Back to Life, back to reality...

Do you remember that song? That is what I keep thinking about as I sit here, back to normal life. We had a wonderful week at the beach! We were in a beautiful house that sat right on the beach. Every window you looked out of had an amazing ocean view. The only thing between us and the ocean was the heated pool......sigh. What a life! Last year at the beach, Molly was hard to keep out of the ocean. Since she has grown up some now and is scared of her own shadow, I figured there was no WAY she would really be into the beach. WRONG! Scotty took her down the day we got there to see the water, only to return about 10 minutes later because she had literally just run straight into the water (in her clothes!)! She LOVED it! Couldn't get enough, as evidenced by this picture....

The water was freezing, but she didn't care! Meanwhile, Jack did a lot of this....

He was the BEST baby ever!

Last year on this trip, Molly started really walking. This year, Jack started really sleeping though the night!! He had been doing 8 hours, but he went to 12, sleeping from 7:30-7:30! Yea!!!! And I loved getting up to feed him in the morning, because I got to sit in a chair in the main room and watch this...

I'm usually ready to come home after a week away, but not this year! It was really hard to come home! Here are a few more pics, just for fun...

Molly in the pool
Emily and Evie, too cute!

Tyler and Kari with baby Ty

Sweet Ella with baby Ty

Dad with Scotty and Jack

Mom and Dad with all the grandkids...yes, Molly is screaming bloody murder!!!

Leaving for the beach!

We are going on our annual family trip to Hilton head tomorrow morning! Yea!!! Every year we go with my parents and brother's family to celebrate my mom's birthday. This year we are man-to-man.....6 adults and 6 kids! I can not wait to get there and enjoy that ocean view! I'm sure I'll have plenty of cute beach pics to update with when we get back. Have a good week!

And the gift goes on...

Molly woke up a few days ago from her nap with a 103 fever, out of nowhere! I ended up taking her to the doctor, and she had a double ear infection. That night, she woke up throwing up with 104.1 fever...I was freaking out! Luckily, the antibiotic worked quickly and she is back to normal now. Then a day or so after that, Scotty started to not feel well. Very congested, achy, tired, no appetite. Who knows! But now he feels better. So today I wake up feeling achy and chilled, with a vicious headache. Thought I just slept weird, but now I have 101.4 fever! So apparently, the gift is going on....please Lord, protect my sweet Jack! He just had his shots today. I have never seen him cry so hard!! Ugh! But my big guy did great, and he is indeed a big guy.....8 weeks old and 15 pounds, 8 ounces!!!! He has gained 7 pounds in 8 weeks! He is also 24 1/2 inches long....grew almost 3 inches! I love it! Feels good to know your baby is thriving.
Anyone else not feeling well? How long did it take to go away for you? I hate a fever....

Monkey see, monkey do

I keep my breast pump on the floor in Jack's room. The tubing is attached, but the bottles and "horns" are not. So I go in to get him up this morning and while I am changing his diaper, I turn around to find Molly on the floor with her shirt pulled up, "pumping" with the tube stuck in her bellybutton! She cracks me up! Had to share!

All Smiles and deep thoughts

My little buddy Jack is 8 weeks old now! He is smiling a lot more, which I just love! I especially love it because I'm the one he smiles at the most! I've tried to get him to smile for Scotty, but he just doesn't do it. But when I walk in to get him up from a nap....oh my goodness! He is big smiles and all kinds of happy noises, which just MELTS me! There is just something about a baby boy! He has me smiling a lot these days too because he has started to sleep through the night! He's been going about 8 hours the past couple of nights (with me going in to put his pacifier in around 4 am) and I'm hoping it's a pattern he will stick with!
Here he is all dressed up for his Bulldogs last week when they played Alabama (and I use the term "played" loosely....poor UGA!)

Jack before the games....GoooooooDawgs!

Jack after the game.....bummer!

