A Sick Boy

This past Friday night, Jaggar woke up crying just two hours after he went to bed. I didn't think a whole lot of it, so I just eased him back to laying down and left his room. But two hours later at midnight, he was in my room again. He climbed in my bed, and when I went to take him back to his bed, I realized he was hot with fever. Oh. No. Ever since the horrid stomach bug, I am not feeling like it's our turn on the sickness ride again. So Travis and I spent the next 20 minutes convincing him to take some Motrin. His temp was 101.4. He slept in my bed that night and whimpered through the night breathing fast, short breaths in the night. It was creepy. He held my hand and shared my pillow. How could I turn that away? The next morning, he looked no better. He never felt cool to me. I wanted to wait to take him to the doctor. Why do these things always happen on the weekend? But when his temp reached 103.4 and his eyes looked like they were crossing, I called the oncall nurse. She was sweet and nonchalant and said that as long as he had no other symptoms that she was fine with that. Well, SHE was...I wasn't. Because he is still small, I worried that his throat did hurt because normally when my kids get high, sudden fevers like that, it's strep. Sage is just now old enough to tell me when her throat hurts. Kids that small don't really even know what their "throat" is. So after lunch, when he refused Sprite and spit the tylenol on me, we were first in line for cares to open. It was almost 100 degrees, and I was carrying a 30 lb feverish 3 year old, BUT I was the first to be seen. There were 9 and counting behind me before they even opened the doors. We were called immediately back. They did a strep test, flu test, mono test and CBC. Those were all really fun. His temperature was still high. He refused their tylenol, too. But the verdict? Everything looked good. Ears, throat, tests and blood work were all normal. Fever virus. I was okay with that. I had to know. And thankfully, though I was told it could last up to a week, he woke up the next day without fever. This was good because after the doctor and his nap, he was hot to hold, and his temp was 103.7. Not our most fun Saturday, but all is well now.

Here he is in the car watching a movie while we got milk before the dr opened.

He seriously couldn't hold his eyes open all day.

Waiting in the car for Cares to open. Isn't that so sad?

103.7 temp

But now? We are done with sickness and counting down the days until we are out of here for the beach. We even made a countdown chain for it.

Dance Camp

As I said, Sage was able to go to dance camp at the studio where she dances last week. I am SO glad that we did this for her because she absolutely loved it. It totally renews her passion for dancing, AND she learns a TON. It was Monday through Friday from 10-1:30 with a 30 minute lunch break, so it was THREE hours of dancing. And the class was really small, so she really got a lot of one on one attention. She came home SORE and with a broken blood vessel in her foot one day. Yeah! Getting our money's worth! I am so pleased with all that she learned and the fun that she had. Of course, it was difficult leaving each day because Jaggar was determined to stay. One morning, I was talking to Jessica (another teacher) and found Jaggar in Sage's class that had already started stretching right along with the girls. Another day, he was on their bench waiting to be called for attendance. Poor boy. I got to take him out kicking and screaming daily. Good times. On the last day, we got to come in a few minutes before the day ended and see some of the things that they learned. It wasn't as much routine as technique oriented, which was good.

Here is the tap.
Here is the jazz, which was her favorite. I think she will get to take that this year too.
Here is the hip hop. I know she's mine, but I think Sage is good at what she does.

This is their teacher, Tracey, with the girls. This was the only picture we got with the girls because someone else, who had been trying to be a part all week, had to join.

And who was anyone to stop him?

I love him.

All of the girls. And Jaggar.

