It's feeling balmy...

I never thought I would see the day when I would be excited about temps in the high 30's, but it's been downright balmy in CT the last few days. Of course the high 30's feel great when it's been in the upper teens and lower 20's for much of the last month. Heck, 4 days ago it was a high of 18 with the wind chill at 0 - yes it was really freaking cold!


I am about at my wit's end with the snow and unfortunately it is only the 2nd week of February which means that more snow will undoubtedly find it's way upon us. This is the most snow that I have seen in my three years in CT and I'm ready to see the grass again (last time I saw it was December I think!). I'm getting cabin fever! Okay no more complaining. At least most of the snow has melted from our driveway and I am starting to see patches of our back porch again! I can't wait for Spring!


Here are some pictures from the last few weeks:

Austin in his new robe

Austin and Noah enjoying their lunch date

Sledding!

"Aren't I cute?"

Trying to pull his lawnmower in the sled - He wasn't very successful!

Daddy and Austin

Not happy about the snow on his mittens

Kristen and Charlie at my Jr. Woman's After Holiday "Margaritaville" Party

Until next time,

Psalty, the Singing Songbook and Wednesday Silliness

I was fortunate to grow up in a Christian household listening to Christian music. Psalty, the Singing Songbook, was always a favorite of mine and my brother and sister, and I swear we knew the words to every song for albums 1-5. I started to think of Psalty, just in time for Christmas present ideas and passed that one along to my mom as an idea for Austin. It turns out there are 12 Psalty (Kid's Praise) albums now and my mom bought him all 12! I love being able to pass this music on to Austin and it's amazing that I still know the words to most of the songs!

If you need good Christian praise music for your little ones, I definitely recommend the Kid's Praise albums. It's fun, catchy music and you might just find yourself singing along!

And to make the grandparents happy - a few pictures of Austin and I being silly on a Wednesday night! (pardon the nice, red pimple under my nose - yes, I'm 32 and I still break out!!)

We're Home...

At least at my parent's home, but we are so thankful to be out of the hospital. It was quite the early Christmas present when the doctor said that Austin would be released today. Thank you God!

Austin is in very good spirits and has been throwing a couple of his terrible two tantrums, so I think it's safe to say that things are returning to normal. I'm still a little nervous about getting through today without any more episodes, but I trust that God is watching out for our little guy.

Thanks to everyone for their encouraging words and prayers. Merry Christmas!

Love,

God's Plan isn't always Our Plan

The past few days haven't exactly gone as planned.


Things started off better than expected with our plane rides to Houston. Even though it was icy and wet in Connecticut, we left on time and Austin was a dream on the flight. We figured we were goners for the next leg of our trip, but again our flight was on time and Austin slept for much of the flight. Our trip was off to a great start.


And then Thursday night came....


Right after we put Austin to bed, we heard a gagging noise and then his little voice saying "I all messy." I was still optimistic as I cleaned up the mess, thinking that maybe something he ate just hadn't sat well, but this changed 30 minutes later when round two occurred. It was a loooong night, with Charlie and I taking shifts so that we could at least get a little rest. Poor sweet Austin threw up all night long. It continued until around 7:00 am, when he seemed to turn a corner and start to feel a little better. He was asking for water and food, so we started slow with sips of water and after he had kept it down for almost an hour, we progressed to a little more water. It wasn't more than 15 minutes later that he threw up every last bit of water and we were starting over again. We tried again around 4:00 pm, but the same thing happened. At this point, Austin had only had one wet diaper for the day, so I knew that he was getting very dehydrated and since he still couldn't keep anything down, we went ahead and called our doctor. The on-call doc called us back and told us to head to the ER, so we thanked our lucky stars that we weren't in Connecticut (in the middle of a winter storm) and headed for the hospital.


We got into a room pretty quickly in the ER. Our IV was started and Austin seemed to perk up a little. After he had gotten some much needed fluids, the doctors had us start to give him water again. Everything seemed to be going well, but all of a sudden Austin again threw everything back up and the doctor said that we would be admitted to the hospital. It was at this point, that I started to feel pretty bad. My parents took me their home to experience the joy of the same stomach virus that Austin was enduring, and Charlie stayed with Austin at the hospital.


I felt much better in the morning, and Austin started to eat and drink a little and keep things down. He was released from the hospital around 5:00 pm on Saturday and I was hopeful that the worst was behind us. Little did I know that the lovely diarrhea would start only 30 minutes later and would continue heavily through the night. It was 5:00 am early Sunday when he again threw up and we headed back to the ER.


