Visit from TX

My best friend from growing up, Marie was in Charlotte a few weekends ago for another friend’s wedding.  I haven’t seen her in almost 4 years!  Rob,the girls and I made a trip into Charlotte to see them.  She was with her husband Joe, their little girl Sydney who is 4 and her Dad and step Mom.  Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet her little boy who is 9 months old.  He stayed back in TX with Marie’s Mom.

We met them for lunch in downtown Charlotte before they had to catch their plane back to TX.  It was so nice to see them and I only wish we had more time to hang out.  Taylor and Sydney hit it off immediately.  We walked to lunch and the two girls chatted, giggled and held hands the whole way.  We tried to get a couple of pictures but we weren’t too successful!

Oh yes, Taylor was in this picture but she just tried to hide behind me!  I had a lot going on…trying to get Taylor to get in front of me AND trying to get Caroline to hold still, all while being 6 months pregnant!

Miss Caroline- AKA Miss Diva!

This picture was taken around 3 weeks ago when Caroline was sent home from school with the nasty Hand, Foot and Mouth Virus. Poor little thing was just miserable. At first we thought she was just teething because she had a low grade fever and she was drooling like crazy. After a miserable afternoon and evening, I decided to take Caroline to the Dr. the following morning. Little Caroline had multiple ulcers under her tongue, throughout her mouth, throat and most likely in her esophagus too. Luckily she didn’t have any bumps on her hands or feet but she was suffering from the pain in her mouth! She would not really eat anything for almost a week and really only wanted to drink. She became a BIG fan of the Roaring Waters Capri Suns . I tried everything from her favorite yogurt to even ice cream which she has only had a couple of times but would normally eat ALL of it and ask for more. Rob and I felt horrible for her. She has been attached to her “paci” since birth and she would not even take that during this whole virus. She would say “NO!” to the paci and throw it if we gave it to her.

These were her favorites…

MAM

NUK

I mean I thought taking the pacifier away from Caroline was going to be a horrible experience. She loved her Mam and Nuk pacifiers. Since Caroline was obviously NOT interested in the paci, Rob and I thought it would be the perfect time to take it away from her. We hid all of the pacifiers that week. She didn’t ask for them until that weekend once she started to feel a little better. We would just tell Caroline that she was a “big girl” and didn’t need the paci anymore. To our surprise she didn’t cry even once for it?! So far it has been 3 weeks or so and we are paci free. I will say that going to sleep isn’t quite as easy for her since I think she is missing that comfort she found with the pacifier. She will cry and put up more of a fight at bed time. Rob and I are holding strong and trying not to go back in her room (at least not too often); she usually settles down after several minutes and puts herself to sleep.

Thankfully she is feeling so much better now too. The vicious virus lasted around 7 days! I hope we never have to experience that again with Caroline or any of our other children!

YAY….look who is growing up! Caroline is such a big girl, giving up her paci at 20 months!!! (Makes Mommy a little sad; not only because that means she is not a baby anymore but also because that pacifier was so nice at times too..haha!)

Go Wildcats!

This is Taylor’s second year at playing soccer for the Spears Family YMCA 3-4 year old league.  This year she played for the Wildcats.

Here is the whole team with Coach Marc.  He has been great with the kids.  He is so patient and never over the top about the game.  He believes that they are all there to just have fun.  He actually owns two of the Cold Stone Creamery stores in Greensboro—a GREAT connection for Taylor’s sake :)

Actually after last week’s game, Marc treated the whole team and their families to some yummy ice cream on a really hot afternoon!  That might have been the highlight of the whole season for Taylor.  She actually did play in the game that day.  Her new favorite thing to do is play goalie.  She keeps telling us that she only likes to play soccer when it is just the red team because she doesn’t like the other teams.  She is really good playing at home and in practice but it is something about running up and down the field chasing the ball during the games with all the other kids that bothers her.  I don’t think she likes it when someone else gets the ball from her.  She is definitely still learning and figuring it all out.  Overall I would say she has done great and come a long way from the first game when she refused to play.