A Few "Something News"

Because I'm a mom now, I find childhood development incredibly interesting. As a parent, you have the privilege of noticing new things your child does, no matter how tiny they might be. Well, he has started doing something new, and it caught me by total surprise.

When his fever went down and he started feeling better, he was able to play. When he started heading for one of Brother's toys, or the fireplace, I would pick him up and say "No, no Preston, let's stay away from that..." And he did the unthinkable.

His whole body went limp, he threw his head back, and he proceeded to pitch a royal fit. Kicking and screaming. Do 7-month-olds throw tantrums? I thought we had some time before they started this. Case in point:

I thought it just might be a fluke and he was cranky, but every single time I take something dangerous away from him and he wants it, he flips out. He is still so small, and can't understand right and wrong (obviously) so this is hard.

Another something new... cruising along furniture and completely letting go. He stands there for a minute, tries to kind of take a step, and then falls and cries. I am thinking we will have a walker on our hands really soon, which seriously blows my mind. Again, thought we had a few more months to prepare for that!

Another something new... his first CBHS football game :)

                   

And for the last something new, diaper boxes aren't just for diapers anymore.

Snack Stealer

Martha Kate better watch out!

A Week to Forget

So, Preston is finally on the mend. I preface this by saying I am so glad I work at a children's hospital. I think it really helps my anxiety level when it comes to having a sick baby.

After picking Preston up on Monday with his raging fever, we snuggled and swallowed Motrin like it was our job. It was just an upper respiratory infection. Then the puking started. Then diarrhea. Then the fever went up even higher. After being up almost all night, Tuesday he seemed a little better. I stayed home with him to monitor and his fever seemed to be better, but the stomach stuff was not. He continued with the stomach stuff until Wednesday night. Thankfully, my MIL stayed with him so that I could return to work. Then, in the middle of the night, Preston woke up congested and crying, and his eye was almost swollen shut. There was a little bite next to his eye that we noticed the night before, but thought it was probably a mosquito. I gave him more Motrin, because I thought it might help with inflammation, and knew we could deal with it in the morning. This is how he looked in the morning, much better than the middle of the night:

I got P in to see his pediatrician. I can't say enough about our pediatrician. I appreciate his candor with me. I think he knows that because I work at a children's hospital, I am probably not as sensitive as some first-time moms might be. When he saw P and I, the first thing he said was "Please tell me you got a picture of that eye, Cami." I told him, "Of course." The swelling was definitely a bug/spider bite and could be treated by Benadryl and an antibiotic.

He won't go back to daycare until Monday. Hopefully, we are over the stomach bug, fever, AND bug bite, and we can pretend that this was the week that never was. I have to especially thank my mother-in-law who seriously stepped in and cooked us dinner (the best!), nursed P back to health, and allowed us to not have to use our vacation days at work. THANK YOU!

Sicky

Ugh. Today, Brian got a phone call from Preston's school. They said he had a fever of 102.9. This scared me, because P has never had a fever this high. My first thought was ear infection. We are lucky, because P has never had an ear infection before. I left work and raced to his school to pick him up. On the way, I called our pediatrician to see if he could be squeezed in. He could see us at 4 p.m. I figured that was okay. Motrin could fix the fever until then.

I got to his school, walked into his room, and was totally shocked by what I saw. Preston was laying in his bed (he has his own bed with his name and blankets and lovies from home), on his belly with a blanket over him, and he was just staring. This seriously freaked me out, because anyone that knows P, knows that he is NEVER still. He was just laying there with his eyes half open, red and puffy, and I am pretty sure my blood pressure went through the roof. Plus, his teachers who probably love him as much as I do, were very worried and wanted me to call them when we got out of the doctor to see what he said.

I scooped him up, called the pediatrician's office back and told them I could not wait until 4 and needed to see someone now. They worked us in with another doctor in the practice and we headed straight there. Thankfully, he had only had a fever for about an hour when I got him, so I felt like we were being very proactive.

At the pediatrician, Preston got weighed. He was 18 lbs., 10 oz. Can't believe my baby is so big! By this point, the Motrin had kicked in, so his fever was down to about 100.2. We saw the doctor, who told me P's throat and tonsils were red and he had a virus. His ears were perfect. Thankfully, at 7 months, we are still ear infection free!! But a part of me wanted to hear ear infection so that we could get an antibiotic. With viruses, you just have to wait. Boo. So, we spent the afternoon doing this:

Poor baby

 Y'all, he never does this. NEVER. He is not a cuddler, nor is he still for any period of time. He was sick! I have to say, a part of me loved it, because he would never do this normally. He slept on me for about an hour. Plus, he clung to me for dear life. Hopefully, this virus moves through him quickly. Brian and I hate seeing him like this.

On a happier note, we had a really nice weekend. P cheered for the Vols against Florida, although I am not sure that it helped.

Also, P picked up a pair of chocolate brown Toms. I couldn't resist.

That's life at our house right now. We are DREADING tonight, because we know he will be up a lot. Having a sick baby is no fun.

The Faces of Preston

While we are busy working on a playroom, here are a few of our favorite faces. Quite the expressive baby!

A Momentary Gush

We are proud parents. There is no question about that. Brian and I talk about how sometimes we look at Preston and we think he is SO cute that we literally want to eat him. Like, I cannot kiss him or hug hard enough. Just want to swallow him. Ridiculous, I know, but it has to be how most parents feel. We just love him fiercely, and I think that's where it comes from.

He has two teeth now, and we are currently dying over that. I didn't think he could be cuter, but with two bottom teeth it is literally too much.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Lord for such a precious and gush-worthy child :)

Zoo Trip

Brian and I took off work the day of P's 7 month birthday to tour preschools. We spent the morning looking at schools, getting very excited for our big boy to start preschool next year. Time is flying.

