my little beach bum.

this weekend was probably one of my most favorites to date. despite all the craziness lately, i have really started to feel at home here! It's not a feeling that hit me all at once, but rather slowly crept in and was cemented this weekend.
i love my job, i love my second job -- i hadn't been on Wednesday nights since Audrey was sick and when my kids saw us there they shouted "Miss Lindsey is here! Miss Lindsey is here!" and came running and gave us big hugs! it was so sweet!
i have two amazing girlfriends who are always there for me (plus my forever sister, Laura, back in NC) -- the day that Audrey was so, so sick, my best mommy friend, Anna, and her son, Brayden, who is Audrey's fav playmate, stopped by with a sand pail full of goodies for Audrey to cheer her up (coloring book, bubbles, crayons, stuffed animal, card, books) and a bottle of wine and some Milanos for me :) :) :) she is a great friend and i love that our kids and husbands like each other too!!
i love our church -- they've adopted me into their family as if i grew up there, like Will did
i love the small town community that we're in -- it was amazing to have customers and even people i've never met ask how Audrey's health was and tell me that their church had been praying for her or ask if there was anything that we needed.
i love that we're so close to so many things yet we're not surrounded by a big, bustling city. it's taken me exactly one year to feel this way, but i think living in a small southern town, away from your family and friends is a big adjustment in itself.

i had a great birthday this week! i can't believe i'm 26! we had a great dinner out on Tuesday and Ann and i had our own special girls night celebration later that week. she turned 16 this month and can drive now!! when i met her, she had just turned 12! it's crazy how time has just flown by! i just love her and i often forget that there is a 10 year age difference between us! i'm glad that i can be a good influence on her as she goes through high school (seriously, teenage girls these days are so mean! i hear about the worst things from my church kids parents and parents at the store! this is an entirely different topic though, haha!) and that we are so close.

matching sister bracelets and a smelly belly owl for my car :)

Saturday just couldn't come fast enough! it was the perfect weekend to get away. that morning, we all slept in (well, except me -- i woke up an hour before my alarm because i was so excited!!) and Audrey played and ate breakfast on the counter, which is her favorite thing to do in the mornings, while we packed and loaded up the car.

  a forty-five minute car ride lead us here:

Audrey loved the beach! the tide was low so there were a ton of little pools for her to splash in and she loved digging in the sand and making a sand castle with her daddy :)

even when she face planted at the edge of a tide pool and got a face full of sand and saltwater, she popped right back up and kept on playing! 

we waded out into the ocean for a little bit and saw a school of dolphins playing about 500 feet away from us! it was so amazing! we also saw the Anchorman 2 cast and crew out on the beach filming -- of course now Will is convinced the school of dolphins were actually animatronic and were being used in the film ha!

after we dried off and changed, we headed towards the heart of the island for some shopping and dinner.

Will and i got matching "Salt Life" t-shirts (part of a longtime joke but i actually love mine!) and new sunglasses

Audrey fell asleep in the stroller so we walked out onto the pier and shared a romantic moment, just the two of us and the sun sinking into the deep blue sea. it was so nice to laugh and relax with each other. we get so busy, and with a child it can be hard to steal away those much needed moments together.

we then headed to Sonny's BBQ (my all-time favorite BBQ place that i haven't had since we lived in North Carolina!) where Will had a healthy salad

1/4 salad, 3/4 bacon bits & ranch, so typical!

Audrey and i shared an incredible pulled pork sandwich and then she split a plate of their famous banana pudding with Will

as we headed home, i just felt so refreshed and incredibly blessed. Audrey entertained us all the way home with her chatter and giggles, and after a much needed bath, fell right to sleep with a sweet sleepy smile on her face. i wonder if she was dreaming about the animatronic dolphins :)

Audrey at 18 months.

is 21 lbs. 6 oz. (24th percentile), 32 inches (60th percentile)

loves shoes and bows
"sahge" (the massage i give her with lotion after her bath haha!)
other babies - she can spot 'em from a mile away
her best friend Brayden aka "Bay"
snuggling with her daddy before she goes to bed - she burrows deeper when i go to take her to go night night
pushing her toys around in her little pink stroller

finding toys that i hide for her, and hiding them for me
climbing up on her toddler chair and coloring at her little table

and books, books, more books! i love hearing her babbling away whenever she is reading her books!
 

she is putting together new words and making sentences, saying something new almost daily. this morning as she was pushing her stroller from the family room to her bedroom she said, "bye bye! i right back!" :) :) :) 

she can work almost every app on my iPhone and loves to send text messages to unsuspecting contacts!

she is just such a sweet girl, i can't get over it! we have started seeing a couple temper tantrums here and there and she had her first time out last week which was hard for me to finally do (it did help her calm down though!). her pediatrician said at this stage she is probably not acting out (not terrible twos just yet!!), but since she is communicating so well and knows what she wants, when she doesn't know the word to tell us she gets frustrated....BUT she really is just so loving and kindhearted. i love getting big hugs from her when she runs to me, wraps her arms around my neck, buries her head in my shoulder, and says "Awwe"
 

we just love her so much!

beach bound.

spending the weekend at St. Simons Island for my birthday! this will probably be the longest week ever.

