There's just something about...

SPRING! I feel hopeful even when exhausted and tired. I mean, how can you feel down when you pass a blazing pink dogwood tree in full bloom? How can you frown at the millions of pink petals underneath a redbud tree? How can you not be energized by a rapidly running river and the sighting of FIVE beavers? Okay, that one was for Christopher who experienced a great trip down the Eno today. He needed it!

We have been feeling pretty puny here (with another bout of illness this past weekend…three cheers for GI bugs), but I feel confident that we are going to turn a corner soon. Spring does that to a person. I finished the Spring semester off with all A’s, if you can believe that, and will start back up again in a couple of weeks. Elias is doing better with listening and talking, though we keep our expectations low on that frontier. He is two, after all, and toddlers can change on a dime! Tonight, while Daddy was on the river, Elias and I shared a date at our favorite restaurant, Cracker Barrel. He was a perfect gentleman and had all the patrons commenting on how cute he was, though desperately needing a haircut. Stranger standards are much lower than mothers’, as far as haircuts go. When we first walked in, he headed straight for the hostess station, but no one was there at the moment, so he proceeded to walk into the restaurant. I had to call him back and tell him that we could not just pick our own table (no matter how many times we had been there). We had to wait for the hostess. And then the most amazing thing happened. Instead of throwing himself into hysterics (which has happened quite frequently as of late as a result of the most minor of circumstances), he stopped. He turned around and came back to stand where I was. I thought I was going to wet my pants. I am sure it was only 20 seconds he stood with me until the hostess returned, but it seemed like an eternity and I was so proud of him! Once at the table and after giving our order for two vegetable plates, he quietly played with that golf-tee-triangle-thing.

I am always proud of my son. I always love him and I never regret bringing him into this world. But when he is so precious and well behaved, I am elated. It makes my week. And I try to dwell on those moments in my mind when he is pitching a fit and yelling “All done!” like he did while I was trying to get him into the car tonight after Cracker Barrel. I didn’t let it ruin our experience, though, and just calmly told him because he yelled (and kicked) at Mama, there would be no music in the car. This is of VERY big consequence to Elias. Tonight, it prompted him to SAY, instead of sign, loud and clear, “PEAS,” for please. I started to tear up at the sound of this beautiful word coming out of his mouth, but stood my ground and said, “No, music.” We were quiet all the way home. This is okay, because he was refreshed once we got to the house and participated in the bedtime routines without a fight. Okay, okay, okay, I did forget to brush his teeth, which is a guaranteed battle, but I just wanted to end the night on a good note. I’ll brush them in the morning. And hopefully, if work time allows in the morning, I will post some pictures from our Queens trip and from Spring in general.

Get ready to read...it's been seven weeks of silence!

If you read our blog regularly, you have probably been disappointed in my silence for almost two months! I have several excuses...
School has been very tough this semester. Lots of reading and writing! Last week I turned in a 29 page research paper that has been my life for the past few weeks. Two weeks left and then a little reprieve before the summer semester starts.
We have also suffered through various illnesses....colds, allergies and most recently hand-foot-mouth disease. Elias got it first, followed by Christopher, who suffered through worse symptoms than Elias. We are happy to be rid of that! I got pink eye and bronchitis, but after some antibiotics and cough medicine with codeine, I am finally feeling better!

And then work....WOW! It has been an adjustment (that's putting it nicely) to work full time again. In all honesty, I have never worked every day, and I come home exhausted. It's all I can do to stay awake through dinner (which Christopher has been preparing!) and keep going long enough to complete some schoolwork before crashing. Work itself has been difficult with really low staffing due to unexpected leave for a couple of nurses. I am not getting to do much administrative duties and am continuing to care for patients most days. And it's tiring to do that day in and day out! The nurses I work with have been so supportive and are still just happy to see me every day. It is because of them that I have survived these first four weeks.
Christopher has taken over the checkbook and paying bills, which is a huge help, but one that comes with a little hassle for me. I do not like to explain how or why I spend money and now I am totally accountable! It's new territory for our marriage, but as they say, that which does not kill us, makes us stronger! Money management is a time-consuming job and despite my dislike at first, it makes sense for Christopher to take over that right now. I still maintain that I am the CFO and he is just the chief accountant.
Elias has done well with school every day. He plays hard and comes home just as exhausted as me! We have had to work with the teachers there in supporting his language issues and bought a cool sign language book for the class. He says more and more words and phrases every day, which is thrilling. He knows over 13 letters, says a few colors and says things such as "all done," "open" (but with a French-sounding accent-it's great!), "off," "ah-wah" for I want, and "oh-nah" for oh-no whenever he sees that it is raining outside or anything else that he feels is amiss.
Our wonderful speech therapist, Stacy, continues to see him twice a week at school, and always remarks on new words he is saying. It is my opinion that school has helped this a lot!
We've done some fun things over the past 6 weeks or so, including a trip to North Myrtle Beach for my spring break. We had hoped more family/friends would join us, but it ended up just being me, Elias and Nana (my mom). We had a blast! The weather was still a little chilly to be in the ocean, and were only able to brave about 30 minutes. Elias' legs were frozen, but continued to run in and out of the ocean. He just loves the water. We moved into the indoor pool and enjoyed a fun time in much warmer water! We visited Alligator Adventure, enjoyed Ripley's Aquarium and rode some little rides at Broadway at the Beach. Lots of fun memories with Nana. Click HERE for the full slideshow of Mom's pictures.

