South Carolina

Just returned from South Carolina yesterday for my Great-Uncle's Funeral. My mom, Colin and I had a very successful trip. I was very nervous about traveling with him since our most recent trip was a bit of a disaster and he got sick on the flight home, but this time he traveled very well. He won over the flight attendants on the way there and got some free snacks and then slept the entire trip home! :)


The trip itself was really good... or about as good as trip for a funeral can be. The thing about funerals is it tends to be a time where you get to see a lot of your family that you haven't seen in years.... which is sad, but true. We saw pretty much all of my mom's cousin from that side of the family and a lot of my second cousins and it was really neat seeing all the cousins together laughing and reminiscing about their childhood and all their memories.

Colin had a lot of fun with his cousins too. He made some quick friends with the younger ones when he I convinced them to chase him up and down the stairs at their house (we don't have stairs at our place, so this was a new fascination for him).  (And no, even through traveling and climbing stairs a million times, he never slept through the night there either... not even close!)

The funeral itself was really beautiful and it in this amazing church. I know everyone will miss my great Uncle Fred very much, especially his beautiful wife of 51 years. 

Here are some photos of the family together:

These are all my second cousins with my Great-Aunt

Me and my mom with all of her cousins

My great Aunt with all her daughters and neices and nephew

The Dudes, Colin with cousin Nick

Colin's new buddy!




My cousin Diane and her daughter Marisa wanted to take us to downtown Greenville to see the Christmas trees set up at the Hyatt. Well...  the trees weren't exactly set up and decorated, but we still took some pictures! Lol

                                    

My mom's other cousin, from the other side of the family lives about an hour and a half from where we were, so we also met her one day and her family about half way in between (and conveniently located near some outlet shopping!) This is my mom's aunt on the far left and Colin's Great-Great-Aunt! :)

Long Over due Phone dump!

Silly boy...

Mommy's lunchtime visit!

Hangin' with his cousin

My last article in the paper. I was excited they liked my photo they blew it up a lot! :).

Dancin' at momma's work!

Hey mom, buy more boots so I can play in the boxes... :)

Concentrated face... tongue out.

First thing in the morning. taking a picture to send to daddy to say good morning... this is what he does! Ha!

What? Do I have something on my face?

Sportin' his lobo outfit!

Morning hair. This picture makes me chuckle.

Nap time.

Matching lobo outfits. On our way to watch a soccer game.

playing with the exhibits at my mork.

Picked him up early from the sitters, he hadn't had a nap. Passed out in the car and I put him in his crib. He fell into his boppy pillow and snoozed with his jacket and shoes on!

Pumpkins are fun!

Watching our plane fly away...

Crawling around the airport...w hile we missed our flight! Lol

Bear bottom pjs

After his 1 year photo shoot

Sick boy

Halloween.

I cleaned colin's room... it looked like it did before we brought him home! lol

LOVES his birthday balloons

Someone just climbed onto the couch by himself.

Filling his cart with books... birthday presents!

RIP Uncle Freddie

This morning I woke up to some sad news. My beloved Great-Uncle passed away early this morning. He was my Nana's brother.  Earlier this week he had his second heart attack in a year. Last year he had one right after Christmas and was sent home with a grim diagnosis of less than 6 months to live. We went to visit him in June and he looked great. He was in excellent spirits and  you couldn't even tell he had been sick. I feel so very blessed that we were able to visit him while he was healthy and that he got to meet Colin.

I initially wasn't intending on going to the funeral. After traveling to Cali last month, I really didn't want to to travel with Colin ever again  for a really long time! BUT I talked to my mom this morning and she really wanted to go to the funeral, but didn't want to go alone.... so we booked our tickets this afternoon. We are going back to SC. The sucky part is we are flying on Thanksgiving, but it was really the only choice we had so we could make all the arrangements. 

I have no idea how chaotic it will be to travel with Colin again, but I do know that once we get there he will have a TON of family to keep him occupied! I am excited to see some of my family from that side that I haven't seen in awhile and for them to meet Colin, but it sucks it is under these circumstances.

