Shoe Shopping

Cal is really hard on shoes-- REALLY hard on them. Here's a little tip for you moms out there-- buy your kids shoes from Nordstrom- they will take back anything! If you save your box you can return shoes (I think it has to be within 6 months...?). 

Anyway, Cal was due for new shoes and Andy's shoes were wearing out a little, but I didn't think he needed new ones.  They measured Cal for his new shoes and while he was getting measured, Andy picked out some horrendously ugly shoes (no offense, shoes).  Cal came over and pointed to another pair and Andy said he liked them.  The lady asked if I wanted Andy's feet measured while we were there and Andy said "uh-huh, I do!!!" so we did! And of course, his feet were almost a full size larger than the shoes he was currently wearing. 

Turns out, with Cal's new show size, he had to get ties on his nikes-- no more velcro for him! The boys picked out matching shoes-- Cal's with ties and Andy's with velcro! They thought it was SO SO SO amazing to have matching shoes- ha!

I didn't care what they got (as long as it wasn't the super ugly pair....). They were being SO good at the mall.  Andy has been rather challenging lately, so the fact that he was being good was a relief nothing short of amazing.

I bribed them with a cookie and a ride on the escalator for their good behavior.  They held hands on the way-- staring at their shoes the whole time.

On our way out, we passed these tobagans (how do you spell that? Why is it showing up with a red line? whatever-- you get my point).  I put them on the boys for fun and I thought they were too cute... 

They just scream "THUG LIFE" don't they??

And this last one is SO Andy... I have written it on here before-- this kid has more personality than he knows what to do with.  The lady helping us with shoes said "that blonde kid of yours is the cutest kid I've ever seen. He looks naughty though." That sums up Andy!

These new shoes do, in fact, make them run faster and jump higher.  Pretty amazing, Nike.  Pretty amazing. 

I was incredibly thankful for this positive experience with the boys-- because we got home and chaos hit like you wouldn't believe.... I needed a sweet morning like this!

 

Beach Trip

We got home from NYC on Thursday night and headed to the beach after school on Friday. My brother's wife was heading out of town and my mom offered to help Chris keep the kids and it was decided the beach house was the best place for her to help.  It was also decided that it would be immensely easier if we went too-- the cousins all love each other so much and they provide entertainment for each other!

So, Friday morning, Mr. Andy feeling much better, headed off to school, as did CalBoy.  

While they were gone, I quick finished UNpacking from NYC and then repacked for the weekend! We loaded the car and then it was time to pick up Andy-- we went straight from his school to Cal's school for an early pick up for him.  We were on the road at 1. 

Hank is so funny-- if he hears the word BEACH, he is glued to me.  GLUED.  He is terrified of being left behind (not that he has ever been left behind!).  He paces right next to me, so worried that I might sneak out...

He was thrilled to be in the car.  He climbed up on the bench in between the boys-- soon he was Cal's seat belt. 

And then he was Cal's pillow:

It is safe to say Andy was feeling so so much better at the beach.  He had his appetite back and couldn't wait to help grandma make things in the kitchen.  

Friday night was a BIG deal in the house-- we finally let Cal and Jackson sleep in the same room.  We have tried it before and it was an epic fail.  Lots of giggling, lots of talking, lots of not sleeping! We talked to the boys before and they were so excited to try again-- and they were both exhausted-- so it worked out really well!  I stuck my head in and took a quick pic of them out cold:

It was also a BIG deal because we let Andy sleep in a BIG BOY BED for the first time! I had to take a picture to document:

uhhhh.....sorta a success, right?! He has been having such issues sleeping lately that I was hoping a big boy bed might help.  I think the problem too is he is so potty trained that he doesn't like to pee in a diaper.  So he wakes up and has to go.  It is exhausting, y'all.  He has not slept through the night since the middle of October- it's like having a new born...without the sweet smell and snuggly little body... annnnnnyyyyywwwwwwaaaaaayyyyyyyy.....

