Our Goin Life

I am not even sure where to start here. Andy and I have been wanting to take the kids to the beach this summer for a while. It was the only thing I had wanted for my birthday. Then he went to work in a an office and it looked like that wasn’t going to happen.

Then suddenly we received some of the worst news ever. I do not even know how to put this into words on a blog post. It is something much better shared in person but I know that isn’t an option for all of us. Andy’s best friend of 15 years. A man he had shared many experiences with, lived with, Andy was his best man a few years back, name Shaun. We love Shaun so much and his wife. They were blessed to have a baby girl just after Andrew was born and another about 6 months after Paul T. Well, a little over a week ago we got the very tragic news that their new baby girl died suddenly of SIDS, the mysterious crib death. My throat swells just typing this. I cannot begin to imagine what they are going through.

Needless to say we had to see them. They announced the memorial services in Beaumont for last weekend and we spent all of last week getting ready to go. Got hotel room, rental vehicle, what to pack! I’ve never traveled with little kids so I brought everything we own I think.

It was a very emotional trip. Our friends had moved away when they were pregnant with their first girl to Florida so we’d never met either child and haven’t seen them in over 3 years. We were so happy to see them and meet their beautiful daughter, and so sad to see them under these circumstances. No parent should ever have to go through such a thing.

Andy and I decided that since we were going to be only a couple of hours from the beach we would drive over there for our last day and spend an hour. Andrew loves digging so much right now and we knew he’d really dig the sand on the beach.

We actually were closer to a beach than we thought and went to a crappy one on Saturday for a bit between the funeral and going to dinner with our friends. It was not a nice beach. Had tons of busted shells and Paul T wanted to eat everything! But there was some digging sand for Andrew and we got to test the waters so to speak. The place we stopped was actually torn up by the big hurricane last summer. There used to be a wall right where we were and we saw some reminents of it along the shore. The place we went Sunday was in Galveston and much nicer and cleaner. I wish we could have stayed more than an hour. but now we know and will plan the trip for that and can get to the beach more often.

Andrew loved it! So did Paul T. I wish I could have taken more pics and vids of them playing together in the sand. I didn’t want to get sand all in my camera. It was so cute though! We dug big holes and Andrew filled them with water and Paul T would sit in them!

I’m not afraid to admit I was anxious about the trip. Aside from the tragic thing we were going to be facing, our baby does not like long car trips and I wasn’t sure how Andrew would do with it either. Then there was the sleeping in a strange room and eating without a real table and just everything you know. I had no idea what it would be like with a 2 and a half year old and a baby! But I’ll tell ya, it went great! Our kids are so awesome! Paul still doesn’t like long car rides but the rental we got had a bench back seat so I could sit back there with them and nurse PT in his seat and play with Andrew when needed. We spent so much time driving not just to get there but all around while there that I am in no hurry to get them back in those seats!

They slept OK. The bed was small for all of us and it was different so Paul woke more than usual but getting them to sleep wasn’t as hard as we’d thought it would be. And they didn’t sleep in the car as much as we thought they would. Andrew especially seemed very interested ion where we were going.

I have so much more I’d like to tell about the journey, but time is limited around here. I will just say our kids surprised us with their excellent behavior. Well, we knew they were good kids but we didn’t know how good until we put them to the test! It went so well in fact that we plan to take another short trip as soon as this one is paid off.

Andy got an iphone btw and started a folder for pics from it on our picasa album. There are some pics fromt he trip there as well as some fron around here before we left. He will be updating it ocassionally as he takes pics:
Pictures from the Phone!

To Shaun and Jex, we love you and your family and our hearts and thoughts are with you as you learn to live after this tragic event in your lives.

No videos prepared to post this time, sorry friends, but I do not have much time.

We’ve been going like mad this week as usual and I am exhausted! When i say that though it is a good thing. We aren’t so packed full of events we miss out on life either. Our idea of ‘going like mad’ is going tot he library events like water park story time today and story time earlier in the week, and going to the Civic Center pool and playing outside every evening after dinner. but this heat saps me dry quickly. I push through so Andrew can play and Paul T too, but it is so tiring to me to be outside in the heat.