 

our life.

has been a whirlwind as of late. we've had an extremely sick baby on our hands and all my entire life halted so that i could put all of my energy and heart into being her full time mama again and taking care of her. up until then, i had started working at our church on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings doing child care along with working full time at the boutique, which has taken off like crazy this spring! we've had record sales and just such a positive energy coming from our customers and community. then, the sickness happened. The store had been so busy that Jen and i decided to start taking Audrey to a fantastic in-home daycare that her playmate, Brayden, went to a couple days a week. She loves going to Ms. Tracy's and she has really learned a lot from being around other children! Her vocabulary and motor skills have significantly improved; she can feed herself now, drink from a regular cup, say sentences, remember where she hides objects, and can tell you what she wants when asked (without being prompted or given choices)! All of this development in just a couple months!

Things were going great until Audrey woke up one Saturday morning with green goopy eyes

 

her pediatrician's office was closed for Easter that weekend so we went to Satilla Regional Hospital's Urgent Care facility. in the time between arriving and getting into a room, Audrey started burning up, breathing hard, and fell asleep on me (which hasn't happened since she was a tiny baby!)

 when they checked her temp it was 103.9, at the end of the visit it was up to 104.5

she tested negative for the flu, and all the doctor could tell me was that it was some kind of aggressive virus. the doctor put her on antibiotics and eye drops and sent us on our way. all she wanted to do was be close to us and sleep so that is what we did for our Easter weekend, no egg hunts, no Sunday morning service. we did go out for some fresh air briefly and it seemed to help her a little.

like father, like daughter

our Easter morning, snuggling with mama and
her new bunny (affectionately named 'Bubby' when
she couldn't say bunny correctly with a stuffy nose)

fresh air and a quick family picture!
Audrey always asks for shoes and a bow before we leave the house,
and that day was no exception! :)

 Monday morning, something just wasn't right. Audrey could barely lift her head up and her eyes were glazed over. It was like she wasn't even looking at me. She was still refusing food and liquids and I had a horrible feeling in my stomach all day worrying over her. I took her up to her pediatrician's office and it turns out she had two half dollar sized puss pockets in her ears that were putting pressure on her eardrums and causing disorientation. She wasn't dehydrated enough to go and get IV fluids at the ER, but it was to the point she wasn't crying tears (VERY scary!). Her ped ran a blood panel to check that the infection hadn't entered her bloodstream. Her white blood count came back slightly elevated so he put her on a new antibiotic and told us to monitor her closely throughout the night. By that point she had lost 2 lbs. just since Saturday (23 lbs. 4 oz. to 21 lbs. 2 oz.) and just looked so defeated. When the nurse was drawing blood she didn't even cry or act bothered, just started blankly at the wall.

Throughout the week she seemed to be getting better but on Friday morning, she woke up with green goopy eyes AGAIN and just seemed to not be feeling like herself so we headed back to the pediatrician and sure enough, she still had a massive ear infection. he stepped up her antibiotic to a more aggressive Ceftin; however, either CVS botched the only batch in town or it was a manufacturers defect -- either way, we had to wait to get her on a good batch until their shipment arrived Monday morning! we were still able to give her the diluted medicine but it wasn't working as well as it should have. She did seem to get better and we had a great weekend! I took Ann and her group's prom pictures and Audrey tagged along for the fun. Pop took her for a golf cart ride and they had fun swinging in the garden

isn't my sis-in-law so gorgeous??? :)

hanging out on the front porch while mama takes
pictures of all the beautiful prom girls :)

We went to church Sunday morning and she had a great time playing in the nursery

loves to pretend cook! i see us investing in a play kitchen
in the near future!

Monday morning, i picked up the new batch of Ceftin bright and early and breathed a sigh of relief thinking that our life would go back to normal this week and she would be feeling great! (Did i mention i was also battling strep and a nasty sinus infection in the midst of all of this?) We spent a good majority of our days napping in Mama and Dada's big bed :) i never had an interest in co-sleeping, but now i can see what all the fuss is about. sweet, sleepy baby snuggles in your own big bed are so perfect.