We will really miss my great uncle. He was such a neat person. He had a great life and has 4 beautiful daughters and loads of grand kids. His relationship with his wife is one that I strive for with my own marriage. They were each others best friends and just celebrated 50 years of marriage last year. I really admire both of them and they were so sweet together. I know my Great-Aunt is probably heart broken right now and my heart hurts for her.

From our trip to SC this summer... look how teeny Colin is and how happy my Great Uncle was!!

At my grandma's funeral... I look like I'd been crying for an eternity... I had been!

And an Oldie! I am on my great uncle's lap!! :) 3 of his 4 daughters are next to us with my cousins and my dad is next to us on the other side with my Great Aunt and my Uncle pete above!

Old friends

Today I met up with one of my old high school friends and her two beautiful kids at a children's museum in Albuquerque. I have actually known her since preschool... we went to preschool together and now our kids are playing together!! Crazy, right?  Lol We didn't become friends until middle school because she went to a private school before then and I went to public school, we were friends from middle school on up. She is one of the only people (besides my husband, ha!) that I keep in regular contact with from high school and I think it is because we have been on the same kind of life path.

We both went to college and then got married shortly after and then we both had babies. Most of our friends from  high school either are yet to be married or had kids super early. Either way I think it is so cool that we've stayed in touch and can reconnect when she comes back to NM to visit her family. It is so fun to see her babies and watch our kids grow up together! If only we lived closer!

Here are some photos of our visit. I wish I would have gotten a picture of her and I together or with our babies. Aww well, next time! I actually TOOK a picture of her and Colin, but my dang camera phone was acting up and now it has disappeared :(

Me with Colin and Serena. She will be 6 months next week and is the happiest baby. Colin loved her.

Noah on the left, Colin on the right at the childrens museum

Baby kisses and baby love!

Going back on dairy??

Well, after our doctor apt on Friday I thought we'd try dairy again. The truth is Colin has slept better, but not THAT much better and it could all be coincidence!

Yesterday he snacked on goldfish crackers and I had some bread sticks at work (instead of the pizza they had)... I figured we'd ease into it. Ha!

Today we went to the store I got some whole milk for Colin to try. I gave him some with his lunch and he took a few swigs of it. He doesn't normally drink a whole lot during the day, just sips here and there, so I wasn't expecting him to drink very much. I let him take a few good sips and after he lost interest I took it away. I didn't want to give him too much, just in case. I figured this is pretty much the ultimate test: flat out milk. If he gets sick then we know why. So far so good. We will see how our night goes.

Not going to lie I was a bit nervous, but part of me is excited. If he doesn't have a dairy allergy, you best believe I am going to get me some ice cream within the next couple days!! Whoo Hoo!  Lol And part of me is bummed because we did 2 months of dairy free for nothing. (Although it didn't hurt anything and probably helped me loose a few pounds! Lol)

1 year check up

Colin had his 1 year check up today. It didn't go as well as I had hoped.

My tiny boy weighs 18 lbs and  is 30 inches tall. He has only gained a pound since his last visit 3 months ago, and the doctor was concerned. She kept asking me what he eats. If she only knew he eats EVERYTHING. He just ate 3 servings of our crock pot dinner!! She is sending him to get blood work done to test his thyroid.   (I can only imagine how fun blood work for a baby is going to be.... :( ) 

Anyway we also talked about his sleep and our dairy free diet. She thinks I'm crazy (It's ok, because I think she is crazy! Lol) She told me the ONLY sign for a dairy allergy is blood diarrhea and she has only seen that once in her entire 15 years of practice.  (This is not true, I know there are other symptoms of a dairy allergy).  She also told me that babies with a true dairy allergy cannot be breastfed. (Also not true.) So I am not too sure what to do with this... except maybe doctor shop? She obviously doesn't have her facts straight because I have personally known a handful of babies who have had dairy allergies and their mother gave up dairy and they were able to continue breastfeeding.  Heck, I myself had a dairy allergy as a baby... I didn't have bloody stool, but had tummy aches and cried alot and was put on soy formula. Crazy, right?

Any who she told me his sleeping is purely behavioral and I am allowing him to wake up constantly. When I told him how restless he sleeps sometimes, especially after eating dairy or something that upsets his tummy, she told me to google videos of adults sleeping and that everyone sleeps restlessly. :(

Ugh. I wish she could/would relate to me a bit more. I wish she took my concerns into consideration instead of just making me feel dumb with her nonsense facts. It is frustrating and makes me feel like I need to take Colin somewhere else.

We may still try giving him milk and see if he drinks it or if it makes him sick. In the past he has avoided dairy. I've tried giving him cheese, baby yogurt and yogurt bites and he won't eat it. So maybe he will get a taste of milk and also not like? We will try it and see.

Poor buddy also got FIVE shots! Yucky!

Blabs on life after 1 year

I still can't believe we've made it to the 1 year mark. Incredible.

Colin has his 1 year check up on Friday. I know he is getting shots, poor kid, but I am excited to  see how much he has grown. He is always on the littler side on the spectrum, but I can tell he has really gotten tall lately, so I'm anxious to see just how tall he is. He eats like a champ and our home scale says he is 20, but he always weighs less at the doctors office, so we'll see.

I am not going to lie, I am a bit nervous about his appointment because his last one didn't go so well. I brought up his sleeping and the doctor told me to have him cry it out and was worried about me being depressed. For the record, I was just really tired, frustrated and majorly sleep deprived... not depressed. But I am nervous to tell her that we tried and failed at the cry it out method... and also that we still aren't sleeping. Oh yeah, and not to mention I gave up dairy almost 2 months ago to try and see if it would help his sleep and I'm not 100% sure it has, but he has his good nights a lot more than he did before.

I am nervous to hear what she has to say to all of that and I am worried she is going to think I am crazy. I also want to bring up what sort of milk to give him... since I'm concerned that he may have a dairy allergy.. but am still not really sure. Sigh.

I've also been thinking a lot about extended breastfeeding...  I know a lot of people will think I'm totally nuts... heck, a year ago I probably would have too.  But Colin is still nursing A LOT and that to me means he isn't ready to wean. I want to do more of the child led weaning instead of mommy led weaning, but once I know if he can drink milk or rice or almond milk then I will offer that to him during the day instead of nursing every 2 hours and see if he cuts back on nursing. Tonight he made the sign for milk and I gave him a sippy cup with water and he chugged it, so I think he may just be thirsty and anything will do on some occasions.  My family already thinks I'm nuts for nursing... I can't imagine what they will think when I'm nursing a toddler.... aww well. I sure hope our doctor is supportive of it.

Wish us luck on Friday! I will update how  it goes!

My baby... isn't such a baby!

Today my love you turn 1. Where the past year has gone, I have no idea.

This has definitely been the most sleepless year of my life, yet I don't even care (most days).  You bring such a light and joy to our lives that it makes no difference. All you have to do is smile at me or give me a hug and I forget any worry or care that I may have.

It is funny to look back upon bringing you first home. I was a little terrified. I was scared to do something wrong or make a mistake. I was soo worried the first day I spent home alone with you, I didn't know if I could handle it. Funny how much has changed since those first days. Now I work a day less at work just to spend extra time with you. I wish I could spend everyday home with you.

I can't believe how much you have learned and grown in this first year. From holding your head up, rolling, crawling, and now walking and talking. It is truly amazing to watch. We love being apart of so many wonderful firsts in your life and can't wait to experience many more!

You are the happiest, sweetest little boy. You smile at everyone and flirt with all the ladies.  You love to laugh and give snuggles... and those snuggles are our favorite things in the whole world. Even better than your snuggles are your big slobbery kisses. I would gladly be covered in slobber and get a million of those kisses!

Thinking about how much you have grown brings tears to my eyes. I still can't believe it. We are so lucky and blessed that you are a part of our life. I can't imagine life without you in it. Watching you learn and grow brings me so much joy.

My precious angel, happy first birthday, I love you more than I can ever explain.


Some of my favorite photos this past year: