June Happenings

I am WAY behind on the blogging. We are almost into August, and I'm just now talking about June. Oops. Let's dive right in.

In June, the boys and I were able to accompany my parents and my sister's family to the Chattanooga Aquarium. Since the boys and I had never been, I was excited to introduce them to some animals/fishy life up close. I thought Cade was going to absolutely love it and would be fascinated by all huge sharks and turtles, etc. It was going to be a great time.

And...it. was. NOT. From enter to exit, Cade was in his usual bouncing off the walls mode. Did he care to watch the animals move or even give them the time of day? Not for more than 2 seconds and then off he'd go running around. Totally regretted not bringing my monkey backpack leash (I better not be hearing any judgmental sighs or eye-rolls!). Aquariums, museums, zoos, etc. are great, but there is just so much to see and happening at once, that it's too much stimulation for my unable to focus child. Next time, we will definitely not be going unless Chase can come. He is much better at helping Cade in those settings than I am. 

And then we had Mr. Whiny in the stroller who always has to be moving or he'll scream at the top of his lungs. It was such an enjoyable trip indeed. Although, we did stop and get some amazingly good ice cream before making the trek home so not all was lost.

I believe these were sturgeons??

As still as we could get Cade for a picture.

Cade with cousins- Jack, Kate, and Madison

Shark tank. Nice face Madison.

This tank had sting rays to touch and Dorie fish from Finding Nemo. Cade yelled, "DORIE! DORIE!! Come over here! DORIE!" over and over. Hmm..they must not actually speak English..

It was a nice aquarium though. And when Cade talks about going to the aquarium, he talks about how cool it was and he saw all the big sharks. You don't even know, Buddy.

The next special event June brought us was Chase's 30th birthday. And since I'm such a good wife, I threw him a surprise party at his parents neighborhood clubhouse/pool. I did a dang good job of never slipping up or creating any suspicions, too. The diversion? Our friend Brad asked Chase to go golfing with him which enabled us to get everything in place at the clubhouse. What a fine plan since Chase would never turn down a game of golf.

My friend Misty (who is also Brad's wife) and I were "swimming with the kids at the pool", but when they pulled up he put two and two together since the parking lot was completely filled and he recognized all the cars. That's the best I could do.

The turnout was amazing- 41 adults and 31 kids! Cade is freaking out because he fell in the pool a little bit prior to this. He was fine (thanks to David for seeing it and pulling him out!), but when he saw Chase he broke down.

I was too busy to take any pictures besides these, and I'm regretting that I didn't. We had great food, cake, and fun.

And June's last memorable event- Reece started walking! We came home from church one Sunday, and it was like he just decided he wasn't going to crawl anymore. It was such a quick change. I was in the kitchen, and in my peripheral vision, I see a really little person stumbling down the hall. I remember thinking- what in the world?? He was just walking all over the place. And if he fell down, he would just get right back up. He had started teetering between 2 people a little bit a week prior to this, but that was only a few steps. 

Here is the action:

And another gem I found on my phone:

Things Here and There

I think you've got a little something stuck to your foot. That could be embarrassing.

 Found him playing in the train tracks box.

 Yes. Yes, you do.

 Firefighters were in front of us in line at Publix one day. They let Cade take a tour of the firetruck. Could it get any better for a 3 year old boy?

"Take my picture, Mommy."

Chase has classes right now Monday through Thursday 5:30-9:30. So the kids don't get to see him most days. Needless to say, they both need some Daddy time on Fridays when he gets home. 

It's always entertaining to quite frequently find completely random pictures on my phone. They mostly look something like this:

or this:

 But this one is a rare gem:

My delicious Mother's Day dinner cooked by Chase the non-cook. This is probably the second meal he has ever made in our entire marriage, or his entire life. And this filet, my friend, was the best steak I've ever eaten. Every bite was moan worthy. Therefore, it must be documented.

And then fondue. Those french bread cubes baked in butter and cinnamon and sugar- amazing. You no longer have an excuse to not help out with the cooking, my love.

Cade's preschool teacher- Mrs. Nikki. I wish he could get her next year, too!

Her teacher's gift. This vase was my first go with trying to somewhat be craftsy. Pretty amateur. Give me time. Lots of time.

 Our first swim for the summer! Cade shocked us by swimming from one side of the pool to the other all by himself! With floaties on, of course. 

 Reecey sans hat.

Looking around at Kohl's one day, and I hear, "Look, Mommy! These fit me perfect!" 

Does this picture look familiar to you?

How about now?

Cade on Christmas morning when he was 12 months. The boys put a bow on his head and called him Little Black Girl for like an hour.

 Reece is even giving us some black girl sass.

Moments like this are what it's all about.

CROUP. Croup ba-doop, ba-doop, ba-doop.

I know many of you have experienced croup with your children before. I, on the other hand, have not. That is until 2 weeks ago. And it is scary.

Friday afternoon, Cade rather suddenly came down with a high fever and sore throat. He would just lay on the couch and not move (and if you know Little Antsy-Always Moving My Body-Full of Energy-Never Still-Cade, that is not like him at all). He also wouldn't eat anything and kept complaining about his throat. Since those were his only symptoms, I just knew he had strep throat. I talked to my dad about it, and he brought home a test that night. It didn't show anything, but those tests aren't always accurate. So since I was really paranoid about Cade actually having strep and it going untreated, we went ahead and got him the antibiotics and sent him to bed.

The next morning, Cade woke up breathing kind of hard and loud. It worried me so we took him over to my parents house. My dad listened to him and said it wasn't in his lungs, and his throat must be swelling a little bit from the strep but the antibiotics will take care of it. Cade seemed to be breathing a little better as the day went on so I stopped worrying about it.

When Cade woke up from his nap that afternoon, however, he was having major difficulty breathing, and he started to panic (which made it worse). Chase tried to calm him down, but Cade was still struggling. We didn't know what to do so we immediately got in the car to take him to the Pediatric ER. When we got there, one of the nurses doing the paperwork in the waiting room heard him wheezing and got us back to see a nurse rather quickly. They immediately told us it was croup (I was glad to know what the problem was so quickly), which I was surprised because the little bit I did know about croup, you have a nasty cough, and Cade wasn't coughing at all (that came the next day).


We were taken to a room where Cade received breathing treatments, a steroid medicine to help with the swelling, and other meds for his 103.7 fever. Poor, pitiful Cade, as miserable as he was, was so sweet and so good the entire time we were at the hospital. He never cried or whined at anything the nurses or doctor did to him. He lay still and would just whisper in his horse voice, "Ok" or "Yes" or "Thank You". The respiratory nurse told him that he was her best patient that day.

We were glad that he responded well to the breathing treatments. If he had to get one more he would have been admitted into the hospital.

What was Cade's favorite part about his hospital visit? Popsicles. After he had his first breathing treatment and the steroid medicine, the respiratory nurse asked him if he would like a popsicle. Cade lit up (well, as much as he could at that point) and excitedly whispered, "YES". After he devoured that purple popsicle and had the 2nd breathing treatment, our regular nurse came in and asked him if he'd like a popsicle. He was so excited that he was being offered another popsicle. He asked for green. A little while later, there was a shift change and we had a new nurse. All she did was walk in the door, and Cade (feeling much better by now) blurted out, "Can I have a red popsicle?" 

After 2 breathing treatments, meds, Chick-fil-a, coloring some fun pictures, and three popsicles later, Cade was feeling and breathing much better and started getting his energy back.

Then we were able to come home. I must say that our experience at the Pediatric ER at Huntsville Hospital for Women and Children was the best I have ever experienced. The staff was extremely friendly, and they took very good care of us.  

Since the doctor told us that croup typically gets bad in the middle of the night and children often wake up with difficulty breathing, I made Cade sleep in the bed with me that night. I was not about to leave him alone, and I literally did not get any sleep. 

(Might I add that my good little boy does not get off of his bed, ever. He yells for us in the morning, and we come and get him. So during this whole ordeal, we finally taught Cade that he could get out of his bed all by himself and to come get us if he doesn't feel good or can't breathe. It took him awhile, but he's finally figured out that it's okay to get out of bed on his own. Well, that backfired the other day, when I woke up at 5:30am to find him in the kitchen playing games on the computer. And it looked like he'd been awake for awhile. Awesome.)

The next night, Reece and I come down with fevers and all the other croup junk followed. It took about 6-7 days for Cade and I to get over it and a little longer for Reece. Luckily, Reece's breathing didn't get as bad as Cade's. The next week, Chase came down with it. It's been lovely.

I am finally glad to say our house is officially rid of the croup. See ya later croup. I don't ever want to see you again.

Sugar Rush Extreme

If I had one word to sum up Easter this year, what word would I choose.....oh yeah, CANDY. So. Much. Candy. So much in fact that Cade really thinks that candy and Easter egg hunts are the entire reason for the holiday. Which is why a Family Night lesson was implemented on the resurrection complete with a paper Jesus and a paper tomb, and Cade can now tell us that "Jesus died and then he woke up and an angel moved the rock from the tomb and Jesus came out and he was resurrected and that is Easter." Close enough to his words, plus a little help with the word resurrected. (And how grateful we are for this!)

