Spring Break: Part 2

The rest of spring break consisted of a lot of running around. M and I visited my old buddies at MHS, and C and I went to look at houses in Knoxville with our realtor, Elizabeth. We really like her, but C and I can't agree on the level of renovation that we're okay with, so I'm afraid we may have to buy two different houses.

M had his nine-months pictures made at Master Portraits on Saturday afternoon, and we got a couple with live bunnies. They're cute, but they're not his best pictures ever (C grumbled that the pictures Mirm and I take are better...and free). That night we all gathered at Kristin's for the annual Easter egg hunt, and I was so excited about M's first hunt! I had bought the cutest pinata at Walmart earlier in the week, and Mom, Haylee, M, and I had filled it with Easter candy (well, M actually just chewed on a mini Hershey's bar and made a chocolatey mess on his hands and face). It was a big hit (no pun intended)!

I had recruited Tyra to be M's assistant during the hunt, and C filmed while I hobbled around (I had somehow managed to throw out my back so that by the time we got home, I could barely move). We hadn't planned on doing the hunt that night, but we changed it so that M and I wouldn't have to come back the following weekend, so I hadn't brought M's Easter basket. As I was crippled, someone had just given M a Walmart bag in lieu of a bag, and I flipped out when I came out and saw it. A plastic bag for his first Easter egg hunt?! I think not. Someone ran and brought him a real basket...although it was not as cute as the one I had at home, which was a Longaberger hand-me-down from (you guessed it) Longaberger Queen, Debbie. M enjoyed picking up the eggs and managed to do fairly well, primarily because his assistant had hidden the eggs and hid a few in illegal places just so she could snag them for the littlest egg-hunter.

Because my back prevented us from going to church on Sunday, we hung around until early afternoon, when Mom and I had to pack up M and return to Clarksville once more. Kristin and Mary's new friend Jamie came over to give me a steroid shot so I could stand the ride home, and somehow we managed to make it back.

Spring Break: Part 1

Spring Break finally rolled around; it seemed to take forever to arrive, as our extra 30-minutes schedule kicked in at the beginning of March. Mom had driven up on Tuesday of the week before SB because I needed to attend the UT Education Job Fair on Wednesday, the 17th. So up she came that morning, and back to Maryville she returned that afternoon with M and me. We spent the night at Mom's, and she kept M while I went to UT. Long drive for just an hour at UT, but I really wanted to introduce myself to the Oak Ridge Schools people--I'm aiming for a job at Oak Ridge High School. I'm not sure it did me any good because there must have been a thousand people there, and I doubt I made such an impression that the ORS lady will remember me, but it was worth a try. So less than 24 hours after we left Clarksville, we headed back up there so I could finish the work week. Haylee and Emily came with us to entertain M on the drive (since he's mobile and determined to walk, he is decidedly less pleasant while traveling), and they were invaluable!

H and E had a girls' day with Mom in Nashville on Thursday, and then they met back up with me and M at Debbie's house after school on Friday, and it was back to the familiar route home again for the five of us.

M was thrilled to be reunited with Skipper (I'm not sure the feeling was mutual!), and we had a hard time getting our little guy into bed that first night, but he woke up ready to tackle the day on Saturday. C and I took him and Mom to Knoxville to watch Thomas play soccer (he is sooo good!), and, as usual, M didn't care what we were doing as long as we were outside!

Later that day we went to Perpetual Motion for Jake's birthday party--what a great place! I love that the kids were active. M was too little, of course, to participate in the tumbling, but he enjoyed some one-on-one tumbling time with his mama. He was especially entertained by the mini-trampoline. Aunt Mary also introduced him to chocolate cake, which may make favorite aunt status difficult to steal away from her--she'll always be the one who never says no to candy.

Nine Month Checkup

Mason went to see Dr. Seawell for his nine month checkup on the 11th, and that was probably the last time he will see her (unless something unexpected comes up--knock on wood) since he is not due for another checkup until 12 months. Everything was great, even though he lost about a pound in the previous weeks because of the cold and the stomach bug. He weighed 16 pounds and 13 ounces, which put him in the 4th percentile (sigh), but he was 29 inches long, so he's in the 78th percentile on height, which is really encouraging. Of course, Mason can't make anything easy, so when I showed Dr. Seawell a rash he had developed on his bum, she tested it and decided it was a bacterial infection and needed a cream. High maintenance baby.

Aunt Mary had suggested that we start mixing his dry formula with Pediasure and ice cream to add some serious calories to his diet. I was leery of the ice cream because of his heart condition, but I ran right out to Kroger and loaded up on Pediasure as well as any table food I thought Mason could handle. He had totally stopped eating baby food but would still eat Puffs, so I wondered if he had just decided he was a big boy and wanted to eat like one. Sure enough, Mason ate everything I put in front of him that night (Gerber chicken and carrot sticks and diced peaches) and LOVED the Pediasure. It's like a baby milkshake, so I'm not what's not to like. I give him one in the morning and one before bed, so he's getting a few hundred extra calories each day. Maybe we'll graduate out of the single digit percentiles soon!

The Hospital...Again

Chris took Mason to the pediatrician about a month ago because he had a runny nose and sounded terribly congested again. The doctor told us to use saline and a humidifier, which we've done for months with no great improvement. Then a couple of weeks later I had to call again because he still wasn't better and was throwing up. The doctor still wasn't too concerned and said that it was actually a good thing that he was throwing up because it got all the mucus out. Of course, I'm freaking out because I always obsess over his weight, and he can't gain weight if he's chucking all the time.

So last Saturday night I had gone to the concert with the girls and got in bed around 1:30. Mason awoke at 4:30, and by 5:30 we were on our way to the ER because he had already thrown up 3 times and still had diarrhea. The next couple of hours were understandably unpleasant. They had to take blood and put in an IV, and finding a vein now is difficult because 1) his veins are tiny and 2)he has a lot of scarring that complicates the whole process. While we were waiting on the doctor, Mason developed a rash, and his fever was elevated (apparently, those things go together sometimes). The ER doc thought he had a stomach virus, and his bloodwork showed a low white cell count and CO2 levels, although his potassium was good (which is always the biggie for Mason because of his heart medications). They admitted us so that they could run fluids through him overnight, so Mason and I spent Sunday night at Gateway. Mom left church when I called her that morning, so she was with us by early afternoon.

Of course, Chris had to leave for Maryville again, so this made it even more difficult for him. I can't imagine how he felt leaving his son hooked up to an IV pump again. Debbie and Mom came back Monday morning and stayed with us until we were discharged about 1 that afternoon. Mason did great and had all the nurses charmed. They kept coming in to see his big blue eyes, and he never failed to put on a show.

Road Trip With the Girls

Thanks to Nick, Miriam had four free tickets to the Martina McBride/Trace Adkins concert in Evansville last Saturday night, so she and I headed up to Indiana with Tanicia and Kendra for a girls' night. Granted, none of us are particularly enamored of either of the headliners' music, but we are fond of road trips, and this one was no disappointment.

Although it was really difficult for me to leave Mason for so long (I think this was the first time I've ever not been around when he went to bed for the night), we had a blast! The concert was surprisingly good, and Tanicia provided much entertainment with her booty-shakin' during "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" (okay, how DO you spell that?!). We had no trouble staying awake on the drive back, but we did about pee our pants laughing a few times. We rolled into my house after 1 a.m.; it was the first time I'd been up that late for anything but a crying baby in as long as I could remember. I'm going to miss them!

Reminiscing...

I was just backing up the documents on my work laptop in preparation for the big move to whatever school I'll be teaching in next year, and I came across some pictures of Mirm and Jen at the first Jazz on the Lawn last year. I thought I would post a few for old time's sake. I was uber-pregnant, but the pictures are cute, and I love that they're typical of how we always hung out: playing games and relaxing outside.

Life is going to be so different when Chris and I move back home this summer and Jen and Tommy head for the base in Heidelberg. The Collinses and the Shasserres were the first couples we became friends with as a couple, and we have done something with them at least once a week since shortly after we moved here. It's going to be a shock to our social lives not to have ready-made plans every weekend...we might actually have to work to fill up our social calendar! I can't express how much I'm going to miss Miriam and Jen. I'm going to pull a Scarlett O'Hara and not think about it today because it makes me cry (just ask the guys, who were horrified when all three of us boo-hooed in Blackhorse Brewery last weekend! Haha!).

Single Parenthood...Temporarily

Today is day three of being a single parent during the week while Chris is back in East Tennessee. He left Sunday afternoon for Knoxville, where he stayed with the Oehlmanns so he could be at Regions headquarters bright and early Monday morning for his first day of training. For a few weeks he'll be moving around doing a bunch of different training exercises before he gets to settle into his new job as branch manager of the Regions in Clinton. It sounds like he has settled into life as a boarder at Tom and Pattie's house in Maryville, where he'll live through the work week until Mason and I finish the school year and find a house back home.

Besides not having Chris around to help out with Mason, everyday life is much tougher these days, as I'm having to keep the house immaculate in case potential buyers stop in for a showing...not an easy task now that Mason has decided he wants to be in EVERYTHING! Last night he figured out he can crawl all the way around the polka-dot chair in the living room if he keeps turning it with one arm as he goes between it and the wall. Quite clever, actually.

Every night we send Daddy a picture to help him not feel so homesick (although I doubt it works all that well!). Last night we sent him this video of bathtime because Mason would pretty much LIVE in the water if we would let him, and I know Chris misses these little nighttime routines.