Sunday, May 31, 2009

Our trip to Alabama

Ross, Connor and I flew to Alabama for Memorial Day weekend. It was a very busy weekend full of new babies, old friends and great times.

Ross's best friend (also known as his first wife) got married in Fairhope - which is oddly enough is the exact same small town where Ross’s sister lives.

Ross and Will have quite a long history together. They met at Auburn years ago and have been responsible for a great deal of madness and mayhem ever since. They even lived together for 6 years which is some states consitutes a common law marriage.

Will is a really fun guy and we're thrilled that he found a wonderful girl to settle down with. The wedding couldn't have been nicer. It was held at a historic hotel on the bay and they exchanged vows at sunset on the water. Absolutely gorgeous!

And if that wasn't enough - we were also blessed with the arrival of our new nephew Daniel Crawford Holmes. Ross's sister, Ivy gave birth to a handsome baby boy on the day that we arrived in Fairhope (what perfect timing). I'm still amazed at how tiny and precious newborns are. We're so excited to welcome Daniel to the family and are thrilled that the family continues to grow.

We had such a great time hanging out with family and friends that we were disappointed when it was finally time to come home. Here are a few of the family photos from the weekend.









For some reason Connor likes to take people's socks off. He even does this to his friends at daycare. Strange...

Friday, May 8, 2009

Yum - chopped liver, my favorite!

Since Ross is feeling like “chopped liver” right now, this is my feeble attempt to share some of the lime-light with him. Here’s what Ross has been up to lately…

--> Ross has started working out each night to P90X. Usually, I crawl in bed around 9 (early I know – but there’s a reason) and that’s when he puts on his workout clothes and gets “extreme”. I would no doubt be crying like a baby if I did these workouts. They are amazingly difficult and he’s seeing the results of his hard work after only a few weeks. Ross looks amazing! His clothes are falling off of him now and he has so much more energy (especially when compared to me – sigh). Way to go honey! You’re “extremely” awesome!!

--> When Ross and I took Connor to Christus Santa Rosa hospital for his surgery the swine flu was on the rise and people were sick with panic. We’re generally laid back about this kind of thing and other than staying informed; we were taking the normal precautions. However, when we arrived at Santa Rosa it didn’t take long to realize that we were greatly out-numbered in ethnicity (big surprise – considering it was downtown SA). And when one family after another kept walking into the waiting room bringing with them aunt, uncles, cousin, etc., Ross started turning into a full fledged germ-aphobe. At one point we were outnumbered – 25 to 3 (Connor's counted in the 3). I could see Ross eying the exits incase someone sneezed and he had to make a break for it. When they handed out a SA newspaper with the headline reading, “Confirmed case of swine flu in San Antonio”, I thought he’d reached his breaking point. Of course, I was laughing my ass off the whole time.

--> I supposedly “punched” (more like back-handed slapped) Ross in the face last night while I was sleeping (since I was asleep – he can’t get mad at me…right? – we’ll see). Apparently the force was so great that he woke up with two black-eyes. Although I can barely tell, his boss asked him first thing this morning if he’d been in a fight. Oops! Before you feel completely sorry for him – he once elbowed me in the head while he was asleep. He woke up at the point his elbow made contact with my forehead.

All joking aside, the real reason that Ross is feeling underappreciated is because society doesn’t give exceptional father’s the credit they deserve. When Connor was in post-op, the nurse came out to get mommy (not dad). Moms are generally seen as the care-givers, but not in our household. Ross cares for Connor as well – if not better- than I ever could. He helps every night by giving Connor a bath, or feeding him dinner. And he helps every morning by getting him dressed for school.

Ross and I came from families where our parents divorced when we were very young. To make it worse, we both grew up with father’s who abandoned us during our childhood. I know its Ross’s goal to let this scenario die with our generation. It’s very important to him that Connor understands that he has a loving father who genuinely cares for him and who is taking an active role in his life. Now that doesn’t sound like chopped-liver – does it?

Friday, May 1, 2009

My little hero

Connor is the most amazing child I’ve ever met. Ok - maybe I’m a little biased because I’m his mommy, but still – this kid is truly special. I haven’t publicized it much, but Connor had surgery yesterday. Before I get bombarded with questions, it was a fairly minor surgery and we’ve known about it for months. It was not critical or life-threatening and it was an out-patient procedure, so he was home the same day.

On the flip-side surgery is surgery and there is no way to downplay the fact that I’m allowing some doctor to cut into my precious son. Surgeries involve anesthesia, scalpels and a permanent scar (his first one ever – tear).

The reason I chose to write about it now is because Connor completely amazed me yesterday and I wanted to savor this memory for years to come. It’s also for the same reasons that I write this blog: 1. most of our family and friends do not live in San Antonio or even the great state of Texas (shocker) so the blog is a great way to keep them involved in our life AND 2. this is first and foremost Connor’s blog. When he is older I’ll share these stories with him so that he’ll have an account of his childhood.

Back to my story…We had to be at the hospital at 5:30am. So not only was Connor ripped from his cozy bed in the wee hours of the morning, but he also couldn't eat anything (not even milk) after mid-night. And that’s the amazing part – my son – tired and hungry in a new place with people poking and prodding him at that moment decided to put on a show for the doctor’s and nurses in the pre-op. He was standing on the bed screeching at like a pterodactyl (think flying dinosaur), laughing and making raspberries with his tongue (this is his favorite activity right now). Connor makes a raspberry after every word. It sounds something like this…dada-phthththth (spit flying everywhere). Everyone was cracking up at this crazy kid who was having the time of his life.

Now to be fair, Connor had no idea what was in store for him but regardless he was tired and hungry which is enough to piss off most babies and adults for that matter. But not Connor – we didn’t hear a single complaint out of him. When the nurse carried him away from us he didn’t even cry – he was just happy to flirt with a new face.

In my opinion he’s one brave little guy. The surgery lasted less than an hour and we were back by his side before he woke up. They let him recover for a few hours in the hospital and then sent us home. When Connor got back to the house, you would have never known anything happened to him. He immediately started crawling all over the dogs (pulling their hair and ears) and jumping around in his exersaucer.

I have a lot of lessons to learn from my son. I’m not nearly as laid back and accommodating as he is. I’m simply amazed by the fact that he can just go with the flow and that not much upsets him. I only wish I could be like that too. Connor you’re my little hero and I’m so proud of you.