Fatherless for Father's Day?

Well, nearly.  I won't sugarcoat the fact that I had a lousy father growing up.  He may have seemed like a great guy when my mom first married him, but he really disappointed soon after my sister and I were born.  He didn't show up to my high school graduation, wedding, or college graduation.  That's okay; I've made peace with that and speak to him a couple times year, but by no means have a father-daughter relationship with him. 

I've been fortunate enough to have a few 'step-in's' as father-figures in my life.  My godfather, Jeff, was the lucky man to walk me down the aisle on my wedding day and give me away.

And then there was my stepdad, Allen, from my 6th grade year to high school graduation.  He was there during most of my formative years.  We haven't always seen eye to eye at times, but we still keep in touch.

I'm not bitter about the fact that my biological father was just that, a biological father and nothing more.  Not a Daddy by any means.  I think the struggles I've faced because of that whole situation have made me stronger and more independent in my life.  And it definitely made me have high standards when picking a husband who would be the father to my own children one day.  I definitely want for my boys what I never had.

Anyways, not trying to a downer here on the celebratory day of Dads out there everywhere. :)

What a difference 20 months makes!!!

As I was uploading our pictures from the trip, this one looked a little familiar. 

After a little searching, I found nearly the same pose, at the same aquarium, 20 months ago!

They grow up wayyyyyyy too fast!

Where do I begin?!

We loaded up the car and headed out right before lunch on Monday. We made it all of about 10 miles before stopping for lunch at Chick-fil-A.  Oh boy; this was going to be a long ride to San Antonio. Finally, back on the road, we entertained Austin with movies, books, puzzles, songs, whatever it took to keep him occupied.  He finally took a nap the last hour and a half.

Katrina and I switched off driving and nearly five hours later, we arrived at our hotel.  We unpacked our stuff, got changed into our swimsuits, and headed down to the pool!  Austin has gotten braver each time at the pool and likes for me to let go of him so he can float on his own....

 And Mommy was nice enough to get a virgin pina colada, because I knew a certain little guy would want some of it.  Oh, the sacrifices I make.....

We decided to lay low the first night, ordered in pizza, and roasted marshmallows in the fire pits for s'mores!  We needed a good night's rest to be ready for our first day at Sea World!

One of the reasons I chose this hotel, was because it was a 1/2 mile away from Sea World and had a free shuttle so we could avoid the traffic lines and parking fees.  Needless to say, Austin loved riding in a big boy seat and not in his carseat. 

Once we arrived, we made our rounds.  We came back again for seconds on Wednesday to try to cover all of the highlights.

We first visited the new 'Sesame Street Bay of Play' to play in the splashpark and ride some rides.  He was such a big boy on the rides, even trying to keep his hands in the air on one of them!

As you can imagine, we spent alot of time in the 'Lost Lagoon Waterpark' area to get some relief from the 100 degree heat.  He was a little fish again, and loved  the wave pool when Mommy would fling him up in the air above the waves.

I think one of the highlights of our visit was feeding the dolphins, which we did both days.  He really liked getting up close and personal and hasn't stopped talking about feeding them since we got home.

Of course, we couldn't leave Sea World without a keepsake for Austin and a t-shirt as a consolation prize for Chase.  Austin loves his penguin and even wrapped him in a blanket to rock him to sleep on the car ride back home on Thursday.

 As you can imagine, all of the excitement at Sea World will exhaust a toddler beyond belief.  Thankfully, as he got a powernap in, so did Mommy and Meow-Meow. 

After we recovered on Tuesday night, we headed to the Riverwalk to take in the sights, grab a bite to eat, and take the riverboat tour.  Once again, Austin didn't disappoint.  He waved to the shoppers, diners, walkers (basically anybody who would make eye contact with him) as we floated by on the boat.  And he kept saying, 'That man's a crazy driver!' about our boat driver. :)

I'm sure there are alot more details that I left out, but honestly, I'm too tired.  Just use your imagination on what all you can do at Sea World and we did it. :)  The worst part about our trip: the drive back.  Ugh.  But Austin was such a trooper and we had a blast.  The only thing missing...........Jordan, Chase, and Logan! Maybe next time!



Last Ditch Effort!

I think Chase knew that I had planned a trip out of town with Austin and tried to make a last ditch effort to get me to stay.  When Chase woke up Monday morning, one of his eyes was a little pink.  This could have been one of two things......allergies or pink eye.  I took the safe route, gave him some eye drops and sent him on to daycare before we headed out to San Antonio.  Half way down there, the daycare called me, telling me they were pretty sure he had pink eye.  Jordan ran the eye drops up there for them to give him.  But a few hours later, they called back, saying he had been crying for nearly two hours straight, which is not like him at all and they knew that.  And by this time, his eye was all goopy and much worse.  Jordan ran him up to the pediatrician's office right before they closed.  Diagnosis: pink eye and an ear infection.  Yikes!  Here I am, pulling into San Antonio, while my sweet Chase was at home sick.  I felt terrible, to say the least!  But there was nothing I could do five hours away, and I had to just let Jordan take control of the situation and know that Chase was in good hands.  Unfortunately, Chase couldn't go back to school on Tuesday, and Jordan wasn't able to stay home with him since he just started his new job. Thankfully, PawPaw stepped in to save the day and take care of him while Jordan went to work. 

