I started on my bike...
Then, they brought out the big guns!
Watch out Grandpa!
Grandpa helps me avoid Pop's car...Thanks Grandpa! 
I'm outta here!
Monday, January 28, 2008
Driving with Grandpa
My two year old is already obsessed with driving. Anytime we see a riding toy or or a play car, James makes a bee-line for it. So, James got a riding toy for Christmas, and he loves it! Here are some shots of him riding Christmas day with Grandpa!
Then, they brought out the big guns!
Watch out Grandpa!
Grandpa helps me avoid Pop's car...Thanks Grandpa! 
I'm outta here!
Then, they brought out the big guns! Watch out Grandpa! Grandpa helps me avoid Pop's car...Thanks Grandpa! I'm outta here!
From the beginning...
I am always "stealing" ideas from my friends blogs, and this blog is no exception. I just always want to be sure I give credit where credit is due!
I have a friend who blogs about her infant every month. She shows him in a birthday bib and tells of all that he is doing in his life at the moment. It's been so fun to watch him grow! And I thought maybe I should do a little something for Samantha to show you how she's changed. She is now five months old...and here are some picture from birth until now. :o)
I have a friend who blogs about her infant every month. She shows him in a birthday bib and tells of all that he is doing in his life at the moment. It's been so fun to watch him grow! And I thought maybe I should do a little something for Samantha to show you how she's changed. She is now five months old...and here are some picture from birth until now. :o)
2nd day home from the hospital
**Born on 8-22-07
**7 lbs. 13 oz. ~ 18 1/2 inches long
(I hate this picture of me, but it's the only one that shows how small she was)
Still a few days old...first pics with James
One month old**Smiling
**Loves to swing and lay in her boppy
Two months old
**Smiling and Cooing
**Likes to be held and rocked
1st Halloween ~ 2 months
Three Months old
**Sleeps through the night ~ YEAH!
Four Months old ~ My first Christmas
**Started on cereal...I love it!
**Laughs at things
**She's ticklish like her brother!
Four and a half months old
**Loves chewing on her hand
**Likes to sit up so she can see everything
Five months
**Does not like to smile for the camera
**Prefers to be without clothes...which means she loves her bath!
**Gets really excited to see you peek over her crib in the morning
That's it! You're all caught up...hopefully I can remember to post her picture for 6 months!!
Backtracking
Well, with James being sick and all I got kinda behind on posting. Believe it or not, I still have some things from Christmas that I want to share. So, my goal is to catch up to the "now".
James is feeling much better. He is off of his pain medication, and seems to be pain free and making up for lost time! He still gets splotchy every now and then from the hives, but according to the doctors that should stop within the next couple of weeks.
Thank you so much for your prayers and enjoy the "catch up blogs"!
James is feeling much better. He is off of his pain medication, and seems to be pain free and making up for lost time! He still gets splotchy every now and then from the hives, but according to the doctors that should stop within the next couple of weeks.
Thank you so much for your prayers and enjoy the "catch up blogs"!
Friday, January 18, 2008
What illness is complete without a trip to the ER?
Well, the saga continues with James' bout with strep....As I wrote before, we went to the Urgent health care center on Sat due to his hives. His hives were so awful in between his legs that we believed that they were causing him to not want to walk. Well, by Mon and Tues the hives were much better but James was still not wanting to walk. Then Wednesday James woke-up happy, and was running and playing like normal. I thought the clouds had parted and the storm was over!