I am writing this blog from the chair in Austin's hospital room, so yes we are still here and Austin is still having trouble keeping food and liquids in his little body. He is still on the IV, so thankfully he is staying hydrated, but he has to be able to self hydrate before this adventure will be over.


While this hasn't exactly been the Christmas vacation that we hoped for, we have still seen God's love and plan in action. We have had three wonderful visits from people/churches/businesses in the Southeast Texas area just today. The Ridgefield Retirement Home visited along with Santa and delivered a hot rod car for Austin to play with. Next, the Central Baptist Church of Buna came and brought Austin a Build-a-Bear.


Here is a link to the story on the local news station - Austin is featured!!
http://setxhomepage.com/content/fulltext/?cid=33631&shr=addthis


And last, the Neches Federal Credit Union delivered a little Christmas tree decorated completely with Disney's Cars ornaments and toys (if you know Austin, you know how completely perfect this tree is!)






It is so awesome to see the generosity and love that people have for others at Christmas time. We didn't know any of the people that visited us today, but it meant so much to see the love that they had for Austin and the other children in the hospital during this holiday season.

Austin hanging in his hospital crib

We are in the hospital for at least one more night and maybe even longer, but God's plan is perfect and I just have to trust that there is a reason for all of this. Here's to hoping that all of you reading this are having a wonderful and safe holiday season. Merry Christmas to you all!

Love,

I am so Pee-roud!

I wasn't sure I would ever see this day. Up until this point, our Baby Bjorn potty has been a toy. Austin will sit on it for a few seconds and then announce that he is done with not a piddle in sight. That all changed last night. Austin was in the bathtub and Charlie decided to introduce Austin to the "pull the finger" trick, which Austin then wanted to copy. The child was working very hard to reproduce the "sound" that his father had produced and we started to get a little concerned that something "else" may show up in the bathtub. We asked Austin if he needed to poo-poo in the potty and of course, he said "yes". I brought in the baby potty and placed Austin on it, and low and behold, the child started to pee! Yes, my child peed in the potty for the first time ever! We celebrated, we danced, we congratulated and gave him a present for his awesomeness! I don't know if we'll see it again for a long time, but I was one proud momma last night!

A Day Out with Thomas

This past Saturday, we attended our first Day Out with Thomas. I'm sure you can tell by past posts that Austin loves Thomas the Train. Once we found out a life-size Thomas was coming to a train station near us, we hurried to buy our tickets because we knew Austin would love it. And LOVE it he did!

Our pic with Thomas

The side view

Austin ready for his train ride (wearing his conductor hat!)

There were lots of activities to do at the station besides the actual train ride. We met Sir Topham Hatt, watched Thomas videos, played with Thomas trains, and took lots of pictures. Oh and of course we went into the gift shop which means we left with lots of Thomas goodies!

Austin, a little unsure of Sir Topham Hatt

Austin playing with Thomas

Austin and his Nonna, who joined us for our fun trip

A Day Out with Thomas is a yearly event at the Essex Train Station, so I am sure that this will be just the first of many visits to see Thomas!

Happy Halloween

While this was Austin's third Halloween, it was the first Halloween where he actually "got" what was going on. I thought that I would at least have one more year where I got to pick the costume, but Austin quickly made it known that he was going to be Thomas for Halloween. For all you folks out there without little boys, Thomas is Thomas the Train and quite the phenomenom with boys Austin's age. So I found a Thomas costume (one size fits all up to age 6!) and we were set. We actually got to wear the costume three times this Halloween season, so we definitely got our money's worth!

We practiced with him on how to knock or ring the doorbell and then say "Trick or Treat", followed by a "thank you" after receiving our candy. He was doing great with it when we practiced at home, but had a little stage fright when we went trick or treating for real. We had him go up to our door first and the first thing he said when Charlie opened the door was "Candy!". He did better as we went to each house and finally had it down by the end of the night! He had a blast and our neighbors loved seeing "Thomas".

The best treat was when our good friends stopped by with their little boy Noah (Austin's buddy). When we opened the door, Austin was so excited to see him and we were able to get some pictures of the boys together. Thanks for stopping by, Christine, Joe and Noah!

I'll leave you with a few pictures of our fun Halloween!

Austin ready for his first time Trick or Treating

Our Thomas the Train pumpkin (this thing took hours!!)

Austin as Thomas the Train

Family Pic at our neighbors

Noah and Austin