at Alligator Adventure

yikes!

Nana and Elias on the carousel at the Pavilion Nostalgia Park

so fun!

Our few minutes at the beach...it was freezing!

Mommy on Spring Break (notice the big smile)

Nana and Elias

Earlier in the month, Papa T and Nana T had visited us here and I took some great video of Papa T and Elias shooting hoops. We snuck our way into Cameron indoor stadium and Dad got to see Coach K's court. He was like a kid in a candy shop!

At the end of March, Elias and I traveled to Black Mountain for my cousin Andy's wedding. Christopher was supposed to go, but was just too sick with that awful hand-foot-mouth virus. He could barely eat! It was a whirlwind trip, but great to see all my Mom's family. It certainly was a different experience trying to enjoy a ceremony and reception with an overactive toddler. We survived the ceremony thanks to a balcony and our laptop to play DVD's. It took two to last us the length of the service! I just gave up at the reception and let him run wild. I think he made some of the older folks a little nervous, but you try and make him be still! He enjoyed the wedding food, and had his first experience with cracker dip. He would put the cracker in his mouth and suck off the dip (which was very delicious) and dip again. Same thing he does with ketchup, which we use to get him to eat pretty much anything. Don't worry, we buy organic, non-high-fructose-syrup ketchup. Once you reach the toddler stage of parenting, you do whatever works to achieve halfway decent nutrition!
The other Ammon family was here this past weekend and we enjoyed some good quality family time. Taylor Grace, our niece, is just too cute for words. She even does the joke where she asks you to look under somewhere so that you say "under where?" and then she explodes into giggles. Katie and I were remarking while making dinner with the two kids underfoot that girls and boys are so different. Taylor grace kept wanting to help stir and pour ingredients, while Elias just kept saying "eat! eat!" and signing for milk. She is a little older (by about 4 1/2 months), but the personality differences are stark. In Target, she walked by our carts, while we couldn't keep Elias restrained. I don't even try to let him out of the cart, and when the snacks are done, he is done. He was saying "all done" after about 15 minutes. They both inherited some kind of affection gene, as the two of them hold hands whenever we walk anywhere together. They also give lots of hugs and kisses. What can I say...there is just a lot of love to go around! They bought a house today in Winston-Salem and we can't wait to have them closer. Congrats Brian, Katie and Taylor Grace! Here is a picture of the two cousins from last Sunday:

We are headed to Charlotte in mid April to enjoy some college reunion activities. We hope to spend some time with our college friends and their babies...and reconnecting to a place we love so much! In the meantime, I am enjoying weekends off. I FINALLY made it to church (didn't even get to go on Easter because Elias was sick!) and am so happy to be involved again. Fridays actually feel like Fridays and I truly treasure the time off with Elias and Christopher.

Here is a picture of us from my first day at church in almost two years!

Hope to be a little better about staying in touch, but can't make any promises. I think I'll probably go through periods of craziness with school through the next year or so. But if I can hack the pace, my last semester will be summer of 2009.
Decided to change my blog colors to match the Spring vibe (minus the pollen!) because I am so happy for the warmer weather. I told Christopher that I love Spring so much more than I used to, because I know it means getting my boy out into nice weather and enjoying the beauty all around us. The deer ate all my bulbs, but my window box and big pots out back are safe and blooming beautifully.
Keep in touch with us...we'd love to hear from you!