Andrew’s favorite thing right now though is going digging in the areas surrounding our building after dinner. The suns usually heading down so it isn’t too bad and if there’s a breeze we can stay out for an hour or more.

We also discovered the civic center pool! I love it. Andy hasn’t been able to come with us just yet but we hope he can join us next week. After story time we head on over there. They have a great section that ramps down into the water for babies. Then the next area is only about 2 feet deep so Andrew can walk in it and experience his weight in the water without being held or wearing a vest. There’s also a slide that’s small enough for him and as long as I catch him at the bottom or at least help his to stand back up, he can go on that thing again and again!

This morning we went to the local water park for a free thing the library does. They have a mini story time before the park opens and then the kids can play on the kids area until opening time. IOt was fun but it is hard for us to be up and out that early!

And sadly without Andy along with us it is impossible to get many pictures. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some soon for everyone. Thanks for checking in!

We still haven’t sorted and edited the high quality vids from the other class but these are some quick clips from his last class.

Run through part way.

Andrew had been doing this no problem until Daddy got the cam ready and then it became a cluster of kiddos – that’s what it usually looked like actually!

Jumping Jacks!

And of course Paul T! He wants to tumble too you know.

Andrew playing around one day when Andy was at work and watching what else – The Wiggles!

Paul T playing at the park in our complex with some bits of Andrew and even a bit of Daddy!

This is great but hard to tell. It’s Paul T kicking nad splashing like he’s swimming! Also Andrew is on the other side of the pool back there jumping in like he Big Boy he is!

Andrew and I are done nursing. He is not so happy about it at times, and it is hard for me too. He still asks every morning but a habit of over 2 and a half years is difficult to let go of. Andy and I both feel that it is the right time. I was growing resentful and I’d tried and tried to make it work happily for both of us and it just wasn’t.

Overall it was an amazing 32 months of nursing my first baby. He is so much more of a Big Boy now that we’ve stopped though. Even if he still asks when he is tired, I know that it is only for a short while longer. It’s like he’s just grown up all of a sudden. I have even had to take down a lot of the baby pictures we have of him around. We didn’t have any pics of him hung up that were over a year old and it seems wrong since he will be 3 in 4 short months.

I am actually now enjoying nursing Paul T more and able to relax about it better. Andrew is even more accepting of it, he says “Paul not go sleep, he’s just eating.” Andrew doesn’t like it when I put Paul T to sleep because that usually means we have to be a bit quieter. And i think he’s liking to play with his baby brother quite a bit more now. They played chase today! Andrew was crawling around trying to get Paul to follow. It even worked for a while! And no one can make Paul laugh harder and deeper than Andrew.

Andrew is now also pretending to be a baby a bit more often, though it is already subsiding. We let him and play along with him a bit. We remind him it is pretend and then go through some of the things he gets to do now that he isn’t a baby, like eat ice cream! I have also let him pretend to nurse a couple of times, but that was really only the first couple of days.

It has been a week today since our last time. I had tried to go back up to full time with him for a while to see if it helped out when we stopped and I think it made it easier. He got it whenever he wanted for a few weeks then we went back to once a day for a couple of weeks, then stopped. I didn’t fully plan all of that, just followed my heart and what I felt I needed to do at the time. It’s still hard.

I tell him it is hard for me too. I have to resist the urge to give it to him when he asks because like him it is a habit for me. But it was so uncomfortable at the end and just didn’t seem like what he really needed anymore.

I know I would have weaned him at 2 years old had I not had Paul. Andrew lost out on 6 months worth of milk while I was pregnant and to be fair to him, to be sure he got his full two years, I had planned to nurse him until Paul was 6 months old. Well Paul is 8 months old now so we went a bit over, but the time is just right.

And it is amazing how much food that child eats now! He always ate a lot before but now it seems like so much more. I love watching him eat and tell him so all the time. In fact our relationship has grown in a lot of ways.

I also give him a special yogurt drink and vitamin every morning. It helps him. And of course we still do lots of cuddles and I hope that he never weans from that!

This has been a very sad happy but happy overall. I can say my Big Boy had the best start in life!