8 is GREAT

My precious CalBoy turned EIGHT a few weeks ago. I say it every year: how can he be so old!?!?! I swear, I was just heading to the hospital to have him, crying my eyes out that we were going to hurt Hank's feelings when we came home with a new baby. Yup.  I did. 

This was Cal days before his first birthday:

 And now he's all big and grown....and melting my heart daily. 

 The pride I feel for this kid is powerful.  I love watching him play with his friends. I love watching him play sports. I love watching his desire to live to the fullest every day.  He hits the ground running every single day.  And it is awesome. 

We had a lot of fun celebrating him this year.

He went to school Friday and we got hard to work on his room.  He had one single bed in there, and we got him a matching second single bed and totally rearranged and changed his room. He had mentioned before wanting an "older" room-- and the bedding he had in there was the same he got when he moved out of the crib when Andy was born-- so it is about 6 years old.  He was due for an upgrade. 

Bruce loves the room.  

 We cleaned out a LOT of the clutter and organized it so things would be easier to find. 

The bathroom even got a few prints. 

 I love all the signs we found for the walls. 

 He got a new chair too, which he loves.  We were thinking a nice little reading spot for him-- and so far that's what it has been used for. 

My mom wrapped his door in wrapping paper and when he came home from school,  I was inside his room. I called for him to come in and he was STUNNED.  

 Friday night, he went to bed as a seven year old and I got to work decorating the house for him to wake up an EIGHT year old!

 He came down early the next morning, on his actual birthday, and waited very impatiently for everyone to get down there so he could open. 

Donuts for breakfast for your birthday?! You bet.  

We had a baseball game that morning and Cal earned the game ball.  He was PUMPED. I love his smile here.  And his crooked hat. 

Soon after, it was time for the party, so we headed to the country club for a GOLF party!

Some of the party helpers before the party started:

The super cute golfers as they arrived... 

The club had two extra large carts with extra rows so all the kids piled on and headed over to the practice facility.  Cutest golf carts I have ever seen!

 All of their bags lined up were adorable too.

More of the adults at the party!

After some lessons on the greens and an intense game of knockout putting, we headed back inside for an ice cream sundae bar.

The kids LOADED up their bowls.

 We sang happy birthday to Cal and he blew out a candle in a GREEN cupcake.  Where are my pictures of that, I wonder.....?

The rest of the weekend was super fun too.  We all stayed up way too late the night of the party with friends over and lots of outside playing. 

The next day, we returned to the driving range for some hitting before heading to lunch. 

The new putting green opened too, so we practiced up there too.  

It was a wonderfully busy weekend celebrating our favorite eight year old.  I love that boys more than I can even try to explain. He has a dimple on his cheek from a scar from stitches last summer and I just adore it. He has a twinkle in his eyes constantly.  He truly lives each day to the fullest, soaking up the last drop.  I am so so lucky to get to be his momma and I thank the good Lord for blessing me with that title.  I can't wait to see what the next year brings!

 

Andy Tummy Update

Wow, I have a lot to post about...! But several sweet, sweet readers have reached out asking for an update on Mr. Andy and his tummy woes.  Sorry for leaving ya hanging!

We went two weeks ago to Duke and met with a pediatric GI doctor who was pretty great, I think.  He was NOT dismissive, which was huge for me.  For years, we have been seeing doctors who continue to say "just give him more miralax!" as they wave me away.  This doctor did not do that.  Thankfully. 

He did think that Andy is super duper backed up.

Are you sick of reading about poo on here????? Sorry.

So he suggested we do a "massive clean out." He sent us home with the recipe for this and warned that it will be very explosive and happen very quickly and Andy will have little control over it, it will be coming out so quickly. We were told to camp him near the pot.

Super exciting, right?

The child did not go.  At all.

A "massive clean out" and he didn't go....?!! Pardon my language, but wtf, doc??? We even upped the amount of ex-lax squares and he still didn't budge.

I emailed the doctor on that Monday, knowing I was going out of town on Wednesday, and needed to have some massive movement before I left, or I would be leaving a struggling Andy with a daddy who wouldn't know what to do (I mean, he would manage, but I would feel terrible leaving Andy in that condition).

Doctor suggested we do a full colonoscopy prep: one bottle of gatorade (not a massive one) and one entire bottle of miralax.  Andy stayed home from school Tuesday and the "big bang" started around 12:30 and went pretty strongly from there on.  It was impressive.  But it worked.  There was....ummm...a lot to get out.... and he did.

