Day 3 of Swim Lesson and a new ailment

Andrew had day 3 of swimming lessons yesterday. We decided to go to Brantley's house first (she lives 5 minutes from the pool) so Andrew and I didn't have to wait in the hall for 20 minutes before class. When we walked in Dane's mother immediately told me that Dane does not have chicken pox. She took him the doctor and he has a heat rash and is allergic to chlorine. My response was..."oh you are fine, and oh my goodness the swim lessons are hurting him". I really do feel for this woman. I could tell she stewed over our conversation all night. Owen came by and took pictures of us. I will not be posting them...in fact I will be cropping myself out of every picture b/c pictures do not lie and I can't believe the way I look. All I can say is I didn't recognize myself and am not talking about it.

Andrew did well in his lesson. He was engaged, kicked his legs, and paddled his arms. He went under water a couple more times and seemed shocked but didn't cry over it.

Tonight we have Mommy and Me family night. I have been looking forward to this night. Hopefully I will have fun pictures to post tomorrow.

Love, Erin

Protecter Mom Comes Out Swinging

Monday, Andrew and his friend Brantley started their swim lessons. We had a good first day. There are four kids in the swim class. Brantley (9 mo), Andrew (almost 8 mo), this kid named Dane (2.5 y/o), and Miles (2 y/o). Miles is with his dad and they seemed pretty normal. Dane is with is mom who is very talkative. She tells me his Dad is in Afghanistan and this makes me feel for her and I listen to her talk even though I think she is talking to hear herself talk...nonetheless I am very nice to her. Dane has bug bite looking spots on his back and I don't think anything of it, but apparently she was self conscious and tells me they went outside for "just a second" and he got eaten alive by mosquitoes. Again, I don't think anything of it b/c we live in the South and mosquitoes are just a way of life here. All in all first day of class went well.

The second day of class...we had a different experience. Dane's mother was again very talkative. We were walking into the pool and she turns to me and says I think Dane has chicken pox that is why he has spots on his back. She then proceeds to tell me (and only me for some reason) that she did know someone whose kid had them. WHAT??? Is this really a conversation I am about to have with this woman? I slowed my walking pace and she could tell I got uneasy, but she didn't lighten up on her story. She said she wanted him to get the virus so he would have immunity for life. She said boys have a higher chance of getting autism with the vaccine shots so she decided to go for an alternate schedule and Dane hadn't had his vaccines. She is telling me this as if she is informing me so I can be saved by this information. However, the moment she talks about autism in relation to vaccines I knew she didn't know what she was talking about. That physician who wrote that theory has recently been proven wrong and his medical license has been taken away. The swim teacher then tells all four of us get into a circle and I look at Brantley's mom with a look like I want to run away from this kid who may or may not have chicken pox. Then I get my professional voice (trying to be very polite, yet stern with this woman) and I ask her...has Dane been around anyone with chicken pox? She says no, and that she was just kidding and says he has asthma which is causing some eczema. AGAIN...WHAT is with her different stories??? These two thoughts keep me from running away and getting Andrew far away from this lady and her son. Thought 1 - the pool's chemicals will kill the germs and we aren't going to touch this kid. Thought 2 - Dane goes to day care and if his day care thought he was sick they would have sent him home.

When the class is over she again comes up to me and says she was kidding. That no one in his day care had chicken pox. My response to her was they have had their vaccines so they won't be bringing the virus to school (a side note: I say this not knowing 100% if they give the chicken pox vaccine, but Dane's mother had already told me they do, so that is why I made my comment). I can't even remember how I got away from her...I think Brantley's mom saved me.

We will go back to swim lessons today and I am sure Miss Talkative will have another ailment to explain her son's bug bites on his back. I do feel for the woman being a single parent while her husband is away, but I really don't need parenting advice from her.

On a positive note Andrew is doing great in his lessons. Yesterday we went under water and did not cry or get water in his mouth. :)

Love Erin

Sweet Comments & Birthday Celebrations

I want to start out by saying we have had a really good experience with Andrew's day care. In my ideal world I would not have to send him to day care, but my reality world is different. His teachers are so nice and they tell me stories about Andrew when I pick him up. They also REALLY love my child. Owen keeps asking me if they tell all moms how great their child is, but I just don't think they do. I also talk with the teachers when I drop and pick Andrew up. Yesterday when I was getting Andrew there was a mom touring the daycare. She was in the baby room b/c her son is 6 months old. One of his teachers said, well I am glad Erin is here b/c she is one of our best moms. She is so in tuned with her son. If you have questions you should call her if she doesn't mind because she really seems to have a good balance. I almost started to cry right then and there. There are days when I think I have this balance thing in check and then there are days when I think I have been run over by a big fat bus! But yesterday was a good balance day.

