Where Is Time Going

Each morning, we hesitate to get out of bed until the very last second. Our days go by pretty quickly, we come home from work, make dinner, do whatever and then go to bed. The cycle starts again. It's hard to remember that with each new sunrise, that's another day that we'll never relive, never get to have a do-over, never get to repeat. It's another day that passes that my Bubbers learns new things, does new tricks and observes. My days are going way to fast.

Reilly is 5 months old. I can't believe it. I'm so VERY excited to watch him grow up, but then when I think about it, I want to freeze time so we have this little boy in our arms forever. He is by far the greatest gift I have ever been given. Each day is such a miracle that we get to watch him grow, learn, laugh, play and even cry. 5 months has gone so quickly, I just want to cherish every moment.

Dear Reilly,

Here are highlights from month 5 Bubber Boy...

• We had our first road trip...we went to Ft. Wayne with Aunt Keely and Uncle Jeff. This was your first stay at a hotel (and one to remember since the fire alarm went off at 1:30 am.) We spent time at the mall, went swimming in the pool, and visited a Botanical Garden Center.


• We also experienced our first (and hopefully only!) trip to the emergency room on March 7th. Daddy and I took you in at 9:00 pm after you had slept for about 7 hours and we couldn't get you to stay awake. You were diagnosed with an ear infection and a head cold.



• We had a small experience with Chicken Pox. Turns out not everything you bring home from Ms. Betsy's is good news! :)
  
• You helped me celebrate a great 31st birthday. I loved the presents you got me; a bib that says "I love My Mommy" and a coloring book with a note inside that said you can't wait until I can teach you to color and we can color the pages together.


• At our Dr. appointments this month, you were pretty consistently 14 lbs and 14 oz.
  
• We went to see your first Notre Dame Mens' basketball game. You stayed awake through 90% of it and just enjoyed looking around and taking everything in.


• You celebrated your first St. Patrick's Day with a special outfit and a "I'm a Lucky Charm" bib.
  
• Mommy and you went on a bus trip to Longaberger with Auntie Kim, Auntie Keely and Grandma Moroni (there were a lot of other people too!) You were AMAZING and a lot of our bus friends said if they hadn't seen you first thing, they wouldn't have even known you were on the bus!

This has been another wonderful month. I'm so thankful that I get to be your Mommy! I love you, Reilly!

Happy Birthday To Me...

Ahh...another year older, another year wiser, just like any other day...but only it's not.

I've had a GREAT birthday. This has been the first year that I've been able to convince Dave that I really am a fan of Birthday Chunnaka (sp) and he should be to. He embraced the idea this year and did everything he could to make this a very special birthday!

My celebration started last Sunday, when Reilly arrived in my arms sporting a brand new, "I love my mommy" bib that is waterproof. If you're reading this and don't realize how amazing that is in itself...you must not hang around us very often! The celebration continued on Wednesday, when I received an itunes gift card so I could get some of the cool apps on my iphone that I always want but never "purchase." Then, more celebrating on Friday, when I got a new pink wallet to take the place of mine that has been falling apart for quite some time now.

On to the real day, which is today, I got a new Nintendo DS puzzle game, the movie "Fireproof" and Bubbers got me a coloring book that had a message inside saying he can't wait for me to teach him how to color.

This morning, my dear friend Lisa invited Bubbers and I to breakfast to start my day! We had a great time catching up and visiting. My sister and brother in law, Kim and Glenn, offered to keep Rei for us this afternoon so Dave and I could go on a "date" to finish our celebrations. We dropped him off and had a great time seeing the moving "The Bounty Hunter" and then enjoying a late lunch/early dinner at Texas Roadhouse.

We went back and picked up Rei, then stopped off at Mike and Teri's for a quick visit before heading home and gettin' in our jammies.

Although Dave has made my day very special this year, I received the greatest gift of all earlier this year in October. The best present of my life was born on October 27th. It was exactly one year ago today that the Dr. confirmed that there was indeed a baby in my belly and told me that I was going to be a mommy. I'm not sure what else you can ask for on your 30th birthday.

I'm so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life. I've had so many phone calls, texts, face book messages and well wishes. It's been a great day! I'd kinda like to have a birthday everyday.

3...2...1...PANIC!

Last Sunday started out as a great day! We woke up in Ft. Wayne during our weekend getaway and spent some great family time together.

Reilly had his first big weekend away, with lots of new things to see and do. He slept pretty well at the hotel, which I was very nervous about. We all would have done much better if the fire alarm had not gone enough at 1:30, but we survived.

Rei fell asleep at lunch before we headed out of town and slept for the majority of the ride back to Mishawaka. He did wake up for about 15 minutes so he and Aunt Keely could visit as I snoozed away.

When we got home, he continued to sleep for most of the afternoon. There were a couple of times that we tried to wake him up so he could eat, but he wanted no part of it. Throughout the evening, until about 9:00, he slept continuously, except for the 4-5 times that he woke up for about 5 minutes and just screamed. Then he would fall right back asleep. Although we were worried with how much he was sleeping, we did realize that he was out of sorts from our weekend away and blamed it on that. However, I did my best to wake him up at about 8:45, even having him sit straight up in my lap as I was sitting in bed, and he zonked right back off, almost falling over. This is when the worrying got bad.

