Puppy Love at Seaside

We spent last Wednesday (Sept. 24) at Seaside with Whitney and Justin and their kids... two big 'ol dogs! Seaside is the most picture-perfect seaside town I've ever seen! It was the filming location for The Truman Show. It was a gorgeous day, and we really enjoyed getting to spend more time with Whit and Justin!





I've always been allergic to dogs and then I was attacked by one while jogging when I was in college, so they are not my favorite things. My kids have never really been around dogs, except for waving at them while on strolls in the neighborhood. Wesley and Anna Kate both completely adored Whitney's dogs. Within minutes of meeting the dogs, Wesley was kissing them! (below) Whitney with Anna Kate and Rez... AK called the dogs "Baby! Baby!" until we taught her to say both "doggy" and "puppy." (She still calls anything with a face a baby).





Wesley snuggling with Rez with Adler in the background. For someone that's never been fond of dogs, I must say that Whit's dogs were very calm and easy-going. They let my kids hug, climb, tug, and kiss all over them, and I never heard so much as a mini-bark. I have adorable video of the kids playing with the dogs, but I still don't know how to upload a video to my blog. We ate lunch at The Great Southern Cafe (the weather was perfect and the dogs were able to stay in the car in the shade), and then played with the dogs at the amphitheater.





Did I mention that Wesley loved the dogs??? (below) Anna Kate playing with a very gentle Rez.





Much of the movie was filmed in this central square... it was fun to get back and look up Truman Show trailers and recognize everything! After eating lunch and playing in the amphitheater, we took a stroll down the beachfront.





Then we stumbled across a cute little playground... it reminded me of some of the playgrounds in Central Park in NYC. It had two wooden forts with a swinging bridge between them. I tried to get Wesley's picture on it, but after I made the bridge swing with Wesley standing on it, I couldn't get him back up there !



We stopped for gelato before telling Justin and Whitney (and the beloved dogs) good-bye and heading back to our beach house in Destin. More vacation posts to come....

Live from Destin...

I always think that I'll find time to blog while on vacation, but then I go on vacation and remember how highly unmotivated I am to do anything while on vacation. But I'm actually posting from Destin... are you proud of me? Actually, I just didn't want to leave the dissertation on Wesley's night of vomiting as the top post for too long. Michael is in the process of converting my blog to a book (great hubby that he is!), so I record things like that for my sake and then realize that I should probably spare the blogging world at large! So here it is... a nice cheery beach post with absolutely no vomit content!





Cute pics from the drive to Destin. Lovely that we can drive for nearly 8 hours and never even accomplish leaving the state! If I've never mentioned it before (ha), I get to feeling a wee bit isolated down in central/southern Florida! (below) Anna Kate losing the battle over the hat. (Stern "No Maam" chidings from me at all of AK's attempts to remove the hat).





Wesley jumping waves in Uncle Fluffy's kayak... he was so brave! The waves got him good in the face a couple of times, but he loved "Uncle Fluffy's boat" so much that he kept shaking it off and wanting to go again. He eventually flipped and I whisked Wes out of the water expecting him to be totally terrified... he was scared, but determined to not make a big deal of it so he wouldn't lose his kayak privileges. He ran to Mimi and Grandpa saying, "I okay, Mimi, I okay!"









Anna Kate winning the battle over the hat (she threw it in the water. Stinker).
Being buried in sand is cool, but wearing a hat is traumatic.





My college roomie and best bud Whitney drove down from Birmingham to see me! She and her husband Justin spent the day with us here at the beach house yesterday, and we met up at Seaside today. Whit is preggo and finds out what she's having in 3 weeks! Whoo-hoo!! She read Wesley books for probably about an hour last night. He was in heaven! Oh, and Whit also set up a Facebook account for me because I've been getting a gajillion requests from people to join. I've been on Facebook for less than 24 hours and have 67 friends so far... the whole Facebook thing is really intimidating to me! I just don't feel hip enough to be part of the Facebook generation. I feel at home in the land of mommy bloggers, but I'm just not cool enough to decipher most of the jargon on Facebook. Glad to have a resource for re-connecting with old friends, though. Maybe they'll even check my blog from time to time if I keep the vomit posts to a minimum!

Is today over yet???

Warning: Very long Mommy ramblings ahead. If you're not related by blood, feel free to just look at the pictures.