He's made a speedy recovery and was more than excited to see when I showed up at daycare this afternoon to get him!  I missed him so much! I don't know what I was thinking, leaving him for four days. :(

Road Trip!

Time for a road trip!  I knew we wouldn't be able to spring for a big vacation this year since going on the cruise last summer and with Chase being so young still.  So, it was decided that San Antonio would suffice as a quick getaway.  Unfortunately, since Jordan just started his new job last month, he wasn't going to be able to take time off yet.  Bummer.  But luckily, my sister is a teacher and already getting stir crazy being out of school and quickly agreed to accompany me on the trip.  I debated on bringing Chase, but ultimately decided to leave him behind.  It's going to be 100 degrees outside, and I just didn't think it would be a good idea. Since we're going during the week, Chase can still go to daycare during the day while I'm gone.  This will be the first time I will have spent a night away from him, so it'll be a little hard, especially being gone three nights.  Hopefully he will be good for Daddy.  We're bringing along the laptop so that we can at least Skype and see each other.  You gotta love technology these days.

Monday morning my sister and I will be headed to San Antonio with Austin in tow.  I'm hoping that he won't mind the 4-5 hour drive down there and behaves.  We've booked a nice hotel a 1/2 mile away from Sea World and planning to go two days.  With a full waterpark there now, it's just so hard to pack everything into one day.  I had originally planned on staying at another hotel without all the bells and whistles that was a little further away from Sea World.  But I found a great deal on this Hilton and they have a separate pool/splashpark for kids, firepits outside to make s'mores, and a shuttle to take you to Sea World.  Sounds great to me!  The only thing missing?  My husband and my other kid! :(  But we'll make the best of this trip.  This will be a much-needed break from work for me; my 'part-time' schedule hasn't really been that part-time for the past month or so.

I just giggle when I think about my sister and I going on this trip with Austin.  Before Chase was born and the two of us would take Austin to dinner or to play somewhere, we would always joke about 'Austin and his two mommies'.  For some reason I feel like people stare at us like we are 'life partners' out with our kid.  Well, we are life partners; sisters for life! :)  I'm sure it will be a fun trip, filled with lots of laughs, all of us in the same bed, and fun at Sea World.  Can't wait to go and share pics!

Last time we took Austin to Sea World, he was 10 months old....

5 Months and Counting!

Today marks Chase's 5-month birthday.  It kinda just snuck up on me; I didn't even realize it until I was on my way to work this morning.  In the past couple of weeks, he has just blossomed into a happy, smiley,  mellow little guy.  As I mentioned in my previous post, he has really enjoyed starting solid foods this month and is truly packing on more pounds.  If I had to guess, he is around 17lbs. now; my arm gets cramps when carrying him in his car seat these days.

He's rolled over a few times, but has just gotten pretty lazy and would rather just lay there and play.  Rolling over is too much work, in his eyes.  I've been working with him on trying to sit up lately, so hopefully that will be our next milestone this month.  There was a week or so where he was waking up fussy in the middle of the night, but I think we've fixed that by feeding him solids now.  That boy was just hungry!  So, he's back to his good sleep schedule again. He absolutely loves bath time, especially staring at his handsome self in the mirror. Ummm, what else.......oh yeah, he has become quite the motor-mouth.  He loves to just babble on and on.  Every morning while I'm getting ready, he sits in our bed watching the Today show with me and we carry on full conversations.  And he's completely spoiled at daycare already by his teachers. :)

Here are a few pics from the past month.....

Mommy & Chase after bath time

Nearly too big for the baby tub already!

Playing on his rainforest playmat

Laying in Mommy & Daddy's bed in the morning watching the Today show

Just hanging around the house!

I just love the look on his face in this one!

Cooling off....

Jordan's been working alot lately, so we decided to hit our neighborhood pool/splashpark early this morning before he headed into work.  I hate to say it, but it wasn't crowded because most folks were probably preparing for Sunday church.  But we had to snag some family time when we could.

Chase and I enjoyed some relaxation in the lounge chair.....

Austin floated around on his Cars float and splashed in the water.....

And then Austin and Daddy watched some girls splash around.  For some reason, I can see this happening alot in my future.  (Of course, Daddy's not watching the young girls, but you get my drift!)