10 Things I Learned This Week

1. I've given up on the reality that I will never be tan.ever.again.
2. Watching a loggerhead turtle crawl from the ocean to lay her eggs in person is the most amazing thing I've.
3. My soul needs a trip to the mountains is in order!  I miss that clean mountain air and incredible views. 
4. Sweet little boy hugs and kisses is something a mama needs every single day.
5. Watching my baby boy learn new words every day is incredible. 
6. Ethan is very close to being able to swim on his own.  He gets really excited to be in the pool!
7. I love long naps on vacation, and now I'm back to reality and miss them.
8. There is ALWAYS a project to work on, especially when you have a new home.  Lots of new opportunities.  Next is finishing the guest room, getting Ethan's room painted, and painting a tree (yikes!) in Eli's room.
9. No hair dryer and minimal make up on vacation is the best!
10. Unpacking from vacation sucks.

Back From The Dead

It's been so long since I've blogged that the website has changed so much that it's taken me FOR.EV.ER to figure it out!  Needless to say, I'M BACK IN THE BLOGGING WORLD ... I hope.  You would think being a stay at home mom I would have more time to blog but SO NOT true!  I'm so busy with the boys all day long and by the time they're in bed, I'm just beat.  It goes to prove that I did most of my blogging in my down time at work, which shows how slow things were before I made the switcheroo to staying home with my babies. 

As a quick update - life is great staying home with my boys!  Of course, we have our good days and really crappy days but all in all I'm so glad I made this decision to not work and stay home with them.  We are busy all day every day with all sorts of activities.  Since preschool is out until September (oh my ... another month and half to come up with things to do!) we have been doing summer activities from going to the Y water park to playing outside in sandbox and neighborhood creek and trips to the library to playdates.  Ethan has been to two mini day camps at the children's museum, two vacation bible schools, a trip to Spartanburg and we just got back from our annual beach trip.  Sweet little Eli just goes along for the ride and just adapts!  He just wants to be where we are and where he has a full view of watching what Ethan is doing.  For the rest of the summer we don't really have much to do which is both scary and nice at the same time.  Ethan has a summer camp next week then starts swimming lessons after that. 

Ethan is doing really well and is such a gentleman these days.  He's doing so well with his manners and says Yes Sir and Yes mam to just about everything and everyone.  Everyone has told me that when four year old hits, it's like they are a totally different kid.  That is so true!  I didn't think he would ever get out of the terrible 3's and all that came with it - tanturms, not listening, you name it.  He is so friendly and wants to talk to our new neighbors just about every time we are outside.  He has such a big heart and I just love that little booger.  The last VBS he attended really has settled into  his heart and he has been singing praise songs and talking about God a lot.  It just warms my heart and brings a tear to my eye.  I'm so glad he's heading on the right path at such a early age and we pray that he continues.

Eli is my sweet little 15 month old boy ... and developing into a holy terror of a toddler! There is humor in that statement but he is so different that Ethan was at that age.  He is always screaming, running, and into EVERYTHING, even the toilet.  We never had that issue with E and it's quite different to keep up with him.  The good thing is that he follows E around like a lost puppy and wants to do everything E is doing.  He's playing with big boy toys like E's superheros, trains and cars in which E never played with at that age.  He's growing up so much quicker than E did and that makes me sad.  He's starting to speak a lot of words like Ethan, Abbey, dog, bird, more, mama and dada.  Everyday seems to bring more adventures and things to learn.

I'm hoping to keep up with blogging on all the little things we do on a daily basis and our adventures.  Wish me the best!  10 Things I Learned this week is coming up!  Man - it's been a while since I've done that! :)

Hi! Remember me!?

Someone was just asking me the other day if I'm still blogging. I said "Blogging? What's that"? Ha Life has once again been flipped up and turned upside down and I feel like I'm JUST now getting my feet back on the ground. Man, having two kids has just put me through the ringer. It's not that it's so incredibly difficult ... ok so it is ... I'm just so busy. From the time my feet hit the ground in the morning (and the times in between during the wee hours) to the time my head hits the pillow at night, I am busy busy busy. Here's the latest:

I am now officially a stay at home mom, or SAHM as I've discovered is the abbreviation. It has been interesting shall I say. Now that we are in the groove of things with a schedule and all life is getting a lot easier.

Ethan started preschool at Sunbeams Day School at First Baptist Church of Rock Hill. He has done extremely well but I was pretty sure he would do well since he was in daycare for so long. He has already made several "best friends"! He is doing very well with his ABC's and numbers. I would say he knows about most of his ABC's, with getting very common letters like W and M mixed up.

Eli is now 6 months. 6 MONTHS! I still cannot believe that time has gone by so quickly. He is the sweetest, happiest, cutest baby in the world. Of course I am biased but he truly is a sweetheart. He is always smiling and flirting, then turning away shyly. He is getting up on all fours and rocking but as soon as he tries to reach for a toy, he falls back down on his belly. He can scoot backwards but that's about it for now. It will be any day now though! He's also mimicing us when we chew our food, sticking our tounge out and even when Ethan has a meltdown and screams, he mimics him too. It's hilarious! He LOVES his big brother and Ethan is the only person who can make him smile and laugh instantly. It's the sweetest thing I've ever seen and it makes me so happy to see them interact together.