Since we had already taken the day off, we decided to take Preston to the Memphis Zoo for the first time. He loved it, and we actually saw everything at the Zoo. I expected that Preston might get sick of being in his stroller, or want to crawl around, but he was such a trooper and really had a good time.

It was a little warm, but we managed. The Memphis Zoo is fabulous! A lot of it was shaded and they have a lot of indoor exhibits we could go into that had AC. Preston loved the polar bears and the kids that were playing around them.

Preston took a little snooze in the stroller when we saw the apes.

We took a break for a bottle, and the monkeys came up to where we were sitting. P loved it!

We had a little talk about how we grew up going to the Memphis Zoo. Who knew we would be taking our own there?! I think we'll be going there lots in the future. Preston was very intrigued by the animals and by all the kids playing. Such a fun Wednesday off!

Our Dining Room - finally!

When we were searching for our second home after selling our first, I really wanted a nice dining room that we could entertain in and have holiday dinners in. I am so happy with this room. We have finally finished our dining room for the most part. The process started in April, but we still needed to find curtains, hang things, etc. We'll probably add more things in the future, but for now I am happy.

Here's what it looked like when we moved in (old owners stuff).

Here is the dining room, or a peek of it, now!

In April, we (being my dad and Brian) attempted to strip the wallpaper in the dining room. Needless to say, it was a disaster....

It made a huge mess, and we realized there were two layers of wallpaper (the same wallpaper, might I add) and it was so heavily glued on the wall that we were doomed from the start. We decided to sand over and patch what we started and paint over the wallpaper. I was a little nervous about this, considering the wallpaper had a bit of a sheen to it and a tiny bit of texture. We put a little Killz over it to see what that would do.

Turns out it covered decently. So we patched up the seams of the wallpaper so that they wouldn't show through the paint, and decided to paint a few coats of Killz. It covered the paper really well. Here's a few photos of my dad, Brian, me and Preston working on the room...

Like the rest of the house, the trim is Ben Moore White Dove. The top walls are Ben Moore Wheeling Neutral (same as living room) and the bottom walls are Behr Bear Tracks. Painting the french doors were quite a feat. Required lots of paint. We removed the plantation shutters from the windows, and plan to have those professionally spray painted along with all of the other shutters throughout our house. There are LOTS. In the end, we were happy with the result of paint. Such a major difference with no crazy wallpaper and mustard trim!

Then came the decorating. The mahogany table has been in my family for a while, and it fit perfectly in the space. The pads for the chairs were hunter green, so my mom and I recovered those in a linen textured fabric from Joanne's. It was like $2/yard, which was awesome! The rug was super cheap on Overstock, because we had a moving coupon, free shipping, and they were having a sale for 20% all area rugs. It's a jute rug with brown trim.

I had been scoping estate sales and craigslist for a mahogany china cabinet for a while. My parents went to an estate sale in Collierville at a very old, Victorian house and this charmer was there waiting for me to buy it :) I was extremely pregnant and Brian and I made the journey out to Collierville after my parents called me to tell me about it. It was on a Sunday, and everyone knows that's when the estate companies let things go for a real steal, so we thought we could haggle ourselves a good price. We were super successful and got it for a fabulous price! Then we had to get the thing home. I, being 9 months pregnant, was obviously no help, so my dad and Brian loaded the big cabinet into my Saturn Vue. It was sticking out the back of the car. We took Poplar (busiest street in Memphis) all the way back to our house, driving 10 under the speed limit with my parents following close behind our car just in case the cabinet decided to take a dive onto Poplar. Needless to say, Preston was almost born that day. I was anxiety-ridden a good week after that. After all that, I am so happy with the result! It didn't even need refinishing.

After we put the table and cabinet in there, the room just kind of stayed as is for a few months. I knew I wanted curtains and artwork. After thinking about it for a while, I saw some tea towels on Etsy, which sparked this post. I decided I had to have one (okay, actually two, but the other is for the foyer) and I got it framed at Michael's during one of their 60% off sales. I am so happy with the result! It has a little texture to it, but it adds instant artwork. Love it.

The drawings above Brian and I bought during our first trip to Paris. We got them from an artist just behind Sacre Cour church.

For the curtains, we got them at Ikea. My friend Myra has them in her house, and I recognized them from Ikea. I had my eye on them, so when we went to Atlanta and I saw them in person, I knew they would be perfect and add the right graphic element I wanted.

I also wanted some shelves to frame out the french doors. After searching high and low, I decided to try our hands at making our own. So I went to Home Depot and bought the materials. We mixed paint we already had, and ended up with perfect little shelves that match the gray/blue in the curtains. They averaged out about $14 a shelf, but cheaper than buying them in a store/online. Brian finished those off for me this weekend. The candelabras on top are from One Kings Lane. My mom made the pillow that is sitting in the chair. I got the fabric on sale at a local fabric place.

On the dining room table are candlesticks from Ikea, and the little birdhouse is from my mother-in-law. She sent it to the hospital with flowers in it after P was born. I LOVE birds (obviously) and it's evident in this room.

The light fixture is original to the house, but we gave it a good cleaning, but new shades on it, and added the brown fabric to cover the wires. My grandfather rewired the fixture, because it kept sparking and eventually, quit working. We were going to buy a new one, but my grandfather was able to cheaply fix it. It actually looks pretty nice in person! It is solid brass, after all.

In the future, we still need to put the plantation shutters back on, and one day we'll extend the patio in the back to come off of the dining room for an amazing entertaining space. For now, we are enjoying the room and have already entertained in it.

One more room down, only a few more to go!

Dining room before:

Dining room after: