Texas....Yee haw!

Miles and I took a trip down to El Paso last week to visit a very good friend of mine from high school and her family. She has a fun 2 year old son and a brand new little girl that we just had to meet.

So we were off!

Airplane backpack....check!

"Mom, what is this thing? I've never come across one of these." "Well son, that's called a PAY PHONE"

The boys had so much fun and it was neat to see them play together. Miles is getting to the stage where he is actually playing with other kids and not just parallel playing. They had a wonderful time the first day and Miles LOVED having a backyard to play in with a "big boy". They got super messy and super tired which was great.

Pals in their PJ's

Boy stuff

And baby girl was just too adorable. She even took a nap on me which was just the best. I love squishy babies.

Everything was going so well. The boys were playing great together, Miles actually ate TWO helpings of mac and cheese for lunch, they all slept at the same time for a little bit giving the mommies time to catch up and then disaster struck. It started at dinner with Miles refusing to eat which is not a new thing, so I wasn't too worried. Then he kept waking up during the night screaming. This is out of character for him. Usually he's a great sleeper but I just thought it was because we were sharing a room and he was in a pack n' play instead of his crib. Well, the next morning he was super clingy (very unlike him), was all around fussy, and was refusing to eat again. He didn't sleep well at nap time and then he was burning up. His temperature got high and out came the Tylenol. Cling fest 2012 continued the rest of the day and I had to make the judgement call to cut our trip short and head back home. Better to have one sick kid quarantined then to get all others sick.

Rare photo of a Miles snuggling with mommy. Poor little guy.

Once we got home I took him to the doctor and he had a double ear infection. Poor kid. Considering this, he did extremely well on both flights. It was sad to cut our trip short but it was the right thing to do. Guess we'll just have to go back again soon!

Thanks K family for hosting us! We had a great time.

Miles with Auntie Jenny before we took off

P.S.- Miles is usually not allowed to have his pacifier unless he is sleeping, but I thought I'd throw a kid a bone since he was miserable. Felt like I had to mention this since he is pictured with it in... oh... almost EVERY shot :)

Mommy pity party... for one

So do you ever have those days when you just feel down right sorry for yourself? You know it's pretty irrational and in the grand scheme of life it's not that big of a deal, but you just allow yourself to have that moment.

Well I had a pity party for myself on Monday this week. Miles and I had gone to visit a good friend and her family in Texas the week before (post coming about that) so that meant I had two plane rides (standby mind you) with a little one which always makes me on edge and is never relaxing. Miles and I happened to get sick while we were there and had to come home early. Went to the doctor and found out he had a double ear infection and a cold. I too was fighting a bad cold. Nick had to work most of last weekend which meant no real break for me from the sick little guy and all I wanted was a little rest to try and fight this cold. So by Monday I was on edge. Miles was cranky and ornery beyond belief. He'd ask for something, then once I gave it to him, he would throw a fit and look at me like I was an idiot for giving him this object and that he clearly didn't want it, so I took it back. Then he would throw another fit wanting it. To top that off he was in "distructo" mode and was going through the house taking everything out of the cabinets and my closet, etc.

Exhibit A:

Finally I just sat down and cried a little. I couldn't understand why I couldn't handle this. I thought of a lot of my friends that handle way more stressful situations; friends with kids who have no family around to help, my friend Shauna that has infant twins and a three year old, parents doing this on their own, having to juggle home and work life. If they could handle it, why couldn't I handle my one child? I also felt terrible that I was feeling so much anger towards my little, helpless baby. I called my mother-in-law in my moment of weakness and she said something that made me feel a little better, "just because it may seem like they are handling it, doesn't mean they are all the time". Ahhhhh. I know I'm not alone in feeling this way but I almost feel guilty feeling this way when I do consider myself very lucky.

So, I'm writing this as a reminder to myself and for others that it's ok to have these feelings.  We all do no matter what our situation is, right? :) If you are reading this and have had these moments, please write me a little note...it sure would help :)