Speaking of babies, Cal is just obsessed with Margaret-- he loves her! His buddy Brad has a baby sister also and Cal talks about "Baby Jane" all the time.  He sees Brad hold his sister and he was anxious to hold Margaret too.  He wanted to touch her constantly! It was so sweet...

We got all the cousins on the couch for a PJ pic.  I sent this to my dad-- he was out of town so missed out on all of the chaos fun.  

I enjoyed getting my Margaret fix-- this is a beautiful little girl, if I do say so myself... and she is soooooo good!

I strapped on the bjorn for a little walk around the hood to feed some duckies-- I love a baby in a bjorn!

We spent the morning outside: riding bikes, finding ducks to feed, running around, riding more bikes and just enjoying the weather! I packed ALL wrong.  After a cold few days in NYC, my mindset was geared towards chilly-- it was gorgeous at the beach! I packed sweatshirts and scarves and hats-- not needed! I had to borrow a short sleeved shirt from my mom to wear-- it was that warm!

All that fresh air wore Andy out and he took a great nap in the big boy bed on Saturday-- I was nervous about nap time in the bed, but he did okay.  

While Andy napped, we sat on the porch watching college football.  The boys watched too:

Catherine needed some help doing her hair-- she requested a braid like mine-- she got two.  

The sisters hung out in the stroller while the boys rode bikes up and down the drive way.  

We walked over to a gazebo that over looks the sound-- it was like glass out there!

Grandma and Cal, Andy and Catherine looking for fishies!

 It was a fun weekend at the beach and the kids had just the best time together! I love the cousin love for each other....

 

NYC!

Every year, my mom and I take a girls' trip together to shop, laugh, play...basically to do whatever we want!

This year, I was worried about going on the trip because Andy still wasn't feeling great.  BUT, Eddie's mom was coming in, and Monday night before we left, he had "The Big Bang" as I am calling it-- the explosion that our doctor said to watch for to let us know the clear out was beginning.  Since he had that, and I felt like things were moving, AND because my mother in law was coming-- we felt okay leaving them.

Mimi arrived Monday night and my mom and I left Tuesday morning, early.  My alarm clock went off at 4:30, but it wasn't needed because my littlest friend has been getting up every.single.morning around 4:00.  Seriously.  It is like an alarm clock-- this has been going on for weeks.  I think it's a combo of daylight savings and his tummy issues.  He is usually my really good sleeper, so this has been a total butt kicker.  He will go back to sleep in my bed (and there's not a lot of room there with two adults and him) or if I sleep on his floor (which is soooo comfy.... or not at all).

ANY WAY...

Mom and I headed to the airport for our 7:15 flight and we landed in NYC.  After a series of funny events at the airport (apparently a de-icer caught on fire and had the whole terminal in a hot mess....), and a crazy cab ride (I literally NEVER get car sick, and I was ready to hurl all over the back of that cab!), we were at our hotel! And it was SNOWING! Yay for snow in New York!

We dropped our bags at the bag check and headed out for some fun! It was cold out so we had to bundle up:

Our first stop was Macy's, as per usual.  We hit up the basement and grabbed a lunch and some bloody Marys.  It was seriously the perfect way to start our trip! The bloodys were so so good and we felt relaxed and grateful to be with each other.

After lunch, we went upstairs to do some damage boot shopping.  We had success... so we celebrated with some champagne!

We shopped the rest of the day and had a blast doing whatever we wanted to do, whenever we wanted to do it-- that's our motto for our trip.  We had dinner reservations at a restaurant, Beauty and Essex:

and let me just tell you... it was AH-mazing.  See that picture above? That's the entrance.  I goes into a pawn shop.  A PAWN shop.  We walked in and just kind of stood there (looking like two girls from NC!) until a girl (working the cash register at the PAWN shop) told us to walk through the back doors.  We walked into the most beautiful restaurant I think I have ever seen.  It was just gorgeous.  The only time we could get reservations was at 6:45-- and it was packed while we were there.  No empty tables in the huge place. 