We decided it best to call the Dr. to just get their opinion. Dr. Jagger was on call last weekend, and after giving my report to the call center, he called us right back. Although he didn't sound to worried in the beginning, after he heard about our day, and the fact that Reilly had only eaten about 9 oz the whole day, he urged us to take him to the Emergency Room right away.

3...2...1...PANIC!

Dave and I quickly dressed and made the phone calls to the family. We got to the ER, where Keely and Jeff met us and got checked in. The entire trip there and the check in process still provided sleeping time for the little man. While we were waiting to be called back to triage, Rei finally opened his eyes and kept them open. Of course!

We got called back and they did the necessary tests...temperature, blood oxygen level, etc. Everything appeared to be fine. To top it off, Rei was wide awake and looking at us like, "What are we doin' here guys?" One of those times that we can laugh at now, but felt rather silly during. We went from Triage to the actual room, where my Dad and Diane showed up as well. At this point, I think Rei thought we were throwing a party in his honor was was quite the guest of honor. He was chattering, giggling, moving...everything we had wanted to see the previous 7 hours, but didn't. He even got to wear the special hospital gown to his "party!"

One Dr. came in to make sure he wasn't an "Uh-oh" baby and needed to be seen immediately. He felt good with the way our little actor was acting and said that Dr. Speicher would be in soon. After waiting a bit longer, the Dr. came in, discovered Rei had the start of an ear infection, gave us a prescription and sent us on our way. Yep...an ear infection. (We found out the next day at our regular pediatrician, it wasn't even that impressive of an infection!) We're guessing that with his chicken pox, head cold and later stomach flu (we think!) maybe his body was just exhausted and was fighting off the illnesses with sleep. We made it back home around 11:00 pm.

Being sick is scary. Hearing a Dr. tell you that you should get your four month old to an emergency room as soon as possible is HORRIFYING. I can say that was the most scared I have been in a really long time. My family was amazing that night. Coming to meet us at 9:30 pm, staying with us until 11:00 pm, and calling to check on us after we were home.

Rei's much better now...finally back to his old eating habits and feeling much better. I'd be happy if he's never sick again.

Our Weekend Away!

Last weekend, 3/6-3/7, Dave and I decided to "get away." We were super excited that Keely and Jeff planned to come along, and quickly decided that Ft. Wayne was far enough to feel "away," yet close enough for a quick weekend trip...this was after all going to be Rei's first road trip.

We headed out of town Saturday afternoon and were planning on returning Sunday afternoon. We had a great time, seeing all sorts of fun stuff. We checked into the Hampton Inn, which was to be our home away from home, and then quickly headed over to Glen Brook Mall for some shopping fun. Although we were at the mall for quite some time, we left with money in our pockets! :)

Next, we headed back to the hotel for some swimming and relaxing. Oh, and dinner, too! We ordered pizza to be delivered, ate and headed down to soak in the hot tub and be chlorinated. Dave, Rei and I spent time in the pool only, as the hot tub was flamin' hot. The pool had plenty of chemicals, so we didn't even last in there to long. There were also so very loud, excited kiddies swimming which made it difficult to bear for much longer than about 25 minutes.

We headed up and to bed about 10:30, only to be waken out of a dead sleep by the hotel fire alarm at 1:30 am. Imagine waking up to the loudest sound you've ever heard and not knowing what to do next. I immediately grabbed Reilly to make our escape, and Dave jumped out of bed, looked around in a sleepy panic and said, "What do we do?" After taking a minute to breath, I put Reilly back in bed and headed for the hallway. There didn't appear to be any smoke, so I closed the door, told Dave to lay back down and proceeded to call the front desk. After 4 attempts, and no one willing to answer, I headed down to the lobby.

I found the front desk clerk, who was clearly out of breath and not in a good mood and asked what was going on. She said that she had "run the floors and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary." I asked if we needed to evacuate, (I did pass some poor souls who were standing outside in their jam-jams!) and she said she didn't think so. At this point, a bit of Mama Bear came out, and I replied, "Well, I need to know what we should do, not what you think we should do, because I have a 4 month old upstairs." She said we were welcome to evacuate if we wanted, but she thought everything was okay. She did tell me that the fire department was on its way, and she would know more than. As I went back upstairs, thinking we could be part of a huge weenie roast in under 5 minutes, I gave Dave the update, and he said to chill out and we watched TV for a bit. We heard the sirens come and then I headed back down about 15 minutes later to find out that a sprinkler had been bent and had triggered the alarm to go off. We're in teh clear.

Sunday morning we got up and enjoyed some breakfast downstairs in the lobby before playing some cards and heading out. We made a stop at Gander Mountain and then headed over to the Botanical Gardens that are in downtown Ft. Wayne. We had a great time walking around and exploring the different areas, plants, shrubs and trees. We made a quick stop at Red Robin before heading back home.

We had a great time in Ft. Wayne, took lots of pictures and made lots of memories. And if you thought I used to be a heavy packer before Rei, you should have seen me then...