Persistence Pays Off

Awesome parenting... we ran out of milk a few weeks ago, and "improvised."

Beach fun!

Our fun group! (We missed you, Rosi and Garnet!)


Glad to be home again!

Have a "Good Friday!"

Hello all, and Happy Good Friday to everyone! I have pictures, today, to brighten your day if it is not "good" so far :) These were taken the weekend before last when we skipped the unseasonably cold and rainy weather up here and enjoyed 70 degree sunshine for a couple of days in Hilton Head. We stayed at a resort with an indoor pool and discovered that Christa is quite the little fish. She has no fear of putting her head under water and would have played all day if we'd let her. On the day we left, we promised her she could swim one last time. Well, we were confused about what time the indoor pool was closed for a water aerobics class, and thought we were in big trouble, because we didn't have time to wait for the pool to re-open and still get cleaned up and on the road by check-out time. Luckily, there was an outdoor heated jacuzzi, that was not too hot, and Cline had the brilliant idea of taking Christa swimming in there instead. Never mind that it was only around 50 degrees this particular morning. Christa didn't mind freezing one bit and had a blast swimming with Daddy before we left!

These last two were taken on Christa's 21 month birthday - March 28. She refuses to sit still for cute, posed pictures nowadays, so I had to take what I could get.

We have started telling Christa about the baby in Mommy's tummy. Yesterday, when I got out of the shower, she pointed to my tummy and said "baby," then leaned up to "kiss" it. It was so sweet! I hope she likes the baby this much once he/she actually gets here! Speaking of which, my ultrasound is Wednesday, so I'll take guesses on whether it's a boy or a girl in the comment section. I have no gut feeling on it whatsoever. At first, I thought maybe it was a girl, but now I'm starting to think it might be a boy. Who knows?? We'll find out Wednesday, I guess. And if you want to send up a few extra prayers this week that everything on the ultrasound will look as it should, that would be great! I honestly don't care if we even get to find out what the gender is, as long as the baby is healthy. I have been surprisingly at peace recently, and not freaking out over every little thing like I was in the beginning. Hmmmm.. I don't think I've called my doctor since my last appointment, over 4 weeks ago - yay me! Anyway, I'm trying not to get nervous as the ultrasound gets closer.

In other news, Cline has started working at his new job and is loving it! The 5 minute commute makes soooooo much of a difference, especially when he gets off work in the middle of the night. The staff has been great, so far, and the hospital seems to run smoothly. The pay system is totally different, so that might rock my accounting world for a little while, until I get used to the new system. It'll work out, though, and I'm so glad my husband has a job that he loves.

Well, I'm off to either clean my house or take a nap while my child is still sleeping. I'm betting I'll do the latter :) Have a great weekend and Happy Easter to everyone!

Back with Lots of Pictures!

Hello all! We're back, ready to tackle the piles of post-Christmas and post-vacation clutter that have infiltrated our home. I decided to make you guys a priority, though, and blog before I get to all of that :) I've got lots of fun events to catch up on, so I'll just start where I left off. Get ready for lots of pictures!

We celebrated cousin Maggie Beth's birthday on December 16 at her house. Christa LOVES her cousin Maggie Beth, and they are starting to play together more as they get older. She was so excited for her favorite girl cousin as Maggie Beth opened her birthday presents. Later, we ate at the mall, and the two girls held hands the entire time. It was adorable, and I was so sad I didn't have my camera with me.

Giving Maggie Beth a big hug!

Making a mess out of the Elmo cupcake topper!

Next, we had two very special play dates with some of my college friends. One of my favorite things about Christmas is catching up with people you haven't gotten to see in a while, and seeing our kids play together is the best! Unfortunately, *that* camera is somewhere amongst the large piles of post-holiday clutter mentioned above (I hope). So my dear friends will get their own extra-special post as soon as I find it. (This works out well, actually, because I have a really cute title in mind :)

Anyway, here we are on Christmas Eve, which we spend with my side of the family.

