A Mama's Intuition

When I was a little girl in the third grade, it was all the rage to bring your purse with you to school. We put little knick knacks in our purse, lip gloss, teddy bears. Just items that little girls like. One of my friends, apparently liked sea shells because she put a big conch shell in her purse and decided to swing it around her head for some reason. At the same time she began to swing, I turned around behind her and got whapped in the face with that sea shell. My forehead poured blood and I ran to the mirror thinking my eye had been cut. Fortunately, it was just a small cut on my forehead and eventually stopped bleeding. My dad came to the school and brought some butterfly bandages and candy to perk my spirits up and I went on my way. 

The funny thing is, my mom said that all morning she had a feeling something was wrong. Just a feeling in the pit of her stomach telling her that something was off. And then she got the call that the small accident had happened. 

Usually, my instincts are always wrong. I always feel anxious about something, but it ends up being nothing, only my worries making themselves known. So, yesterday when I had a feeling that something was up with Luke, I just tried to let the thought pass. I even thought about calling the daycare just to ease my worried mind, but I told myself that I needed to chill out. Stop being the overprotective parent. 

I woke up this morning with the same pit in my stomach, but things have been a little stressful with work and other things so I just tried to put the feelings aside. I dropped off Luke and went on my way to work. I hadn't been there but an hour when Mrs. Susan called to tell me that Luke had taken a tumble and gotten a pretty good gash on his lip. She thought that maybe I should come look at it to see if he needed to go to the doctor. I left in such a tizzy that I only grabbed my purse and wallet and left all of my work stuff. I got to the daycare and Luke was fine, much like when I got knocked in the head. I probably could have given him a hug and let him be, but he clung around my neck and I just wanted to cuddle with him to make him feel better. We went to the doctor, just to make sure no stitches were needed and that his teeth were still ok. Just a busted lip, nothing worse. 

He's at the age now where boo boos are commonplace. He walks like a drunkard, oftentimes losing his balance and tripping over nothing in particular. In fact, just last week, he tripped over the bathmat and into the tub, placing a small cut on his chin. I try not to be overprotective and let things happen as he has to learn, but what I really want to do is wrap him in bubble wrap and hold him on my lap. I can't even imagine what it will be like when he can drive away on his own. My stomach clenches at the thought. I'm glad that he's ok tonight with only a minor scraped lip from his fall. I only pray that the boo boos stay small and we get through the toddler years mostly unscathed! 

Here are some pictures from this weekend. Our friends little girl turned one year old and had a lovely party! 

Ms. Lydia in her rocking chair

And the cute tutu!

He loved running around everywhere

He did not like the swings

While Lydia LOVED them!

Leddy and her daddy! :) 

Birthday girl

Luke played peekaboo with me

I tried to get him to swing with me but he still wasn't a fan

CAKE!

And Luke finally got into the cake, unlike at his birthday where he cried! :P 

15 Months

Luke turned 15 months old on Friday and had his check up with the pediatrician yesterday. At 15 months, he weighs 23 pounds and his noggin measures in at 48 cm. He's 30 inches tall! And what isn't he into right now? Cabinets, stairs, climbing off the furniture, playing with pots and pans, pulling our clothes out of the laundry basket, finding EVERY dangerous thing he can. Sheesh. Basically, when we're at home with him, one of us has to constantly be following him around. Oh, and he's walking. Everywhere. Only when I'm in a hurry do I try to carry him around.

He's speaking some words now and he likes to point at objects. We repeat ourselves several times a day, "Yes, Luke, that's a light. Ceiling? Cup. Dog. Spoon." Gah, it's too cute. He has 6 teeth now, which I bought a new toothbrush today for him to use. He chewed on it a little and brushed his front teeth. Tomorrow, I'll give them a firm cleaning. He's still in 18 month old clothes and will probably stay in them for a few months. By the time it comes time to buy fall outfits, we'll be looking at 24 month/2T. 

His personality is starting to shine even more (which is also true for temper tantrums, but anyways...) You can ask him for a hug and he'll come running up to you and wrap his arms around you. He's constantly laughing and happy. Even if we're tired from running constantly, his smiles make us truly happy.

Our weeks have been busy still and with summer winding down, I'm looking forward to fall. Pumpkins and chili, Halloween and sweaters. I can't wait to see what our woods look like with red, orange and yellow surrounding us. 

A good toy is a colander

And a swiffer... 

MMM spaghetti

Zombie baby

We did a quick trip to VA this weekend and my mom pulled out a lot of my old toys. He loved the kitchen.

And Luke playing in the sink :) 

Some days I feel like Cinderella...

I have my prince charming and my castle on the hill, but more times than not, I feel like Cinderella before living in her big castle. There's laundry to be done, floors to clean, toilets to scrub and we can't really leave the house after dark (although our schedule is dictated by a little one's sleep schedule and not so much an evil step-mother). Then there's the expectations that we can be involved in everything just as we were before and it tends to stretch us pretty thin. Can you attend that meeting after work and bring a side dish for that potluck? Sure.  Attend church every weekend and usher and work the nursery? Um, ok. Can you cook dinner every night, keep the kitchen (and house) clean and your baby alive and in Dillon's case work a 70 hour work week? We'll sure try.  Did Cinderella feel this way after getting married and having a few babies? Or was she just rich enough to have help to watch her little ones and clean her castle? 

