2 Year Well Visit

I took Mattie to the doctor for her 2-year well visit today.

 Her current stats are as follows:

Weight - 32 lbs. 6 oz. (+95%)
Height - 37 1/2 in. (+95%)
Head Circumference - 20 1/4 in. (+95%) 

She also received a flu shot and the Hepatitis A vaccination.  She handled the entire experience like a champ.  I, on the other hand, did not.

After taking Mattie to the scale to be weighed, I walked back into the room and bent over to put her on the ground.  All at once, I felt my lower back pop in every direction possible and I immediately fell to my knees in pain.  I was sweating and felt like I could vomit right then and there.  Tears were streaming down my face, but I didn't want to scare Mattie so I had to suck it up.  My sweet girl was very concerned nonetheless and laid her head in my lap and rubbed my leg.  She knew I was hurt and tried her best to comfort me.  It was precious.

I did not let on to the doctor that anything had happened and walked out of there cringing with pain.  Cold packs and Advil better do some work - my brothers and their broods are coming into town tomorrow and I'm ready to smooch, squeeze and hug my niece and nephew - and the moms to be! :)

The Great Smoky Mountains

We changed it up a bit this year and decided to go west for our fall vacation.  There is nothing more beautiful than the month of October in the North Carolina/Tennessee Mountains.  We thought it would be a nice change from the sandy beaches of Florida.

It was a nice change alright - rainy and cloudy all week.  We got ONE nice day out of the entire week - but we got as much out of that day as possible.  In fact, we got as much out of every day as possible, despite the yucky weather.

We stayed in a beautiful cabin right outside of Gatlinburg, TN.  Driving up the steep driveway I thought to myself, "This is going to be so relaxing!"  I envisioned Robert and myself putting the kids to bed and relaxing in the hot tub that sat outside on the overlook deck.  The living room TV was visible from the deck so having Sunday night's NFL game on would be an added bonus.

SPOILER ALERT:  That vision did not become a reality.

Instead - we arrived at the cabin to find that it had not one set of solid pine, split-your-head-open-if-you fall stairs, but two.  So as we scrambled around trying to find a solution to this very serious problem, who do you think was trying to constantly go up and down each flight of steps?  Yes - the toddler...and very unstable-like of course.  After completely stressing ourselves out for about an hour or so, we finally just moved the loveseat right in front of the steps leading downstairs and found a leaf to the dining room table that we wedged between the spindles.  Tada!

We rallied the troops to get ready for bed around 8 pm and finally got snuggled on the couch around 8:30 pm.  We cracked open an adult beverage and looked at each other and smiled.   Ahhh...."finally," I said.  The hot tub was warming up and we were settling in for our first night of vacation...or at least we thought we were.

All of a sudden I hear a groaning sound coming from downstairs, followed by a wheezing/barking sound.  I rush down to find Mattie sitting up sounding like she was working very hard to breathe.  The noise was so frightening, I was expecting to her to be blue in the face when I turned on the light.  Her color was fine, but she wouldn't talk and her little chest was pumping as fast as it possibly could go.  We were freaked out.

Mattie has had issues in the past with cough and congestion when colder weather hits, but never anything quite this bad.  We attempted a steam bath and then a warm bath after that.  Every once in awhile she would show signs of joy.  Our confusion grew with every smile.  After about two hours of home remedies, we all laid down to see if sleep would be the answer.  That was a BIG negative.  Mattie struggled to catch her breath, which prompted her to sit up in the bed - laying down was not an option for her.

We finally decided to make a trip to the Emergency Room.  It was 12 am and we woke Evan up, got him dressed and we piled into the car.  We were lucky for a quick visit and the diagnosis ended up being croup.  She received a breathing treatment and a steroid and was breathing much better by the time we left.  I am so glad we made the decision to go to the hospital - even for just piece of mind.  That was a very scary situation that I never want to experience again.  We made it back home around 1:30 am.  Day one of vacation was GRRREAT.

****Oh, and Evan just reminded me that on the way to the hospital he tracked dog poop into Robert's car that he managed to smear all over our umbrella that we absolutely needed for the rainy, dreary weather the following day.  Awesome.

Despite day one, we did end up having a fun-filled vacation.  Robert had to work some, which put a little bit of a damper on things, but we made up for it with lots of activities.

We played putt-putt, raced go carts and rode silly rides...

 We spent some time at the Aquarium to get out of the rain...

We visited Dollywood and had a FABULOUS time...

We took a ride up the mountain on the Sky Lift...

  And we definitely did some lounging around...

We finished off our vacation with a night at the Wilderness Lodge.  This resort is very similar to Grey Wolf Lodge...indoor waterpark and play arena.  The kids loved it.  We will definitely plan to stay there again, but for a longer period of time.

I'm sad that vacation is already over, but I'm so happy that vacation is over.  Does that make sense?  Where to next year?

Let's Talk About Poop

Evan's poop is finally making it into the potty.  Yaaaaaaaay!  The poor kid has been terrified to poop on the potty for the past couple of months, but for whatever reason he just decided to start doing it last week.  I can't tell you how happy I am about this accomplishment.  There's nothing worse than trying to hand wash poop covered underwear - I eventually just started throwing them away.  Call me wasteful or what you will, but having poop between my fingers not once...not twice...but more than I care to count is reason enough in my book.

We went back and forth on whether or not we should put him back in Pull Ups, but we were afraid he would digress in his training.  He transitioned so easily to peeing in the potty and was so proud to be wearing underwear that we didn't want to compromise that.  We did try the whole do you need to be back in a diaper tactic, but it didn't work.  He was literally just frightened of pooping.  So we waited...

This waiting period of two months was ridiculous and frustrating.  Evan knew he shouldn't be pooping in his pants, so he began holding his poop for as long as he could - usually two days - until he just couldn't hold it anymore.  At that point he would dance around the house holding his butt, whining and crying that his butt hurt.  We tried to encourage him to sit on the potty.  We would even try to convince him that pooping would feel good and his butt would feel better.  Nothing ever worked.  He would get angry and upset and then shut down.

I'm not really sure what flipped the switch for him.  At one point last week I told him that Lightening McQueen and Mater were upset that he kept pooping on them.  Evan seemed concerned and asked me several times if they were mad at him.  Maybe this helped?

I invited Mimi over for dinner last week and while we were eating (lovely dinner talk) I was explaining to her how frustrated I was the night before trying to get Evan to poop on the potty.  I told her that I had to wash/throw way three pairs of underwear - all in about 10 minutes.  Evan was listening to this conversation and when I was finished he looked at me and said, "Mama, I want to go poop on the potty.  Will you help me?"  At first I was thinking this is not the time to be messing around with me boy.   But he seemed sincere so I helped him on the potty and awaaaay he went!  He cheered when he was through and we told him how proud we were - and the rest is history.

Evan is officially potty trained, my friends.

 

Let Beach Season Begin

Saturday.  Eighty degrees outside.  Looking for something to do...

LET BEACH SEASON BEGIN!

Evan has been begging to go to the beach for several weeks now and Saturday couldn't have been more perfect of a day to go.  Mattie hasn't been feeling very well for the past few days, but I thought the salty air and cool breeze might be somewhat therapeutic for her as well.  So while Robert worked, Mimi helped me tote both kids and all of our beach gear over to Garden City Beach.

There's no trip we take that doesn't involve some sort of issue and this trip was no exception.  It was bad enough that Evan had an accident in his swimming trunks (#2), but being that the weather is just starting to get warm I have not had a chance to purchase new summer clothes that fit - so his shorts were not easy to get down turning this accident into a disgusting, sandy mess.  Luckily Evan didn't seem to mind being completely nude on the beach with his mama wiping his rear end - it was one of those moments where I realized just how much my life has changed.  But I smile about it.  I really do.

Mattie Jane's First Beach Trip