Auburn Day of Fun

We obviously decided we needed a day of fun after the horrible day we had on Friday, so when we woke up Saturday morning we made a spontaneous decision to head down to Auburn for the day.

We had a good trip on the way down, and even entertained Jack with his DVDs and goldfish. He's so big now he can eat straight from the bag himself!

Once we got into Auburn, we had to drive by Toomer's corner to see the rally of people gathering to memorialize the trees! It's been so sad since they were poisoned, but everyone is getting together to remember all the good times had there! We didn't stop, but here is a small glimpse of what we saw.

Since we were already on Magnolia, we decided to eat at Momma Goldberg's. We haven't eaten at this original location in a while, plus Jack had never been there, so it was a perfect place to start off our day of fun. We got him his very own grilled cheese, and he looked like such a big boy sitting on the bench at the table and not a highchair! He also shared some of our nachos and drink, of course!

Mama Becky and Daddy Mer joined us towards the end, and they were so glad to see Jack and hold him after his accident the day before! They had been very worried grandparents, but they were glad to see he was ok!

After lunch, we all headed over to watch the baseball game, and that is where we met up with Granna, Poppy, Pops, Uncle Conner, and Aunt Ashley. They were also glad to see and hold Jack and make sure he was ok! Everyone had gotten a pretty big scare the day before, especially when they couldn't be with him and comfort him, but we all had a lot of fun playing and visiting while watching the game.

Jack even marched around and did his "Lutzie" version! :-)

Jack left with Granna and Poppy a little after 2:30 to head back to their house for a nap. At this time, Kurt and I went to the basketball game with Mama Becky and Daddy Mer, and even though Auburn lost to Vandy, we had a good time.

After the basketball game, we went to dinner at Durango's with Granna, Poppy, and Jack, which we seem to go to everytime we are in town now! We love it! It's unlike any Mexican food up here in Birmingham! Jack definitely loves his cheese dip, and if you didn't see the video from before, here it is again!

It was a long spontaneous day, but we had a lot of fun, and it was much needed after the day we had before! We are so glad Jack is ok and able to run around still and have fun, especially with his family! Such a sweet and fun boy!

Jack's Mad Gash

Friday started out like any other Friday. Jack and I had breakfast and played together in the morning. Jack even climbed up in the recliner and pulled the blanket down over him while he watched tv! He's such his mama's boy!

We played until we had to leave the house (which we never do on Fridays) to go pick up some flowers from my work. Long story short, Kurt sent me flowers on Valentine's Day (very sweet!), but they started to die just a few hours after being delivered, so after Kurt complained to the company, they offered to send another set Thursday free of charge, plus send him a gift card for next time! We were really excited about this, but he told them to send the flowers Thursday morning since I leave work at 1. Obviously they didn't come until after I had left, so that is why we had to get out on Friday.

After getting the flowers, we met up with Kurt for lunch at Moe's in Hoover. After that, since it was a pretty day, I suggested (yes, I suggested) we go to Aldridge Gardens just down the road to let Jack run around and play!

Once we got there, he loved how open it was and loved all the trees! He just ran around and kept pointing to everything he wanted to go see! When we got down the walkway a little, to our left were a few iron statues of rabbits and one of a turtle! Of course Jack loved these and wanted to touch them and play with them.

When he started to run back and forth in between them is when it happened. Jack tripped and fell right on the turtle statue, busting his head wide open! I'm still traumatized by the image of his head actually splitting! :-( Blood just started gushing out, so Kurt picked him up and we ran to the bathroom, also while I'm calling the pediatrician. Once we got some paper towels to stop the bleeding, I'd talked to the nurse and she said we needed to head down to the ER at Children's Hospital. Jack was still crying, but never really screaming, but when we got to the car and he got his paci and froggy, he was fine. He whined a couple times on the way to the ER, but mostly seemed ok.

