Catching Up

You thought I gave up blogging, right?! No, just juggling a myriad of curveballs thrown our way that's kept me from any sort of routine.

Oh, where to start...

The day after my last blog post I woke up to Fisher spiking a fever. At our check up with the pediatrician the week before I remembered our pediatrician telling me that if Fisher developed a fever of 100.5 or higher it was considered serious and to call them immediately. They let me know this since Eleanor had a little bug that week. Well, on April 1, Fisher had a fever of 100.9, and of course, I immediately went into panic mode. We immediately raced to the doctor (me still in my pajamas), and they sent us directly to the ER at Dell Children's Hospital. Hormonal, sleep deprived AND a health scare do NOT make for a good combo.

My mom met us at Dell, which was a huge comfort. Justin was in Houston, and I can't imagine having gone through this alone. They had to run several tests on Fisher to rule out anything serious - blood, x-rays, catheter for urine sample, and a spinal tap. I had to leave the room for the spinal tap... didn't want that seared into my brain for eternity. The worst part is that we had to wait 48 hours for all of the cultures to develop. So, Fisher and I had a little mother/son slumber party at the hospital for 3 nights. The chances of Fisher having developed something other than big sister's virus was slim, but it's protocol to run these tests when newborns spike a fever so young. 

Long story short, it was an emotionally exhausting 3 days of monitoring, waiting, medicine pumping, and panic. At about the 36 hour mark, Fisher tested positive for a common virus (likely the one Eleanor had), but we still had to wait the extra 12 hours to ensure the cultures came back negative. Luckily, that was the case. A huge sigh of relief!

One week later we packed up our first family home in Austin to make the move to our new home. I'll spare the gory details, but Cliff's Notes version: we had about 15 contractors in our home the day the movers moved us. Total insanity. From being in the business, I should have known better and just postponed our move, but hindsight is 20/20, right? So... after living in a construction zone for 2 weeks now, we've decided it's best for us to move out (starting Monday) so that our house can be completed. 

To sum up - in the last 8 weeks, we've had 2 hospital stays, a move, Eleanor's birthday, 4 rounds of house guests, and now another move. I'm not sure how we're still standing - almost like an out of body experience. So, thanks for everyone's patience with us being out of touch lately. Without the help of Mom, our nanny Laura, and my sister, I'm not sure we would have survived.

To give you a little perspective on my state of mind recently... 

: I inadvertently bought Fisher a seat on our flights to/from KC in June.

: I bought Ellie water shoes in size 6 women's instead of kid's 6.

: I nearly ran over my new neighbor in front of our house as I was circling our block to keep Fisher asleep.

On to more positive news...

Fisher has come a long way in the last month. While we love our sweet son, he's giving us a run for our money. He's a super needy baby that insists on being held 24/7 (a product of acid reflux/needing to be upright for comfort+a total mama's boy). Up until about 5 weeks old, he would only sleep on my chest, which made for a really uncomfortable situation at night. We then transitioned him to sleeping in his carseat at night because he wouldn't sleep in his bassinet, even on an incline. Just this week we've been placing his carseat on top of his crib in his room, and he's sleeping solo. Ahhhhhh! We all sleep so much better when we're in our respective rooms;)

All in all, our kids as newborns could NOT be more different. So, while we're not new parents, we're certainly navigating new territory here.

In Fisher news:

: Smiles!

: Cooing

: He'll finally happily hang out for a few minutes without being held

: Growing fast - amazing chub right now
: Fisher is trying so hard to suck his hand and/or fingers and gets so frustrated when he can't make hand/mouth contact. Poor buddy. I think once he finds his finger(s) of choice, we'll all be a bit happier.

: He'll give me 4 hour stretches at night, where I was only getting 1.5-2 hours before... big difference!

In Ellie news:

: Our daughter has the most elaborate imagination these days. A couple examples:

Me: "Eleanor, please eat your stew... it's really yummy, our friend cooked it for us." 

Eleanor: "I can't eat that, there are snakes in there."

Eleanor to Laura (referencing the side yard of our new house): **Whispering** "Laura, don't go over there. There are crocodiles over there!"

: Lots of brother love. She practically makes out with him multiple times per day (hence the passing of the virus). Ellie is so sweet with her brother, and I'm extremely grateful that she's so nurturing and accepting of the newest Thomas.

: A couple of weeks ago, Eleanor asked where Daddy was, and I told her that Daddy was at work. She quickly replies, "Oh, he's in Houston??" We've never directly told her that he travels to Houston. She is a little sponge and doesn't miss a beat.

This week, Justin came home from work. Eleanor asks, "You were in Houston?" Justin replies, "No, I was in San Antonio." Eleanor replies, "Oh, you went to the park?" Justin..."No, not SAND, San Antonio - it's a city."

