Kayla's First Easter

Last weekend, we traveled to David and Susie's house in Fayetteville,NC, to celebrate Kayla's first Easter. In addition to her first holiday, that weekend was supposed to be the celebration of many wonderful firsts for Kayla: her first road trip; her first time meeting Uncle David, Aunt Susie, and her three Sattelmeyer cousins; her first Easter basket; her first time wearing a dress; etc. Instead, Kayla spiked a high fever in a two hour window and experienced a whole different set of firsts: her first trip to an ED, her first dose of Tylenol, her first IV (and her second IV), her first spinal tap, her first hospital gown, and her first five-day hospital stay. While we were there so long only on a technicality (of course you never want anything bad to happen to your child, but you especially don't want anything bad to happen over a holiday weekend!), it was still quite an ordeal for all of us. Thank you so much to Aunt Susie and Uncle David for putting up with your extended visitors, for all of the meals you sent to the hospital, and for keeping Avery entertained during "shift changes". We are so appreciative of all of your help during a stressful time! We will come again soon and stay only for the promised two days, haha.

My first hospital gown (look how sad Mommy looks).
My first IV and spinal tap.
My first botched IV and my first set of pasties.My first night of trying to sleep in a hospital (excluding my birth!).
My second hospital visitor (Aunt Susie was the first).
My big brother's first time visiting me in the hospital. After a quick "Hello Tok" and shake of my crib, he was enraptured by the television set.
Still watching TV...
...but his "teet teets" put a smile on my face!
Look Maw, I feel much better!!Fever free after 36 hours.Time to go home. Finally. I am exhausted.

Happy 2 Months Old, Kayla!

And....GO TRIBE!!!

Kayla's First Trip to Cypress Gardens

Justification for Random Photos

For those of you who don't know, I am a lazy mom and do not put together baby scrapbooks or even print out pictures to stick in a random photo album. I started this blog before Avery was born and it seems to be the only tool I have consistently used to document my son's (and now my daughter's!) childhood with. Sometimes it gets challenging to find a creative way to "narrate" this blog and I end up putting a bunch of random photos in a post. So bear with me...while these photos may seem random and boring to one person, they are important pictures I want my kids to see. :)

A couple of weekends ago, Phil and Avery made it down to Edisto Island again to see Ninny & Grandaddy before they left South Carolina. Avery enjoyed gathering and playing with more tacky beach house decorations, TV remote controls, and playing with Daddy in the sand. Poor boy was wiped out afterwards!

Avery finds all kinds of creative ways to play with his toys.

Avery knows where to meet women.

"Teet teet, Tok" (Adult translation: Kiss kiss, Kayla).

Avery had to drag a chair over to his piano one day....he was getting tired of playing and standing, I guess. :)This is a self-inflicted time-out. I yelled at Avery for starting to climb on the stove and he started pouting and put himself in his "time-out corner".Avery is still a bit unsure of his Buzz-mobile and has yet to ride it for more than 5 feet. What a great toy he can grow into, though.Playing trains with Grandaddy.Ninny & Grandaddy each pushing precious cargo."Engineering is fun, Daddy!" Apparently, Kayla was getting a kick out of helping Phil try to fix my phone (that went through the washing machine). Talking to the birds. The bib says cutie pie. Enough said. :)

Happy 6 Weeks, Kayla!

To A New Beach Season

Here's to a new beach season, complete with a fourth member of the Jean Team. I can not wait to put Kayla in little bikinis, baby flip flops, and sunhats (and lots of sunscreen, of course!). We kicked off Beach Season 2011 at Ninny & Grandaddy's rented beach house on Edisto Island. It was a little windy and the water was only in the 60's, but that didn't stop my water boy from having a blast.

Avery can entertain himself with anything. Including tacky beach house decorations. Grandaddy and Kayla enjoying some sunshine on the porch.

Ninny & Kayla snuggling out on the porch.

Avery is anxious to get on that beach!

Mommy & Kayla enjoying the beach underneath the umbrella (oh, the sacrifices we make for our children!)Kayla all bundled up.

Avery can make friends anywhere.

Do you see the dolphin?

Dolphin zoomed in.

Dolphin & boat watching on the beach.

These girls were kind enough to lend Avery their pink boogie board. And he was pretty darn good at it!All by myself. Notice the look of concentration on Avery's face.This water may be freezing, but I am still quite the ladies' man.

Lessons from Daddy.

Kayla finally gets some sun. Avery running after seagulls on the beach.Enjoying the "Avery show" when it was time to leave.