One Year Reflections with April Airhart

So on Thursday, May 24, 2012 it was official, Sadie Marie turned at year old at 7:46 p.m. and she had several cupcakes that day to celebrate. Even though the baby daddy was MIA the week before he made it home in time to celebrate and I managed to make cupcakes to send with the nugget to daycare AND I worked out at 8 p.m. that day. I felt like a total grown up and working mom pushing my workout so I could bake. Does anyone from Selma reading this think you would EVER get all those words in the same sentence when referencing ME? Me either..... SHIV. It's funny, I officially turn 32 on July 2, but I have to admit most of the time I still feel 25. I think Sadie Marie makes me feel younger since we have starting watching cartoons and playing so much now that she's walking I get to act out my inner kid and it's SO much fun.

The baby daddy was gone for work last week and so Sadie Marie and I had lots of good girl time. We danced in the kitchen in our undies, napped, went for long walks to the park, and played with each other hair. Well, I played with her hair and pulled mine out in handfuls, it was fun. :)

The past year sometimes feels like it flew by and then when I reflect it seems like I have lived a lifetime in just one short year. I had a baby, visited Cunnie and John for 5 whole weeks during my maternity leave, went back to work, visited the SEL again in October, had a little family drama thrown in the mix, John Robert and Juju got married, I spent three glorious weeks back in Selma for the nuggets first Christmas, she had her first trip into Washington, D.C., we traveled to Chicago, then Iowa for a little Airhart family time, and now she's one. I mean how much can you fit into one year, it turns out the above list doesn't even begin to cover the firsts we've all had this year and I won't even bother trying to list them all.

The past week I was really reflecting on my pregnancy and Sadie Marie's birth. For those who don't know it was not so bad DURING the actual event, however following the blessed event was a different story. I have been contemplating the requests/questions about a baby brother in our future and THAT makes me question my sanity. While I do want another baby, I also want to enjoy these times. The past week with the baby daddy being gone really gave me a reality check. Do I want to do this with TWO.......ALONE. HELL NO. Don't get me wrong, I could do it but I don't want to at least not right now! So a baby brother may be on hold for another year or so.

Alright, now that I got all that mushy crap off my chest, let's move on shall we? Y'all know I gots some good stories I been hoarding. Prime example numero uno: April's first trip to the ER.

Exhibit A: April wakes up in the middle of the night with throbbing pain in the side of her head. She thinks she has cancer.
Exhibit B: April realizes her ear is what's hurting and she thus cleans her ears (I have always had sinus issues so the doctors have shown me how to keep my ears and nose clean to keep infection away) MISTAKE at 1 AM. 1500 MG of Tylenol are swallowed and I settled in for what I thought would be sleep since I had to be up at 5 AM for work. I should have known that my body had different activities in mind.

After laying in the bed completely SURE death was around the corner for an HOUR. I wake the baby daddy from the stupor that is his REM cycle and advise him I'm dying through a few tears. He looks at me like I'm a crazy person and asks what's wrong..... here's the convo:

Me: I'm, sniff, in a lot, sniff sniff, of pain. My head, ear, neck, should, blahhhhh, hurts. I don't know what to do.
Him: Go to the emergecy room.
Me: What?
Him: Go to the emergency room.
Me: Why?
Him: Becuase it's clear you are in pain. Do you want to wait for the doctor to open in 6.5 hours?
Me: No.
Him: Go to the emergecy room.
Me: What about Sadie Marie. (I of course assumed someone needed to go with me to the ER, the is serious it's the ER for heavens sake!)
Him: Well, do you want to wake her up and we will all go.
Me: No.
Him: Well I'll stay here with her.
Me: OK. I guess I'll have to get my big girl britches out.
Him: Do you have those?
Me: Sweet baby Jesus......

