October 28, 2009

Rain, rain has gone away...

...so Austin and I went out to play!!


After being cooped up inside a dreary house all day yesterday and not even getting a chance to go outside and get the mail due to the constant downpours...today the skies finally cleared and we just HAD to get out of the house!!

Mommy and the little guy had a nice lunch date at McAlister's (because Austin just adores their potato salad), made a quick trip to our favorite one-stop shop, Target, to pick up a birthday card and Halloween candy, and then came back to the neighborhood and went out to play on the soggy (but fun) playground.

The neighborhood playground is still a little advanced for a toddler, but Austin enjoyed climbing up a few of the steps, trying to climb UP the slide and just walking all over the place with no baby gates holding him back! He had a great time and mommy got some exercise chasing him all over, keeping him out of trouble and trying to take some good pictures!



October 27, 2009

Do you have any idea what this picture might be used for?

If you guessed it's Austin's baby mugshot, you'd be wrong...but if you guessed it's a passport picture...hooray, you're exactly right!!

Yesterday we sent off for Austin's 1st passport and this was the best picture we could get of the rambunctious little 1 year old....messy bed head, drool running down his chin and all!!

What does he need a passport for you ask? Great question, and one I'll be delighted to answer!

At the end of November, this little family of 3 (almost 4) is heading down to the Bahamas for a week and staying at the amazing Atlantis resort!!! It's going to be a babymoon, birthday trip (for me) and much needed week of sun, sand and relaxation for us all.....all rolled into one!

Ok, the real reason we're going is that the fiscal year at Ryan's firm ends at the end of October, he got all his hours billed and then some and this hard-working dad NEEDS a vacation!! It just so happens that I'm pregnant and we'll also be there on my birthday...so it's a multi-functional trip I guess you could say!


Isn't it just beautiful there?! How will we ever be able to leave paradise and come back this cold and rainy weather we've been having in SC lately? This trip is going to do wonders warding off the Winter blues that have been creeping up on me lately. Give me sun, sand and 85° any day, I'll take it!

Can you tell I'm a little bit excited?!

October 26, 2009

1st fever

Yesterday, Austin wasn't quite acting like himself. He woke up about an hour earlier than usual and was just kind of roaming around the house whining. He didn't seem to want to do any of his favorite activities like read or throw his ball, he took 2 short naps and wouldn't eat his cheesy quesadilla for lunch (after chowing down on hummus and pita bread the night before). Ryan and I both just figured he was tired after 2 late bedtimes on Friday and Saturday, but after getting up from an afternoon nap I kissed his forehead and it was burning up!

Out came both our thermometers and we concluded that our whiney baby boy had his first ever fever. We made it an entire year without a single illness and 1 week later here it comes...or so we thought. I did everything I had ever read to do for a fever...administered tylenol, gave him fluids, dressed him in cooler clothes, gave a lukewarm bath, ran to CVS to get Pedialyte and more Tylenol...I was getting prepared for what was to come! Was this the beginnings of the swine flu...something worse maybe?? But by the time I got back from the store, Austin and daddy were playing on the floor, his fever had come down and he ate his chicken nuggets and banana with no problem. Hmmm... I figured this was just the effects of the Tylenol kicking in and after one last temp check (lower but still not normal) we put our baby to bed for the night.

I checked on him twice throughout the night and he felt warm but not too hot. He slept in a cozy room in his summer pjs and at 8am a happy and seemingly healthy baby awoke! I was thrilled...but shocked! I had been all prepared to make an early morning trip to the peds office but what was I going to say now....my baby HAD a fever and no other symptoms...and now he has NO fever and no other symptoms...? I called anyway to make sure I wasn't missing anything, but as I figured, they told me to just watch him over these next few days.

Maybe we got lucky or maybe he has a super sneaky virus that will bare its ugly teeth in these next few days...but for now we can only hope for the best! I'm just feeling very blessed that Austin has made it this far without ever having anything worse than a case of the sniffles and a cough. I'll be praying hard that this fever doesn't return...what a scary feeling as a parent to see your baby so miserable and know that their body is busy fighting off naughty germs that shouldn't be there.

October 24, 2009

Austin's 1st Year in Pictures!

I've been wanting to do a post like this for a little while now and tonight Ryan told me he wanted me to do it as well. I would have done it earlier but my usual laptop with all of Austin's pictures on it is out of commission at the moment and I'm not sure when it will be back up and running. I remembered tonight, however, that most of my favorite pictures were on the blog and Shutterfly...so I got to downloading!

And here it is, Austin's 1st year in pictures. Can you believe how much he has changed and grown!?! Especially from months 4 though 7! And at 10 months my baby finally got some hair!! I'm just so amazed as I look through all of these!

0 Months
1 Month
2 Months
3 Months
4 Months
5 Months
6 Months
7 Months
8 Months
9 Months
10 Months
11 Months
12 Months!

October 23, 2009

Origins of a nickname

So, it's Friday night at 10:30 and I'm sitting here blogging. My dear husband is out on a man-date with his horror film addict friend, Neal, to see Saw 6 (seriously...they made 6 of these movies?!) I tried to find something on TV to watch but there's NOTHING on and I get fed up after flipping through channels after 5 minutes. I finally stopped on Mamma Mia! which is a FABULOUS play and not so hot movie, but I've just got it on for the music.....oh how I love some ABBA!!

