C and D

C and D

Thursday, February 28, 2013

And you, my little little man......

Are ONE!!!




I had a pretty gnarly time trying to get a picture of you today, Carrig. Gone are the days where u sit nicely and smile for mommy.....

Most of my pics are blurry but here were a few more I really liked:









I had a very hard time choosing u were still and so sweet :)



You are your brother's....brother. U sat and watched the trucks drive by for a very long time. (Translation - longer than 7 seconds)

All day today I was thinking back to exactly one year ago and what I was doing "at this moment". Right now, at almost 11pm, I was trying to fall asleep but had a baby that didn't want to be in a basinet and only wanted to be held. So I slept with you snuggled up against me in that tiny hospital bed all night long. In btwn boob time of course.

You started out your life attached to me my little buddy and I am happy to report nothing has changed. I love you so shockingly much, Carrig James. Our worlds changed (again) one year ago.....so much for the better.

Happy Birthday my sweet cuddle bug. You are crazy and we love you!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Three.




I don't know how or when it happened, but someone stole my baby and replaced him with this man child. Someone tell me who did this because Declan when I think of you my love....this is what comes to mind:



My gorgeous burrito bundle. How the above happens is truly a miracle and an absolute gift from God.

You are our gift, buddy. We love you this huge ridiculous amount and I will never ever stop telling you that. Happy 3rd birthday you big big boy!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Randos

Very very rare cuddle sesh with those crazy fella:


Sweet hair:


The other day Declan played with playdoh the entire day. I kept waiting for him to get bored but we sat there for hours..................hours and hours....
And he made me this delightfulness:


He goes "yook mommy yook! I made a poopy!" Haha I almost died. Hilarious and yes that does look like a big poop. He then asked me if I wanted to eat it.
Thanks for sharing???????

We went up to see Paul on Sunday bc he was working camp and apparently Carrig decided to take one of the girls phones and take pics of himself:


Its a shame those cheeks are not the byproduct of a bad angle. They are legit.

Two of the girls got Declan a bday present and he wanted to wear it immediately! He loves rylie!!! Couldn't take his eyes off of her I guess ;)



I just can't get enough of his eyes :) love seeing them again.....










And just because:


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Nothing says my baby is growing up...

Like using a sippy cup at mealtimes and giving up the bottle....












It just pains me......time for another, right Paul??????? Yea? Maybe??? Pleaassseeeee....I want 50 of him and I never want them to grow up.....

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Super Bowl!

Our friends Lauren and James had us over for the Super Bowl and we had such a fun time! Lauren put out a spread that oh my word......I think Paul wanted to move in. So yummy. I kinda wanted to move in too... Carrig loved hanging with their 4 month old, Landon. Lots of kisses...lotttsssss of kisses....



I think Landon might have been happy when we left



Declan and Blakey had serious chat over dinosaurs and fruit snacks.


Then they wrestled and as per usual it was fun until Declan took it too far and pulled a WWE move out....


The older kids ended the night with a movie upstairs all snuggled on one chair. Ask me how fun that was trying to get declan and blake away from Quinn and the movie.....

And we didn't watch one second of the Super Bowl but we did YouTube some commercials the next day! Yay for having kids and not ever getting to watch a sporting event in real time ever again! ;)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Dental hygiene

We learn it at an early age around here.


He does not mess around.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A real mom moment

My very good friend, Jen (Blake's mommy) has now had her sweet baby girl Lilly but about two weeks ago she was on the verge of popping L out and I remember those last few days running around crazy trying to get everything ready so I offered to take Blakey for a little while while she ran some errands. Turns out she had a few drs/hospital appts the next day and she asked if I could pick Blake up from school and take him home with us. Uhhh yea!!!!!! I love me some Blakey, he is seriously the sweetest little 3 yr old around and he is deckys best friend so it was a total win win.

It's weird but I think that day was one of the first moments I really really reaalllly felt like a stay at home mom. Like carpooling, fixing lunch for other kids, play dating without the other moms there....it was real. The boys don't seem old enough for this!!!! Gosh - but we had so much fun and I'm so thankful to have a friend like her where we can just swap kids and its no big deal. Like literally swap kids - she called me the other day after pickup and apparently when she pulled around that day they brought Declan out instead of Blake. Ha! And he was full on getting into her car like hi miss Jen I'm ready to go! Awesome. It actually makes me so happy tho that those two are so tight.......

My backseat was jammin!





They will chase each other for daysssss..........trying to get a good non blurry pic = impossible.





Blakey full on thinks he is a dinosaur so we growl a lot when he's around.



My three boys...love em



We cooled it for a movie for a few mins. Lasted a solid 3.