: When Eleanor visited me and Fisher at Dell Children's Hospital, she walked in the front door and says, "Oh, this is a NEW one (hospital)... I LIKE it!" Being a children's hospital, everything was geared towards children, so E soaked it all in. After we got home from the hospital, Eleanor was constantly referencing the hospital and asking if we were going back (since we'd been in the hospital twice in a month). Poor thing was so confused;(

: Bug obsession in full effect. Our daughter hunts for bugs literally every day. Her favorite is the infamous roly poly. She has a bug catcher - a small container where the lid is a magnifying glass and on a string she wears as a necklace.

: This week she bent her elbow back and tried shoving the tip of her elbow in Fisher's mouth and said, "I'm eating him." Read, my elbow is a nipple, and I'm feeding him. Pretty funny.

: Eleanor sings all of the time, and she's even started making up her own songs.

: Friends galore! Eleanor insists on making friends wherever she goes - the park, grocery store, contractors at our house, music class, etc. I swear, this kid should run for office... she knows no stranger and is hell bent on everyone liking her.

: Our daughter has been pretty amazing throughout the whole moving process. The only time she broke down was in the bath last week when she asked to go "home." Poor thing... she's been through so much change in the past 2 months - we're lucky she's so resilient.

: We just found out today that us being slaves to the preschool wait lists is over! Eleanor will be a proud student of First English Lutheran Development Center starting in July. When the Director called to tell me the news, I was both overjoyed (our daughter begs for school on a daily basis and needs the social stimulation) and sad (my baby is going to school... yes, I know it's only preschool and not college, but still...).

In house news:
Despite the fact that our home isn't finished yet, we still love it. At about 75% complete, we love it, so we're sure to be obsessed once we're at 100%. We're practically downtown, so we walk and bike to dinner, the grocery store, coffee shop, hike and bike trail, etc. So refreshing to get out and not have to drive.

While I want to forget about the hospital stay, I thought I should document some of the sweeter moments there. The positive thing is that we both slept really well during our 3 days there...

Not the first crib I was envisioning for my son... he opted to sleep where he's most comfortable  - his carseat.

Mini IV;(

Lots of snuggle time during our mother/son sleepovers. You can tell from the arm rolls that he had no trouble eating while sick.

Meanwhile, our nature loving daughter is galavanting around Barton Springs.

Flower Girl

Our dear friend, Erin, had this waiting for us as a homecoming meal from the hospital - Chicago's Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza. It was heavenly.

Balding boy

1 month!

For posterity - had to get the comparison pic. The Lawrence genes are pretty darn strong, but I do think Fisher now has some unique physical characteristics.

Clanceys storm Austin! First adult night out was a success with dinner + Arcade Fire with our amazing friends. We packed quite the itinerary during their 48 hour stay.

Breakfast at Curra's.

Coloring buddies.

Such a big girl - Olivia will be a big sister in September. Testing out her sisterly duties.

Relaxing at the park/splash pad.

You can tell Linds and I have the same taste when our daughters who live in different cities happened to have several of the same clothes (matching swimsuits here).

Fisher loves Uncle Ricky!

First pigtails

Dying Easter eggs with her BFF Audrey and the nannies. Rather than staining their clothes, we decided to strip them down to diapers;)

Laura and Aunt Katie made our move manageable in a totally chaotic environment. Laura and Fisher snuggling after a looooong day.

"Hooray!" says Ellie to Aunt Katie visiting.

Our son started smiling a couple of weeks ago, but it's hard to capture on camera. Most of the time, he's a super serious dude.

Comfy with Nana.

Half smile.

Cheeks McGee snoozing.

And more...

Aunt Katie took E to her favorite coffee shop while in town. 

Fisher loves Aunt Katie just as much as his sister.

Eleanor insists on holding/hovering/smothering/kissing/tickling brother every day. She literally can't keep her hands off of him. She is so sweet with him, and I'm incredibly grateful for that.

Kisses for Nana

Like Father Like Daughter - as we unpacked boxes, it soon became clear that Eleanor loves costumes as much as Justin does. What you don't see in this pic is me and Katie also dressed by Ellie.

Winter dress up in 80 degree weather.

Easter egg hunt. Nothing says your mother is a hot mess like an Easter outfit of old stained leggings and a PacMan t-shirt. I'm not sure I even made it out of my robe that day...

I don't remember why Eleanor was crying but I thought it was important to capture that it's not all rainbows and sunshine with E... lots of tantrums and meltdowns these days (for no logical reason)!

Eleanor loves to cook - helping Mommy make chicken parmesan. 

Growing boy

Cheeks, chins, and bellies - oh my!

Eleanor and her girlfriend, Audrey, being their silly selves at dinner... shaking their heads so that their hair flies everywhere.

Biker Babe. Ellie loves going on long bike rides with Daddy. 

Turtle hunting at the park.

Newborn photo session with Fisher when he was 10 days old. The photographer admitted that Fisher was her worst model in over 3 years. Normally newborns sleep through the entire photoshoot, but not my son! Now, if he was snuggled on top of me, he would have snoozed the morning away. Not sure how she was able to capture the few seconds of him with his eyes closed. The shoot was supposed to take 2 hours took 3.5 hours;)