Turfbuilding

On St. Patricks Day Mommy, Baylor, Christian, KayKay, Tex, and the newly engaged couple(Mim & Travis) all set out for Houston Texas. Ninny & Sam could hardly wait to see their sweet boy and Newest Great-Grandchild. It was pretty comical to watch us all hurry through the airport to catch our flight. We were a little delayed at Security b/c apparently mom (KayKay) looks a little too much like a criminal. They did everything but physically strip search her...I'm serious they had her lifting her shirt, taking off anything she could(belt, shoes, etc) and unpacking her bag. We told her to stop robbing banks and maybe they'd let her through :). Anyway, the flight was good even if the kids were awake for most of it and we arrived safely in Houston. Christian was a little timid until Ninny told him she had a toy room-then she was his favorite person. We had such a good time visiting family and showing off our boy and girl. Everyone was amazed by how big Christian has gotten and of course they all thought Baylor was beautiful. On Saturday night we went to the Houston Rodeo with Uncle Jeff, Scooter (Uncle Scott) and AJ. Baylor stayed home with Ninny and Sam but Christian loved it. He was a little disapointed that he couldn't go pet the horses, but he had so much fun watching all of it. Brooks and Dunn performed after the rodeo and he danced and had so much fun. He was so tired by the end of the night he could hardly keep his eyes open. The only downside to the night was that we couldn't get Travis to wear any boots :)(and KayKay got sick on the way home, but none of you want the details of that BELIEVE ME). The rest of us were decked out in our cowboy finest including Christian in a brand new pair of boots and Wrangler Jeans that looked so cute on his little butt!! The rest of the trip was spent visiting with family and hanging out arouind the house. The highlight of Monday was watching Christian and his cousin Savannah (2 months younger) play and get totally hyper with one another. I wish we lived closer so they could see each other more often. We came home to Nashville on Wednesday afternoon and it was another good flight--both kids slept almost the whole flight. We had two nights of Baylor sleeping all night in TX and two nights after we got home. Unfortunately Friday night wasn't as good but she only woke up once at @4am and slept until 8:30 after that. If only our son didn't wake up so early then we would both get to sleep in. Thanks to my husband for letting me this morning :)

Here are some pics from our trip.

Getting ready for the Rodeo

Talking to Ninny

Monica, Randy & Savannah

Christian and Savannah playing

The new engaged couple!! Kim & Travis Clonch June 2, 2007

Great-Uncle Scooter and Aunt Janet

The Braggs and the Miloms shared our second blessing together

The proud uncle

Our big family-Macks and McInturffs

Our girl looked like a little angel

On March 12th Otter creek had their annual Baby Blessing. It is a sweet time of encouragement to the parents and asking God's blessings on our newest children. Dele Wilcher (who is an awesome woman after God's own heart) said a few words about bringing her children up at Otter Creek with other godly friends and what a blessing it has been. Our minister Tim Woodroof also had words of encouragement for us. One of our childrens ministers, Melanie Brown, had a charge for us to raise our babies to know the Lord, protect and serve them in the way we should and for the congregation to support us in this effort. Than each child had a few pictures on screen and each family went on stage. As you went up You were given a baby bible with your childs name on it and words of blessings were spoken over them. It is a very special time for our church family. This was the first BIG event in our new sanctuary and it will always be a special memory. Baylor was one of 29 babies born over the past year so it was good we had such a big stage:) It is also special to note that those 29 babies were born to only 27 families because we had TWO sets of twins!! (The Blankinships have two CUTE boys and the Glissons had two BEAUTIFUL girls) Baylor and Christian were so well behaved and we are so thankful for our precious gifts from God.

Sorry you have to look sideways to see me singing

All 5 classes performing the finale

Singing "He's got the Whole World in his Hands"

Reciting "Humpty Dumpty"

We have gotten a little behind lately...sorry! Christian had a program at school on March 16th and it was SOOO CUTE!!! His class were all dressed in yellow shirts and sang "God made Me" and God is so Good", they all said two nursery rhymes/songs they do in class everyday and then each child had a chance to say one by themselves. It was priceless to hear those sweet voices on a microphone. Most all of them said "Humpty Dumpty" (including Christian), but some said "Jack and Jill". Our little friends Ty and Carter would not say one at all, but they were still cute. Miss Eva told us that in practice Christian said "Hey Diddle Diddle" word for word and wished he would have done that one for everyone...oh well I'm just happy he did one period. Four other classes performed their own little songs and then at the end of the program all the classes got on stage and sang "He's got the Whole World, He is God and This Great Big World". They had hand movements to go along with the songs and they all looked so precious. Our boy is such a little performer--we'll see if it continues as he gets older.

Christian has started to use his imagination BIG TIME. Today we were working one of his many puzzles...this one happens to have an animal for each letter of the alphabet. We got to "M" which has a monkey and the phone rang so I went to our bedroom to get it. Afterwards Christian comes in and says "Mommy, a monkey is right there!" pointintg into space.I said "there is? where?" He pointed into the same space again. I proceeded to tickle him and say "The only monkey I see is a little boy named Christian!!" He of course found that to be so funny and we went back to his room to finish the puzzle. When we got to the letter "O" He said: "Mommy, there is an octopus in my bed...RUN" and we ran down the hall. I thought it was all so cute and funny. Tonight we were using our imagination in a not so fun way...I could not get him to bed b/c of the "monsters" that he kept talking about. He saw a little boy on TV the other day who was scared of monsters in his room. We talked about how they were'nt real and I pointed out how the little boy's mommy and daddy kept him safe. It obviously stayed with him b/c two days later I had to spend 10 minutes talking about the monsters that were'nt there. I tried a little of everything trying to calm & reassure him. After leaving and going back in 3 times I finally left him. I'm hoping we don't get a late night visitor that is scared...any tips from other monster stories and scared toddlers?

We have all had a few very rough days (and nights). They all start to run into each other when you don't get much sleep. Before last night Jeff and I each had gotten about 3 hrs a night...that is combined sleep not all at once. Days were not much better b/c Baylor just can't seem to get comfortable. Congestion seems to be getting better, but the cough really irritates her. We can't do anything for her except "supportive care" as the dr. called it, which basically means hold her and feed her what you can. She went through a period yesterday of only taking 2oz at at time which was a little scary to me, but now we are at 3oz and that makes me feel a little better. Her normal intake was about 41/2 every 3 hrs. We should see some more improvement, but it is hard to see her in suchmisery. She could hold onto the cough for at least two weeks, but we are praying it at least settles down to an occassional thing instead of all day. Now to the best husband part: You all know how hard Jeff works and it is even more this time of the year. He got home @ 9pm and I went straight to bed. I asked him to take her for a couple of hours and then wake me up. I told him he would have to wake me b/c I had taken a Tylenol PM. My back, hip, head and just about everything was hurting. I just wanted a few hours of good sleep. My sweet husband gave me the whole night! I heard a little bit at the beginng of the night, but otherwise was dead to the world until Christian( who has been a trooper) came in at 6:45am. Jeff was already gone to start his day on a third night of very little sleep. Please pray that he is able to function at work and that he can have the same good nights sleep tonight.

I'll start by saying BAYLOR IS OKAY. We spent the day in the Vanderbilt Childrens ER. She had been congested since Thursday and had only gotten worse. By midnight on Saturday she had a fever of 100.8 and just sounded miserable. We talked to triage and our doctor and we all decided she should be checked out since she is still so young. At only 8 weeks she could get bad fast if we did not catch something soon enough, so off we went-after dropping Christian off at Lipscomb to spend the day with Mim-we arrived at the hospital @ 9am. We were surprised to find the waiting room empty and we were taken back quickly. We listed off her symptoms and told them that big brother had the same(minus the fever) and hoped all they would do would be to listen to her lungs and make sure it was just a cold. They informed us that she was on the borderline (age wise) of them being required to preform the full gament of test and they would rather ere on the side of caution. We of course wanted to make sure our sweet girl was okay, but hated to think of her going through a lot of pricks and prodding--watching it was way worse than just imagining! They used a small vaccum to suck out @ half a pint of mucus and junk from her nose and lungs, drew blood, set up an IV and did a catheter to get a urine sample. The drawing of blood took awhile b/c Baylor seems to take after Mommy and her veins we're not cooperating. (People always have trouble drawing my blood for some reason) Then Jeff and I had to help hold/position her for X-rays. If all that didn't sound bad enough she then had to have a spinal tap. I really can't describe the feeling of watching them stick a needle in my poor baby's back while folding her in half to make her back arch as much as possible. Jeff and I left the room after watching the second attempt b/c it was just too much. Baylor was screaming her head off and I really don't know what kept me from doing the same. God was with us and kept us sane through it all. All of her test came back negative (they were looking for urinary tract infection, Meningitis, Pnemonia and who knows what else) and her blood cell counts were good.
She does have RSV which is a respriatory virus that in an adult or older child is just a bad cold. In infants her age it affects their little systems worse. She was given a dose of antibiotic and a list of things to look for that would send us back. We of course are praying that she does get better quickly and we don't have to visit them ever again. I do have to say that if you ever do need an ER for your child Vandy is the best and we felt they did everything they needed to do for our sweet baby girl. We came home around 3pm and Baylor has been exhausted from everything. She does not sound as congested (still pretty pitiful though) and we are praying for a better night. Thanks in advance for your prayers for our sweet baby and the rest of us as we recover.