First Movie

Today was a big day - we took Tommy to his first movie in the theater! We had been talking about it for awhile - and planned to see "Planes" when it comes out later this summer. But my nieces were excited to see "Despicable Me 2" and we thought he would enjoy that also.

It was so much fun! Grandma andGrandpa  babysat Molly so that my hubby and I could take the big kids. We splurged on a big popcorn, drinks, and candy. The audience was full of kids and it was so much fun. 

Sick

Of course Tommy is sick. It never fails when we are traveling that he comes down with something. 

He had the sniffles and some congestion on Thursday when we traveled. Friday it was worse, but he was in good spirits and never had a fever. He had so much fun playing with his cousins and the other friends that were visiting us. It was a long day and a late night, but he seemed ok.

Then around 1:00am he woke up coughing and crying. He was shaking and really wheezing like I've never heard before. (He's never had any respiratory issues like that before.) After he calmed down a bit he was still wheezing, so I told my hubby I wanted to take him to urgent care/ER to be seen. 

We got dressed, threw a few things in my bag and loaded up in the car. During that time he seemed to be getting better but I still wanted to go. After he was buckled into his carseat he was very chatty asking for cereal, milk and asking what the doctor would be like. The wheezing was gone.

My hubby and I looked at each other, laughed and decided that it would be silly to take him to the ER at that point. I think being up and moving plus breathing in the cool air helped.

We came back inside, let him watch a show and then put him back to bed at around 2:30am. He slept the rest of the night just fine!

I'm nervous it's going to happen again tonight. Hopefully he's on the mend and we can all get some good sleep.

Cousins

Tommy and Molly had so much fun playing with their cousins all day today! The girls are 12 and 6 and did such a good job of taking care of Tommy and Molly while playing together. 

If they were in a different room, Tommy would walk around saying, "Where are the cousins??" They swam, played on the golf course and ran around together all day. So much fun!

Nebraska

I had a feeling I would forget to post yesterday. We were traveling and flew to Nebraska. Thankfully both kids were good on the flight. Molly fell asleep right as we got to security, so I actually carried her through that part. She happily played on the flight and then both kids slept on the drive to my in-laws house.

We will be here for about 12 days and we're looking forward to relaxing and catching up with my hubby's family.

I will try to post more today with some pictures. 

Fired

I was fired today.  Technically, my position was eliminated and the parish had to let me go.  I wasn't surprised.  In fact, I had been wondering for some time if this might happen. 

I have been the (part-time) Youth Minister at my parish for six years.  Over that time the parish has gone through a lot of changes - including a new pastor last summer.  I knew the parish was having financial trouble and apparently they had to eliminate a few positions.  

I have mixed feelings about the whole situation.  In a way I'm relieved and glad to have this time for my family.  I was always stressed and crazy on the Sundays when we had our meetings. 

But of course I'm disappointed about the loss of income.  We've been hoping to move soon and this definitely changes those plans.  I trust that everything will work out. 

Apparently the new priest just assigned to our parish will take over the program.  I know how busy all priests are so I'm not sure what exactly that means.  I will do my best to help him during the transition.

Well, it was a crazy day around here since we leave town tomorrow morning for Nebraska.  I'd better go and do some last-minute packing!  You can see that Tommy was a big help today...

My Niece

I'm proud of myself for remembering to post again today!  Hopefully I will be able to keep up with the "Seven Posts in Seven Days" that Jen is hosting at Conversion Diary. 

I've been meaning to share some good news here...  I'm going to have a new niece in November!  My brother and sister-in-law are expecting a baby girl (their first child) and I'm so thrilled for them.  It's been a bumpy road for them and I'm so happy to celebrate their good news. 

This is the picture they shared with everyone to reveal they are having a girl:

My mom and I are throwing a baby shower for my sister-in-law and I've had lots of fun brainstorming ideas.  I got the invitations printed this morning and need to assemble them tonight!

