Stitches, she does BEAUTIFUL work!!

Madeline Turns 3

Today is Madeline’s birthday! I can hardly believe that she is THREE! When I asked her what she wanted to do today her response was “everything.” That sure narrows it down, huh?!?

And so began the day of “everything.” She woke up to a birthday serenade and candles in her strawberry pop-tart.

She’s been wearing her flamingo princess hat all day and calling herself “Flamingo Princess”  and “Flamingo Barbie.” Thanks Gina for a wonderful gift! Isn’t it adorable?

Before we could get ready for the day she was insistent on doing her new puzzle she got from Gramma Blevins for her birthday. Even with Audrey taking it apart as fast as she put it together, she LOVES a puzzle.

Before heading to the playground we stopped in at her favorite gas station. I know, my 3 year old has a favorite gas station… it’s sad really… but you would love this place, too! They have over 10 flavors of icees and sample cups to try them. Today’s choice was blue and for 69 cents I was more than happy to grant this birthday request.

And of course, where did the birthday girl want to eat lunch?! McDonald’s! No idea who this kid is, but Madeline was happy to have some friends to play with. However, if I meet one more group of nice people that are on vacation here, I’m gonna scream! Seriously!? Do people not live here??!

It’s like Madeline got a memo that when you turn 3 you no longer need naps. So after 2 hours of playing in her room, Mark got home early and we suited up for the beach!

Madeline is in LOVE with her new baking set that Paige and Mike bought her for her birthday. Audrey evidently understands cupcake but not pretend cupcake, so she spent the whole time eating everything Madeline made. GROSS!

Dinner was her request… pancakes and bacon… finished off with the frosting off her birthday flamingo cupcake—she still refuses to eat cake.

And after all of that… she still didn’t forget that she wanted ice cream… and “at lunch you said I could have ice cream!” AHHH!!

It’s not her birthday everyday… so off we went for ice cream. Can you tell she had blue cotton candy ice cream?!?

The little one crashed immediately when we got home but of course she wasn’t having a sugar rush like the birthday girl! I wrestled her into her handmade flamingo jammies from Oma, which of course meant she had to wear her “Flamingo Princess” crown again… AND THEN I turned her over to her dad!

It has been a super long day, but a fun one! I’m not sure who is more exhausted?! Actually I do know… it’s me… because I am OLD!!

Sweet Madeline, it is a joy to be your mother. You push me to be better, to learn more, and to pray more frequently! I love your hugs, your smiles, and your funny sayings. (You are so much like your dad!) I cannot wait to see what God has in store for you in the future and I am thankful for each day I am given to be your mom! Happy 3rd Birthday, my little flamingo princess… I LOVE YOU!!