The Good Life

Monday was one of those days that Moms are not proud to talk about, and often times don't. It was one of those days when I felt like I could run away and not come back for a long, long time. As much as I love my child and would do anything to care for and protect him, Monday, I could've run away. Everything that has been building up over the past few weeks finally escalated. Colton has been battling sickness for around a month. With that sickness, as all Moms know, comes grouchy, bratty, miserable, little turd buckets that you can't make happy no matter how hard you try! There have been days when he acted totally fine with the exception of a runny nose and other days he has been so lethargic. Over the past few days, I have known something just wasn't right. On Saturday, Colton was getting worse instead of better. I was so frustrated. Colton was frustrated/sick/cranky and just miserable. Matt, bless his heart, has been wonderful while dealing with two crazy people in...

There is no love like a Mom's love. All you Moms out there know what I mean. It's just a feeling that you can't explain and a bond that is just so instant and strong. It's truly amazing. I feel like the retail/advertising/product world uses (or tries to use) that love against us. Especially at Christmas! Think about it. When you find out you're pregnant for the first time, you're scared. You're excited, overwhelmed, nervous and naive. You start making a baby registry and probably look up all the ratings/feedback/comments on the products. If you don't use this car seat brand, you're baby is going to die in a car crash. If you don't breastfeed, you could cause development issues. If you don't use this brand of diapers, your baby is going to get diaper rash. If you don't have a monitor with a video, how are you going to know they're breathing? You have to have this and have to have that...or you're a horrible Mom or Dad. It doesn...

I know it's that time of year, but I am beginning to feel like Colton is never going to be back to "normal". We have been battling runny nose/cough/mild fever for 3 weeks now. I thought he was better and then I took him to the parade (good job Mom, right?) and the runny nose was right back the next day! Ugh...tis the season. Last weekend, Matt and I had to make a very tough parenting decision. We decided for me to keep Colton at home while Matt made the trip to Ohio to celebrate Christmas with his family. I was heartbroken because I know how far away we all live and how rare it is for us to all be together. My mother in law and sister in law were flying in from Texas, it was going to be the first time that all of the cousins were together at the same time, I was excited about watching all the kids open their gifts and looking forward to visiting with everybody. It's not fun making that kind of decision. All sorts of worries and thoughts ran through my mind. I was so...

On Saturday after Thanksgiving, we took Colton to "meet Santa". I heard about Bass Pro Shops  offering a free picture with Santa, and since it doesn't take much to talk Matt into going to Bass Pro (and it takes an arm and a leg to get him to the mall), we decided this was the perfect place for Colton to meet the man in red. It was a nice drive over to Sevierville and honestly, the store wasn't as crowded as I was thinking it would be. We found Santa's Wonderland and got our "time card". We were able to line up at noon. So, while we waited Colton rode the carousel and we got to browse around the store. I knew that it was going to be hit or miss on how Colton was going to react to Santa. Since our time slot was noon, we had missed a nap and lunch. He ate part of his lunch while waiting in line but it doesn't really count for an actual "meal". He was still not feeling great (runny nose/cough), it was hot in the store, we waited for almost ...

My sister checks my blog almost daily and informed me that she is going to stop checking if I don't update! So...here's some news. Matt, Colton and I traveled to Indiana the weekend of November 16th. We had such a great time celebrating with his family for Thanksgiving/Christmas. It was so nice to visit with Aunts/Uncles/Cousins that we don't get to see very often. Matt's Mom was even able to fly in from Texas to join the crowd. Of course we always feel like we are limited on time and can't see everybody we would like to - but it was nice, nonetheless. I feel like I've been in survival/catch-up mode since our trip. Colton caught some nasty bug/virus while visiting Indiana and the poor little guy had a rough trip back to Tennessee. We experienced our first vomiting episode. What better way to experience that than in the truck, while going down the interstate, in the pouring rain/fog...right?!? Once we made it back home, we had a very rough night and next day....