Christa enjoyed helping all of us unwrap our presents! It's true what they say - no presents needed - just boxes to unwrap! (She got all of her toys, anyway, for those of you who were wondering if I decided to return anything from a few posts back. It was a good choice - she got a reasonable amount of new toys and clothes and is having a blast with all of them!)

She seemed to like this fleece pull-over, that was actually a gift to me. Uncle Brandon (my sister, Alicia's husband) helped her try it on.

Here we come to Christmas Day. Funny story here. We have taught Christa some minimal sign language in recent months. Nothing fancy, but enough words to tone down the whining. Well, Cline's brother, Cleve, who is a senior in high school, thought it would be funny to teach my daughter the sign for "poop" one day while I was out doing some Christmas shopping. I returned home to my sweet little girl saying "poop" while making the sign. (For those of you who are interested in teaching your children this amazing trick, the sign consists of wrapping your right hand around your left thumb, and then pulling your thumb out in a swift motion. There is a demonstration available on "Meet the Fockers.") At any rate, both Cleve and my too-young-to-be-corrupted daughter think this is hilarious, and Christa says "poop" while making her version of the sign every time she sees Cleve.... or a picture of Cleve.... or hears Cleve's name mentioned. Then, she proceeds to throw her head back, laughing hysterically.

What does this have to do with Christmas morning, you ask? Well, we got everything set up in the living room where there would be plenty of sitting room. We invited both of our families over to see Christa react to Santa's gifts, and had a room full of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Cameras are rolling, and I am anticipating a beautiful, family Christmas morning with lots of hugging and smiling and tender Kodak moments while my child plays with her new toys in amazement. Everything is perfect, and Cline and I go upstairs to retreive Christa from her room. We carry her down the stairs, excitedly awaiting her response. We get to the living room, and who is the first person she sees? Cleve. And my family Christmas video is now PG rated, because all it shows is my sweet daughter saying and signing "poop" multiple times! (We now officially call Cleve "Uncle Poop").

Here Christa is making the sign.

Christa was excited, but didn't know what to think of everyone watching her.

Later, at Cline's parents, she got this great toy! It plays music and was a big hit!

The day after Christmas we left for the beach with Cline's family. The trip was a much-appreciated Christmas present from his grandparents. We had a great time, and Christa enjoyed playing some football with her uncles.

Also, her 18-month birthday was on December 28, so I had the good fortune to get some beach pictures for this occasion!

And now I'm off to go put some order to my house and figure out my new Hoover floor mate that Santa left for me! I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas, and I hope 2009 brings many good things to us all!

Our Sad Little Beach Trip

Sorry about the depressing title, but our trip to Myrtle Beach really was the worst vacation ever. Aside from our circumstances, which, granted, didn't help matters, the whole experience was a disaster. It all started when our resort, which looked very nice and family friendly on the internet, made a mistake and put us in a smoking room. We hardly noticed it the first night and were in no condition to make a fuss. But as the weekend drew closer, apparently, chain-smoking alcoholics moved in all around us. We called the front desk, and were first assured that we were on a non-smoking floor. When I called back and asked that security come and check out the smell, I was told that we were, in fact, on a smoking floor and the only other non-smoking room they had was in an even dumpier building than ours. Plus, we'd have to forfeit our ocean view for a nice parking lot gaze and from the looks of it, we might have even gotten front row seats to several drug deals. Not to mention, there was a cigarette butt cannister on the balcony of the supposedly new non-smoking room! We declined the offer, and decided to try to make the best of our room with a large bottle of Febreeze. Despite our best efforts, the smell got worse as the week progressed, and our final night there, I fell asleep in the kitchen because I couldn't breathe in our bedroom. Then, around 3:30 a.m. the next morning, we awoke to the sound of the ice machine right outside our door, and a presumably drunk woman loudly proclaiming the adult acts she was and wasn't willing to participate in with her...er... party. That was the final straw; we checked out later that morning, a day early, and spent the remainder of our vacation in Augusta, waiting on our Monday doctor's appointment. It was so refreshing to be in a clean room with polite staff. Although we met a few nice people at the beach, most people were extremely rude, and we simply could not get away from second hand smoke and tobacco cups.