Owen's birthday was yesterday. He woke up to presents and birthday cards. Andrew and Ralphie got him some work clothes and I got him a planned trip to New Orleans. If it doesn't rain the main even in New Orleans is a helicopter tour!!! Owen LOVES helicopters so he is super pumped up about our weekend away. My parents are coming to town to watch Andrew for us. Owen and I met up for lunch yesterday as well. Then at 4 I went to pick Andrew up, we went to get Owen's favorite cookies, went to a Kelly's Kids clothing party, picked up an ice cream cake and then headed home by 6 pm. When we got home we started Andrew's nightly routine and then he feel asleep by 7 pm. At 7:30 Owen's birthday dinner arrived (another gift from my parents). We ordered from an Italian restaurant that DELIVERS!!! We had his birthday dinner by candlelight and enjoyed a nice dinner in the comfort of our home without stress! The day could not have gone any better.

Mommy and Andrew go to the beach

Here are a few pictures of our weekend beach trip. Again, we had a nice relaxing trip.


It was so hard to get a picture of him actually looking at me


Mommy and baby boy


Funny picture of Andrew. I am not sure what he is doing, but he seems like a grown up in this picture. I can picture him say "Hey, what's up?"

A Monday Moment

Today is Mommy and Me so Andrew comes to work with me in the mornings before we go to our class. I put him on the floor today to see if he would explore. Andrew is spinning to get where he needs to go. It hasn't clicked for him yet on how to crawl. With all of his exploring...this is where he ended up.


PS: notice he is sticking his tongue out at me...he is all boy

I texted this picture to Owen and he said he must have learned this from Ralphie. Ralphie loves to lay underneath things in our house.

However, today at Mommy and Me, Andrew crawled!!! I can't wait to get the video camera out to capture it. It wasn't an army crawl b/c he lifted up his legs, but it wasn't a full out crawl. The point is it wasn't a reach, a spin or a scoot...it was forward movement with legs lifted. I almost cried.

Girl's Weekend

Andrew and I went to the beach with three of my girlfriends from Hattiesburg. I wasn't quite ready to leave Andrew for that long so he came with me. We had a great time relaxing and listening the waves. We "played" in the sand, walked the beach, swam in the pool and had great girl conversation. It was nice to get away for a couple of days, but it is so good to be home too.

On Friday we went to get manicures and pedicures. I had a pedicure already that week so I got a manicure. I took my rings off and put them in my purse. I didn't think anything about it until Saturday morning when I went to put them on and realized one of my wedding bands was missing. I panicked! The really bad part of this story is I have done this once before and thought I learned my lesson. Since Andrew woke up early I packed him up and we headed to see if it fell out in the parking lot when I got my keys out. No luck. I decided we needed breakfast food while we were out so Andrew and I made a trip to Publix. This was the first time Andrew rode in the grocery store cart. He did great. Side Note* I did find my ring. It was in Andrew's stroller, but I didn't realize this until our drive home on Sunday.



All in all it was a fun weekend.


Andrew waking up at the beach.

I have more pictures of us at the beach. Hopefully I will get those posted tomorrow.

How easy it is to forget

Oh how easily I have forgotten what waking up in the middle of night does to me. We have been so blessed that Andrew has slept through the night most his 7 1/2 months of life. We have had some struggles with getting to sleep, but we are over those now. I also realize that my new wake up time (even on weekends) is between 6 and 6:30 am. I am actually alright with that. But this week has not been one of those blissful nights of full sleep. Nope...we are teething, yet again. I don't see a tooth but his gums are changing colors and he has been waking up twice during the night. Once between 8 and 9 pm and then again between 2 and 3 am. I have also learned that this is not a situation where I can let my poor little baby cry it out b/c he is actually hurting. He screams in agony and chews whatever he can get his mouth around. So I sit with him, rock him, hum and sing our favorite three songs (b/c those are the only songs I know). Then an hour later I have a sleeping baby. I just wish the tooth would come in already so we can go back to peaceful nights. However, with that said there is something to cherish about waking up with Andrew during the night. He grabs onto my shoulders and gives me the best hug when I pick him up out of his crib. He cuddles up with me in the chair and it really is a sweet moment (even though I know he doesn't feel well).

Any teething tricks out there? I have a cold teething ring and I give him a little Tylenol but other than that...I don't know what else to do?

Mother's Day in July

Today I cashed in my pedicure gift certificate that the boys gave me for mother's day. I went during lunch and relaxed while my feet soaked and the chair massaged my back. I just closed my eyes and relaxed for a full hour. It was so nice and it was nice knowing that my husband and little man gave me this for Mother's Day. I am going to the beach this weekend with some very good friends. Andrew is going as my side kick. I wanted my toes to be ready for the sun and sand. :) I can't wait for Friday. Andrew and I are going to do our normal routine in the morning but instead of turning right out of our neighborhood to go to day care we will be turning left to go to the beach! Yippeeee!!! I am a little nervous about a road trip with a 7 month old and me, myself and I...but I have faith that Andrew is up to the challenge. My hope is he will sleep for the first part of the trip. He gets pretty tired an hour after he wakes up and that is the time we will be hitting the road. Owen said I am going to miss him being with us because he is the one who typically unloads the car when we get to our destination. I have been doing a mental list of the things I need to bring for Andrew and it is a lot. I am so glad I have a "van" type car. I think it is going to be packed full and luckily I will have three other "mommies" who will probably love the chance to hold my little man while I unpack the car :)

Friday...can not get her fast enough :)

A Good Day

Yesterday Andrew and I had Mommy and Me. He comes to work with me on Mondays and then we go to our play date. We have a couple more classes of the summer and then we start back up in September. In two weeks we have family night so Owen will get to join us. I really enjoy Mommy and Me and I love watching Andrew develop right before my eyes. There was a new mommy and baby in class. The little girl was 3 months old. I have already forgotten what a 3 month old looks like. She was so tiny, sat in her mom's lap, watched the class and then fell asleep...just like Andrew used to do. Now Andrew listens for his name, sits up and attempts crawling. His personality is coming out a little more every day. Last night he laughed at us for a good 15 minutes. He just laughed...it was the sweetest sound.


Andrew and his friends singing "One Little Monkey"


Andrew in the crawling position...but not ready to move anywhere yet


Play time at Mommy's work

Yesterday was a good day.

Banana's

Andrew ate banana's for the first time on Friday. This is actually his first fruit. My parents got us a baby food grinder and I tested it out. To say he LOVED banana's is an understatement. He was so upset when they were all gone. Luckily we followed up the mean with some oatmeal and all was good. I am so happy Andrew likes to eat.

Here is a picture of our baby food grinder. I think we will be using this tool a lot more in the future.

7 Months Old

Andrew turned 7 months on Saturday. Of course we had a big day and family weekend planned for his baptism so turning 7 months has been much better than turning 6 months. Andrew had 2 teeth and a virus during the first week of 6 months so he didn't feel well. I still remember those nights. However we have come so very far from last month. Here are a few facts about our sweet baby boy.

* He had his 1st baby sitter Tuesday night. I asked a graduate student from USM that I used to advice to be his baby sitter. She also works at his day care so I felt VERY confident with leaving him with her. In fact I know her quite well so it worked out perfectly.

* He is spinning and trying to figure out how to crawl. He still gets frustrated with not being able to do it.

* He still loves his momma :) I really like this one.

* He is eating solid foods three times a day. He has a snack in the morning and in the afternoons. When we get home from daycare we have dinner. So far he loves everything we give him. His face is priceless for the first bite and then he gets into it. We haven't given him fruit yet b/c everyone told me to start with veggies so that is what we are doing. He has eaten peas, green beans, squash and carrots. We have also transitioned to oatmeal from rice cereal.

* We have lowered his crib

* He is still a great sleeper

* He quit saying dada. He still tries to put consonants together but no words

Here are some pictures from his 7 month "photo shoot". The sign didn't work well this month so I am going to have to do something different next month.

Andrew's Baptism

This weekend we had Andrew's baptism. It was everything I hoped it would be. We invited both sides of our family and were lucky enough to have 27 people celebrate with us. I was overwhelmed with love. We went to the 4:00 pm mass on Saturday. My brother was the celebrant. After mass we had the baptism. I was so nervous about how Andrew would handle it. He was a wiggle worm but other than that he was angel. After the baptism we invited everyone over for dinner. It was perfect. Andrew really pulled through and wasn't fussy. In fact his inner social butterfly was born and he laughed, bounced, was passed around the visitors and over all had a wonderful time. In fact he didn't go to sleep until 9:45 pm!!! Actually he did not have a bed time the whole weekend. I was so afraid Monday night he wouldn't go to bed at a "normal" time. Luckily he did. I mainly say luckily because I was exhausted and needed a good nights sleep.

Enjoy these pictures from this special day in our life.


Our family before the baptism








Mommy and Andrew


Owen, Me, Andrew, Godmother Nellie, Godfather Craig and Emma and Ella
(I do have a picture of all of us looking in the same direction, but blogger won't let me upload that one)

Dear Erin

Dear Erin at 16

You have started a new school and have moved to a new town. This is an exciting yet terrifying year for you. You will be given an opportunity to play basketball and that will help you find a niche of friends. Don't give up on the sport. You are going to want to give up because it is hard and you don't like the running. Be strong and keep with it! Yes, I realize this is not what you do but if you listen to your older self this is what you should do.

Church youth groups will become very important to you. That is a good outlet and you will meet your best friend through the youth group. You will go on a youth group trip together and this will be the first time you fly. The two of you will bond and be life long friends. You will go to different colleges, but will stay in touch. You will be in each others weddings. You will have long conversations on the phone until your lives get too busy. You will think about each other often and celebrate each others birthday with a gift. The gift will be special because you know in your heart the two of are still connected. When you think of high school, the friendship you two shared will come to mind.



Dear Erin at 18 thru 22

Your high school friends are going on college tours and having trouble deciding where to go to school. You are not sharing in that anxiety because you have applied to one school and was accepted. You are going to be a W girl like your grandmother, aunts, and cousin. This is a school you said you did not want to go to as a younger child. You were pretty adamant about that. You were living in Alabama during those declarations. You didn't like not having guys in the school. You were afraid of not finding a boyfriend. But things are different now. You visited your cousin who was a student at the W and you fell in love with the campus. You fell in love with the hospitality, the friendship possibilities, and leadership opportunities. You will convince yourself that Mississippi Sate isn't far away and that is where you will find a boyfriend. In August of 1997 your parents' car is packed and you and your best friend from high school (see above paragraph) followed behind your parents and traveled to the W for move in day. What a day of emotions?? You will be excited to see them leave but scared to death. You cry for a second and then meet up with a group of ladies that will change your life.





There is something about the W that was made just for you. I would like to advice you to take it all in, but luckily you did that without any advice from your older self. You did go to State a couple of times and quickly realized you weren't going to find your true love at State during college. Don't let this bother you. In fact don't let boys get you down about yourself. Focus on positive things like the friendships you are making and the experiences you are having being at a woman's college. Soak every memory in and hold it tight. You are going to forget small details but try to document the fun and tough times. You are going to learn about disappoints during these years, but know it makes you a better person. You are going to realize people can turn on you...but in the same breath you will learn that some people will stand by you forever. Focus on those friends and not the ones who don't truly appreciate your love.



You are going to have this drive about you to accomplish something only few get to do. It will be scary, dramatic, and from the outside not something you would typically do. But you will meet your lifelong friends. Friends that laugh at your quirks, want to be involved in your life, friends who let you cry when you think the world has fallen apart, and friends who let you talk nonsense so you can make sense of the thoughts. Friends who you don't ever question their motives, because you know they are the truest people on earth. Friends who will build you up and be there for you if you happen to fall.



You are also going to do a lot of self discovering at twenty years old. I wish I could tell you this will go easy on your heart and emotions, but it does not. You will find out what kind of man you want to be in a relationship with. You will learn all boys are not created equal and some are just down right rude. But then you will learn others have gentle hearts but you weren't ready to make a commitment because you weren't finished finding your true self. Mistakes will be made but lessons will be learned. You are going to conflicted during the next few years because you thought you would be married after graduation. That is not going to the case for you. It will be hard to see your friends get married and have babies before you. This is when you need to show them you are a true friend and be genuinely happy for them. Their lives are changing but they don't leave you out.



After graduating from the W a quiet will set into your life. You will become uneasy which helps you think of your future. You will start doing things that you REALLY enjoy and meet some incredible people along the way. You turn a hobby into a job. You connect with a fun and outgoing friend. A friend that God puts in your life to help you along your journey.


I couldn't find the Prescriptive's picture of us

Then you take another hobby and turn it into a career. You go back to school and get a Master's. At this time in your life you are fearless and I encourage you to keep that attitude. In graduate school you meet and are still friends with some amazing people. Friends you thought you would have only a short time ended up being in your wedding and catching your wedding bouquet. Life is a wonder and the people who come in and out are priceless.





Dear Erin at 31

You are now 31 years old. And the life you dreamed about at 21 has come true. You did marry a State boy. You have a son. And as much as I would like to tell you to change the experiences you had growing up, I won't do that. I won't because you are you because of the things in your past. You love your family. Your parents are your best friends, even your mom who you fought with as a child. She is now the person you talked to more than anyone else. You appreciate your brother and pray for him daily. He is your little brother, now the uncle to your child and you love him very much. You have a husband who does everything he can to make you happy. Please know that good things come to those who are patient. You are not a patient person but you let God take control of your love life and he answered your prayer. You thank Him daily for this as well. You have a healthy, happy son who loves you. A love of a son is something you are going to continue to experience and you feel blessed for this. The lesson you have learned over and over again and the lesson I will leave you with is...Let go and Let God...he knows what he is doing and gives you the avenues to make your life they way you want it...when you trust in Him.

Family








In case you're wondering, I was inspired to take this journey down memory lane by this blog. Check it out and get inspired too...and let me know if you write your own letter after reading mine. I'd love to hear what you have to say to you.