Seven Posts in Seven Days

I've been in a blogging "funk" and just saw that Jen is doing Seven Posts in Seven Days - so I'm going to give it a shot and join in the fun. Looks like I'm just in time to start today! Since I'm on my phone I don't know how to link up, but I will try tomorrow. :)

This big girl is 11 months old - how did that happen? Just a month away from ONE!

We visited my hubby at work today. Tommy was excited to "type, type, type and work, work, work" as he kept saying.

Tommy feeding Molly her breakfast.

Tomorrow will be laundry and packing. We leave on Thursday for Nebraska! 

Argh, Matey! Happy Birthday!

Better late than never...  I wanted to post about how we celebrated Tommy's birthday.  He turned 3 on May 12.  We celebrated our sweet boy all day long!  As you can tell, he's hooked on pirates these days. 

Starting the big day with mini-donuts and pirate birthday decorations around the house.

 

 

Birthday cupcake...  as soon as we were home from church that morning.  :)

Opening presents...  a new backpack for when he starts preschool!

Later that afternoon we went to Chuck E Cheese.  He loved it!



We decided not to have a birthday party for him this year.  May is SO busy around our house.  Instead we took a small group on a Pirate Adventure on the Chesapeake Bay.  It was so much fun!  We went over Memorial Day Weekend and couldn't believe how cold it was (you can see we are all bundled up.)

 

 

 

Look at all those boats!

 

Tommy was one of the younger kids - see him sitting in Pirate Scully's lap? 

 



Tommy quickly found the "X" on the map... 



The kids squirted Pirate Pete with water when he tried to capture the treasure!



After pulling up the chest from the bottom of the "ocean," Tommy was the first to fill his bag with treasure.

Argh, Matey!  Happy Birthday!





Potty Training and Crawling

It's been a big weekend in our family for milestones.  We've spent the last three days potty-training with Tommy.  And yesterday, Molly crawled for the first time!  She was probably bored from not being able to leave the house.  :)

I honestly think Tommy was ready to ditch the diapers for awhile, but I was not ready for it!  And even though we've had a good three days, I'm scared to leave the house.  I find it hard to believe we will actually be able to run errands without having accidents.  Oh well, we have to brave it sometime.

When Tommy woke up on Friday morning we told him that he was all done with diapers.  (We had been talking to him about potty training for a while, but made a big deal when he woke up.)  The first thing we did was pack up all the diapers in his room and put them in Molly's room.  It was so cute, he had fun stuffing them all into her diaper stacker.

Then we hung up this sticker chart.

During breakfast we colored with an Elmo Uses the Potty coloring book.  And told him that every time he used the potty he got one M&M.

I can't believe how one M&M motivates him so much!  And it's not like we never give him sugar or treats around here.  For three days now he continues to be SO excited to pick out one M&M.

Later in the day he got out his tools and helped Daddy take apart his changing table.  Similar to when we converted his crib to a toddler bed, I thought this might help.  He loved it and helped me put up the books instead.  We also hung up two frames that had been waiting to be put up.  

He has done very well, with a couple of accidents here and there.  But as I said, now I'm afraid to leave the house this week!  We took one quick outing this afternoon to get a celebratory ice cream cone.  I think he's feeling very proud of himself, although he's making a goofy face here.  

In addition to all of this, Molly started crawling yesterday!  It was so great.  She has been delayed with her milestones but lately has made a ton of progress.  In May we decided to step up her physical therapy to two times a week and I think it helped.

We started PT because of her Torticollis/Plageocephaly - both of which were mild.  She made great progress with both of those, but she seemed out of kink as a result.  Parts of her body were tight and she couldn't stand being on her tummy.  It was stressful for a few months when she didn't seem to be making much progess - especially since this was during a very busy time around here.

Thankfully, she is doing well.  I know that she will get there on her own timetable.  Hard to believe our sweet girl will be one year old in just over a month.  Ahh!

Happy 4th of July!

We had fun celebrating with good friends!

Molly's first 4th!

Very serious about our flags here!

 

 

God Bless America!