Alex's First Ladie's Lunch

PatPat and Alex

Alex, Grammy and PatPat

Jane, Grammy, Alex, PatPat and Granny- if you can't
tell them apart, you're not alone! One sister
(Deedy) is not there and she looks like them
too!

Alex and Granny

Julia (later that day) showing off some
of her favorite jewelry


Wednesday, Alex and I had the privilege of attending his first girls birthday lunch for Matt's aunt PatPat. It was at Big Granny's (she's actually quite tiny but this is to minimize confusion between her and Grammy) and Grammy, Granny, Patpat and Jane were there. This is something they've all been doing for a long time. Granny makes her yummy chicken salad and homemade sweet tea. Unfortunately, Alex was having a rough day and didn't feel good but it wasn't for lack of good company. He didn't mind being the only boy! We had a great time and I'm glad we celebrated PatPat's birthday. She is very special to us and she loves Julia and Alex "real good" as she would say. She even watched them that evening while Matt and I went out to eat and to visit our friends at the hospital who just had a baby girl. Thanks, PatPat! Happy late birthday and we love you very much! It's been a busy week so more posts will be coming soon!

Hurricane Fay

Juju rocking out-she has always
loved heavy metal!
Poor little fellow getting some much needed rest

Friday night- first night of the storm. Both kids thought it was pretty cool.

This huge tree bent almost to the ground when
the wind was blowing

A very small example of the debris that is everywhere


We have been dealing with Hurricane Fay (which was actually downgraded to Tropical Storm Fay a long time ago) since Friday morning. I've never experienced this type of weather before and I'm not gonna lie, it made me a little nervous that first day! I guess the thought of a hurricane conjures up so many horrible memories of seeing what other people have gone through and lost in them. But it wasn't really all that bad, just TONS and TONS of hard rain and very gusty winds. It finally let up a little yesterday but every hour or two there's still a bad rainstorm for a few minutes. There are lots of trees down and tons of debris everywhere. There are big flooded areas in yards and parking lots, in fact I think we messed our car up driving through a lake at the pediatrician's office this morning. Evidently a lot of people lost power, luckily ours blinked a few times but didn't stay off. Julia did not have school today and doesn't tomorrow because of it. I know we need the rain, but this is getting ridiculous!

There's not much else going on. We think we figured out that Alex has acid reflux after doing some research on the internet. He has every single symptom. We just know that there is something wrong with him besides colic- we took him to the doctor this morning to see what they thought and it was a horrible experience that I won't even go into. The pediatrician is just awful, uncaring and unsympathetic and thinks we are bad and stupid parents and that his problems are just his personality. We managed to squeeze a prescription for Zantac out of her, only after committing to a barium swallow test (where he would have to drink dye and have an x-ray!) which we canceled after we got home. We are obviously going to change doctors. He has had 1 dose of the Zantac at 3:30 today and he has already acted happier and slept better than he has in 2 months! We hope to goodness that this is the problem and that we're finally on the right track, no thanks to our incompetent doctor.

Smiling AJ

We've been trying forever to get a good picture of Alex smiling (It's harder than it sounds). I finally got one. Here it is.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Julia likes to wink and give you the thumbs up
Sweet siblings


Playing with play dough
Our anniversary 2 years ago!
Karaoke last year in Athens- we were singing
"Every Rose Has its Thorn". Classy!
Juju's 2nd Birthday- what a good daddy!

The whole family in July

Matt and I celebrated our 8th anniversary on August 19th! We started celebrating last Saturday- Matt had to play in Tallahassee and Grammy (brave soul) offered to watch both kids until we got home which would not be until 4am! I debated on whether I should leave them, especially Alex, but then decided that we deserved a night to ourselves after the 3 rough months we've had! Of course, both kids were fine and Grammy survived although I doubt she got much sleep. Thank you soooo much, Grammy! We had a blast! I hadn't seen Matt play in a couple of years and never with this band and it was so fun. He is just an amazing drummer and singer, sometimes I forget how talented he is! But he was definitely the star of the show and I enjoyed it very much. It really trips me out that he is so quiet and chilled out but can get up in front of hundreds of people and perform like it's nothing! Then on the actual anniversary day, Tuesday, Grammy offered to watch the kids again while we went to a movie and out to eat. We saw Pineapple Express (funny if you like that kind of thing) and ate Mexican food since that's the only decent restaurant in town. It was very fun.