What I'm thinking is SHIV. Now I have converation with myself: April, do I really want to trek all the way to the ER, what if they laugh at you because you have like a M&M stuck in your ear or something. You have not exactly been swimming in M&M's lately but you never know, Sadie Marie could have easily stuck something in there, she's like a ninja........The ER is serious and you HATE them folks to treat the ER like the doctor but that is exactly what you are going to do because there was NO WAY in HELL you are going to lay around with a throbbing head and fever until 8 AM to go to Urgent Care. Stafford ER here I come.

I get to the ER and there is literally NO ONE in the waiting room. Now I have seen the show ER.....where are all the trauma victims or in the very least the crazy folks? Then I remembered I lived in Stafford, VA and it's a Tuesday night and remembered it was good there was no one here. I was FIRST in line. So I filled out my paperwork and waited.......and waited........for like 25 minutes. WTF. I know in the grand scheme that's not long but I was the ONLY person there........Finally some dude yells something at the lady who took my paper work and then says Mrs. Airhart. Awesome. I have a good feeling about this.......

They take me back to a little room that has a curtain. I totally feel like they need to step up their privacy measures a little bit. I could hear everything going on outside my cubby.....I know them folks outside could hear me telling these people all about how my last menstrual cycle was RIGHT NOW. Awesome. Luckily they didn't take my weight I guess.

After they got me all squared away they said the doctor would be right in and I of course believed them. I was the only person there, but again I waited and waited. I even heard someone talking about me on the other side of the curtain and still no one came. Them folks working in that ER are DUMB. Get a damn door so I can't hear the disdain in your voice when you tell him I'm there with ear pain. I HATE you.

About 20 minutes later, which mind you felt like 12 hours due to the shooting pains I'm having in my right ear. The doctor comes in looks me over, looks in my ear and says yep you have an ear infection. WHAT?!? Mouth agape, I wanted to ask him if he was sure it was not cancer because it felt like I had a tumor the size of a golf ball in my ear canal. Well, turns out that is due to pressure from the infecation and the sensitivity of your eardrum, you are in pain. Mind you he did say it was a pretty wicked ear infection and asked how long I had been sick. I had actually been sick with a cold for a week but my hear did not hurt until now. Well, that explains the extreme pain......thanks doc. You are a genius, how much is this noble prize wining information costing me?

He wrote me some prescriptions, explained them to me, and sent me on my way. I felt like such a tool. April Airhart ER patient/ear infection sufferer. Sadie Marie has had THREE ear infections, she never told me to take her to the ER. I'm so awesome it's not even funny. Anyway, after I survived that SHAME. I actually did get up at 5 AM and go to work because I never got to sleep. Plus I'm too damn busy at work to miss another day. I had missed the week before for the cold. I told myself before I left for the ER if I didn't have cancer I would go to work and we don't have a 24 hour pharamcy so I had to suffer through the next day cracked out on tylenol. I have no idea what the recommended dosage is for 24 hours but I'm quite sure it's not 1500 MG every two hours.

It's funny, I STILL have an ear infection almost two weeks later. I went back to the doctor on Thursday because it felt like it was getting worse, got some stronger antibiotics, and more pain meds. I tell you what,  I was REALLY shocked at how easy they be handing out vicodin. I got two prescriptions in less than two weeks. SHIV. I have only taken it at night so I have a whole bottle that probably won't get used especially since some of the pressure is starting to subside THANK GOD.

It's the busiest time of year for me at work. I manage the commencement events at work and our ceremony is June 15. I have about 7000 folks between graduates and guests coming to said events and being sick three weeks out is not ideal or helpful when you need to work, cause them folks are coming whether I'm ready for them or not so I HAVE to be ready.

