Mr. Big Stuff

It's always funny when you finally notice that your kids are getting bigger. The other day, we were upstairs and Bradley was sitting in the Dora chair. He just all of the sudden looked like a big boy. I had taken off his shirt because it was hot and I thought he looked mighty cool sitting there. He's so precious and sweet and I love him so much!

Vacation Day 3: Shell Island

daddy and Rachel

suckers and sand are definitely a good mix!

Mommy and Rachel

"papa, my future's so bright, I gotta wear shades." --BFM

I think I prefer the sand!

Nick...way up on the rocks

a quick excursion with daddy

gorgeous beach babe!

the water's so calm!

Hey, this is no big deal...I like it!

I think day 3, Monday, was the day we went to Shell Island. (All the days have run together since we got home.) Shell Island is a small little island located in St. Andrews Park (I think that was the name). Anyway, we drove into the park and hitched a ride on a schoolbus to a large ferry pontoon boat that carried us to the island. Bradley was very scared of the bus ride and squeezed my finger very hard while we were in the bus and whimpered or cried for most of the 5 minute ride. The boat was cool...all open and a great breeze, but Bradley wasn't sure about that either. He's just not a boy for an adventure into "the unknown". It's gotta be something familiar otherwise he's uncomfortable for awhile. Even when we got to the island, there was a short walk to the main beach and we were in a kind of natural walkway of sand with water on both sides. Bradley made Papa hold him and wouldn't get down to walk. He was just unsure, and if he's unsure about something, there's no coaxing or convincing him otherwise. But, we all really enjoyed the island. There were huge rocks that went around a large part of the island and water pooled in between the rocks. You could climb on the rocks or wade in the shallow waters or watch the seagulls. There was a large portion of beach that wasn't on the main gulf, so it was very calm and you could swim in it if you wanted. There were lots of people there since the ocean had been categorized as "double red" flag which means NO water activity of any kind. And, the riptide was so strong that they had had 5 people drown over the past week at the regular beach! Sad! So, we walked around and waded in the water, climbed on the rocks, did some exploring in the watery caverns and played in the sand. Rach loved all of this. She was all over the water...running, splashing, enjoying herself. Bradley stayed in the sand for most of the time and then right before we were going to meet the ferry to go back, he got in the water and loved it. (Always in his own timing!) It was lots of fun and I would love to go back again and stay longer!

Tooth Update

I had anticipated calling several dentists this morning and having one check Rachel's teeth to make sure everything was okay. But, thankfully, Nick's cousin called us last night to check on Rachel and while I was talking to her, I was voicing my concerns about Rachel's teeth and she let me talk to her husband, the dentist. He was so helpful and answered all my questions and relieved my worries. He basically said that the nasty purple bruising that's in her gums directly above her front teeth is very normal for the sort of trauma that her mouth suffered with having a tooth knocked out. He said that's a deep bruise and will take a couple of weeks to heal but that there's not much they would do for her mouth at this point. Even if her teeth have been shifted backwards slightly they will more than likely self-correct since children's mouths/teeth are changing and growing so much right now. I felt SO much better after talking to him and not worrying that Rachel's other teeth are falling out. He said she would probably be eating soft foods for a couple of weeks, so that stinks, but we don't have much of a choice. Matt (the dentist) also offered to check Rachel's teeth if we wanted, which was very sweet and much appreciated. So, we're going to let Rachel's mouth heal on it's own for now rather than have it checked at it's sorest time. But, I feel much better with all the info. Matt gave me and the assurance that he can check it for us if we need him to. By the way, Matt said the tooth she lost was a lateral tooth and they don't usually fall out until you're 8 years old, so she will be without a tooth for about 4 years! :)

Vacation Day 2

On Sunday, we decided to do go to the pool and beach again. We were all up early, so we went to the beach and had fun playing in the sand, pushing around our trucks and making sand castles. Everyone had fun and we went in before it got too hot for Bradley. That afternoon, we ate at Billie's Seafood, which was very good. We shared a shrimp/cream cheese dip with tortilla chips that was delicioius. I had a bowl of a very delicious authentic gumbo that had crawfish in it, a HUGE crab leg sticking out of it and several other types of fish in it. It was good, but I prefer the slightly less authentic tasting gumbo, without large crab legs sticking out of it.

An unwanted visit from the Tooth Fairy...

WOW!!! The tooth fairy gave me $5!!!
Yep, that's where my tooth should be...just one away from my 2 front teeth!