Then, he went down for his nap. When he woke-up at 3:30, he absolutely refused to walk...or even sit up for that matter. I picked him up and thought maybe he was just exaggerating and if I showed him he could stand, then he would. Well, I tried standing him in the middle of the living room and he just fell down. He would not bare weight on his legs at all, and that scared me. I called the Pediatrician and at first she said we should probably take him to the ER, but the weather was bad outside. Believe it or not it actually SNOWED in GEORGIA! Of course the snow wasn't the real problem, it was the freezing rain and sleet piling on top of the snow. Anyways, we ended up having a prescription called in for him for Tylenol with codeine. It did nothing! So, the next morning we were up and making the trek to the Children's Health care Emergency center at Emory. They did blood work and X-rays, and discovered that James was experiencing a type of arthritis you can get along with strep. So, this episode with strep has officially been our worst illness yet!!! They gave us Lortab for him, which worked like a charm!! By the time the Lortab kicked in, it had been over 20 hours since he had walked last. And if you know my little boy, you know that he NEVER walks....he always RUNS! For him not to move for 15 minutes is amazing, so we knew that he must have been in real pain.
Thankfully he's OK, and he'll probably experience the joint pain for about a week. Hopefully, everything will be gone by then and we can all return to normal. I am thankful that Samantha has been a real trooper through all of this, and she's just sat and smiled as Doctors and Nurses have come in and out looking and poking at her brother. Through all of this I'm just thankful that my little boy is going to be alright. I've had quite a few panic attacks over the past week and of course your mind always goes to the worst things first. I was actually doing alright through it all until he refused to walk and I could tell he was in a lot of pain...that's when the tears made an appearance. Anyways, my little one is going to be OK, and I'm thankful to God for it all! I hope none of you ever have to experience all of this, but it you do just remember that God is faithful and it will all work out!!
Then, he went down for his nap. When he woke-up at 3:30, he absolutely refused to walk...or even sit up for that matter. I picked him up and thought maybe he was just exaggerating and if I showed him he could stand, then he would. Well, I tried standing him in the middle of the living room and he just fell down. He would not bare weight on his legs at all, and that scared me. I called the Pediatrician and at first she said we should probably take him to the ER, but the weather was bad outside. Believe it or not it actually SNOWED in GEORGIA! Of course the snow wasn't the real problem, it was the freezing rain and sleet piling on top of the snow. Anyways, we ended up having a prescription called in for him for Tylenol with codeine. It did nothing! So, the next morning we were up and making the trek to the Children's Health care Emergency center at Emory. They did blood work and X-rays, and discovered that James was experiencing a type of arthritis you can get along with strep. So, this episode with strep has officially been our worst illness yet!!! They gave us Lortab for him, which worked like a charm!! By the time the Lortab kicked in, it had been over 20 hours since he had walked last. And if you know my little boy, you know that he NEVER walks....he always RUNS! For him not to move for 15 minutes is amazing, so we knew that he must have been in real pain.
Thankfully he's OK, and he'll probably experience the joint pain for about a week. Hopefully, everything will be gone by then and we can all return to normal. I am thankful that Samantha has been a real trooper through all of this, and she's just sat and smiled as Doctors and Nurses have come in and out looking and poking at her brother. Through all of this I'm just thankful that my little boy is going to be alright. I've had quite a few panic attacks over the past week and of course your mind always goes to the worst things first. I was actually doing alright through it all until he refused to walk and I could tell he was in a lot of pain...that's when the tears made an appearance. Anyways, my little one is going to be OK, and I'm thankful to God for it all! I hope none of you ever have to experience all of this, but it you do just remember that God is faithful and it will all work out!!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Doctors Visits
Even though Samantha is almost 5 months old, we just had her four month check-up due to the holidays. She now weighs 12 lbs. 9 oz. and I think she's 26 in long...yes, I said, "think". It was sort of hard for me to concentrate because I was supposed to be there for her check-up and ended up with both her check-up and a sick visit for James.
At 6 PM on Thursday James started getting hives all over his little body. Immediately my mind started reeling...what had he eaten? Had he gotten into something while I wasn't looking? Had he touched my poinsettia plant when I brought it inside? So, since I already had Samantha's check-up appt Friday morning I just took him with me. Well, it turned out that the hives were a result of him having Strep. Now he has had strep before, but never like this. After the doctors appt, we went and filled his prescription for amoxicillen, and we also were told to give him benadryl for the hives for the next 72 hours. Trust me, I wish it ended there...