I'm so busy I'm even allowing Sadie Marie to go spend 3.5 weeks in Alabama so I can focus on work the final two weeks before the ceremony. Airhart be a good daddy but he be DEAD tired when he gets home from work and for the safety of our marriage I opted for a visit to CiCi and Big Daddy's house! Sadie Marie is a year old, she's practially taking care of herself. :) The kid can say turtle. She's almost an adult. Cunnie was of course over the moon and I was relieved at first that she would have all the time and attention she deserves while mommmy brings home the bacon but realizing she's leaving next Tuesday choked me up at bit. I have only left her one time before when I had to travel to TX for work and that was ROUGH. I can't imagine what a month is going to feel like. I'm scared she's going to forget who I am. :( I'm know I'm crazy but I kinda LOVE my nugget, I'm going to miss her terribly. I will have lots of work to keep me busy so I know it will fly by and then we will be at the BEACH!! We just gotta get through the next few weeks and work and I can relax a little bit.

Oh did I mention her first birthday party is NEXT weekend? Of course I did. This week ought to get real interesting come Thursday. Reagan and Matt come to town with their devil dog Mason for Sadie Marie's birthday AND they are staying an extra week to visit D.C. I asked the baby daddy if he was ready for a full week of Reagan and I and he just rolled his eyes and said NO. BAHAHAHHAHAH. I know Reagan and I can get a little silly sometimes and we be alot when we are together. We have so many inside jokes it's hard for folks who are not us to get a word in edgewise but it's all in good fun that girl reminds me of who I am and makes me laugh like nobody else. I can't wait for her to get here!

I really wish my cousin Angie and her little nugget Elsie could attend. Elsie and Sadie Marie are a year apart and Angie and I are like sisters. I want the same for Sadie Marie and Elsie. Elsie be showing Sadie Marie the ropes just like Angie did for me when we was growing up. I know Sadie Marie will get some good quality time with Elsie when shes in Selma I just wish I was there too!

We gotta make it through this week though and God love him my sweet husband tried to do some dishes last night and instead of putting dishwasher detergent in the dishwasher he put liquid dish soap. The dishwasher was spewing white bubbles. I'm sitting at the computer working and here's the conversation:

Him: What's wrong with this thing?!?
Me: What's it doing?
Him: It must be broken there are suds everywhere!
Me: Get a towel
Him: I tried to drain it but there are STILL suds inside.
Me: What did you put in there.
Him: Dishsoap
Me: HMMMM, well Airhart you should have used dishwasher detergent. Dishsoap does not go in the dishwasher as much sense as that might make to you.
Him: Oh, well I didn't know that.
Me: No shit. Maybe you should ask me before you start working any of the appliances you are not sure about to include, but not limited to: dishwasher, oven, washing machine, dryer, and the ice maker. You stick to the coffee pot homeslice I know you can work that. BAHAHAHAHAH. He may never live this one down.

Well, that's all I got for right now. Sadie Marie woke up at 2 AM with a WICKED fever of 101.5 so we are headed to the doctor at 11:20 a.m. I hope it's nothing serious so she will be healthy for her party next weekend and for all her company. Cunnie and John be coming too! I can't wait to see mama and daddy and all our friends!

We took her 1 year pictures on Mother's Day here are some below:

Chicago, Iowa, Virginia, Antiquie Archaeology Oh My!

So at the end of April we took a week long trek to Iowa to introduce Sadie Marie to Theron's famly via Chicago for two day. What a trip it was sit back and relax. I'm fixing to lay it on you.

We left out of VA at about 730 AM on a beautiful chilly April morning and had to stop before we even got off the capital beltway to chang a blowout. A diaper blowout that is. Anyone living in the northern VA area understands what a NIGHTMARE this is even if you don't have children. The Capital Beltway AKA I495 AKA, the Inner and Outter Loops run a ring around the Washington, D.C. Metro area and is essentially a HOT MESS. There is constant construction, terrible traffic jams, and exits I can only describe as the 7th level of hell for travelers. Many of these exits have NO gas stations, NO where to stop, and NO warning. So while after we fight traffic through all the construction, Sadie Marie decides to blow the bottom out of her diaper just when we hit moving traffic. AWESOME. I started off driving this morning so I nonchalantly cut across 5 lanes of pissed off drivers to the first exit I see and of course it has no gas station and no where to really conduct a full waredrobe change on an 11 month old child. I pull into the neighboorhood at the first stop light, parallel park, and proceed to do what I consider magic. I stripped the nugget down, hosed her off, and redressed her in something that was about two sizes two small from her diaper bag. I bagged the doodoo clothes and we were on our way. Half an hour later we stop so I can pee. The beauty of traffic is that even though you've been traveling for three hours, you've only been 90 miles. You have to stop. It sucks ass.