So the current plan is to maintain the milk of magnesia every day with one exlax square to aim for a daily dump (please help me find humor in the poo talk).  Hopefully cleaning him out helps us to start fresh to get to that goal.

I am optimistic and this doctor got back to me immediately when the massive clean out failed.  He is responsive and seems to want to fix this.  He has a series of tests he wants to run if we can't get him regular on this current regime.  None of them sound very fun, so I am hoping and praying we don't have to put Andy through that.  

This mom stuff is hard, y'all. 

 Thank you to those who have reached out or thought about Andy during all this.  It means the world.  I know it is just poop.... but when it is your baby and he is in pain, it just stinks....get it? ha.  One more poo joke. 


 

Life

This is sort of life lately, but really, it is the past few weeks, since I am catching up on everything.  After this, I should be back to somewhat normal posting....? Maybe.

A few weeks ago, my parents kept my brother's kiddos so we did a cousin date out to kanki-- I swear, they love this place.  

 We are in full blown golf mode over here.  They are all about it lately and it's been fun to watch them improve and enjoy it. 

 And watching them carry their clubs is adorable too, if you ask me. 

They are loving a date to the driving range-- we've been up there a bunch.  

 But, alas, that isn't our only sport right now.... baseball started a few weeks ago too.  The boys are on the same team again, which is a scheduling sigh of relief.  There is a pretty wide range of talent on the team again, but it's great for both boys (and only one team to keep up with is pretty amazing for momma). 

 I went to a MOM party a few weekends ago, and Bruce was determined to help me get ready-- excuse the hair half done-ness. 

 It was a fun party and I managed to spill stuff all over my dress.  Whoops.  Got to get this to the cleaners asap. 

 Back on the golf course- not sure why the visor was flipped?

I mean.... with that smile.....

 I think they played 24 holes this day. 

We had a really really really REALLY bad week with Andy's tummy.  So bad that I took him in after hours to see a doctor.  He listened to everything we have been trying and decided it was time to see a specialist (all the praise hands), so we finally have our appointment today.  Thank goodness.  A warm bath seemed to ease some of his pain, so he spent some time in our tub-- and this sign is a good reminder to us both.  (thank you, amy!)

 Bruce LOVES going to get the boys every afternoon from the bus stop.  I swear, on the walk home, he acts like hes talking to them about their days.  Just three boys, chatting it up. 

Some of the sweet neighborhood friends took me and Amy out for our birthdays- we went to Bartaco and had a great time!

 I celebrated my actual birthday at the beach for Labor Day weekend.  I woke up that morning and the boys and Eddie had me come downstairs for my gift-- and new bike! It is a super cute beach cruiser-- along with a basket, drink holder and a cell phone holder! I promptly took it for a ride with music blaring from my phone.  Super cute!

 The boys were SUPER excited because it was a total surprise and I had zero idea about it. 

We spent a lot of Labor Day out on the water--

 Why does Bruce's smile crack me up so much?

 Obviously he loves a golf cart ride!

Oh this is big time life lately.... my sweet friend Ashley Luke's husband was named the interim head coach at Ole Miss-- this is the dear friend that we have gone to visit the past few years for a game.  We are SO excited for them-- this picture popped up in my time line after their first win of the season.  I could cry for them!

 How about the sunset???? ahhhhhhh

 He loved it too. 

 More smiling Bru.

 So these two dogs walk into a bar......

 And before we knew it, it was time to head back home again.  Bruce doesn't want to miss a THING in the front seat, so he breathes on me the whole way home.  He's cute though.  So it's okay.

 He also will listen while Cal reads to him, so that's pretty great too. 

Andy's teacher sent me a text: she spotted the boys spotting each other on the playground and had to take this picture-- talk about making my day!!!! 

Throw in one more sport, why don't ya..... we started swim up last week.  He went to one practice last week, and the first 55 minutes were spent discussing the expectations and then they swam a 100 free (four laps).  

 He LOVED LOVED LOVED it.  Couldn't wait to go back. 

 he went on Monday and I am not kidding, the kid probably did 50-60 laps, full out each time.  He was COOKED when he finished.  The pic below is from his first practice.  I didn't get one from the second-- he was too tired to smile- ha!

So that's life lately, but from a few weeks ago.  We've got a big guy turning EIGHT this weekend, a first baseball game and lots of other fun stuff coming up!