It is VERY hard to believe it's been 8 years since we got married! We have been through some really tough times but we've had way more good times! Matt is absolutely the best husband to me and father to my kids that I could ever ask for. His calmness is the perfect balance to my craziness. Here's to many, many more years! The picture of us is from our anniversary 2 years ago, I just thought is was kind of funny. There are some other pictures of him in action over the years! I don't have the fancy equipment or know how to put wedding pictures or really old pictures on here so these will have to do.

Everything with Julia and Alex is going great this week. We are still adjusting to waking up early every morning. Julia loves school and hardly ever cries when we leave her there anymore. Alex's stomach still seems to be getting better. He is smiling a lot and is just precious. But he's still a high maintenance little fellow and we've got some issues to work on! I am so glad to get to spend so much time at home with him.

Update this week

We made it through the first week of school! It was not without complications- after 2 days the "newness" wore off and Julia did NOT want to go back. She cried every time we talked about school and 2 days in a row she had to be pulled away from us when we got there, screaming and hysterical. It was horrible. I did it one day and Matt did it the other. Boy, did it make us feel like bad parents. We talked and talked to her about it to make sure nothing bad was going on at school and came to the conclusion that she loves school and had a blast once she was there but she was having serious separation anxiety. After the weekend and lots of talks about how boring it is at home and assuring her she's not missing out on anything, she seemed to get over it and did great Monday morning, just a few tears but nothing big. Then yesterday and today she was absolutely fine, not at all sad and excited to be there. Thank goodness! She is really enjoying everything they do there and has made some little friends. It is still an adjustment for all of us to get up so early (we are NOT morning people at all) but it is kind of nice to get such an early start. I have started working a few hours here and there with Matt's aunt Jane doing some secretarial work for her business. It is nice to get out of the house and to have something to do. And Jane is super cool and laid back so it is not stressful. AND I can take Alex with me if Matt is not here, which is a huge plus! I can also do some stuff from home. The picture of Alex in the bumbo on the computer desk is him watching me work! Thanks to Angie for letting us borrow the bumbo, he loves it! His favorite position now is sitting straight up.

Speaking of Alex, he has had a great couple of days. He has slept 8-9 hours in a row the last 2 nights and hasn't been nearly as fussy as normal during the day. But we're not holding our breath that the colic is gone yet because every time we think that, all of a sudden we have a horrible few days and it feels like we're back to square one. In fact, as I am writing this he is being really fussy. If anyone knows a teenager who needs some "birth control", let them come hang out with Alex for a couple of days and they'll be making sure they don't get pregnant!!! But he is precious and we adore him. These are some pics of us having fun with him- we put some of Julia's toys and play food in his hands. The pictures probably aren't that funny but we thought it was hilarious to see such a little fellow holding big people stuff. The picture of Julia's drawing is a car she drew that we thought was really good! More updates soon!

I don't know what I'm doing

Hey everyone- FYI, I am stupid- I made a whole post for today and somehow set it up to show up tomorrow morning instead of today and I can't get it to change. So be sure and check tomorrow for a new post!

Alexander Joseph Lane

We haven't shared very many pictures of Alex, so I thought I would put a bunch up here. So, ladies and gentleman, Alex Lane!

Juju's First Day of School!

Today was the big day- Julia's first day of "big girl school"! After months of weighing the pros and cons and changing our minds a hundred times, we decided to send Julia to the pre-k program at public school. It is free, but it is an all day thing, which she has never done before. Last year she just went 3 days a week for 3 hours a day. But she was soooo bored all summer and we felt like she's ready for a new challenge. It is very sad to think about our baby going to regular school. But we like the school, it is nice and clean, and the teacher and parapro are both really nice. We have been talking it up and she has been very excited but we still weren't sure how she would react when we actually got to school and had to leave her there. She has been pretty clingy to Matt and I since right before Alex was born. We woke up bright and early (she has to be at school at 7:35 which is VERY early to us!), dressed her and took some pictures, and headed off to school. Thank goodness, she was very excited to be there and did not cry when we left! I was extremely sad all day and tried very hard not to think about it. But it was certainly strange and very quiet. We couldn't wait to pick her up at 2:30 and she was of course thrilled to see us. But she said she had a great time. She was extremely tired and didn't seem to want to talk about it as much as we did but she didn't say anything negative so we took that as a good sign. I feel good having that first day behind us but I know we still have some adjusting to do. We'll see what happens Monday! *** Since we are new at this, we haven't mastered putting the pictures in the right order! ***