I'm just feeling a little discouraged today. I think folks tend to forget just how difficult it is to even get prepared to leave the house. Not that it's an excuse, a baby definitely doesn't mean that we can't live life and participate in activities, but it does limit some things. We really do need to be home, at the latest, by 8:00 PM unless you want to have a very cranky kid on your hands. Some days I just feel like I'm juggling our schedule and remembering where we all have to be at certain points throughout the day. 

I've had people (who have nannies to watch their babies while they're out with friends) not understand why we haven't been to see a music show since Luke's been born. It's just hard... and I'm not sure if it's just Dillon and I haven't put the effort in to go out or if it's just the fact that we are utterly exhausted at the end of the day. We don't even like to watch the BBC version of "Sherlock" on Netflix because the episodes last 2 hours and we can't start an episode after 8:00 because we'll both miss the ending from falling asleep on the couch.

 I promise, we aren't trying to ignore events or friends, or skip church for the 3rd time this month, or not go see live music in almost 2 years. Just give us time, we'll be back at some point (Luke may be 15 years old, but we'll get there). 

Now onto cute pictures... 

Our friends Jeff and Jamie joined us for dinner on Friday night with their little girl, Letty. They really took a liking to each other and held hands throughout dinner! 

Our friends Heather & Brian invited us over to a cookout at their house yesterday. They have a swimming pool, corn hole boards, horse shoe games and a cow field behind their house. Needless to say Luke had an awesome time there! 

He's found his favorite seat in the house, in between the cushion and foot rest on our recliner.

The full moon through the trees in our front yard.

Luke ready for church...

He was tired and grumpy this morning, and did NOT want to have his picture taken

4th of July Trip to Charleston

We're back from another weekend trip to visit our friends, Dave & Suzanna and their sweet 8 month old, Ian! Since Ian's birth, we have been trying to get together, but illness and weather have gotten in the way each time. We were determined to make it work this weekend! 

Our plan was to travel down Thursday evening, after work, but Hurricane Arthur made us a little nervous so we delayed until Friday morning. We got into Summerville around lunchtime and enjoyed some of the best hot dogs I've ever eaten at Perfectly Franks. If you're ever down that way, be sure to check them out. I really think that I'd take a trip to Summerville just to enjoy their food. Yum.  After lunch, we headed home and the babies napped for almost 3 hours! A big lunch will do that to you, I guess. We enjoyed the pool at their house and ordered pizza for dinner, because we were all exhausted! 

Saturday we (as in Suzanna and myself... and Luke) woke up bright and early to go to the beach. The boys had stayed up late the night before and weren't quite as bright eyed as we were. While they woke up, we went out to buy some last minute items for the beach. When we got back, we all loaded up and headed out. It was a little crazy getting onto Folly Beach and finding parking was a little tricky. Fortunately, we found a spot close to the beach and loaded ourselves down to make the short trek over. Let me tell you, a beach trip with babies is way different than a beach trip sans kids. Not quite the same as just taking a few beach towels and a cooler.

We got onto the beach and it wasn't quite what we expected... a sandstorm of wind was blowing and the waves were treacherous. No one was in the water, even though there were hundreds of people on the beach. We thought about setting up and staying for a while, but it wouldn't have been good for the little ones. So... we packed up again, trekked back across the road and loaded the cars back up. Instead of leaving, we decided to walk around for awhile and ate at Taco Boy. The tacos there were delicious and rivaled Asheville's White Duck Taco. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch and took a walk out the pier and then Ian fell asleep  on his daddy's shoulders so we headed back home. 

We all tried to nap on our return home, but Ian and Luke weren't having it so we sat around for  a bit and got ready for our dinner at Pearlz Oyster Bar. The food there was tasty (they Oysters Rockefeller were awesome!) but the service was a little slow. Luke quickly melted down and I'm afraid we may have ruined some other customer's dinners. Luckily it was loud.

We had an uneventful trip back to Asheville today, Luke slept pretty much the whole way and we've just been catching up on some things around the house this afternoon. We've had a great few weekends away visiting with friends and family, but it looks like the next few weeks we'll be working on house stuff.  Maybe not as much fun, but it'll be nice to be home for a spell! 

Yeah, hot dogs! 

We may have over estimated the amount of food we needed. No worries, Dave was going to eat all of it! 

Pool time!

Livin' the dream

Beach time!

with photo bombs!

Photo shoot!

Rough water...

didn't deter large crowds...

He wasn't impressed

Hawt mamas! ;) 

Ian's working on learning to sit on dad's shoulders. He's almost got it! 

Heeeeyyyy

Ian bellies up to the bar

Expensive toys or tupperware??? Tupperware.

Luke walks with Ian...

He says, "Come on buddy, I'll help you get around!"

He slept pretty much the whole 4 hour drive back and another shorter nap this afternoon. Beach life and friend making is hard stuff, I tell ya.