This is my 2nd consecutive vomit post of the week. I should have just ended my last post with, "Stay tuned for Wesley's turn." The optimist in me wants to believe that I can isolate the sickies in the house and spare the sibling. When will I learn? Although up until now, Wesley and Anna Kate have only swapped runny noses. This is our first shared stomach bug. So we had a lovely Thursday and Friday following Anna Kate's yucky tummy day on Wednesday (aside from being slightly more cuddly, Anna Kate never even seemed to feel bad on Wednesday. She seemed just as surprised by her vomit as I was. She never even cried). So by Friday night, I was sure that Wesley had been spared and we focused on gearing up for our big vacation next week. We even took a family stroll through the neighborhood before bathing the kids and putting them down for the night.

To preface our night of terror, I have to explain Wesley's sleeping arrangements of late. Remember when my sister came to visit and Wesley got to have his cousins spend the night at his house? Abby slept in a Pack 'n Play in Wesley's room. The day after they left, Wesley begged to sleep in "Abby's bed." Michael had already put it away, but I had told Wesley he could before I knew that. So to be fair to my word, I pulled it out again, thinking it would be a fun sleeping arrangement for one night. Yes, well three weeks later, Wesley has spent every night and every nap in "Abby's bed." I've allowed it because I think it's helping him make the transition from his crib to his big boy bed. After Wes turned 3, we tried to move him from his crib to his big boy bed. But he would never stay in the bed, and would always ask to go back in his crib. Wesley cannot get out of his crib on his own, but he can (very easily) climb out of a Pack 'n Play on his own. So I thought Wes would not stay in the Pack 'n Play any better than he did the bed. But oddly enough, he stays in the Pack 'n Play and does not even get out in the morning until I hear him over the monitor and come to get him. As soon as he sees me open the door, he climbs out. So I've learned that it really is just a security thing. I've read a lot about kids feeling secure in their cribs and having to adjust to feeling secure in a bed. At first I wasn't sure if this was the case with Wesley or if he just wasn't disciplined enough to stay put. But now I know that he can and will stay put, but that he's still more comfortable in a crib. So anyway, that's my very long explanation of why my child has been sleeping in a Pack 'n Play for the past 3 weeks. Back to the night of terror...

Michael and I went to bed around midnight, and I hadn't even had time to fall asleep when Anna Kate woke up for her night feeding at 12:30. This is not unusual though, and I actually usually don't even go to bed until after she wakes up for her late feeding (after that she sleeps until morning). After feeding Anna Kate and getting her back in bed, I had drifted off to sleep for maybe 5 minutes before I suddenly hear Wesley crying over the monitor. Thinking he's having a nightmare, I run to his room and look down in the Pack 'n Play, but he's not there. He had climbed out of the Pack 'n Play and was standing on the bed screaming. It was dark, and I was totally bewildered. Until I got close enough to hug him (and smell him) and I realized that he was covered in vomit. So I run him to the bathroom, start stripping him, set him in the tub and start running the water. Wesley is shivering and crying for me to turn off the light. I step out in the hallway twice to yell for my very heavy sleeper of a husband. No response. I run to the baby monitor in Wesley's room and yell Michael's name. No response. Wesley's receiver, by the way, sits on Michael's side table. Anna Kate's sits on mine. So Michael was all of a foot away from the small device calling his name, but it still didn't rouse him.

Feeling torn between my crying shivering child and my need for help, I finally risk waking up Anna Kate and run toward our room yelling for Michael. I go back to cleaning up Wesley, and Michael finally appears, half asleep and totally confused as to why I decided to give Wes a bath at 1:30 a.m. We finally get on the same page, and I wrap my sweet shivering boy in a towel and carry him to our room. I make him put on a pull-up (figuring diarrhea is imminent) while he pleads, "I'm s-s-s-s-o c-c-c-old, " like a helpless orphan boy. Break. my. heart. I finally get him under the covers and hold him to warm him up. He quit shivering, but I could tell from the way he was smacking his tongue that he had a horrible taste in his mouth. So I run off to check on Michael, who is dutifully stripping the Pack 'n Play and scrubbing out vomit. I grab a sugar-free mint, a cup of water and a bucket and head back to Wesley. I give him the mint and offer him water and he finally falls asleep. I sit there and hold him until he starts coughing. And I know it's coming. I scrambled for the bucket, but Wesley was still asleep and did not wake up until the vomit was already spewing. I literally flung a still-sleeping Wesley off the bed and onto the floor and kept instructing the crying confused boy to keep his head in the bucket. horrible.