Anyway, I figured I needed to blog a little because it's been since Tuesday...but I also wanted to wait because I know that all the posts from last weekend were a little overwhelming and wanted to give you a little time to catch up before I sprung anything else. But 3 days is long enough, so here goes:

I was laying in bed last night thinking about nicknames. I don't remember when I started, it wasn't that long ago, but awhile back I began to realize that I never called our animals...or even my own husband...by their actual given names. For example, our cat Dakota is simply Kota and our other cat Captain Jack is just JackJack. Yeah, nothing extraordinary there, but then we got our dog Lucy who is now commonly known as Lu-Lu, Lucy-Lu, Lu Bear or Lewbert. Ryan is often known as Honey, Dear, Babe and most recently....dada.

I know none of these nicknames take a huge stretch of the imagine to figure out where they came from...well...maybe Lewbert...but I'm almost embarrassed to admit how that name came to be (uhmm hmmm, any iCarly watchers out there??) The point is, every thing in our house seems to develop its own nickname or quite a few nicknames maybe. Which brings me to my darling boy, Austin. This poor child is going to have no idea what to write as his name on school papers because he has the most nicknames of all! However, I just want to talk about one...the most common one, the one Ryan and I use when we are talking about him in normal conversation, the one you have most likely heard us call him if you've spent any time around us, the one he started out with at birth and will most likely carry with him until his teen years, the nickname whose origins I need to document on this blog so I can remember how to explain to my teenager where it came from one of these days...

It all started when we brought our little October baby home from the hospital just a little over a year ago. All the Fall decorations were out and I had pumpkins on my mind and a tiny little pumpkin in my arms. It was then that, for some reason, I began to call my new baby my "pumpkin nugget." I don't know why these two words came together, but they did and it stuck...for awhile. As most of my nicknames usually do, this one caught on and Ryan and I both called him our pumpkin nugget until Ryan decided one day to just call him "nugget" for short. I was about as fond of this nickname as I am of people calling my child booger...I mean seriously...who wants their precious child called something that describes what people pick out of their noses?! Gross! So, Ryan decided it needed shortening even further...this time to Nugey or Nuggie if you prefer. It fit!! The name caught on like a wild fire and around our house, our babe is most often known as Nugey, the Nug, the Nugster....and every once in awhile, just plain Austin!

So many times I've written his name as Nugey on the blog and then had to backspace and type Austin, but I decided to go ahead an put it out there in case I do slip up, well you'll at least know what I'm talking about now (and years down the road when Austin wonders how in the world he got such an odd nickname, I can look back on the blog to remind me)!

October 21, 2009

Boo IN the Zoo


Last night we finally made it to the Greenville Zoo for their annual Boo in the Zoo....along with every other child in the upstate!! The line to get in and pay was a half mile down the road and we couldn't even get into the zoo parking lot. Luckily, however, with such a long line behind us, when we told the tellers we were zoo members to get our discount...they believed us and didn't ask us to show our cards (which I accidentally left at home 15 minutes away).

I didn't realize what a popular event this was but I did love seeing the hundreds of children in costume and got some great ideas for next year! Austin was the cutest puppy dog I've ever seen...even though everyone kept calling him a cow...and a girl! He was somewhat indifferent to the whole event but mom and dad had fun and certainly enjoyed eating all the candy he collected throughout the night...but to be fair, I did split a Kit Kat with him at lunch today.

Austin was most happy when we let him down to walk by himself but since he's not that fast yet he kept holding up traffic and we had to scoop him up after we heard all the huffing parents behind us. I thought parents of young children would be more tolerant of a new walking toddler...but I was wrong! Many of them just seemed so frazzled....but I guess hundreds of kids running down narrow paths in the dark on a candy high close to bed time was just getting to them.

We can't wait to go back next year when he'll probably enjoy it a little more and truly take advantage of his bag of goodies!





October 20, 2009

6cm and getting bigger by the minute!

This morning I had another ultrasound to take a look at baby H #2 since I officially entered my 2nd trimester on Saturday! Baby is looking good and growing fast! It's amazing how the little one has changed in only 4 weeks time. Baby was moving all around but still too small for me to feel just yet. Here are some pictures from Baby H #2's 2nd photo shoot!


October 19, 2009

Cake Monster ATTACKS!

Contemplating his approach...

Making the first move...

Watch out...

Because, HERE HE COMES...

IT'S THE...

CAKE...

MONSTER!!!

And he's spent.

Ahh, the look of success!

PARTY PICTURES!

Close-up
The cake table set up

Living room before the guests arrive

Ben & Tyler, Austin's future BFF

Someone is ready to party!!

Me and beautiful Miss Kylie!

Austin opening his first gift...

Some of the onlookers...

Boxes are apparently just as much fun as what comes in them!

It's a party in a box!

Almost cake time!

Ben & Tyler playing with the decor

Austin with Aunt Geri and Uncle Carroll

Trying to get the two boys to stay still for a picture!

Austin and Grandma Jo Ann

Trying out the new PBK chair!

Austin's favorite aunt!

Playing in the wagon that daddy put together.

Yay for clothes!!!

Grandma Pat and Aunt Gay feeding the cake monster...

The Harris and Armstrong Family (minus the photographer)

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