Saturday he woke-up looking positively AWFUL! Which I already knew that the hives would LOOK really bad, but I didn't know it would be THAT bad. By the afternoon his hives started looking like bruises. This scared me and had me calling the children's healthcare nurse advice line. I ended up speaking to a doctor who asked us to come in. By this time the hives are everywhere...his neck, his face, his little eye lids, his chest, tummy, on his legs, under his diaper...and his feet were swollen. So, I tried not to panic, but I was glad they told us to come in (I know it sounds crazy, but I feel silly whenever I go to the ER and nothing can be done...this has never happened with James but with me a lot!). The people at Children's Healthcare were absolutely WONDERFUL. James quickly became quite the spectacle with several people coming in to view his rash. Often when this type of rash happens it does not get as bad as it had on James, so everyone wanted to see it. My son, the overachiever already. I told him that mommy wants him to do his best in everything...I guess he took it a little too literal! They determined that the rash probably started a a product of the strep, but it most probably got worse in a reaction to the amoxicillen. They called the rash some very long name that I could probably never pronounce, let alone spell. He'll be fine but will look awful for 1-4 weeks, which is how long the hives typically last. He really looks like we have beaten him, but I'm at least glad that he'll be ok. And I didn't feel silly leaving and knowing that nothing could be done...I felt relieved that my baby was alright. Also, it did end up that they changed his meds for the strep and gave him something prescription strength for the hives and itching.
I took pictures of the rash, but Andy and I didn't want to post them for the world to see since our blog is open to the public. But to our friends if you would like to see just so you don't freak out if it happens to you, then just let me know and I'll e-mail them to you. They really are something to see.
This definitely added some unexpected twists to my weekend! My kids are always keeping me on my toes!!
At 6 PM on Thursday James started getting hives all over his little body. Immediately my mind started reeling...what had he eaten? Had he gotten into something while I wasn't looking? Had he touched my poinsettia plant when I brought it inside? So, since I already had Samantha's check-up appt Friday morning I just took him with me. Well, it turned out that the hives were a result of him having Strep. Now he has had strep before, but never like this. After the doctors appt, we went and filled his prescription for amoxicillen, and we also were told to give him benadryl for the hives for the next 72 hours. Trust me, I wish it ended there...
Saturday he woke-up looking positively AWFUL! Which I already knew that the hives would LOOK really bad, but I didn't know it would be THAT bad. By the afternoon his hives started looking like bruises. This scared me and had me calling the children's healthcare nurse advice line. I ended up speaking to a doctor who asked us to come in. By this time the hives are everywhere...his neck, his face, his little eye lids, his chest, tummy, on his legs, under his diaper...and his feet were swollen. So, I tried not to panic, but I was glad they told us to come in (I know it sounds crazy, but I feel silly whenever I go to the ER and nothing can be done...this has never happened with James but with me a lot!). The people at Children's Healthcare were absolutely WONDERFUL. James quickly became quite the spectacle with several people coming in to view his rash. Often when this type of rash happens it does not get as bad as it had on James, so everyone wanted to see it. My son, the overachiever already. I told him that mommy wants him to do his best in everything...I guess he took it a little too literal! They determined that the rash probably started a a product of the strep, but it most probably got worse in a reaction to the amoxicillen. They called the rash some very long name that I could probably never pronounce, let alone spell. He'll be fine but will look awful for 1-4 weeks, which is how long the hives typically last. He really looks like we have beaten him, but I'm at least glad that he'll be ok. And I didn't feel silly leaving and knowing that nothing could be done...I felt relieved that my baby was alright. Also, it did end up that they changed his meds for the strep and gave him something prescription strength for the hives and itching.
I took pictures of the rash, but Andy and I didn't want to post them for the world to see since our blog is open to the public. But to our friends if you would like to see just so you don't freak out if it happens to you, then just let me know and I'll e-mail them to you. They really are something to see.
This definitely added some unexpected twists to my weekend! My kids are always keeping me on my toes!!
Potty Training and Numbers?
James is now 2 and a half years old. We are to that point in his young life where potty training is upon us. Now, everyone has a different way to parent so while we encourage sitting on the potty and trying to go we are not in any way forceful or strict about it. (When I used to work with one year olds I had a mom who forced her daughter to sit on the potty...it ended with her SCREAMING EVERY TIME she sat on the potty, so we decided that was not the way we wanted to go.) Anyways, James now knows when he has to go poo, and he's in the habit of hiding whenever he has to "do his business". Well, the other day he walked past me and I caught a whiff of "his business". I said, "James, tell mommy when you have to go potty and mommy will take you." I received a sort of blank stare/ half smile as always. So, I got down on his level and said, "Can you tell mommy, 'I have to go potty?'" Another Blank Stare/ half smile.
Then I said, "James, repeat after mommy, I..."
James: "I"
Me: "Have"
James: "have"
Me: "to"
James: "three"
Me: "No, James. We're saying, 'I have to'"
James (with more enthusiasm): THREE!
It was so funny I had to go potty! Then, I just gave up. I'm sure going to the potty will happen eventually...if not, at least we've got counting down pat! :o)
Then I said, "James, repeat after mommy, I..."
James: "I"
Me: "Have"
James: "have"
Me: "to"
James: "three"
Me: "No, James. We're saying, 'I have to'"
James (with more enthusiasm): THREE!
It was so funny I had to go potty! Then, I just gave up. I'm sure going to the potty will happen eventually...if not, at least we've got counting down pat! :o)
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Our Christmas Ginger Bread House
This year was my first year doing a gingerbread house with James. It was lots of fun but it didn't turn out quite like I expeted because SOMEONE kept eating the candy! So, in an effort to keep my child from ingesting too much sugar the house ended up looking a little bare but I thought it still turned out sweet :o)...lol
Well, I helped eat the candy
The missing piece
Our finished project...we had a ton more candy we could put on it, but James kept eating it so this is as far as we got...
I helped....
Well, I helped eat the candy
The missing piece
Our finished project...we had a ton more candy we could put on it, but James kept eating it so this is as far as we got...
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Pictures with Santa
My mom was giving me a hard time because I didn't take the kids to get their picture taken with Santa. So, then I HAD to take their Picture with Santa...here they are!
Our Family at Christmas
I saw on another blog how one of my friend's had posted their Christmas pictures through the years, so I decided to do it too! Here are our past and present Christmas photos....Look how we've changed!
Our Fam - Christmas 2005
James - 6 months
Our Fam - Christmas 2006
James - 18 months
Our Fam - Christmas 2007
James - 2 1/2 years
Samantha - 4 months
He Loves His Babies
Samantha was already sitting with Andy when James hopped up there. It lent itself to a photo opportunity.
This was on a day where I got up to go walking. Samantha woke-up to eat before I left and since she was awake I put her in the bed with Andy. Right before this picture she was talking to him...trying to get his attention. Don't worry...he woke-up right after this to take care of the kids while I went to walk. Yeah, he's sweet like that!
Pablo Picasso
My son loves to color. In fact, we have to carefully monitor all writing utensils within the house. Recently he saw me writing on our dry erase board and wanted a try. So, I found an old picture frame with a plexiglass cover and a white background and let him draw on it with our oldest dry erase marker (Although I haven't taught in a school in over 2 years, I still have a fondness for my dry erase markers). I gave him his own paper towel and showed him how he could clean it himself and start over...of course this was an instant hit! With careful "stay on the board" instructions I let him go and color his heart out. I even got to do the dishes without him crawling in the dishwasher!!! He was busy coloring away, and I had put my toothbrush holder in the dishwasher, so what did I do? I thought, "he'll be fine for a moment while I go put this in the bathroom." I was gone for seconds, milli-seconds even. And what happened? Pablo Picasso saw an opportunity and went for the wall.
This takes concentration
The evidence
A close-up of the artwork 
Sure, he looks innocent enough
This takes concentration
The evidence
A close-up of the artwork 
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