It's Been a Long Time Coming

I have been wanting to do this for ohh I dunno, 5 years now! So here I finally am, sitting down to start what I think will be entertaining, informative, and probably a great outlet for me! lol I don't know much about "blogging" so I will just have fun with this and hope it brings some laughs and smiles to those who read.


Where do I even begin?? Lilly is now 5 years old (10/31/06) and will be entering Kindergarten this fall. I cannot believe it is THAT time already!

 I look around at friends and family that are pregnant/having babies and think, I remember when Lilly was that little and remember thinking back then that I never want the day to come where she goes to school. lol I soaked up every single minute of her infant/toddler years that I could. And now here I am asking myself, where did that time go and did I use it wisely? She is such a smart, loving, funny girl. I can honestly say that when I look back on the past 5 years the Lord has given me with her, we most definitely put it to good use. All the park trips, the zoo trips, camping, gardening, cookouts, Mamaw & Papa 'vacations', library visits, bike rides, Penguin Palace summers, swim lessons, crafts, homemade presents, drawings, sewing lessons, baking, apple picking, MOVING trips, endless hours spent reading, dancing and singing are all memories that I wish with all my heart she would grow up and never forget. It's funny to think that I have all these spectacular memories of her and doing things with her and she probably won't remember but maybe one or two memories of these years. I never really thought of that until I became a mother. There's lots of things you never really realize or think about, obviously, until you become a mom. Bizarre how I have said many, many sayings that my very own mom has said to me that just sort of comes out of my mouth naturally. Then I think, "oh my gosh, I AM my mother!" Such as...


1. Because I said so!
2. I brought you into this world and I can take you out!...have only used this once, although I foresee myself using it more in her teens lol
3. Moms know EVERYTHING.
4. I have eyes in the back of my head.
5. Wait until your father gets home.
6. I'll pull this car over RIGHT now!
7.  Go to your room and think about what you did...to which I have barely had enough time to turn around and start laughing uncontrollably
8. Don't wish to grow up to fast, it will be here before you know it .
9. If you continue to make that face, it is going to stay like that forever.
10. I don't talk just to hear myself talk!
and I think I have even said, " you are gonna do this and you're gonna like it!" lol or something along those lines.

She truly is the sunshine in my life. There have been many times where she surprises me with just how smart really is. For instance, a couple months ago we were driving somewhere and she says from the backseat, " Mom, you know, if you just choose to do the easy things in life. Or choose the easy path rather than the hard one. If you make easy choices then your life will be easy. But if you make hard choices and choose to do things the hard way, well Mom, your life will be hard. So just choose to do easy things that way your life will be easy!" I could not believe what I was hearing, it was just so funny. I know some adults who can't even comprehend that type of reasoning and thinking. My list goes on and on for the things that come out of her mouth. She even tries to pull off some of her "lines" to her brother these days!

Vance, Van as we call him, just celebrated his first birthday! (3/27/11) We have had a pretty rough year with him, health wise. He was 8 days late, so I was induced. Labor only lasted about 5 1/2 hours and it went by pretty quick. They broke my water and saw he had already had his first bm. Little did I know, THAT was only the beginning of my worries for him through this year. I delivered him all natural, no meds, and he had some trouble breathing. They took him to NICU asap, and was released that night to me. He was perfect!

He was always vomiting after that, from day one. I thought he was just a "spitter upper." Lilly never spit up once so that's all I knew. It wasn't until his 4 month check up that I really started voicing my concerns with it. I just got poo pooed by my doc. And come to find out that at his 6 month check up he was diagnosed with GERD and put on zantac to be followed with weekly weight checks, experiments with feeding only thru bottle vs my breast...to which I never did cuz I was smack in the middle of moving and was not about to introduce a bottle to him, try to move, solely pump and record it all during the very days we were moving....It wasn't until after he started eating solids, around 7 mo, that the vomiting started to decrease. So between the vomiting ALL THE TIME, which ultimately lead to harder EVERYTHING else, like not teaching him to cry himself to sleep until he was much older for fear of him laying in there crying cuz he was in puke etc. the constant checking in on when he cried in the night for same fears.....his raw bum with often time open sores on it, bleeding (to which doctors kept telling me was just diaper rash, only upon a mother's instinct and experiment did I figure out it was his zantac that was having this effect on his bum), constant 'fever viruses' through the winter, roseola, unexplainable rashes, and what we actually think might be going on now chicken pox! And that's just the first year! Over all he is a pretty happy boy who loves his sister to death! He is just now getting on a routine or schedule for the days and I can only say, it's about time!!!! He is cruising around everywhere these days and getting pretty brave at testing out on whether he wants to walk or not. lol

It's really funny to see the differences between boys and girls. Lilly plays in heels, paints her nails, plays with princesses while Van has learned how to make car sounds already, sword fight-even turning his fork upside down and playing 'swords', and eats like a dump truck! All this in his first year! Those two have a special bond like no other and I can only hope that they get closer and closer as they grow up.

Being the mom of these two beautiful children has changed me forever. I am one proud mama!