We had to wait a while in the ER, even though there was only one child in front of us. I guess they weren't in a very "emergency" mood at the time. Once they called him back, it was only to weigh him and get his vitals, plus clean his wound and put numbing cream on it. Then we had to wait 30 more minutes for the numbing cream to take effect, then they called us back to a room where the nurse practitioner came and examined him to see if stitches were needed. Just a side note, the room number was 26, which is Jack's birthday of course.

The nurse practitioner said his cut was deep enough for stitches, but it wasn't as bad since the cut was horizontal, which is best for healing. I guess any good news at this point was nice. They did tell us it was so deep they could see his skull, though! That was scary! They did warn us about how they would have to do the stitching, too, and that was to put Jack in a papoose where his arms are tied down so he doesn't interfere with anything. This was definitely one of the hardest parts of this whole incident. Watching his face as they put them in this contraption was heart-breaking, because he kept calling for us and crying hysterically to get out! It was just pitiful. The stitching only took about 10 minutes, but it was definitely the longest 10 minutes of our lives!

Once that was over, and the stitches were in, we were able to get him out of the papoose and hold him tight! It took about 5 minutes to calm him down, but once he was calm, we knew everything was going to be ok. The only color bandaid they had to cover his stitches was hot pink, but he sure wore it well! He looked so cute, even with it being pink.

We knew he'd had a rough day, so we took him down the street to Dunkin Donuts, which had just opened that morning, for his very first donut! We got him one that had fun sprinkles on it, plus his very first chocolate milk, and he loved his treats very much!!

Later that night you'd never know he'd had a head-busting adventure by all of his smiles and laughter! We got our first real look at the stitches when we were changing out his bandaid, and noticed he'd had 8 stitched put in! He obviously didn't mind since he kept reaching for us and smiling!

He's such a strong, tough, and brave little boy, and we hated he had to go through something this traumatizing so early, but he did so well and we are so proud of him! We are so grateful to the Lord that it wasn't worse than it was, and that he did so well. God is good!

On another note, I do blame all of this on the flower company, just FYI. I might have to send them a letter of complaint, but all the flowers and gift cards in the world wouldn't make up for what happened to our little man that day. At least we all made it through and are stronger for it!

Yummy Cheese Dip!

Whenever we go to a Mexican restaurant now, Jack is perfectly content as long as he has some "dip dip", or cheese dip! He loves it so much, and sometimes doesn't even use a chip! :-)

Park Fun!

Today was such a beautiful day, so we joined some friends from playgroup and went to Veterans Park in Hoover. Jack has played some outside of our house the last couple of weeks during the warmer weather, but he hasn't been to a park in months, so he was very excited! He wouldn't even stay in one spot very long to play because he'd see something else he wanted to try and would run over there! His friends Ryder, Abby, Ally, and Ava were all there, plus their mommies of course, and we all had a blast!

We were able to get Abby in a couple of pictures, but Ryder was running around everywhere, too, plus Ally was asleep in her carseat (only 4 months old!), and Ava got there around the time we were leaving, so we weren't able to get any pictures with them. We know they were there, though, too, and part of the fun! :-)

Recent Happenings

Lately there hasn't been just one or two big things to blog about, so here are a few pictures and videos of our recent events and happenings!

Sweet boy on our way to church last Sunday. He looks so big here!

Sharing mommy's post-workout apple, or as Jack would say, "bapple".

Dancing to the awesome music of Daddy and Dallas

Running to the car after Baby Praise at church last Wednesday. He loved having so much open space to run and play!

Showing off his new shoes from Mama Becky and Daddy Mer! He had to get a size 6.5 extra wide! Big boy!

Trying on mama's shoes and walking around the house! At least they weren't my heels! :-)

A very tired and sick boy gave in and fell asleep on the way to Auburn Friday afternoon. Love those cheeks!

I guess he is too big for "bapple" slices now, so he just eats the whole thing. Why not? :-)

Playing with his baseball bat and tee

Besides these wonderful "happenings", Jack is also talking so much now! He says new things everyday, and we are so amazed and so proud of how much he is learning! His little personality fills us with so much joy, and we are having so much fun being his parents! :-)