I hope to keep up the blogging as much as I can. I should have a lot to blog about after this weekend. Our plans involve family, pumpkin patches, apple farms, baby showers, and football. Stay tuned!

Meet Elijah Taylor Cassidy

Almost three weeks later ... here is our introduction to Elijah Taylor Cassidy. If you have children, especially two, you know exactly why I have not been able to post this. I am spending every moment I can napping or with Ethan if I'm not nursing or changing diapers. Here's how the story went down because everyone loves a birth story:

Monday, April 4th:
Chris and I had breakfast at Cracker Barrel (that seemed to bring on labor for Ethan so we thought we'd give it a shot once again). I started having contractions in the morning that were inconsistent but definitely hurt. They came and went for about two hours then just disappeared. We still went grocery shopping, went for a walk in the Greenway, and called Nana and Pa to come stay for a few days just in case. The day ended with a bust - no contractions = no baby today.

Tuesday, April 5th - DUE DATE:
Again, the day started with me having contractions again that were inconsistent and lasted for two hours then disappeared. We had a 40 week check up with Dr. Garcia. He checked me and I was 3 cms and went ahead and sent us to the hospital since we were having contractions. We were so excited and texted everyone to say we were having this baby today! We went home, packed, ate lunch and kept tabs on the contractions which were still coming 5 minutes apart and getting stronger. We were getting so excited! We got to the hospital at 1 and got hooked up to a machine to check my contractions. An hour later a midwife came in to check me and I was still only 3 cms dialated. So she sent me to walk the halls for one hour. One hour later my contractions had come to a complete stop so we were sent home ... disappointed once again.


Wednesday, April 6th - ONE DAY PAST DUE DATE:
This day was a complete disappointed because I didn't have one contraction. I spent the day bummed out but Nana, Pa and Chris tried to cheer me up by going to Chester to eat lunch with Frankie and Ashley. Then Nana and Pa went on home while my mom and dad were planning on coming in later that afternoon. To cheer myself up, I went ahead and made an appointment for a pedicure. I told the massause to rub my cavles down really good!

Thursday, April 7th - TWO DAYS PAST DUE DATE:
Again, the day started off with contractions for two hours that were closer together, five minutes, then they stopped. At this point I was an emotional mess. I was crying every day thinking this baby was never going to get here. I didn't have this mess with Ethan and I didn't understand what was going on. I thought once contractions started they would keep going. Boy was I so wrong. God was certainly teaching me a BIG OL' lesson in patience which He continues to do every single day! Mom and I went for a walk in Manchester Park and that did get contractions started back a little. The rest of the evening they came and went but were getting stronger. Mom grilled a nice steak dinner topped off with a FABULOUS chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. TO DIE FOR! Again, the contractions stopped so Chris and I went for a walk around the neighborhood while Mom and Dad watched Ethan for us. I went to bed frustrated but accepting the fact that this baby was going to come when he was good and ready.

Friday, April 8th - THREE DAYS PAST DUE DATE:
Contractions woke me up at 2:30 AM and kept going strong for two hours. Finally at 4:30 AM I decided to take a bath to see if they went away. They didn't - which I was thrilled. That meant they were more than likely here to stay. By 5 AM, they were coming 3 minutes apart and were KILLING me! I woke Chris up because he was sleeping with Ethan who woke up with a bad dream ... probably that this new baby was about to rock his world! LOL We woke my mom up to let her know we were heading to the hospital. We left at 5:45 AM and Chris drove 80 with the hazard lights on the entire way. We got to the hospital by 6 AM, I was checked in triage by a nurse, I was at 6 CMs, put into a room, got epidural by 7:30 AM, was checked by the midwife at 8, took a nap very comfortably until 10, midwife came back in to check me again at 10:30 and I was fully dialated. Ready to push! I pushed for 30 minutes and Elijah Taylor came out crying his head off at 11:08 AM! Let me say - having a midwife was a HUGE difference to having a doctor. It was such an enjoyable experience because she was so calm and really encouraged me to take my time and showed me different ways to push. She even encouraged Chris to "catch the baby", which really mean helping to pull Eli out and place him on my belly once the shoulders were out.

Since we had him so early in the day, we really had the opportunity to spend time and bond with Eli before all the visitors piled in. CMC has a policy of quiet time from 2 to 4 so that helped a lot too. They also have a new "policy" to have skin on skin time as soon as the baby is born. Studies have shown that it helps the baby bond naturally to the mother as well as recover from the stress of birth. They laid his nakee body on mine and it was just marvelous. Literally within 20 minutes that he just made his way up to me to feed. I didn't see that with Ethan and it was so cool that they just know what to do. He latched on perfectly from the get to and has been great at nursing ever since!

Four o'clock rolled around and we were so anxious to see Ethan and for him to meet his long awaited baby brother. He was the first to come in and we wanted that quality time as a family before everyone else came in. The look on his face was priceless and he was so warm and sweet with Eli. Soon after, my family as well as Chris' came in and all got the chance to hold the little man. He is very well loved already.

Enjoy the pictures!