After a potty break for the adults int the car, we proceed to have a conversation AFTER WE LEAVE THE GAS STATION, about how we will need toll money. MF. REALLY!?! There were about 15 different ways to get cash at that Sheetz and yet we have none. I didn't know there were tolls. I have driven this route ONCE about six years ago when I moved to this godforsaken land and I have tried to block that shit out. Don't even get me started on that ride. The saving grace then was my mother. I guess I will have to put my big girl britches on and be the mom on this route. We stop AGAIN and get some cash. Then three hours after we left the house we really start traveling and mind you we are still in Maryland. I'm thinking we may not make Chicago today.

The rest of the ride was really uneventful, I read, he drove, and Sadie Marie slept, ate, read, pooped, played, and slept. She really is a good traveler and when we finally hit Chicago about 8 PM I have never been happier until I remembered we were staying in downtown Chicago and that means parking garages and a hotel. Sadie Marie was a real trooper, since she slept alot of the day she was bright eyed and bushy tailed after we got checked in so we bundled her little butt up and headed out to grab something to eat. The Italian place was packed and we didn't want to wait, so we found a little joint serving American food and asked for a table for three. The lead us to a booth and we ask for a highchair.....the waitress proceeds to tell me they don't have highchairs. WTF. I mean I get I'm in downtown Chicago at what is basically a wine bar, but come on man, you could have told me that when I walked in. I had actually expected it.......so we proceed to eat with Sadie Marie in our laps. I will give the kid one thing, when it comes to food she's attentive and not the monster she can often be when she's hungry. I had been feeding her puffs all afternoon so luckily she was not starving but that didn't stop her from downing half a cheeseburger eggroll and a sweet potatoe. The baby daddy destroyed his food while I fed the nugget and then I ate while she played with the rest of her food. I never in a million years thougth eating out without a highchair would be so easy but I guess I underestimated the love for food my child has.

That night was surprisingly uneventful considering Sadie M was bedded down in her pack and play three feet from us AND Airhart left for work the next morning at 6 AM without waking her. We got up and after 30 minutes of trying to decide if I should take her 30 feet in the rain to the starbucks for coffee I get downstairs and realize there is a coffee shop in the lobby. Awesome, I have her bundled up for sub-artic temperatures and we have to walk 20 feet from the elevator......and mind you she's in her stroller. I look like the laziest person on the face of the earth. I don't care. I want coffee so bad at this point I would have pushed that damn stroller, who mind you BARELY fit in the elevator, through a snow storm to get it.

I trudge back up to the room and get up with a co-worker who is remote and living in Chicago so we can eat lunch. He gives me the bus route I need to take and we set off again, sans stroller this time. I only had to walk a block to the bus stop and that damn stroller is made for mountain climbing not urban travel. I have traveled the public system in Chicago before so it was not bad although I was not paying attention and fed the machine a $10 instead of a $1......I realized this when I got done eating lunch with my pal and realized I had NO money to ride the bus back. It's awesome when you have to ask a cowork for two bucks to ride the bus home. Aside from the creeper on the bus who was eyeing Sadie Marie forcing me off the bus two stops early, the trip was pleasant and uneventful. No poop while we were gone, it was glorious.

That evening I was on a mission to eat at Gino's, as seen on Man v. Food so my Ryan my co-worker told me the one to go to, gave me instructions to get there early to avoid the lines and sent us on our way. We were late, the elevator was to blame. That SOB was full everytime it stopped for us and by full I mean there was one person in it and thus the stroller would not fit. WTF. GET A BIGGER ELEVATOR hotel who's name I can't remember.