We ordered from a menu of small plates and we were not disappointed by the food.  The first thing we had was the grilled cheese in tomato soup spoons.  This was better than I can even describe (why am I talking so much about food?).  It was so good I had to take a picture:

And then there were the salt and vinegar fries...

Oh, and the bathroom? It was gorgeous.  Who says that about a bathroom? Me.  That's who.  This was part of the bathroom... OH, did I mention they give you complimentary champagne in the bathroom?!?! Yes, they do! 

After dinner, we decided to visit the ladies room for a little bubbly:

The restaurant turns into a big time party scene at night and is supposedly a ton of fun.  Since we had been going hard since 4am, we called it a night pretty early.  But I wanted to remember how great this place was!

Wednesday morning, we woke up and set out on the town, again bundled up against the cold! And, it was soooo cold up there! The snow stopped about 4 minutes after we landed, but the temps stayed low!

We walked miles and miles and hit up a bunch of stores and we really were having fun! Then Patty called to tell me Andy had a great day at school-- he pooped some before school and then pooped four times at school (all of which happened on te potty).  They were on the way home and all was well.  Then Eddie called soon thereafter to tell me that Andy threw up everywhere.  Well, let me just tell you, looking at clothes is so trivial and non-important when you have a sick baby at home.  I felt awful for not being there.  I felt fear that he would have to go to the hospital without me there. I felt guilt that I would leave him in the first place when he wasn't feeling 100%.  Mom and I both just had pits in our stomachs thinking of poor Nug at home.  I texted Patty asking if we should book an earlier flight.  She called me and reassured me that he was totally fine and was in good hands-- which I already knew that part! She told me to not feel guilty at all and promised she would call me if she thought I should come home.  Mom and I took a deep breath tried to carry on...

The best thing we could do was go for our annual tradition of tea and the St. Regis hotel...

...and no tea is complete without a bottle of champagne! Once we were sure we weren't going to be booking an earlier flight home, we decided to calm ourselves down with a hot cup of tea and a cold glass of bubbly-- really a perfect combination. 

We did some more walking and taking it all in that night and saw the big tree up in Rockefeller.  Since there are no lights on that tree, and there's nothing to see but scaffolding, we took a picture with some other sparkly lights behind us.  We are facing the tree here...

As we were walking past Bergdorf's (you notice I saw walking past it.  Not walking in it...), we saw a bunch of people set up on the street with a photographer setting up about to take pictures of something in one of the windows.  I saw a girl crawling into the window-- on ice-- and I saw her tattoos.  At first, all I could see was her rump since she was crawling in.  She clearly wasn't a 6'1'' model weighing in at 98 pounds.  When she turned around, I told mom it looked like Lena Dunham from Girls.  Then she spoke into her walkie talkie and the photog said, "Lena, can you hear me?" It was Lena! I don't know what the shoot is for, but I will be excited to see it when it comes out.   I took one quick picture before a guard told me no cameras were allowed.  Boo.... but still really neat:

Then we headed to the roof top bar at the Peninsula Hotel.   We sat under heaters with out hats and gloves on and they brought us blankets-- it was so fun!

Forever ago, I sent in a request for tickets to Kelly and Michael and a week before we left, I got the letter saying we got tickets! We got up early Thursday morning and headed over to the studio for the show.  We did this a few years ago and happened to sit in the front row.  This time, we were in the last row of the upper level! ha! It was still so fun and Michael is just hilarious! He entertains the audience with a microphone at every commercial break-- cracking jokes and talking to everyone.  He really made it fun.

This was waiting in line to go in.... another cold morning!

Our seats in the wayyyy back!

Michael chatting up the crowd!

After the show, we went back to our hotel to pack and check out, then we grabbed lunch and it was time to head to the airport.  We flew home to a beautiful sunset!

We were worried about Andy a lot on this trip, which was hard-- you can't fully relax when you are worried about someone-- but we still managed to have a lot of fun.  I am so lucky that my mom and I are able to do this together (and that we want to do this together!)