It's kind of hitting me that unless the Lord plans otherwise, this is my LAST baby! My mother is just convinced that I'm going to end up with a surprise #3 (or #4....Hi Emmie!), but this will really probably be my last. There are a lot of little "lasts" that come with it that I'm already encountering....last time I'm up at 2am nursing a baby (I'm actually a little sad!), last time I use those teeny diapers, last time we need 0-3 month clothes (he is already into 3-6 month stuff!), last time I'll use the car carrier.....not really anything monumental, but for some reason it's a little sad all the same. I'm more aware of how fast it goes now that Molly is almost 2, which I just can't believe! Wasn't she my little baby just yesterday? I guess with the world kind of going crazy right now, with the stock market crashing, banks collapsing, a historic presidential election, and a massive gas shortage (if you live in Atl., you know what I mean!), I've gotten a little more sentimental about my kids. They won't be babies for long, and what kind of world am I raising them in? It seems like things are nosediving a lot faster than when I was growing up. We all hear the horror stories, but there has been a subtle shift in public attitude towards things that unnerves me. More people, believers and non-believers, are seemingly "lukewarm" to the things that used to be generally accepted as abominable. I know that some will argue that more tolerance is a good thing. "Love the sinner, hate the sin"........but are people really hating the sin anymore? Or is it too hard for people to define sin, since what was black and white has now been painted different shades of gray? Even churches have fallen prey, preaching pop-psychology and watered down truth so as not to offend. It terrifies me to think of raising my precious girl and boy in such relativism, and it challenges me to make sure I don't get sucked in.

Wow, how did I get here from talking about Jack smiling? : )

I'll end on what I thought was funny.....

Dressing Molly this morning was like wrestling a greased pig. I finally got fed up and held her up to my face and said, "Molly, that is enough! You need to cooperate or go to time out! I'm going to put your clothes on now. Say, "cooperate"!" Molly looked at me and dutifully said, "Koala bear!"......I love her interpretation!

You may want to skip this one

You may want to skip this one, because I really don't have anything interesting to blog about at all, but I feel guilty for leaving up the same one for so long. I'm half brain dead from waking up at crazy hours of the night for 6 weeks now, but here's what is going through my brain as I sit here:

• I had birthday club last night and we ate outside, which was glorious! It was really cool out, and it got me so excited about the fall! Sunny days, cool nights, long sleeves and jackets, fires, hot tea....I love it!


• My friend Christy is potty training her son while 25 weeks pregnant with number 3. Did I mention she has a very strong willed son? It's not smooth sailing to say the least, and I really feel for her because I was JUST pregnant and it takes so little to push you over the edge! (and I call opening the bathroom door to find your son has dropped a poo on the floor, which is now smeared everywhere, more than a "little"!)


• My friend Heather is trying something new and fairly intense for the sake of good health, and I'm really proud of her. Can't wait to see the results!


• My mom and I went to the outlets today to buy new shoes for Molly. Did you know that having your feet measured is like having your toenails pulled out? I didn't either. But Molly made it clear to everyone within a 5 mile radius that the 2 are equally painful.


• My friend Gretchen talked me off the ledge today as I called her literally in tears over my daughters performance at the shoe store. She puts on the same performance rather frequently in public. Or if anyone talks to her. Or touches her. Or breathes at her. You get the picture.


• Why do mom's feel so guilty for their children's behavior?


• My son is huge. He will be 7 weeks old soon and weighs about 14 pounds. Seriously.


• I put both of my children down today for naps at 1:30, and it is 4:30 and they are just waking up. It might be the best day of my life. Oops, nope. Forgot about the shoe store thing. Definitely not the best day!


• Who in the world will the next president be? I normally don't discuss politics in mixed company, but this is my blog, and dear Lord please don't let it be Obama! The man won't even say the freakin pledge of allegiance!


• My friends are going to the beach this weekend without me. I'll be home nursing a baby. I'm bummed.
• "This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it!"

Well, if you have hung around this long, you must be as bored and half brain dead as I am! Molly is up now.....time to make the donuts....

Old Friends

I got to see some friends today that I haven't seen in a while. Our friend Marcy was down from Michigan for a couple of days, so some of us got together with the kids to see her. We all originally met each other as single women at North Point Community Church. It's fun to look back to those days (when we all wondered if, when, and to whom we would get married) and to see each other now, all married with our kids. The only person missing from this picture is Jack, who was asleep the whole time! By the way, I took him to the doctor yesterday to check out his raging case of baby acne and they weighed him........ 12 1/2 pounds! At 5 weeks! I just put him in 3-6 month pjs! He is just a big dude!
On a totally different "mommy" note, I have reached the point after having a baby where I feel like all I want is a day off. I'm weary. The kids have really been great, but the busyness and the late nights and the interrupted sleep are getting to me. I have found myself near tears on several occasions for no good reason other than I am just TIRED! Well, I'm tired and I hate my hair. And I don't have any clothes that fit. And I'm afraid Jack might get lost in the folds of my stomach. And I have my postpartem check next week, which my husband is a little more excited about than I am. Lord give me strength.....and maybe a big glass of wine!