We carry the stroller down the stairs eventually and had to wait about 20 minutes at Ginos for a table, then realized it was a 45 minute wait to get the deep dish they are known for. Sadie Marie has again had a late nap so I press my luck and we order the deep dish. I have puffs, juice, and toys to feed a small tribe of toddlers for a year so I feel safe AND I ordered the nugget her first french fry. I now know what to feed the child when I want to pacify her. She LOVED it! We eat and walk back to our hotel to get a good nights sleep before we head to Iowa the next morning.

We were actually up and at them early, two adults and a nugget in the same room make for early rising. Sadie Marie had been on antibiotics for WEEKS at this point and thus her poop was liquid. It was not until the next day did we realize the impact those meds would have on her. I was showering and Sadie Marie was napping she woke up and we usually let her play a bit until she gets fussy so we can finish getting ready, well these days with all the liquid poop we learned we better check sooner rather than later because it will seep out of the diaper onto everything it comes in contact with. It's not easy to deal with this kinda shit when you are living out of a hotel! So I went to change her diaper and I almost started crying. Her little hiney was blistered and I bet that poop had not been there 5 minutes. Sadie Marie was shaking and crying while I gingerly tried to wipe her bottom. I was almost convulsing I was so mad at myself and I was hurting because she was hurting. I immediately issued a decree that Sadie Marie was to be checked for poop every 10 minutes throughout the day. The instant it was smelt diapers were to be changed.

I think it was the first time in a long time the baby daddy was actually scared of me. I scare a lot of folks, but he has learned that my because I love him and he's pretty he can get away with a lot more than most folks.

The rest of our stay in Iowa was pleasant, I got to see my Iowa buddies and my Bama bestie who married the baby daddy's bestie and still resides in Iowa. Their son was born six weeks after Sadie Marie and he's as big as she is. Mind you this child was born from midgets. He's going to be bigger than his parents by the time he's three! It was so good to see them all and it made me miss the corn state a bit. Then I remembered how bitterly cold it is there in January and moved on.

We left on a Sunday and decided to make the trip back to VA in two days. 20 hours is just too much to do in one day with a toddler even if she's a great traveler. I can just imagine after 8 hours in a car seat she views it as the jaws of death and wants to keel me for continuing to lock her in it. Luckily she can be persuaded with puffs. We stopped somewhere in Ohio at a Holiday Inn Express and before we could even get out of the parking lot the next morning blowout. I didn't care, we stopped changed a diaper and got on the road.

We made it back to VA unscathed, we took a different route home missing all them damn tolls AND all the northern VA traffic. Home had never looked so good. We got home early, unpacked, and after some doggy loving we went to bed.

The following weeks have been SUPER busy at work, commencement is a month away and there's still lots to be done but this is my third year in charge of this event so I feel like I have it under control but it never fails some things will go wrong and foil all my fantastic planning. I'm ready and waiting with a calm head :) It's a good thing to because Sadie Marie will be a year old in less than two weeks AND I have a huge party planned for her complete with a clown and a moon bouce.

So now that y'all be up to speed on our life, let's talk about today. Today is a very special day, it's Mother's Day AND we are getting Sadie Marie's one year pictures done in Fredericksburg. I am baking a HUGE cupcake for her to play in as I type and we are getting ready to go. I'm so excited. I have three outfits for the nugget to wear, I have a new dress, and it's absolutely BEAUTIFUL outside.

I will post again after her party. I will have plenty of time because I'm letting her go to Alabama for a MONTH. I can't believe I have agreed to this, but I want her to be close to my parents and lord knows I need the time to work those three weeks before commencement. She will be in good hands, but I know I'm going to miss her like crazy. My bama peeps better set up some play dates with the nugget! I want her to have a southern accent!

Below are some new photos and a video of the new mobile nugget.

Love y'all!