The boys were up when I got home and Andy seemed to be feeling better.  He went to school on Friday and everyone commented that he seemed to be back to his happy self again-- here's hoping....! I will do a full Andy update soon.  Again- can't thank everyone enough for reaching out to me with all of this.  It is scary when your kid is sick and when you don't really know why (other than filled with poop!).  Your fb messages, texts, emails, etc mean so much to me... thank you!

Now, I have a 4am wake up call..... g'night!


 

Being a mom is hard.

First off, I can not say enough how appreciative I am for everyone checking in via text, message, email, etc etc on Andy.  I held off on posting for a few reasons: I was really hoping to be able to post something positive! and, I am flat exhausted so when I am not running back and forth to the bathroom, I am trying to rest up.

Second, I was in tears on Friday night going from pharmacy to pharmacy in my sweats before the closed trying to find other forms of laxatives.  I called my mom and said, "being a mom is really hard." Isn't that an understatement? I know this will not be the last time I say that.... because it IS hard! It is worth it, but it is hard! Seeing your child in pain is just horrible.  Not being able to put a band-aid on it and kiss it to make it better is hard! I love my boys so much. 

This sums up our weekend:

And my sweet sweet father in law sent me flowers with this card.... and I cried.  I am tired and emotional.  And this is just plain sweet.  (he had help from his wife-- but the thought was his and I think it is just the sweetest thought!)

We had a rough weekend.  We went out to dinner Friday night with my sweet friend who was in from out of town.  Andy's tummy was really hurting him and he asked to go to the bathroom every 4 minutes.  I've been talking to my friend through all of this and she even said she had no idea it was as bad as it was.  We finally went home and all went to bed.

Saturday, we had plans to go to a big tailgate party before the Carolina game.  Cal got invited to go to the game with my amazing friend, who just knew I could use a little break.  And THANK GOD for her knowing that.  Well, Andy was up at 4 Saturday morning in all kinds of pain- screaming, grabbing his tummy, begging to throw up... it was awful.  But, CalBoy had the BEST time with his best buddy!

My pediatrician and I have been emailing back and forth and she mentioned in her last email that the next step is hospitalization with tubes shoved down his throat to flush the miralax in.  She said he would have to be awake for this and it would be very traumatic on him (um, and me too, I think!).  She told us she was working in the clinic weekend hours this weekend if we wanted to come in. Eddie was asking me a million questions to which I did not know the answers so I said, you know what? Let's ALL go in and talk to her and let her see this...

We went at 10:30 and left an hour later with more of a plan and we felt better.  We were thinking we just needed to give him as much miralax as we possibly could, but for miralax to work, it has to be dissolved in 8 ounces of fluid.  We were giving him a sippy cup of water with two huge cap fulls in there, or we were making these little "shots" with a little flavored water and a full cap full.  We weren't giving him enough fluid to activate the medicine-- fantastic to know that now! The medicine causes cramping any way because it is churning up your stomach to get things moving... well, we were adding to the churning and not adding to the productivity level. 

Since we found that out, it is like having a new kid-- he has gone a few times (although we are still waiting for the "big bang") and has not complained about his stomach hurting him at all.  He slept until almost 5:30 today-- which is much better than his 4am wake up calls he's been making.  He woke up HAPPY and talkative, which is much different than his normal waking up screaming in pain and only saying his tummy hurts. 

SO, I think we are figuring this out and getting him better....phew!

Again, THANK YOU for all the thoughts.  I am really sorry for writing about nothing but poop on here.  Trust me, I would LOVE to not think about/talk about/write about poop.  But honestly, my world has been revolving around it!

My mother in law is coming tomorrow night to help keep the boys so my mom and I can do our annual girls trip to New York City! I am so excited to go, and I am even more excited that Andy is on the mend-- we were close to canceling it when he was really bad.  I know my MIL can love on him better than anyone, so he will be in the best of hands!

And, on another note, we got our pictures back from the session we did a few weeks ago.  Once again, I think Amber did a great job! She got a few great ones of the whole fam, but one might be a Christmas card, so I am not posting those yet... But I do love these....