Tuesday morning, i text Jen and said that i didn't think Audrey should go to daycare and told her i needed to stay home with her. She felt warm and had a weird cough. I did a round of ear drops thinking her ear infection was bugging her again and she was in pain and we had a quiet morning.

When her cough got worse, I called her favorite nurse at the ped's office (we have favorites now since we've been there so much lately ha!) and held the phone to Audrey so she could hear her croupy breathing and cough. Her ped was out of town during the day but after the nurse calling him, he asked for us to come in so we could do another blood panel and see what was going on. Her official doctor's office temp when we arrived was 102.4. Her white blood count was elevated (but her ear infection was on the mend so this was a secondary infection) and her temp was rising by the minute. She had us keep giving her the antibiotic and alternate motrin and tylenol to keep the fever under control, as well as get a cool mist humidifier to help with the rattly cough. Jen also grabbed a new ear thermometer as our temple scan thermometer died earlier that morning. in the thirty minutes or so after we had left the ped's office, her temp had shot up to 104.5, then 104.8 a few minutes later, her breathing was ragged and she seemed to be struggling to breath. we decided to head to the emergency room and left a message with Leah (fav nurse) and as we were getting ready to leave, our ped's wife called (she is also a pediatrician) and said she was headed to the office from her house (with her kids in tow) and to meet us there so we didn't have to suffer through an ER visit. i am just so thankful for all of the doctors and nurses who gave us such fantastic, personal care!

She gave Audrey a fast acting steroid shot to relax her airways so that she could breathe better and also gave her a children's dose/concentration of motrin (i had been giving her the infants dose/concentration and it wasn't even touching her fever - when we got there her temp was 105.1!). Jen fanned her and she just clung to me. i was sweating from all of the heat she was giving off! we were able to take her home an hour and a half later and monitored her temp and breathing throughout the night. we sat in front of the freezer when her breathing got bad again and that helped tremendously! who knew? her fever finally went down to 102 at about 5 am and we were both able to get some good sleep. Leah called to check in on us twice a day the rest of the week and things finally seem to be getting better!

spending so much time away from work has left me with a huge to-do list when i go in tomorrow but in other news, my house is spotless! :) "the madness" aka Audrey's closet full of 18-24m clothes has been organized! (all of the huggies boxes on the shelves plus the 7-8 not pictured plus the big green tub are full of clothes she has outgrown! i need one of my friends to please have a girl ASAP!)

we moved the guest bed out of her room as it became increasingly difficult to get her to sleep in the pack n play in our room whenever we had company so instead, there is now a couch! she loves to stack books on it and can now climb up by herself and read while i put laundry away, it also doubled as a great bed for me to sleep on earlier this week when i was nervous about being far away from her.

now the bed is here, in our fancy guestroom! we have a partition to use in the doorway for privacy, and the pack n play is for baby/toddler guests (which there will be TWO of next month!!! eeek!) my friend Jenn and her husband and son, Gavi, who is four days younger than Audrey, are driving all the way from Ontario, Canada the first week of May! then, my best friend, Laura, her son, Evan (my godson), and her boyfriend are coming down to stay over Mother's Day weekend!

just add good friends :) (and clean sheets haha!)

my final masterpiece for the week of being stuck inside with a severely sick child is Audrey's new play corner in the family room! as awesome as it was for her to have a separate playroom, it ended up meaning that there were toys everywhere

all.the.time. 

SO... we gave her a play corner, and a toddler table to color and have snacks at, and a huge refrigerator box turned into a house that she adores so i don't have the heart to throw it out even though it's taking up half of the family room.

tah-dah!!! LOVE!

well i just wanted to update on what's been going on lately and let everyone know we're okay! Audrey had a lot of people thinking about her and us, and praying hard and we so appreciate that!

to end on a happy note, here are a few of my favorite 16-month-old pictures (she's 18m today!)

the photographer was making her laugh so hard! :)

serious face - i think she looks so much like Will in this one!

and a preview of the baby lamb portrait (yes, that is a real baby lamb! her name is Bella and she was so sweet to Audrey!) we had done before Easter. i still need to go and pick out the final images but haven't been able to get by there yet with everything that has been going on! hopefully i'll have prints to send out soon!

took this one this morning, fever finally broke last night and she looks much healthier and happier!

new Bon Bon necklace for being a brave girl!

she finally got her to eat a little (!!! yay!) and she was rocking in her chair before bath time tonight

my girl LOVES shoes, as you can see, she loves to wear them even when she's just playing inside!