Catching Up

Wow, I am way behind on blogging so I am going to try to sum up the previous 2 months of our lives as best as I can. About 2 months ago I decided that having 3 kiddos under 2 years old was just a bit much to do all by myself until Patrick returns so I packed up the kids and headed to Nashville to stay at Patrick's parent's house, which is where we currently are. We stayed in Virginia Beach until Micah had his 1 month checkup and left the following day, July 24th. About a week before we left though HK got very sick and ran 104.8 fevers all week, had rashes on her face, neck, chest, and back, had red and swollen eyes, and just cried all day. We went to the doctor who was afraid that there was something more serious going on and sent us to the ER. The doctor suspected either a UTI or viral meningitis...not good to say to a postpartum woman with crazy hormones! I cried the whole way to the ER because I was so scared. However, when we got there she started to calm down and her fever went away along with the rash and she looked a ton better. They ran all sorts of tests and labs on her and didn't find anything, just a really nasty virus. When we were at the doctor she didn't even look like HK because of all of her symptoms, but by the time we got home that night she began looking like my little girl again. What a huge relief! Thank you to everyone who was praying for us!

One of the reasons I decided to come to Nashville to stay is because HK was having such a rough time transitioning to having a new baby in the house. She was just having meltdowns all day long that would last for up to an hour at times and it was just out of control. And then the illness that she had just added to the craziness and crying so I decided that in order to maintain some amount of sanity I needed help! So here we are :) It has been so nice having help from the Hunters and we are close enough that my family has been able to come see us on multiple occasions. And Aunt Catie lives here in Nashville so she comes over a couple of times a week and is a huge help! The girls just love her and get so excited whenever I tell them she's coming over! I am so thankful that she lives in town and we have gotten to hang out more than we have in years.

Here's what everyone's up to these days:

Patrick: Still floating around on the USS Gunston Hall somewhere in the waters around the Middle East doing dentristy...groundhog day every day. He has gotten to Skype us a few times since Micah was born so he has gotten to "meet" him and I try to send him pictures almost daily to show how he's growing. He's been gone for 6 months now...only 2 more to go!
Christy: Enjoying my time in Nashville and having such great help. My friend Abby invited me to join their small group Bible study while I'm here and I'm really enjoying getting to do that on Monday nights. There are several other moms there with new babies so I am able to take Micah with me and the Hunters watch the girls for me. It's just nice to be able to do things like this and have a little freedom to leave the house in the evenings. Since Patrick has left I haven't been able to leave the house at all once the kids went down because it was just me so I had to be intentional about getting my errands done during the day with kids in tow. I am definitely enjoying having more flexibility here and spending time with some longtime friends. I got to go shopping for the kids with my bestie Amanda last week and spending time with here is like chicken soup for my soul! I love that girl like a sister! I also got to have dinner with all of my high school girls that live here, Meg, Ash, & Abs, and it was so fun to spend time with them because it usually only happens about once a year. However, I am still a little homesick and so ready for Patrick to come home.
Charlotte & Hannah Kate: Wow, I don't even know where to begin! These girls just amaze me every day with how much and how fast they are learning! They are talking up a storm and are just little parrots! Charlotte is a little chatterbox and is talking constantly. I am amazed more and more all of the time by what she is remembering also. Just tonight she was sitting at the dinner table and out of the blue said "McDonald's coffee." When asked where, she replied "on the TV, McDonald's coffee." What?! She has only been to McDonald's once a couple of months ago and I've never gotten coffee from there so she was truly just talking about the commercial she had seen on the television at some earlier point in time. I don't think the little wheels in her brain ever stop spinning at full speed! Now HK seems to be more of a girl of few words. She definitely understands everything going on around her and has a very large vocabulary as well but she doesn't chatter like Char. She pretty much usually only says anything when there's a reason to talk, like if she wants something and asks for it or to tell me what she would like to do. Both of these girls constantly amaze me at how smart they are! One of Charlotte's funny little things to do is to call everyone living in the house by our first names to get our attention. She usually starts by calling for me when she's up from her nap but if I don't answer to Mommy she starts yelling "Chrissy, Chrissy" over and over. If I still don't come in to her room she does the same thing to Nonny/Debbie and sometimes they will both do it to PopPop/Mike. I can't help but laugh when they do this because it's just so grown up sounding when they do it! Another cute thing they say all of the time is "I hold you Mommy" when they want me to pick them up and hold them...too funny :)
The girls also love to play on the new swingset at Nonny & PopPop's house. And they are really good at all of the features. They love to swing, can climb the ladder and go down the slide all by themselves, and have even learned how to do the rock climbing wall. But their favorite thing to do is just to explore the yard, they are some outdoor girls! They love finding snails and watching them move around on the porch and love finding empty snail shells even more and they carry them around like they are precious stones. They are also really into tiny things...tiny rocks, tiny snails, tiny baby dolls, tiny ice cubes, tiny acorns, tiny pinecones, tiny sticks, tiny pieces of food, basically tiny everything! They love to run and jump, dance and spin in circles, hop on the hopscotch board at the park, and play with any type of ball :) Another funny thing they LOVE to do is get in the exersaucer in the playroom that is set up for Tripp. They just get in it and play with all of the toys and go to town jumping like crazy!
Micah: This boy is the sweetest! He is such a happy little guy and just gives the biggest smiles all of the time! He loves playing on his playmat that has a piano for him to play with his feet and will play on that for about 30 minutes to an hour a couple of times a day. But, I think he's getting a little spoiled because everyone loves to hold him so he's never having to work out the fussies. But that's okay because there are usually enough hands around to hold him whenever he fusses a little bit. He is just growing so big so fast I can't believe it! He is sleeping through the night really well now, which began when he was 12 & 1/2 weeks. He's now 14 weeks old and looking more like his daddy every day. He will just give me a look sometimes that is exactly the same look that Patrick gives. Overall, he is just such a happy baby. He is very social and wants to be held so he can see out instead of held facing you and he loves to sit with us at the dinner table to just watch everything that's going on. He's begun laughing out loud this week and it's just contagious when he does it, everyone else in the room can't help but smile and laugh too. I cannot wait until his daddy gets to meet him in not quite 2 more months now.

I have loved getting to bond with just 1 baby this time around because I felt like I didn't get to do much cuddle and snuggle time with the girls when they were this age. I am very thankful that I had twins first, and then a singleton because I didn't know the bonding time I was missing out on since twins was all I knew. Don't get me wrong, I love my twins and wouldn't trade them for the world and there are many things about having twins that give me great joy, but I wouldn't have ever chosen this on my own. I would have chosen to have 3 seperate children and be able to ease into parenthood a little more with each child. But like I said I wouldn't trade my children for the world, and so it's good that God's plans are the ones that prevail and not my own more often than not because if my plans prevailed I wouldn't have these 2 specific girls that I have. I am loving this age that the girls are right now because they are becoming more and more able to do things by themselves and they are able to communicate so much more. And when they can communicate well and I understand them well, we all tend to be a lot less frustrated. And the girls love Micah...they want to give him kisses all of the time and they want to "hold" him with lots of help. Both girls love to put his paci in his mouth, but especially HK- she thinks he needs it at all times and I have to hold her back sometimes from shoving it in his mouth when he doesn't want it. He gives them big smiles when they are around and I think that helps them bond with him because they always want to know where baby Micah is and what he's doing. They are constantly playing the role of big sister by showing him how to do stuff like dance, wash themselves or each other in the bath, use a spoon to eat food, pretty much anything. It's really sweet how much they have taken to him and I hope they continue to really enjoy each other more and more as they get older. I really hope they are all very close to each other and are all good friends.

This was taken in the hospital when Micah was born and I just think it's such a cute picture of both of the girls side by side. Char (L) & HK (R)

4th of July party at my friend Marci's house. Char (L) & HK (R)

Micah on playmat. Poor little guy has to put up with A LOT of pink!

Nana Hunter with Micah

Silly HK getting ready for bed. These girls love tutus!

Silly Charlotte getting ready for bed with her tutu too!

Wagon ride! Char (L) & HK (R)

Family photo with Char kissing Micah. The girls love giving him kisses on his head :)

Sweet Charlotte

Charlotte looking, HK turned around

Nonny found some big wheels for the girls and they love riding on them even though they can't reach the pedals with their feet yet. They do a scoot with their feet instead. HK (L) & Char (R)

HK showing her muscles! My mom taught them that Cheerios make them grow big and strong and showed them how to flex their muscles while saying Cheerios. It really is so funny when they do it!

Sweet Hannah Kate

Sweet Charlotte

Sweet Micah! This boy smiles all the time!

Charlotte & Hannah Kate's 2nd birthday. Char with her birthday balloon.

Nonny made the girls silly face pancakes for their birthday breakfast :) They LOVED them!

 

HK says "Who needs utensils to eat pancakes?"

Char with her birthday pancake.

I got them these little nap mats with Minnie Mouse for preschool naptime and they loved snuggling up in them!

This is my triple stroller. It's a double stroller with a jumpseat. Char & Micah in stroller seats and HK in jumpseat at the zoo.

We went to the zoo for the girls birthday and it was HOT and humid, as you can see from the girls hair.

At the zoo. Char (L), mom, HK(R)

Birthday girl HK at the zoo.

HK collecting treasures at the zoo. We couldn't get these girls to walk along the path without stopping every few feet to collect sticks, rocks, acorns, leaves, bean pods, and any other treasure they could find on the ground!

Look how curly their hair gets when it's humid...I lvoe it!

Birthday Mickey Mouse cupcakes! The girls absolutely love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse right now and so my mom made these cupcakes for them. We had a pool party with Chick-Fil-A and they played in the pool the entire time! They are little fish :)

Sweet Cousin Colgan at the girls birthday party. She is so cute, and 100% a little Mini Cyndi :) Her voice is just like Cyndi's was when she was little, and she's super expressive with her facial expressions just like her mommy :)

Sweet Cousin Candler at the girls birthday party.

Sweet Micah at the girls birthday party. Cousin Grady was also there and all 3 babies hung out pretty much like this during the party parked in the shade. What sweet little babies :)

The girls had so much fun in the pool that we practically had to drag them out of it to sing Happy Birthday to them.

1st day of preschool- HK. The girls have started preschool on Mondays and Wednesdays while we are here in TN and they are loving it! They cried at first when I dropped them off for about 2 weeks but now they don't cry at all most days.

1st day of preschool- Charlotte

Girls getting ready to go into the church for 1st day of preschool.

 Wagon ride, Char (L) & HK (R)

 We had to take this picture at the children's museum in Chesapeake, VA near our home. Dentist Daddy would be proud of the girls brushing these giant teeth!

 HK at the park. We don't go to the park without buckets to collect treasures :) They are way more interested in the flowers, rocks, sticks, mulch, etc. than the playground equipment.

 Charlotte at the park.

 Sweet Patrick sent me flowers on my birthday-I can't believe I'm 31!

 Coloring fun! Char (L) & HK (R)

 Welcome to Moe's! The girls love our dinners at Moe's and yell "Welcome to Moe's" when we go. They eat lots of black beans and rice whenever we go and they love the tiny ice that they have there. HK (L) & Char (R)

 They wrestle all the time now. HK on top, Char on bottom.

 The girls love their mowers and they push them everywhere, inside and out just like PopPop. They pretty much love anything that PopPop does!

 Fun in the mall play area. Char (L) & HK (R)

 Char drinking the milk in her cereal bowl.

 Wagon ride with Cousin Tripp. HK (L), Char (middle), & Tripp (R)

 Char (L) & HK (R) helping make their birthday cookies!

 Snacktime fun :) HK (L) & Char (R)

 Playing on the playmat is exhausting!



HK must have wrestling matches during her naps based on her hair after :)



  

Sweet girls hugging. They hug and then dance around with each other, it's really so cute! HK (L) & Char (R)

Girls helping Aunt Catie shop for new sunglasses! HK (L) & Char (R)



Dressed just like Daddy!



HK getting into trouble at Babies R Us...I turned around for a minute to tend to Micah in his stroller and when I turned back around the girls had gotten this swing down and climbed in!



Sweet smiles from Micah!



This is my favorite picture of the girls :) They are loving the fall season because there are so many pumpkins everywhere we go.  I think they look so grown up here! Char (L) & HK (R)



Fun at Walmart! Char (L) & HK (R)




My sweet friend Candice couldn't get enough of Micah! She calls him her dream man :)



Family friend Trace loves my kiddos...and it's so good to get to see him while we're home too!



Ahh, the joys of 2 year olds ;) Temper tantrums aren't uncommon around the house these days. This one is Charlotte.



The girls had a blast playing at the Adventure Science Center in Nashville.  HK (L) & Char (R).