Lesson Learned! (For now..)

Today you had a play date with sweet Wils! 

It was soo cute to see you two together and I can't wait to watch y'all grow up together. As soon as we walked in Wils got the biggest smile on his face and was just so excited to see you. It was literally the cutest thing I've ever seen. 

Y'all played for a little bit and then we had lunch! Tippins asked if you would like cheese toast and I stepped out of my comfort zone, as far as food goes for you, and said yes! You LOVED it!

I'm so glad she suggested it and showed me that I don't have to go by the book for every little thing. 

Y'all had such a cute little lunch date!

We played a little more after lunch and then they had to go pick up Elle from camp. You fell asleep as soon as I put you in the car seat! You were wiped out from your play date!

Before the play date I was getting pretty nervous about driving all the way to her house with you and just thinking about everything that could go wrong. I'm not quite used to taking you out by myself yet and I need to be more confident in both of us.

I want to tell you thank you yet again for proving me 100 percent wrong. You were a perfect angel the whole car ride there. While we were at Tippins house you played so nicely and were so sweet to Wils and you eat on the way home. I could not have asked for a better situation. 

Something that you will learn about me, is that I worry A LOT! I worry about what other people are saying or what think of me, I worry about going to play dates and driving long distances (15 minutes....) with precious cargo. I worry about doing things alone and not being able to handle certain situations should they present themselves. 

You taught me today to just relax, breathe, and have trust and confidence in both of us. You are such a sweet baby and I should have had more trust in you that it would all go ok. 

I really, truly hope that you have your daddy's confidence. I hope that you learn from him how to be prepared, calm and ready to handle any situation. But to also be sensitive to others, like me, who may be nervous about something so simple and easy. I'm so thankful for his gentle hand in guiding me when I can be a little bit crazy! The two of you together are going to be an amazing combination on how y'all impact my life! 

Thank you for already teaching me so much about myself at just 9 months. You really have changed my life for the better in more ways than you can ever imagine. 

Anniversary Trip

On June 12th your dad and I celebrated our 4th Wedding Anniversary! 

Luckily, he had off work the 12th and 13th so we packed up and headed to Charleston to celebrate.

You stayed with Grammy and Grandad and y'all had sooo much fun. I received so many pictures of you so that made me super happy and it made me feel more comfortable leaving you. I was sad to leave for a few days and be out of the same town as you but we had so much fun and you they had fun spending time with you!

We left the morning of our anniversary. Your Grammy came and picked you up before your first nap and after we took a quick nap too, we were off!

When we arrived we went to Closed for Business for lunch. We went here once in college and have always wanted to go

back! It was yummmm!

After lunch we walked down king street and shopped some. It's so fun visiting especially with your dad because we share so many funny stories from college.

We stopped in the apple store and I was surprised to learn that I could upgrade my phone! I was so excited because my old phone had been through it and I was more than ready for an upgrade!

After getting my brand new, pretty, gold iphone, we walked back through campus and went back to the apartment to get ready for dinner!

You will quickly see that this whole trip revolves around eating....

When we were in college we would go to Magnolias to celebrate our dating anniversary (May 22nd) so we followed with that tradition and had Magnolias for dinner. We even took a pedicab on the way there!

When we arrived we were surprised with complimentary champagne to celebrate our anniversary! What a fun surprise! 

I ordered the always amazing Shellfish Over Grits. 

Your dad ordered the Fried Chicken plate! 

Both were amazing...as always!

After spending time sitting and talking about what we each thought would happen or wanted to happen in the next year, we went across the street to a place called, The Gin Joint.

We sat outside and watched the people walk by and enjoyed the wonderful weather. That was probably one of my favorite parts of our trip. 

In following our theme of eating, we ended the night at kaminskys. We switched up a bit though and got our cake to go and took a pedicab back to the apartment. 

We woke up (late) Friday morning and headed to Caviar and Bananas for a chocolate croissant and iced coffee! 

While we ate and sat outside we checked on you and made sure everything was going ok. Grammy said y'all were having fun and that you slept well the night before! I started missing you even more after we talked to her but it's important for us to spend time together and for you to have time with your grandparents!

After breakfast we stopped by the house that used to be the KA house. So many fun memories we both have of that house! 

We continued walking around the back streets of downtown. We just headed towards the water and went down whichever street we had never been on. 

It was soo fun to explore all of the houses and architecture. We both love looking at the houses in Charleston and walking around.

It was pretty hot but still so much fun, we ended at the battery and walked through the shaded park before heading back for lunch at Husk.

Husk is a restaurant we had heard so much about and seen on tv many times. Your dad has been wanting to go there since it opened. We finally got reservations and were so excited to try it out.

Thank goodness it was nice and cool!

We sat down and both decided we wouldn't be moving for a while!

For our appetizer, we shared cornbread and your dad got Pig Ear Lettuce Wraps..........

Yes, real pigs ear...

He convinced me to try it and they were actually pretty good.

But the cornbread was MUCH better!!

For lunch, I ordered Quail and Charlie got the Pork special.

Both were amazing.