Back to the bathtub. This time Wes won't tolerate more than a quick scrub down... so I get to experience the faint smell of vomit on him for the rest of the night. This time I decide to avoid all beds and I settle into the glider rocker with Wesley, wrapped in yet another clean towel. Wes instructs me to stop rocking. duh. I'm a horrible mom. Poor Michael trudges from Wesley's room to our room to start another round of cleanup. Wes falls asleep in my lap. I lay him back in the Pack 'n Play, which Michael has cleaned and lined with clean linens. Wesley's eyes pitifully flutter open, and I tell him that I'm going to lie down in the bed right next to the Pack 'n Play. I tried to sneak out to check on Michael several times, but each time those pitiful little eyes fluttered open and I hop back on the bed like he'd just caught me returning from the bathroom and I reassure, "Mommy's here." I finally sneak out long enough to make a plan with Michael. I need to sleep in our room so I can hear Anna Kate over the monitor, so Michael takes my place in the bed in Wesley's room.

I'm back in our room for all of 10 minutes before I hear Wesley throwing up again. I race across the house to his room, and Michael has Wes standing over the bucket. There's hardly anything left for the poor guy to throw up, so this time I just wipe him with a washcloth and take him to the couch to cuddle while Michael cleans up yet again. A minute after we snuggle into the couch, Wes the been-too-pitiful-for-words sick boy, suddenly reaches for the remote, expertly turns on the TV and the cable box, and laughs at his accomplishment. This makes me laugh, and I think, "Oh well, I've always wondered what's on Noggin at 3:45 a.m. anyway." So I turn it to Noggin, and Wesley is fascinated by the new cartoon that we've never seen before (64 Zoo Lane comes on at 3:30 a.m, in case you ever wondered). Wes laughs and gives me a running commentary on every scene. So it really wasn't a night of terror... there in the midst of all that yuck, we created a special memory. It was like we had gone camping or something; Wesley was enjoying that special mommy time at that special hour he knew he'd never experienced before! I loved it. In my mommy wisdom, I pushed record on the remote knowing that Wesley would ask to watch that show again in the morning (He did. First words out of his mouth when he woke up. Do I know my kid or what??). When the show ended, I told Wes it was time to go night-night. Daddy was already asleep in Wesley's room, and he had the Pack 'n Play cleaned up again. As I carried a very happy little boy through the kitchen to his room, he suddenly started coughing again. Uh-oh... I knew that sound! I ran to the kitchen sink and held my heaving boy over the edge. poor guy! Luckily no clean-up this time, and a drink of water later, Wesley settled back into his bed with no complaints.

I went back to my room. Fifteen minutes later, I hear the coughing again. I go running across the house. again. To find Michael holding a bucket under Wesley. again. This time it barely phased the poor guy. I wiped his face with a wet wipe, gave him a drink of water, and we all went back to bed. By the time I settled into my bed for the umpteenth time, I could not fall asleep. I think I slept maybe 2 hours before Anna Kate woke up. What a night! Michael and I took turns letting each other sleep this morning. I waited until after 8 a.m. before getting Michael. I went back to bed and slept until 10 a.m. Then I watched the kids and Michael slept until noon. Then I did six loads of laundry. I have never before in my life done six loads of laundry in one day. I had to wash all the blankets, sheets, comforters, pillows, mattress covers... you name it, I washed it. It took all day. I did my best to pack for our trip today, and when I returned from putting Anna Kate to bed tonight, this is what I found on the couch - an exhausted boy completely crashed watching football on the couch with his daddy.



And I think today is finally over.

Except that it's 11 p.m. and I've only packed the kids so far. I'll be up late. We leave for Destin in the morning for a week of vacation with Grandpa, Mimi, and Uncle Fluffy (Wes is super excited about seeing Uncle Fluffy!).

Stinkers

Yes, believe it or not, every once in awhile the inner-stinker in Wesley rears its ugly head. These pictures crack me up. I've been meaning to post them... I took them about two weeks ago the day we were packing up to visit Mimi and Grandpa for Labor Day weekend. I was frantically trying to pack (the days of tidy checklists and pre-sorted Ziploc baggies are as historic as my pre-baby jeans), and I had purposely let Wesley skip his nap so he'd sleep in the car. Driving through the night = the only way to go with 2 kids 3 and under. I was pulling stuff out of my closet, and Wesley was entertaining himself by destroying the orderishness of Michael's closet. Wes pulled this belt out, put it around his waist, successfully threaded it through the thingy (I'm lacking in belt mechanics terminology here), and proudly announced, "Look, I'm a man!" I laughed so hard that when I went running, Wesley knew I was hunting the camera. He ran from me and retreated to the den, where he put the belt back on when he thought I wasn't looking. The second I tried to snap a picture, he yanked it off and gave me his best stinker face.





And then he did it again! I actually never got a photo of Wesley wearing the belt, because he was quicker on the draw with his stinker face than I was with my digital camera! Check out those lips... do they not just ooze attitude?!! By the way, he's missing his pants because he had just gone potty. And speaking of potty...



Moving on to Stinker #2 - look who inducted herself into the "played in the toilet" Hall of Shame! I was helping Wesley wash his hands in the kitchen after he had gone pee-pee (sometimes he's randomly opinionated about where he wants to do simple things like wash his hands), and when I returned to flush the toilet (easier for me to flush since I have the self-control to flush once and not 4 times), I found Anna Kate up to her elbows in the toilet. Yuck, yuck, yuck! I gave her my sternest, "NO MA'AM," which immediately resulted in a wounded hurt-feelings shriek. Interesting differences between Anna Kate and Wesley toilet indiscretions: 1. Wesley would have never cried from me simply verbally scolding him at that age. This whole delicate flower thing with girls getting their feelings hurt so easily is new territory! 2. Wesley would not have stopped pulling toilet paper until every last square had been removed from the roll. He eventually skipped pulling paper off the roll altogether and took to picking up the spare rolls and throwing them into the toilet bowl in their entirety. So Anna Kate actually showed a great deal of restraint. But, 3. Wesley never played in recently-used, unflushed toilet, since he lacked an older sibling. I think I'd rather go back to fishing whole rolls out of a clean toilet. Have I adequately grossed you out yet? Just so you know, you'll never read about my worst mommy moments here. I do attempt to screen my posts for TMI-moments and overshares. You'll have to ask me in person if you want a real winner of a story!





Here's Miss Stinker herself. This was this past Tuesday... I looked up from cleaning the kitchen to find Anna Kate perched high on this chair, playing with the dimmer lights. I'm still not sure how my non-standing/non-walking baby girl climbed to this height, but I'm pretty sure the Bumbo she pushed to the base of the chair was an accessory to the crime. Okay, so I officially can't turn my back for two seconds! She now accompanies me on pee-pee breaks. This girl loves to be up high... she'll scream and lurch and render herself non-sittable when you try to put her on the floor, but she'll gladly be left on any couch, chair or bed... any height from which falling would produce injury. In fact, I've tried putting her on the very low chaise lounge in our bedroom since she really couldn't fall from it, but she has deemed it not dangerous enough to be of any interest and equates it to the floor.





But for all their stinker ways, you turn around and they're doing something so unbelievably sweet that it makes up for all the stinkiness. These pictures were taken the same afternoon that Anna Kate went toilet diving. Wesley had pulled the cushions off the loveseat and arranged them on the floor with blankets so that Anna Kate would come and watch TV with him. It made my heart melt that Wesley wanted to create something to make his sister want to come be with him, and it touched me even more that Anna Kate clearly appreciated the gesture. She laughed and grinned and loved every second of being big bro's movie date. Stinkers to sweethearts, in a matter of hours... this is why we keep 'em around.





On a final, random note, Anna Kate and I both had a stomach bug yesterday. Mine was mild, but Anna Kate threw up for the first time. Wesley has only had a bug three times in his little life, and it's been well over a year since we've dealt with throw-up in the house. Wes was always considerate enough to only throw up at night when Michael was home to clean it up. I would always just grab Wesley out of his crib and clean him up and take him to bed with me while Michael took care of everything else. Anna Kate threw up twice yesterday, and both times were during the day (although both while in her crib), so Michael could not bail me out of cleanup duty. So I stripped a crib (twice), rinsed chunks out of bed linens (twice), did bleach loads of laundry (twice), scrubbed vomit-matted hair out in the tub (twice), and officially inducted myself into motherhood. All while on the fritz myself. Somebody give me a medal.

Okay, so I didn't get a medal, but I did get an ever so slightly slowed down Anna Kate, who actually had cuddly moments yesterday. Almost worth it all.

Move-Up Milestone

Today Anna Kate moved up from her infant carrier to her "big girl" carseat! She just cackled the entire drive to church this morning.





Milestones like this make Mommy a little sad... it's hard to say good-bye to that infant carrier! But Anna Kate went from fitting in it like this (riding home from the hospital on July 14, 2007) to fitting in it like this. And this photo was taken over two months ago, the day before AK turned one! It's just the last photo I could find of her in her infant carrier.





