The HeartWalk 2010

Hey, friends and family. I need your help!

As many of you know, one of my very best friends lost her mother three years ago due to undetected heart disease. Heather's mom, Miss Robbie, was a sort of second mother to me. Our moms taught at the same elementary school, which is how Heather and I met. Of course, story goes that we did NOT like each other. I thought she was too high-maintenance, and I'm sure she thought I had crawled out of the sticks. (Turns out we were both right.)

My mom and Robbie, 2003
Buddies

We ended up playing on the same softball team for years and years, went through all those horrible boy dramas together, and we survived the ultimate challenge together: braces. Miss Robbie was such a wonderful mother, friend, and softball team-mother. She always had snacks ready for us, helped Roy pick out cute uniforms - you know, middle school girls gotta look hot when they slide into 2nd base (or crouch behind home plate, as I did!)

I went on family vacations with Robbie, Roy and Heather. I did chores for months before to earn spending money. And I've wondered as I've gotten older, just how many times Robbie let me spend that money, because as I look back at it, that $30 sure went far...

I hardly have a middle or high school memory without Heather and her mother in it. I was the matron of honor in Heather's wedding three years ago. A very large matron of honor, at that. I was three weeks away from delivering Andrew! You can't get much more matronly than that!And sadly, Robbie passed away before she ever got to meet that baby she loved before she knew. In fact, the day we went dress shopping for bridesmaid's dresses for Heather's wedding, I distinctly remember Robbie saying that a particular dress "comes in a maternity style, too, you never know!" A few weeks later I was pregnant....

Miss Robbie loving on Andrew-in-utero

Miss Robbie had been in great shape, she was eating well, walking, gardening, and was really lookin' good. She taught elementary school and loved her kids. One day in June 2007, Robbie started having back pains, and chalked it up to bending over her desk at school. Later, she went for a massage, thinking it would help. One June 13, 2007, Robbie had a massive heart attack that took her life. She had no outward signs of heart disease. All of her doctors were astounded to learn that her arteries were terribly blocked.



Every September since Robbie died Heather, her family, and friends have participated in the HeartWalk in Charlotte, NC. We're called Team Beachcombers, because Robbie was very much at home at the beach. We spend months collecting donations that go to the American Heart Association. This money helps fund research, awareness, and education for heart disease, so that one day heart disease will be more easily prevented and detected.

Miss Robbie doing, no, LEADING the chicken dance!

I ask for your help now in sponsoring Team Beachcombers for this year's HeartWalk. Help us raise money to help save lives. All donations are tax-deductible, and can be made on the HeartWalk's secure donation site. If you'd rather, you can mail cash or check donations right to me and I will personally deliver them to the HeartWalk in Charlotte on September 25th.

If you feel led to give, please click HERE

Pictures!

Six Months (almost 7)

Well the six month mark has come and gone. I felt with Andrew, when I hit six months, that I would actually be able to survive this thing called motherhood. Six months is a good time. They're happy, you can interact with them, they're sleeping. But yet, they're not mobile. It doesn't get much better than that!

Emily was six months a few weeks ago, but for some reason we just went to the pediatrician last week. She weighs in at a nice 18 pounds 3 ounces, and is 27 inches long. Both put her in the 85%-tile. As for her little noggin, she's in the 35%-tile. So, she's basically like a potato with a pea on top. That's ok. Women aren't supposed to have large heads.

She did beautifully with her shots, she whimpered for the first one, and only gave one or two big cries for the second. And by the time I picked her up off the table, she had forgotten. But she was cranky all day, but that's ok, her Nana was here. And Nana's fix everything.

So what's she doing now? Well, she sits up by herself. With just the occasional tip-over. But the tip-overs are funny, they're in slow motion. So even if we are across the room we can get there in time to minimize the impact! Lately she's been leaning so far forward getting her toes that she ends up face-planting and on her belly. I guess that is one precursor to crawling? Lord, I don't know what to do with a crawler...Andrew never crawled. He butt-scooted.

She's sleeping OK. She's in that stage where she wakes up to play sometime around 3 a.m. I try to just ignore it, but she gets rowdy. And I can't get her to go back to sleep. So sometimes I just nurse her and she falls asleep. I sure hope my pediatrician doesn't read this :) I got fussed at for nursing her in the middle of the night. But, its the only thing that gets her to sleep. And I need sleep. We'll deal with the repercussions later.

She refuses, refuses, to eat anything other than breastmilk. We've tried it all- applesauce, prunes, peaches, pears, sweet potatos, squash, banana. She apparently can't eat the rice cereal, it makes her vomit. Not spit up, but vomit. The oatmeal seems to be working, when we can manage to get her to eat it. I'm thinking she may go to first grade with a boob in her mouth.

Emily loves to sit in her high chair, she loves her bouncy thing. Her most favorite toy is Andrew. She loves that boy (can you blame her?) It's actually funny, when Andrew gets in trouble and starts to cry, Emily just laughs and grins! I'm not sure she realizes that Andrew is not happy... Sometimes when they're in the back seat, Andrew gets very loud and obnoxious, and we keep telling him to calm down and be quiet. And we look in Emily's mirror and she's just a grinning and laughing and encouraging him. Rascal.

We've got a pretty good schedule going during the day...she usually nurses around 430 to 630 a.m. and goes back to sleep sometimes until 830. Then we nurse again depending on when she ate earlier. Naps around 10 for an hour or so, then we eat again around 1, then she naps for 2-3 hours. Eats around 330-430. Then around 630 she takes a 5-25 minute power nap, eats again around 8, and goes to bed between 8 and 9. On a typical day she nurses about 5 to 6 times, about every 3 hours. We try and put some cereal or baby food in there as a snack sometimes.

All in all, she is a wonderful baby. Very happy, very content, easy to please. Rarely do we hear her cry or have a fit, and that is usually when she is so, so very tired. Andrew continues to do well as a big brother. He has finally understood what it means to "be quiet, the baby is sleeping." In fact, he tells Brian and I to "shhhhh" many times! I guess he realized that it was NOT a good thing if the baby wakes up!!!

It's about time for a nap now, so I shall leave this post. I will make another post that is just full of pictures, it's easier that way!!

And, ladies, for those of y'all with babies this age or near, does this sound right to you?!

The Summer in Pictures

So, I have no time to blog anymore! I'll just throw up these pictures to let you see what we've been up to the last 5 weeks. Just view the pics in reverse order (for some reason they always get loaded backwards...)