Baby's First Selfies

Hey remember when I blogged about anything besides sicky stuff? Yeah me neither. But today is the day! I have had two days in a row of improvement instead of worsening, so... hey pleurisy, go suck it. I have cute kid pics to post.

Okay, first. Let me be clear: I don't let my kids play with my phone. Once in a while, I practice with Nathan on how to call people if he ever needed to, but THAT IS IT. (This isn't like the key rule that I got slack on in moments of desperation. The no-phone thing is for realz.) If I were one of those people who put cutesy painted family rules signs in our house, that would be near the top. We don't touch mommy's phone.

Another Nathan, on the other hand, is somewhat indulgent. And now we have photographic evidence: baby's first selfies.

Caught in the act later, you can see it's actually a sweet snuggly thing that kept her quiet and happy (hear me complaining? *crickets*), made even more adorable by the fact that it was on someone else's phone.

(When he has his own kids someday, I fully intend to let Charlotte snuggle them and do the exact same thing. If I don't get to it first.)

Pleurisy Suuuucks

Here are a few of the many things that are painful when you have pluerisy:

- yawning
- putting on a jacket
- picking up children
- putting down children
- getting into the car
- steering the car
- looking over my shoulder to change lines while driving
- pushing a grocery cart
- loading groceries into and out of the car
- closing the back lift door of the van
- going from sitting to standing
- going from sitting to lying down
- going from lying down to sitting
- rolling over in bed
- opening heavy school doors
- taking poopy sheets off a crib mattress
- bathing a toddler covered in poop
- getting things out of the washing machine
- reaching for anything in general
- washing my hair
- drying my hair
- hiccups
- coughing
- sneezing
- breathing

Basically it's a huge pain in my ass side (literally), and it is somehow getting worse instead of better.

Today is not a day when I can laugh it off, or even use perspective (my mom had an injection which resulted in a dropped lung and hospitalization this weekend, which would be scary but she's fine now, and sort of adorable from a sympathy illness perspective) to remind myself it could be worse. I just feel down and discouraged and very very over it right now.

So the moral of the story is, don't get pleurisy. And if you do, cry a lot.

Meh

I'm not sure I have much blog-worthy to say today, but here I am anyway. Be excited? (Don't be.)

Mark and I had a lovely night in Charlotte. We wandered through downtown and visited the building where we went to several proms together. We had a delicious dinner (duck! we are fancy!) (don't read this, vegan Grandma) and did fully exciting things like take naps on hotel beds wearing our shoes because yes we are that tired.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our children were in various states of quiet and not-so-quiet with their sleepover hosts. Which left me the next morning feeling happy and relaxed and oh so grateful for a night of quiet and good sleep (I slept more than eight hours! without waking! and then lounged in bed for two more! #indulgent) but also feeling gross and guilty that other people had to endure tough nights with MY kids for the sake of MY sleep and... ugh. You know. (And also the cash on the nightstand when Mark left for work stuff in the morning, despite clearly being for the car valet, made me feel a wee whore. Just sayin.)

But overall, great date night, I'm glad we did it. And the past couple days have consisted mostly of laying low and resting my lungs. Juggling cars with Mark and Another Nathan (of course we all need stuff done in the same week, including a whole new windshield for me). Packing everyone up for a Mexican dinner out. Trying to fight a blah feeling because nothing is terrible today but nothing is awesome either. And I just feel sort of... meh.

Best. Blog post. Ever. Right?

Nathan has been tired and coughy and whiny.

Anneliese has happy so long as we keep her busy.

Charlotte has been delightful as usual.

Y'all, sometimes I forget we have three kids. Whoa.

At Home With Charlotte

Well I decided to indeed go to Charlotte for the night. The kids are covered, and while I don't feel great health wise, I might as well be sore there, with a fancy dinner and fancy hotel and quiet room to sleep in, than here. So, yay! Pleurisy date night!

So while I go pack overnight bags for all of us (we call them pack-packs around here, if you were curious) (you know you were), look at some pictures of Charlotte. The baby. Not the city. Obvs.

still our only kid who feels the need to chew on everything

I threw all my animals out of the crib! Ready to get up now!

Don't let this smile fool you. She is *not* easy in restaurants.

Playtime is legit exhausting, y'all.

Bins are for dumping toys out, and climbing yourself in.

Oh, just screwing up the afternoon with a lunchtime car nap.

I'm not sure who messed up whose photo here.
But it makes me laugh.

This smile ball has found new life in our daily games of fetch.

Just a day in the life, right?

Other Monday Miscellany

So right after I told the internet that my ribs and lungs felt better with each day (why do I say things like that? why? It's like telling the internet your kid sleeps well. LIFE WILL MAKE A LIAR OF YOU, ERIN. STOP DOING THAT.) I had a horrible night and the fading achiness turned to searing pain in my side, so I hauled myself back to the doctor and they did another x-ray.

(Another Nathan asked if they have given me a punch card yet. Fourth one is on the house? Sadly no.)

Well it turns out that the ribcage cartilage inflammation is worse instead of better AND I have a whole new ailment! Irritation in the lung lining itself. Pleurisy: not just for people in the eighteenth century anymore. So for those of you keeping track at home, that's pleurisy, following costochondritis, following pneumonia, following RSV. With the constant stream of Mark/kid illnesses too, of course.

I would heave a huge sigh but HA I can't breathe without pain.

Anyway.

So I have been looking forward to Mark's business trip to Charlotte this week (wait! hear me out!) only because we had worked it out for me to be able to crash his hotel for a night together, and had arrangements for the kids and everything. But now two of our kid-coverers are sick or have sick kids themselves (I mean, obviously, right? Try to look shocked we didn't see that coming). We still might be able to work it out but I'm not a hundred percent sure yet, and I can't decide if it's even worth the effort to go. But the thing is, even though I am sore and sick, I so want that night with Marky. In a hotel room. Grownup stuff (*ahem*) aside, I just want a giant bed in a room I don't have to clean, so I can sleep for hours and hours and hours and then read twitter on my  phone and sleep some more and no one will ask me any questions about making them a pop tart or why they can't wear two shirts but no pants to school and a night off of PEACE AND REST. Yeah I still want that. Terribly. So, it's probably worth the effort of some plan-rearranging to make it happen, right?

I did, however, have a delightful day with the children, painful ribs be darned. We made treats for Mark's business trip and only burned them a little. It only took three trips to the pharmacy to get my meds filled (in related news, I am very close to being ready to break up with my pharmacy). We watched Daniel and Mister Rogers and snuggled. (I am high on the land of make believe right now, y'all.)

Oh! Some milestoney news! Last Friday I gave Charlotte a spoon just to see what she would do (remember she is still eating several months behind most other kids her age) and she totally used it! Correctly!

Until she didn't anymore. (Still adorable.)

Tomorrow is Nathan's 100th day of school, so he made a collection of a hundred things. Anything he wanted. (Well, anything he could attach to paper. So, not actually anything after all. "Not rocks, that's too heavy!" he told me. Um, okay? Got it.) So we did a collection of a hundred things to build with legos. This probably had nothing to do with the fact that a lego book is readily abundant with stickers, which are self-sticking (read: easy for me).

And not to end on a sad note, but my Grandpa S's beloved poodle, Tammy, died this weekend. She was somewhat infamous as his sidekick in Huntersville, and she has been living with my mom (and her menagerie) since Grandpa died in 2009.

That crazy pup had a lovely and bizarre life, and my mom is really sad this week -- not just because of Tammy, but because Tammy was the last bit of her dad, who was the last bit of her family of origin, and, well, if you know my mom by facebook or email or text, send her some love (or comment here, she'll totally see it). Virtual hugs are almost as good as the real thing in this situation, I promise.

Oh here is a not-sad-note something else: Kroger is apparently selling dinosaurs for easter. As if easter dinosaurs are a Thing. I'm not sure I understand, Kroger.

(I mean, I'm not saying I don't want to purchase them. I do. Obviously.)

So pleurisy and Easter Dinosaurs. Just, you know... Monday.

Brad + Marija

Well. My brother Brad has been married for fifteen days. I have a whole week of fun and beach and family pictures to share, but the most important thing, the whole reason for our trip to St Croix, was this wedding. So let's just dwell on that for a minute, shall we?

Okay so the whole background here (the short version), if you haven't heard the story a million times (we Bumgarners are story-tellers) is that we took a trip to St Croix in 2006, back when my mom was newly-embarked on her Path Of Crazy Fitness, and had set the goal to swim a five-mile ocean race. We did it with her, it was fun, it was lovely, and Brad decided he would like to... live there. So he did. Yep.

And we have all been back to visit many times since then.

It's where Mark and I took baby Nathan on our first real family vacation. Mom and Ashley did a beast of a triathlon there one year. It's become Dad and Cathy's excuse for a tropical getaway. It's where Ashley and John got engaged. It's where Brad became a legitimate sea captain. And met his future wife.

St. Croix is an important little dot in the ocean for the Bumgarners, is what I'm saying.

Mostly because of this:

(That's Brad's boss and island mentor and friend back there marrying them.)

Y'all, it was such a lovely wedding. I had never been to a wedding on a beach before, and this was everything I hoped one could be.

A perfect little grove of palm trees by the ocean.

A really excited ring bearer and sister of the groom.

And the rest of us pretty excited too.

My beautiful mother. (I love this picture of us, so much.)

A whole gaggle of Bumgarners (my parents, my siblings, our spouses, our children).

A healthy handful of fussy neices and nephews to bewilder the happy couple. Everything about this picture makes me laugh. Please have babies soon you two, mmkay?

A cool cake with bride/groom starfish on top.

(Best friend from home, managing kiddie antics somewhere in the background.)

A new Bumgarner sister, making Ashley and me unspeakably excited.

And my baby brother, as happy as I have ever ever seen him.

Welcome to our family, Marija. You're the happy-ever-after ending to Brad's St. Croix story, and we could not be more thrilled that you're officially a Bumgarner. We love you both so much.

(So you know, the good photography above is by my talented uncle, Robert. The crappy pics were taken by me, after rum and coke. So, yeah.)

Things to Smile About: Snowy Sick Week Edition

Well after Thursday's discouragement  the healthy thing to do is rack my brain and find a few things to be happy about right? (Hey, I'm nothing if not predictable.)

1.) My painful ribs are feeling better every day. Except for a few really sore hours yesterday, and some trouble getting comfortable enough to sleep, and when I change positions or cough -- okay suddenly that seems not so great -- but really my ribs are doing better. Really. (Likewise, Mark is also doing just fine after whatever he reacted to on Wednesday.)

2.) Last weekend I got to go to a baby shower for my Furman friend Katie, and our friend Betsy was also there and also pregnant, and it made me happy to hang out with sweet friends about to embark on the whole mommy thing.

(Also this is the only time in our lives that I have ever or will ever had a smaller tummy than these two, so there's that.)

3.) I dyed some burp cloths and I felt very crafty. (You know those white Gerber-type prefold cloth diapers? Those are the best burp cloths. I mean, they make others, but they suck. These old-school cloth diapers are the only way to go. I don't know any parent who doesn't love them. Not any. But since everyone uses them, they get lost or mixed up easily in places like church nurseries, so some in different colors or with different fabric or ribbon or embroidery touches make it easier to spot in a crowd whose are whose -- the stack of bright tie-dyed ones Ashley and John made for Charlotte are still awesome. Anyway it's become my go-to useful baby present.)

4.) Mark found me this coffee I had searched for everywhere online, to no avail, because apparently the company had changed names. But he found it! And I woke up to it on Valentine's Day and it was just one of those perfectly thoughtful things that keeps making me smile. (Way better than a picture of flowers, right?) (Yep, gotta mention it every year.)

5.) Nathan has been reading his Uncle Brad's favorite childhood book and loving it. So many sweet memories every time I read it with him. I do the animal noises just like my mom did, in case you were curious. Her way was and is the right way. Not negotiable. I'm just sayin'...

6.) We made valentiney sprinkle bagels. The bagel place Anneliese and I went to on Thursday in the hopes of pink bagels was out of said pink bagels. But later at home, I put some sprinkles on a regular bagel for her.

It was amusing how shocked and delighted she was that I would be so silly and naughty. (Note to self: stop being such a hardass. Your kids like it when you relax.)

7.) Yesterday it was springy and warm enough to wear shorts. Yay southern weather in February.

8.) Then today it snowed all day. Which for some reason... also makes me happy? It's pretty and didn't stick, so I kind of liked it. (Sunday morning update: it stuck! Look at our pretty snowy house!)

(The roads are still clear, so it's still a win.)

9.) Three new episodes of Daniel Tiger this week! Even Charlotte will sit and snuggle with me while we watch. Or, be distracted by self-pics on the phone. Either way, it's a happy smiley thing.

10.) I swear I will write a post about St Croix and get pictures posted soon, because what's a better mood boost than that?

V-Day Sick Suck

Okay I need to complain a little, but it's not the crabby post some might go for on Valentine's Day. Still, look away if you can't stand it.

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.

I don't think we've had more than a day since Thanksgiving when all five of us felt healthy. Really. We are not normally sick people, but it has been a sicky sucktacular winter this year. Pinkeye and stomach bugs and bronchitis and pneumonia and fevers and one cold after another. My counter is covered with steroids and antibiotics and medicine cups and syringes and cough syrups and pills. My eyes and brain are fuzzy from label names and directions and trying to keep track of who has what symptoms on any given day, who is starting or finishing which meds, what time they need them, which dosage, etc etc etc etc it never ends.

I got a taste of healthy spring fever in St Croix. With Anneliese finally (haaa?) over her bronchitis, I had almost convinced myself if I could kick the pneumonia (p-neu, as we now affectionately call it), that spring and happiness and healthiness were on the horizon.

But then the RSV grossness moved to Charlotte.

And then right when she perked up, Mark had an allergic reaction to something, spontaneously erupted in hives, swelled up in the lips and face, and we spent a fun exhausting evening last night at the ER, on meds to contain the reaction.

And in the meantime, the nagging achiness in my back and chest got me worried that my p-neu wasn't actually gone, and went for a follow-up x-ray. The good news is my lungs are clear, the bad news is the cartilage in my ribcage is inflamed, something called costochondritis which was probably caused by me coughing for a month (OF COURSE I INJURED MYSELF COUGHING), so what started as a vague achiness now feels like a ribcage injury, and there's no real treatment except advil and resting it and letting it heal which is basically impossible because I have to breathe and OH MAH GAH it is always something.

I can't remember my last night of good sleep. I don't know when to hope for one again. And now Nathan is coughing from his chest.

*head on desk*

*sob*

So, happy Valentine's Day? Eat some chocolate and kiss your loved ones and don't let out a cough anywhere near me, because each cough triggers one step closer to the end of my sanity, and you don't want to be the last one. I promise.

Hugs and smooches or whatever.

A Year and a Half

Sweet little Charlotte,

You are eighteen months old! Happy half birthday, baby girl!

You have made strides in the last few months. Literally -- you're walking! You're eating everything under the sun (although not gaining much weight; will you always be our tiny delicate baby?) and finally starting to feed yourself a bit more.

Your wide bright eyes still get lots of comments, and your head is full of wispy wild hair. A lady in St Croix last week told you that the gap in your mouthful of teeth is called a sweet tooth -- the space is for your sweetness -- and I have decided it must be true. You are seriously so beautiful.

You have been a bit scared of strangers recently. More than a bit scared actually. Like, a room full of people  (even when you're safely in my arms and don't have to interact with anyone) sometimes makes you lose your sh!t. (People love you anyway. Don't worry. You're darling.)

You know a lot of words but don't have much to say, apparently. We have to content ourselves mostly with a lot of hi and what's that? and cheer in the moments you decide to say Dada or Eee-lee or Naynay, or ball, or blow us a kiss with your newest, night-night. Oh and when you do say my name, you call me Ommy which you should know makes me a little melty.

You continue to be the most flexible person in this house, rolling with everyone else's schedules and rarely making a fuss about it. You can never have enough attention, especially from Daddy. And the look on your face standing in your crib each morning to see whose turn it is to come "wake" you and play with you -- priceless.

You will occupy yourself for looooong stretches of time emptying and unloading your play groceries from your cart, or building with blocks, or your new favorite -- bringing us balls or small toys to throw so you can toddle after them and bring them back. It's fetch! And you're basically the cutest puppy we've ever had (don't tell Bowden and Simon).

You are frequently covered on your back in stickers, the product of having two older siblings. Likewise, showing up to the church nursery clinging to sippy cups labeled with a band that says "Anneliese" and sporting bibs with Nathan's name and monogram embroidered on them. You know, classic third kid stuff.

I can't believe how old you are already. My last baby, no longer a baby. A toddler, walking around the house in clothes that I remember Anneliese wearing when we were renovating this place, when you were but a series of kicks and stretch marks, gestating inside me. Traipsing around St Croix in a swimsuit your big sister learned to crawl on the beach in, like, oh I don't know, a few weeks ago. How is this possible already? Is this a last baby thing? Will you always seem younger and tinier in my mind than you really are?

You're spending this year's half-birthday a little sick. Or, a lot sick. We've been passing around some kind of cold virus (likely RSV, apparently) that moves straight to the chest. It eventually caused bronchitis in Anneliese, and I had pneumonia the week before we went to St Croix. And while we were there, it hit you too. So much coughing, so  much wheezing, so little sleep, so many tears. We're all praying it stays out of your lungs and you feel better soon, sweet sicky girl.

In the meantime, keep smiling in between the sneezes, keep hiding behind your hands when someone says "where's Charlotte?" and know that you can put your little head on my shoulder for a hug any any any any time you want.

Love you so much. Happy half-birthday, little one.

Home Again, Home Again

We are home from St Croix!

My brother is officially married and I have a new sister-in-law!

Brad and Marija - Kelly Greer Photography

It was such a lovely trip. The weather was beautiful, our house was beautiful, the wedding was beautiful, the beaches were beautiful. (The flights were okay.)

I will post more when I have sorted through our hundreds (thousands?) of pictures!