And so the time had come. Trying to get a picture of both kids in their big carseats... not as easy as it sounds. I was plastered up against the inside of the windshield while the car was in motion! We'll have to start looking for new carseats for Michael's car, because we took Wesley's spare carseat out of the Camry to use for Anna Kate. Yes, we got both of these leopard print carseats for Wesley. At the time I was so immersed in decorating my jungle/animal prints-themed nursery that I failed to see the lack of masculinity in leopard print. I have since been informed by many testosterone-infused males that the leopard print does not pass the macho muster. I'm sure Michael has always been among this group, but he knew I'd pull the "Did you carry this child inside you for 9 months and give birth following an excruciating labor?" card. Now I can even pull the natural childbirth card. Even better.





Anna Kate pumping those little legs and enjoying her new view! Flashback to Wesley's first ride in his "big boy" carseat. This was in my pre-minivan days (before I became officially un-cool), so Wes got to sit right over my should in the Camry. He laughed and clapped. Anna Kate did not clap today, but she kept yelling, "Yay!" The photo of Wesley was taken October 29, 2006. We had just returned from our trip to Europe, and we had been holding off on graduating Wes from the infant carrier until our trip was over. Wesley was 14 months and 13 days old. Anna Kate is 14 months and 2 days old today.





Another photo from Wesley's first day in his big boy carseat. We had Trunk or Treat at church that evening, so Wesley wore his Halloween costume. He was pumping those little legs, just like Anna Kate. And look at him now! Wesley actually asked me to take his picture (rare for a boy that runs from the camera 90% of the time). I had the camera and was snapping away at Anna Kate, and I guess Wes felt left out because he said, "Okay, now do Wesley."

Wes started walking only 5 days after his big carseat promotion. Highly unlikely that Anna Kate will follow in his footsteps (literally), because she refuses to even stand alone and has zero interest in trying to walk. Wesley walked all over the place holding on to my finger for months before he suddenly took off solo, and he would RUN with his little push walker. Anna Kate will occasionally walk with the same push walker when she's not too grumpy to be a good sport, but she walks at the pace of a 100-year-old granny, leaning on the walker for dear life. AK can take steps while holding my hands, but she starts crying as soon as I try to make her do it. Miss Temperamental... she's just not interested if it's not her idea! Anna Kate is definitely still focusing on verbal development. She's begun to string 3 and 4 word sentences together. She loves to say, "It's a _____ ." It's a baby, it's a ball, it's a this (this is her word for anything that she doesn't have a word for!). She's also started to make requests in full sentence form, i.e. "I want juice." I think having an older sibling definitely makes a big different in speech development!

Cousins Come to Town!

My sister and her family took a Disney vacation last week, and they spent Thursday and Friday with us before heading back to Nashville. Wesley had been counting down the days until he got to see his only cousins! Wesley and Abby (giving kisses) are "twin cousins," born only weeks apart.





Our kids officially don't fit in one tub anymore... this is the first time that Erin and I have been together that we've had to bathe our kids in two shifts!





Since Abby's 3rd birthday fell so close to their Disney vacation, we had her birthday party here in Florida so she could celebrate with her cousins. We got her a Dora cake and took all the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. Me and my sis - and no, neither of us are adopted. We've always looked this different... it's interesting to me that my next boy or girl could look so completely different from Wesley or Anna Kate! (below) Abby blowing out he candles on her number 3 Dora cake. Abby is such a sweet girl... I wish I could keep her!





Gabe and Abby opening presents. I had one gift each for Gabe and Caleb, and several for Abby to open. Even Wesley got a present from Aunt Erin. Good time was had by all. Since we came for lunch during a school day, we practically had the place to ourselves. It's the first time I've been to Chuck E. Cheese that it hasn't been packed. Here's Gabe, Abby, and Wesley watching themselves dance on TV.





Like I said, the place was practically empty. I resorted to creative kid corralling so I could help Wesley play games!





No matter how much I tried to help him, Wesley couldn't roll the ball hard enough to reach the target. So I finally let him loose... he actually makes an impressive toss from close range! (below) Playing basketball with Aunt Erin (Wes used to call her Aunt Ernie, but this trip he called her by the correct name. That's fine with me as long as Uncle Fluffy sticks!).









Anna Kate remembered the robotic Chuck E. Cheese from our previous visits, and kept trying to figure out a way to climb up and visit him. If we let her down, she'd power crawl to this stage and tip-toe around the edge trying to find an "in"!



She reallyreally wanted that Chuck E. Cheese robot!

We had a great time, wish the visit could have lasted longer, and are looking forward to a Nashville visit in October! I have more cute stories and Anna Kate vocab (she' s saying new words every day!), but they're both literally climbing all over me at the moment, so it's gonna have to wait until next time!