Such a fun day with some of my favorite little dudes ever. I may or may not have taken a nap when they went down.....the amount of energy it takes to run after those crazies is intense! Would never have it any other way tho....

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Thank you...

We have the best people ever in our lives. Ever. Every call, every email, every text or Facebook/Instagram message....everything was felt and read and heard and passed on and LOVED. We had so much support going into this day and then the actual surgery was a breeze because of all the love we had behind us. I just can't say how much we appreciate every thought and prayer and good vibe sent our way - I know for a fact that we were calmer which meant that Declan was calmer and got thru this like it was nothing. So thank you. Thank you times a million for everyone's love for our little baby....

And clearly this whole thing would not have gone down without my dear mother.........she came into town on Monday to take care of Carrig for us so that we could make a miserable situation kind of fun. And we did. She loved our boy and took care of him like I would, she cleaned, she cooked enough meals to last us a week, she painted Declan's room........she did/DOES it all. We love you so very much, GiGi!!!! Thanks for your help. As always....

Surgery time!

So...all in all...Declan just blew me away. He did phenomenal....the hospital was amazing, the doctor and nurses were truly wonderful, Florence treated us well. Since we have been back I keep thinking back on our little 24 hours there and I think I will always think back on those 24 hours and smile. Its this cute little Southern town with lovely people and a bigtime hospital. We got lucky.



We got up there around 5pm and as promised the last few weeks to my little buddy, we went swimming. Cool. Except that the pool is an OUTDOOR pool. And it was CHILLAAAYYYYYY......So we spent most of our time in the hot tub. So that was fun...





We spent the rest of the night out to dinner, watching movies in bed and eating brownies. That he isn't supposed to have. But oh well he was already on prednisone as a prophylactic med JUST IN CASE something went wrong with his anesthesia so i wasn't really worried about having an allergy attack because of some wheat/flour in his brownie. We didn't sleep ummmm.....at all that night. Like literally I do not think I ever went to sleep. Declan is a horrific co-sleeper and I totally should have known better but I really had nice dreams of snuggling all together in bed before surgery :(. None of that happened. Eh - ya win some ya lose some. We won the next day.



We had to be at the hospital at 630am and unfortunately but not unexpectedly, Declan didn't go back until about 9:45. I had raised hell with the surgery coordinator demanding he get in first because if you know Declan and his love for food, by 8am he has already had 4 bowls of cereal so trying to hold him off from 6am on was going to be miserable.....and they promised me he was the second (there was one kid younger) so he should be in the OR by 8. Not so. But he did surprisingly so so so amazing and only asked a few times for "sumpin mommy" - we just kept telling him he had to wait for the doctor to come and he seemed cool with that. Elmo was also very instrumental in this situation.

















When they came to take him back I thought we were going to have WW3 but the doctor (who I just love oh so much and so does Decky clearly), held his arms out and Declan went right to him, gave him a hug and they all walked back together. Without mommy and daddy. Shock me shock me shock me. Even the doctor after the sx was like yea ummm not that was surprising. HA! I guess he doesn't do that often but I was so thankful he got some snuggles in with his patient, my baby, before cutting his eyes open. Graphic? Welcome to my world.
Everything went well and they called us back when he started waking up and that was easily the worst part of the day. He. Was. Screaming. And ps he's not the only one back in the recovery area.....which was fun. He was so out of it and confused and not feeling good and HATED with a very serious passion the IV that was in his hand. He kept trying to rip it out and when we wouldn't let him take it out he just screamed louder. And the only way to get the IV out is to drink fluids and show the nurses you can tolerate the fluids so we had to try to get him to drink. That was not happening. There was no convincing. The doctor, the nurses, Paul and I... nothing worked he just screamed for 20 minutes straight and then he finally passed out on me and they wheeled us down to a different more private recovery room. A nurse kept coming in trying to take his vitals which is all well and good but my child has been thru enough at this point so please leave him alone. Pretty sure she wasn't a fan of me but ask me how much I cared....... No one was going to mess with him at that point....let the boy sleep.





Finally he woke up much much much happier, drank some juice, ate a couple popsicles and passed the nurses test so we got to leave! We drove home and within one hour he had already
snuck onto the trampoline. Big no no......but at least I knew my Declan was back.


We go back to Florence this Tuesday for a check up and I'll be curious to see what the doctor says but to my non professional eye ;).....he looks phenomenal. We are still wearing glasses because I get nervous about that right eye turning back in but so far, they are straight as can be and he just looks so handsome..................







I could not...not not not NOT...be more proud of my little boy. He did absolutely amazing and he's so strong and he's so tough and he's so resilient and he's such a little fighter baby boy. Oh. I could go on and on about him but bottom line - one more obstacle down and Declan kicked its hiney. Hard.