Anywho, the week of Easter started out with a bang with Easter Egg Hunt #1 at Cade's preschool. No pictures to add. Just envision it with your mind. Shouldn't be hard. That entire lot of candy (which only consisted of 12 eggs) was consumed before bedtime. (Don't judge me for not rationing my kid's candy. Some days, I pick my battles. And right now not hiding behind the couch because he doesn't want to take the time to go potty is more important. Among many other things. Yes, I know, TMI, but whatever.)

A couple of days later, the sweetest neighbors in the entire universe, Mark and Beth, brought over buckets filled with Easter treats for each boy (i.e. Cade and Chase). We have THE best next door neighbors. Whenever we move from this house, I wish we could just pick up their house and take them with us. In fact, I might just propose that idea to them.

TONS of candy, plus eggs filled with more candy. And the best surprise of all was opening some select eggs and finding "monies!" inside. Each boy got four silver half dollars, two $2 bills, and one $5 bill. Don't you wish you had my neighbors??

The next day came Easter Egg Hunt #2 at Miss Donna's house. Always lots of fun. Before the hunt started, all the kids (about 20 of them) stood together to take pictures before running around like hooligans. I was glad for this so that Cade could look back and remember who was there, etc. However, I guess Chase didn't think a group shot was important because this is all he got on the camera:

Awww. I know that's what y'all are saying.

When I disappointingly asked Chase why he didn't take a picture of the whole group, he informed me that (duh) he doesn't care about those other kids. Aw that's so nice. I'm sure your nieces and nephew will be thrilled to hear that. (Doh!)

And the hunt begins:

When he saw that there were Lightning McQueen eggs out there, that was all he was looking for. He was bypassing tons of other eggs so he could find "Lighting a Queen!". He found 3.

He ended up with a very nice candy stash.

Eating his donut decorated like an Easter egg. Deeelish.

Then came Easter Egg Hunt #3 two hours later at Nonni and Papa's house. Equipped with Put the Puffball Tail on the Easter Bunny game, cupcakes, 7 kids, and like 1,000 eggs.

I don't see any eggs.

Looks like these big blowup eggs are the eggs of choice.

Got enough?? Keep in mind we already dumped out his basket into a plastic bag once.

So. much. candy.

Let's pause for a moment to enjoy this nice scenery:

So. beautiful.

So. adorable.

Easter Egg Hunt #4 was done inside Grandma and Grandpa's house the next day with Cade's cousins and little chocolate eggs.

The end of the Easter Egg Hunts. And all I have to say for my own sanity and the sake of my extremely hyperactive child becoming out-of-control hyperactive when on sugar is thank goodness! But he had a blast and kept talking about how we needed to go to these people's house for eggs, and this person's house, and our church, etc. (all the places he didn't have an egg hunt) for the entire following week.

Now, I don't know about any of you, but it was tradition in my house growing up to always dye eggs in lieu of Easter. That is absolutely normal, am I correct? Well, not to Chase. He gave me the hardest time for wanting to dye eggs because he felt it was pointless since we don't like to eat hard boiled eggs. Well, how about doing it just because it's fun?! And it's tradition (for me)! Just like all those Christmas traditions that you have a coronary about if we don't do one, this is no different (in my case).

And just to rub it in even more, Cade LOVED it. So get used to the smell of that colorful vinegar because it is happening EVERY year!

Our eggs. Inexperienced Chase just started plopping all the eggs into the bowls. Booorring! I had to show him that there was a clear crayon you can draw on them with and you can use this little wire thing to give an egg multiple colors, etc. All foreign to him. Just WOW is all I have to say.

So then he came up with this little number. It's probably his depiction of how he felt about me making him dye those eggs.

It was also a tradition when I was young that when the Easter Bunny visited our house, he hid our Easter baskets. It was fun for us chill-ens to search for them. Chase and I woke up early to see where the Easter Bunny hid the boys' baskets:

Thank good gracious there is no candy in that basket. Just 3 Cars 2 characters, 3 dinosaurs, a Toy Story puzzle, 2 books, and a Cade size football.

Reece's basket of Little Einstein books and Gerber puff snacks.

I can't find it anywhere!

(pronounced annie-where. He has out of nowhere developed a ridiculously strong southern accent on certain words.)

Well, that's just silly, Easter Bunny.

And then we went to church like this:

(Chase's tie matches too if you couldn't tell very well since it's hiding.)

If you are ever feeling a nice chocolate egg or Reese's cup- you know where to find us!