However, we did manage to squeeze a little fun out of our trip:


This is Cline and Christa on the Lazy River. She didn't seem to enjoy the sand as much, and the waves were pretty rough, but she loved this ride. This was a great afternoon for us - it was wonderful to spend some time focusing on Christa and just having fun with her, since the previous weeks had been sooooo crazy. She kept crawling from Cline's float to my float, and when we put her in her own float, she kept trying to drink the water!

They had a great 1 ft. wading pool for the little ones. I'm so disappointed the beach was so dirty, because there were tons of great family activities all around. I want to find a vacation spot that has such great amenities but with nice clean resorts that you can rent for something less than $500 per night. Cline pointed out that there is such a place, and it's called Disney World, and that is why people travel from all over the world to visit there.

This is Christa and I in the Pirate ship. She really liked it, but we were using the slow camera so we couldn't catch the smiles.

Here were are after dinner at Broadway by the Beach - a fabulous entertainment center with amusement parks, water activities, and tons of shops and restaurants. The food was great - we didn't have a bad meal the whole time we were there. But neither of us had much of an appetite that whole week, so we didn't get to fully enjoy that part.

Finally, a couple of attempted beach shots on our way out of town.

Needless to say, I don't think we'll be going back to this beach anytime soon. One more funny thing happened after we returned to Augusta. I was pretty sick the whole trip from the pregnancy (and still am - uggggghhhh - I am so ready for that to go away). Since we were in close quarters in the hotel rooms for the week, Christa was pretty much forced to listen and/or watch while Mommy had her special time with the porcelain throne. By the end of the trip, she crawled over to the toilet with me, pulled herself up, and tried to cough and spit into the bowl. I guess she thought it looked like fun. Cline and I laughed hysterically - she was so sweet the whole trip and got lots and lots of extra hugs and kisses.

For Now...

Hello all! Here are some pictures my mom took and sent me. I'll post Easter pictures and more beach pictures when I get my camera downloaded.

All ready for some fun in the sun!

Chillin' (literally - the wind was cold) with Mimi and Grandpa.

Christa is definitely a beach baby. She loved the sand and the breeze in her face. She was all smiles while we were there!

Goodbye Summer

Mommy making silly faces... Impressive
Mimi's hand.... VERY Impressive
Miles and miles of nature's most serene and beautiful merging of land and sea.... Pretty Boring!

Hello all! The first two pictures were taken at the beach... indoors... where we were forced to spend the entire first three days due to relentless rain. The third picture was taken on Sunday when our patience was rewarded with... more rain.... and 20 minutes of a light mist that we took advantage of to get said photo. I wanted to post a couple of pictures of the smiles for two reasons. 1. They're the most beautiful smiles I've ever seen, and I'm sure you all agree :) 2. I'm quite relieved my child is able to smile while awake. Let me explain. I didn't realize that babies are supposed to be "awake smiling" in response to entertaining stimuli by 2 months of age. When I took her to the doctor last week, he asked me if she was smiling, and I truthfully answered, "no, not consistently." His response was, "we'll keep an eye on that; I don't think she has autism." My paranoid, first-time-mom ears heard, "I'm trying to think of a polite way to say that your child is autistic. We'll re-address this at a future visit," and I proceeded to have multiple panic-attacks. Thankfully, she started smiling at daddy (do you think she's making a statement on who is entertaining in our house?) the very next day, and I was able to catch a couple of them on camera during our abundant indoor time at the beach. Despite the rain, we had an excellent time. I got to spend a whole afternoon doing one of my favorite things - shopping for clothes at the outlet mall with money my sweet husband gave me for my upcoming birthday. Since my parents were with us, I got to pick out a few things "from them" as well! As a result, Christa will be well-dressed in the fall, and I have a new wardrobe more appropriate for my motherhood-enhanced body (that I'm still trying to embrace.)
My patient husband is waiting on me to watch a movie with him, so I must go. Talk to you on Thursday!