I certainly am not excited that Rachel got to experience the tooth fairy at 4 years old, but we made the best of it. After a long week at the beach and a fun birthday party, we came home last night and were settling down before bath time. Ironically, we had just been talking about dentists with Jennifer. She was telling us about a really cool pediatric one that's new in Athens. We were saying that we need to get Rachel an appointment since she's supposed to have gone last year. Anyway, we were all in the den talking and watching tv and enjoying the family time. Rachel was sitting in my lap and Bradley was trying to crawl behind me and we were all on the couch. Somehow, Rachel fell forward and her beautiful face hit the coffee table. The sound was horrible and her cries and tears came instantly. I picked her up and took her to the bathroom where her mouth was bleeding profusely. She was hysterical and so were me and Nick. (Bradley didn't notice or care that anything was going on...turned out to be a good thing since we ignored him for about an hour while we tended to Rachel.) I asked Nick to get me some washcloths and a cup of ice and I tried to calm down my precious little girl who was in pain and scared. While I was wiping her face with a washcloth, I noticed something white fall out of her mouth and it was one of her teeth! I couldn't believe it...a completely intact tooth with a tiny little root on one end and a tiny little blunt tooth on the other. I was horrified but tried to remain calm. I mean, it's certainly not natural to knock out a tooth! I've only lost mine the good old fashioned way, which is when they fell out and I was probably about 9 or 10...NOT 4!!!!! So, I asked Nick to bring me my cell phone so I could call my pediatrician's answering service. I was thinking, "can they put this back in or what? What do we need to do?" So, the answering service had the doctor call me immediately. As soon as they took my message and info., the on-call doctor called me back. He was very nice and said that they do not put baby teeth back into a child's mouth. He wanted to know if I could tell whether or not any of her other teeth were loose or broken or anything. I couldn't tell a darn thing because Rachel was still wailing in my arms and blood was still freely flowing from her mouth. The on-call doctor suggested that I take her the ER to have her checked. I thought about this and thought, "do I want to put Rachel through a long wait at a nasty ER?" and "what can they possibly do for her there?" It's not like they have an on-call dentist to come in and check her out, right? But, I wanted another opinion. Well, thankfully, we have a family dentist connection, so we were able to call Nick's cousin, who is married to a dentist and his whole family is in the dentistry field. Fortunately, several of them were together at a dentist's convention and I was able to speak to one who was a pediatric dentist. He was very nice and advised me to put either a wet tea bag or some cosmetic cotton rounds on the missing tooth cavity. He said to do this with light pressure to stop the bleeding. He also said that in his experience, he has found that when one tooth is completely knocked out like that, most times the others are not necessarily loosened or knocked out too since the one tooth took the brunt of the force. He didn't advise me to go to the ER, and I was very glad. He just said to stop the bleeding, give her soft foods in the next few days and that she would get to enjoy an early visit from the tooth fairy. He also said to have her checked at the dentist at my earliest convenience. Of course, since all this happened on a Saturday night, I have to wait until Monday morning to get an appointment. But, we're hanging in there. Rachel was very hysterical for quite awhile and would panic when she heard me on the phone with the doctors saying she didn't want to go to the doctor and she didn't want him to come to her house. (Like that has ever or would ever happen!) She also said she wanted her tooth back in and she asked how she was going to eat her food without her tooth. Poor little thing had no idea what to think except that she was scared because she knew she was hurting and that her tooth was out and there was lots of blood. I tried to reassure her that she would be able to eat just fine and reminded her of her baby cousin Heather who has only a few teeth but can eat just fine. We also remembered that this tooth was only part of her first set and that she gets a whole new set (from the Dr. Seuss Tooth Book). She started to feel a little better and calmed down some and the bleeding slowed down. We made it into the den in our blood spattered clothes and watched a little Tom & Jerry (Rachel's choice). Nick put Bradley to bed, but we kept Rachel up to make sure her mouth wasn't bleeding. We didn't want to put her to bed and have blood pooling in her mouth while she was trying to sleep. She was so sweet and brave about it all. She cuddled in my lap and said sweet things like, "I love you mommy." Or, "you're the best mommy ever." Of course, the trauma of the evening mixed with my fear and sadness that I had held in had to come out in some quiet tears as I held my sweet baby girl and just thanked God that she was alright. I know it could have been worse and I know how blessed I am to have a sweet child like Rachel. I certainly don't deserve her and can't take credit for her loving ways...I know that comes from someone much more mighty than me! But boy, am I thankful to be apart of her life and to be able to love her and bring her some comfort, especially when she needed it so much! We finally put Rachel in bed and read her a story and she fell asleep immediately.

The only good thing from this experience is that Rachel got to have her first visit from the tooth fairy. Right before we put her in bed, we took her little bitty tooth and taped it into a clear sandwich baggie. (I was afraid it would get lost since it was so small.) As soon as I left Rachel's room, I got Nick and we got some money to put under her pillow. I wanted to give her $20 since it was WAY too early for her to be losing teeth and since it was so painful. Nick wanted to give her .50 cents. We finally compromised on $5. Rach was so excited when she woke up this morning. She called us to come in her room and showed us the money under her pillow. She wanted to show the money to JuJu, so we took the above pictures for her.

We finally got up and got dressed and headed off to Toys-R-Us to buy a toy with the tooth fairy money. We looked and looked all over the store and finally decided on some My Little Pony accessories. Rachel was very satisfied and excited about the whole thing. On the way home, of course the poor girl was getting hungry. She had been afraid to eat anything except yogurt before we left. We tried McDonald's, but when she bit into a fry, she accidentally clicked her top front teeth with her bottom front teeth and started crying. No matter what we tried...chewing on the side, slowly, small pieces, etc...nothing worked. There is no worse feeling than not being able to give your child food. I felt awful that the poor baby was hungry but couldn't find something her teeth could tolerate. So, we went to Publix and got everything we could think of that doesn't require chewing. Poor baby is on a soft foods/liquid diet. We got pudding, applesauce, chicken noodle soup, ice cream, shredded cheese, mashed potatoes, etc...

She also has a slight speech lisp now. I don't know if it's because her top lip is so swollen underneath or if it's because of the missing tooth. But, she's adorable with it. Also, although I would NEVER want my children to lose teeth prematurely and I have always enjoyed her complete set of teeth in a smile, NOTHING could ever take away from her beauty. So, I will not be making a big deal about her missing tooth or making comments about how it looks. I don't want her to be self-conscious about it!

By the way, I have a list of about 20 dentists in the area that I'm going to call in the morning and see who can see us the earliest. I just want to make sure the rest of Rachel's teeth are okay. I'll update you once we go.

Vacation Day 1

the beautiful beach view from our 2nd floor balcony
one of the two pools that we could swim in

Rachel loved swimming with papa

sweet little water bug

Uh! I don't want to be in the pool!

I'm so excited!

I really LOVE the sand!!

It feels so good!

I love the beach and the ocean!

Whoohoo!!

gorgeous sunset

having fun playing

Footprints in the sand...

We left last Saturday morning and had a very uneventful drive down! However, it seemed to be the LONGEST drive ever to the beach! The kids did pretty well until the last part, and frankly, Nick and I weren't doing so well either. We were all very tired of being in the car and couldn't wait to just get there and walk around. We had to stop about 4 times between lunch and potty breaks, and that always breaks the momentum...but what are you going to do?!?

Once we finally arrived, it was great checking out the condo...a huge 4 bedroom with kitchen, sitting area and 3 bathrooms. This is definitely one of the nicest condos I've ever stayed in. We ordered pizza from Joey's Pizza, which is one of our favorite pizza joints in PCB. After that, we decided to check out the beach. We just couldn't stay away any longer! Even though everyone was tired and neither Bradley or Rachel had slept ONE minute the entire way down, we all headed to the beach. It was absolutely beautiful and since it was about 8:00, the sand was very cool. Bradley LOVED it and just crawled around in it. I'm sure it was like a huge sandbox to him. Rachel loved it all...the pool, the sand, the very tip of the ocean, where the waves have already broken and it's just a little splash of water.

After enjoying the beach for an hour or so, we came inside, got baths and got ready for bed. The first night, Bradley slept on a twin mattress on the floor in our room. He loved it with all the pillows around him and his blankets. He slept great. Rachel slept with Gege and Papa.

We're BAACCKKK!!

We got home from the beach yesterday evening and were SO glad to be home! We had a wonderful time and did so many things that we were all exhausted at the end of the day! Everything went very smoothly...even the sleeping arrangements, much to our surprise. As usual, Nick and Rachel are a lovely shade of dark brown and I'm a pinky-brown. Bradley's still the lightest golden white and most of that was obtained from the glow of the tv. He wanted to stay inside most of the time and watch movies instead of going to the beach or pool. He did like the pool and beach, but only before the sand got too hot and the sun got too high. He mostly pushed around his various little dump trucks in the sand. He was really good, though, and really prefers marching to the beat of his own drum. We tried to let him do that as much as possible. It was much easier with Gege and Papa, who never mind following Bradley around while he does what he wants to do. (Thanks Gege and Papa!)

I'm going to try to split the vacation into several posts so there isn't just one LONG one.

Also, thankfully, we had no car troubles at all! But, when I looked out in the garage this morning, our right rear tire was FLAT as a pancake! I'm so glad we made it home and it went flat in the garage! Nick took the tire to be patched this morning and we're good as new now! Who knows where we picked up the screw that was in it...all the Interstate driving? or small road construction? could have been anywhere!