We Survived!

This month has been a blurr....right after celebrating the Fourth of July Barnes came down with Hand Foot and Mouth (blisters on - "you guessed it" - the hands, feet, and mouth). So he was out of day care for the week. Fortunatley we all had Monday off, LJ had Tuesday off, and my mother flew in to save the day and stayed home with him on Thursday (I had Wednesday). Well, I ended up with it on Friday and had to stay home till Tuesday! Good news is I finally got caught up on paperwork!!! YEAH!!!

For those of you who aren't aware I have been working in Union, SC. I am still working as a social worker for a local hospice company and when they needed help in another office I volunteered. I love to change things up every now and then but I didn't realize I would be helping for 6 MONTHS! So I started out behind - AND now I am caught up.

Added to our craziness, LJ has started working in industrial sales for a new company. He spent a week and a half in Atlanta while I was recovering from "the disease". Mom flew back in the next week for her scheduled visit.

We love to have mom, "GiGi" come and visit!!!

4th of July at the Lake

Barnes spent his first 4th of July at the lake. We just went up to Lake Murray for Saturday and came home on Sunday. It was so nice of Erin to have us up and we all enjoyed relaxing. This was Barnes second trip to the lake and he seems to be more comfortable with the water - he was putting his face in the water!

Barnes' moments

Barnes also loves to play with anything that isn't a toy! He loves plastic water bottles, plastic cups, spoons and containers.




So not to long ago Barnes' favorite thing to do was squint his eyes together. I don't know where he got this from!

9 months and CRAZY!!!

Yes, he is already nine months! I can't believe it! June 29th he was 9 months and in the last months there has been lots of changes! Barnes started crawling and pulling up on EVERYTHING. We have a small play yard with a soft foam bottom - he spends a lot of time in it with his toys. He can entertain himself pretty well for awhile. This place is safe from the dogs! While they don't bother him too much they can get carried away and run him over. So, since Barnes is pulling up it had become difficult to get him to lay down for a nap. My child that would go down in a matter of minutes now can take 45 min! I figured out the problem. Daycare had started to "pat" him to sleep. We are all working to correct this problem. He is getting better. Barnes is also making more noises/sounds - I have no idea what he is trying to say. He is eating more table food and loves bread, bananas, and puffs! He continues to put everything in his mouth! How does he find the tiniest speck of dirt and put it in his mouth!
Our wonderful photographer met us at the state house a few days before Barnes' turned nine months. This is the first time she got photos of all three of us!

May Beach Trip

Okay...so I have no idea when I will actually start to write consistently. But I have to share photos from our wonderful beach trip! My parents took our family and my sisters family to Destin, Fl for a week. We had such a wonderful time - it was definitely different from beach trips in the past. No lounging around reading and sipping fruity drinks. By the time we were ready and packed up for the beach, we didn't spend much time at beach before we were back up in the condo for naps or lunch.

It was so fun to see Barnes and my sisters little girl, Parker, who is only a month older - and how they reacted to the beach and ocean. Eventually they were both shoveling sand in their mouths! They shared a bath tub, beach toys and eventually PINK EYE! Parker was an avid crawler by the beach trip but Barnes could still yank her pacifier out in one swipe.

LJ and I had driven down after he got off work on Saturday. We arrived in the middle of the night. Barnes did great. He started to get a little fussy at the end of our trip but we had been in the car for about 12 hours so who could blame the little guy. LJ and I have always enjoyed "road trips" together. With my family being in Arkansas we have lots of trips back and forth over the years.

Can't wait till the next time we can all get together.

Photos from Easter

Barnes first Easter we went to our church here in Columbia before heading up to Rock Hill.






After going to church we headed up to Rock Hill to spend Easter with LJ's family. Lillyann was checking Barnes out...

Photos

Here are a few photos from 7 months. He is wearing a pair of shorts that mother knitted. By 7 months he was completely sitting up on his own and cutting two teeth.




This is LJ and Barnes at the Crawfish Festival


Barnes in April going for a walk