Busy Bees

Last Thursday, Madelyn had her first playdate with sweet Meredith.  Meredith's mom, Lela, is the vice principal at the school I taught at last year.  She and I were both pregnant at the same time and Meredith was born about 3 weeks after Madelyn.  We have been trying to get the girls together ever since they were born, but our schedules just never worked out.  Luckily, we were finally able to arrange a get-together last week and I am so glad we did.  The girls had so much fun together!!! 

It was so nice to see Madelyn interacting with someone her age.  Garrett and I don't know many people here, so it's hard to find good opportunites for her to interact with other children of the same age group.  The girls had a great time in our playroom while I spent MUCH needed time visiting with another mommy!  It was so cute to watch them play.  Madelyn had a bit of a hard time understanding why someone else was playing with HER toys, but overall, she did a good job sharing her things.  It was nice for Lela and I to sit and talk about the joys and struggles of being mothers of toddlers.  They are soooo much work, but we both agree that wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!!!

On Friday, we packed up and headed to Austin for the weekend.  On the way, we dropped Garrett off in New Braunfels for David's bachelor party weekend.  The guys had a fun weekend of floating the river, cooking out, and doing "guy stuff".  Madelyn and I stayed at Grant and Missy's and Janet (Nettie) came and spent the weekend with us. 

Missy, Janet, and I spent Saturday afternoon shopping for dresses for upcoming weddings and I left Madelyn with a babysitter for the FIRST time!  I'm not going to lie....I was VERY nervous, but it went great!  She had her cousins, Ava and Grayson there to keep her company and from what the sitter said, they all had a wonderful time!

While we were at Grant and Missy's, Madelyn got to take her first "cousin bath!"  We thought it was so cute, but Grayson was not quite as pleased with the situation!  Hehe!  He got over it real quick though and we have some super cute pictures to document the cute experience.

Madelyn had a wonderful time playing with Ava and Grayson all weekend and all of their cool "grown up" toys!  I love watching her play with her cousins...it makes my heart happy.  It's always such fun visiting our family, but it is soooo hard to leave.  We miss living near our families so much, but we know that God has a plan for us and we will be living somewhere near them again someday!

Cheetos

Woot!  Woot!  Look at me go...2 days in a row of blog posts!!!  Don't count on this becoming a habit.  Finding time to brush my teeth has become a challenge these days.  HA!!!

We gave Madelyn Cheetos for the first time this afternoon!  Do you think she liked them?!?!? 

Please excuse her rosy red cheeks...we had just returned from a long bike ride in the south Texas heat!!!

FUN at the beach & NO FUN at the hospital

On Sunday, we took Madelyn to the island for her first REAL beach trip!!!  We took her when she was 2 months old, but she was obviously too young to enjoy it!  This time was a different story though.  I was so excited to finally have the chance to take her.  I couldn't wait to see her reaction!  She started smiling and waving her arms around the minute we stepped out of the car...She most definitely loooooves the beach!  I don't know why we were surprised...she loves being outside and she loves the water, so why wouldn't she love the beach?!?! 

She had so much fun playing in the sand, digging for seashells, trying to catch the water as it came up on shore, running after trooper, and watching the seagulls!  She thinks birds are the coolest thing in the entire world!  Every time she sees a bird, she points and yells at us in her baby language until we acknowledge that yes indeed, it is a BIRD!  We even got some bread out and fed the seagulls.  That was definitely a very exciting moment for miss M. 

Unfortunately, the beach was covered in seaweed from hurricane Alex, but we managed to find a spot that was not too bad.  If you look in the picture above, you will see it piled up along the seashore  Madelyn didn't seem to mind it though.  She had a lot of fun picking it up and throwing it into the wind! 

                      

Needless to say, Madelyn was EXHAUSTED by the time we were ready to leave.  We knew she would fall asleep in the car for the drive home, but we didn't want her sleeping with sand from head to toe.  Garrett and I decided to strip her down to her birthday suit and take her for one last dip in the ocean to get all the gritty sand off her body.  It was the cutest thing seeing her daddy carry her naked booty into the ocean. I quickly ran back to the car and grabbed the camera to capture this classic moment.  This will definitely be going up in a frame in my house very soon!

*Madelyn is in her birthday suit....GARRETT is NOT!!!*

Our beach trip went better than we could have ever expected.  I was a little worried about taking Madelyn out there, but she did so good!!! I have a feeling we will be making many more trips to the island this summer. 

Unfortunately, after a day of fun in the sun, I woke up the next morning at 8a.m. in the most horrible pain I have ever felt.  My back, abdomen and side area on the left side of my body felt like it was on fire!  I jumped out of bed and ran to the restroom.  I thought I might have an upset stomach, but as the minutes passed I got worse and worse.  I started throwing up, my hands and legs were going numb, and I think I was beginning to have a panic attack.  I could not stand up, lay down, sit, talk...nothing helped!!!   Garrett and I decided that I needed to go to the hospital.   Thank God we had our wonderful neighbor, Tina to come over and watch Madelyn.  She is a lifesaver!!! 

After blood work, a urinalysis, and a CAT scan, they determined that I had 3 kidney stones on the left side and 1 more on the right side!  (I had a kidney stone when I was 19 or 20 years old, but it was no where near as painful as this one!!!)  The ER doctor said that I had probably already passed one that morning and that was why I was in so much pain.  He said there was nothing they could do for me because the remaining kidney stones were so small. He said breaking them up with a laser wouldn't help anything.  So, he sent me home with Vicoden and some other pills for my nausea and told me that all I could do was drink plenty of fluids and wait for the remaining stones to pass.  GREAT!  The doctor said they could pass tomorrow or a week or two from now.  I have no way of knowing! 

So, here I sit...waiting to feel the awful pain again.  At least I will know what it is when it happens again and I will have some pain meds to get me through it this time!