After lunch we walked over to the market and took a carriage tour.

We have been on probably 10 Carriage Tours, but it's one of my favorite things to do. We even got a route that we have never been on (that I can remember). It took us down some if the streets we walked earlier and we got to see so much more of genuine architecture of downtown, rather than the same things everybody sees. 

We did the tour right and had a caramel apple while riding!!

After a quick trip through the market we headed back to the apartment to rest. 

We relaxed and took a little nap before going to Halls for dinner. 

We sat at the bar and enjoyed some more complimentary champagne and the best prime rib ever.

On the way back to the apartment we stopped at a new ice cream shop called Jeni's. Unfortunately I can't have much dairy while feeding you (I was pumping) so I got Poached Pear sorbet and Charlie got Salted caramel and Savannah Buttermint. I had a little bite and it was amazing.

We visited a rooftop bar before heading back for a mini Office marathon before bed!

When we woke up the next morning we packed up and took a drive down king street to the battery before heading out of town.

Aunt Caroline just bought a house in Mt. Pleasant so we stopped to visit before ending our trip with lunch at Boulevard Diner.

We had such a fun couple of days spending time together and celebration 4 years of marriage and 9 years of being together. We missed you so much and I even almost made your dad drive me back to get you the first night!! I just wanted to hold you!! But we had so much fun and I'm glad we stayed and enjoyed the time together! 

I'm holding you extra tight tonight though and rocking you a little longer than normal!! 

Catching Up!

Sorry I have been MIA for the last week! I was rereading a book called, The Fault In Our Stars. The movie came out this passed weekend and I wanted to read it again before seeing it! I'm so glad I did. What an amazing book and movie.

Anyway, the past week has actually been pretty busy!

Monday and Tuesday were spent at home, running errands, going to the grocery and cleaning. Nothing too exciting!

On Wednesday, we visited our cousins who were staying at the campground. It's always so much fun to see them and they love you so much.

We went swimming, played in the arcade and had some dinner!

Thursday, we had your 9 month check up at a new pediatrician. We were excited to meet them and go to a new office but of course I was nervous about your shots! You are not very easy to "contain" these days! You move around d like crazy when getting your diaper changed and when getting you dressed so I was worried about having to keep you still for the shots and of course because they hurt!!

The office was soo nice and clean and just perfect. Every one was nice and the dr took the time to play with you and watch how you move and just be. It was so refreshing and everything pointed to is making the right decision and switching doctors. 

You weigh 18 pounds 9 ounces and are 27 inches long. (I think!!) You are in the 50th percentile for both height and weight and in the 75th for head still. So you did stretch out a little bit since last time! 

You had a couple spots of exzema on your back but the Honest Company Healing Balm is working great ad clearing it up so the dr said unless it flairs up bad again, keep doing what we are doing. 

When it came time for shots, they offered to let me hold you while you got them. I thought that was awesome. I was so thankful and you were too!

You made the tiniest noise and then that was it! You were smiling literally two seconds later. I could not believe it at all. It was such a great experience. And I'm soooo proud of you! You did so much better than I did!!

After the doctor we went back to the campground to visit the cousins. We just played and hung out. You were passed around and it was just a great day!

Over the weekend we made a bunch of baby food and organized things around the house. I spent Friday afternoon peeling, chopping, steaming an pureeing sooo many carrots it was insane.

On Saturday I fed you some and you did not like it at all.......... So yay. 

I'm trying them with things and serve them a little more warm to see if you will like carrots more! Because I have a lot to use!!

On Sunday we went to see The Fault In Our Stars and it was amazing. Such a good story and they did a great job keeping true to the book. It was so much fun to go to the movies too! It had been a while!! 

We had a great week and have another exciting week coming up! 

Love you soo soo much!

Annual Meeting

This weekend was the B&C meeting.  Most of our family was in town and you got to meet so many new cousins!

It's always such a fun weekend seeing our family and catching up.

When I was little we used to look so forward to the meeting because we would get to go with all of our other cousins and play in the arcade or go to the aquarium. One time we went to nascar speed park and played in the arcade pretty much the whole time. We left with a huge trash bag full of stuffed animals from the claw machine! We are convinced it was rigged!! One day you willl get to go play with your little cousins too! While we all sit in a boring meeting... 

In addition to meeting your little cousin Naia, you also got to meet your big Alaslan cousin, Kyle!

Kyle is almost the same age as mommy and he used to live in Alaska! Isn't that cool?!? I think it's pretty cool and I ask him about a trillion questions about it regularly!

It used to snow so much that the snow went all the way up to the roof! The crazy thing is, he still had to go to work. He said that school and work aren't closed for too much snow. They only ever close when it's too warm and all of the snow melts and turns to ice!

He also took some pretty awesome pictures of the wildlife there. I think he's pretty cool...

Anyway, he loved meeting you! You were so good and nice and let him hold you. It was so sweet!

We went to Grandma Carolyn's with everyone Saturday night after the meeting and we all got to play. It was so much fun. I can't believe that next year you will be running all over the place playing with Naia and your new little cousin. We will have so much fun!