A Day at the Pool

Last week, Sage attended a dance camp all week long (more on that later). On Wednesday after class, Jada (one of the moms) invited everyone to come and swim in their neighborhood pool. Both of my kids were thrilled. I was a little concerned with how Jaggar would do. I'd never seen the set up of this pool, so I didn't know how much of a nightmare it would be. Turns out, it was perfect. The first several feet of the pool were only about a foot deep, so Jaggar could walk in it fine, giving him plenty of room to play. I quickly showed him what would happen if he went further--that he couldn't touch and that he'd go under (though I didn't let him). He seemed to understand that, but he still kept saying, "Take me over to the kids." He wanted to play, too. Thankfully, Jada had some arm floaties that he did really well with. He didn't really get in the deeper parts because he didn't like when his feet couldn't touch, but he was always near them. This way, I didn't have to constantly worry about him drowning. If he did fall in, I could get to him. There was also a shallow ledge in the deep part, so he was able to "be with the kids." Everyone had a great day, and we didn't leave until six pm.

Some of the girls and Jaggar

My little guy playing with the noodle

The next pictures are several group shots, none of which turned out amazing, which is why I posted all of them. Jaggar is looking here, but Sage is covering her eyes.

After telling Sage to take her hands down, she is looking and Jaggar is leaving.

And then there's this.

But then I took these, and a miracle happened:

THIS picture. I love love love this.

Sage and some of her friends doing some of their dance routines they learned that week.

Father's Day

***Sage in Daddy's shoes

I am so thankful that my children have such a wonderful father that they are able to celebrate on Father's Day and every day. They (or Sage) were so excited to give their gifts. Jaggar walked in, gave Travis his gift and said, "Happy Birthday." This first pic is blurry, but it's the only one that I had from my camera of Jaggar giving his gift, which was a movie card. We can never go wrong with that. Later that morning, Jaggar looked at Sage and said, "Hey Sage, happy father's day, Sage." Too cute.

Sage, on the other hand, was thrilled. She knew EXACTLY what she wanted to get Travis, and she was so excited to give it to him because she knew her gift was thoughtful.

She saw the movie "Tron" at the store a few days before, gasped and said, "Mommy!! That is what I want to get Daddy for Father's Day! He will love this! He loves this movie!" I just love her face in this picture. You can see just how proud she is. Love that girl.

Sweet, sweet

Jaggar, obviously not in the picture taking mood, is the only one looking full of disgust. :) Two out of three isn't bad. Regardless, we had a very happy father's day.

2 Weeks in a Nutshell

I'm pretty behind on blogging, but we were just making it here and honestly, blogging was the last thing in line of priorities. Travis was working out of town for pretty much the past 2 weeks. He had two different shoots (one was Bonaroo--which is also a modern day woodstock basically--people camping out for 5 days hearing every band imaginable all while smoking pot around the clock), and he came home after five days for a day and left again for the rest of the week. It was TOUGH. I certainly appreciate the help that he offers, but I also like an adult to converse with! I don't think that I could be a single mother. But we made it. Thank GOD, we made it. I can finally say that after this weekend (he had a wedding Saturday) that I think we're through with extras for a while. I tried to make it fun for the kids because while it is hard on me, it is also really hard on them. Jaggar doesn't even understand. He didn't mind until Travis came home for that one day and then had to leave again the next morning. Jaggar kept saying that night before Travis left again, "Can I sit wif you, Daddy? You don't go to work tomorrow. It's raining. You have to stay here." So sweet. And Sage ALWAYS has a hard time when he's gone. But he's back and we are trying to regain strength after it all. :) So here's a few pics of our time.

I'm not even sure when EXACTLY this was. I know it was when Travis was at Bonaroo. Sage needed new paint, and I wanted to introduce Jaggar to painting. They loved it, of course, and Jaggar did pretty well. Crayola washable paint is the best. It literally just wipes off of anything.

The next week (last week) was VBS at Golden Springs Baptist church. Sage looks forward to this EVERY year. They truly do an amazing job, and I am so glad to send her there. She comes home talking about God and singing songs. I even found her one morning reading her Bible on the steps. I'm loving anything that encourages that. Their theme was amazing wonders aviation (the theme of pretty much every vbs across the country this summer--same program from Lifeway, and that's cool), so they had a plane and parachutes all in the sanctuary.

The only bad part is that Jaggar wasn't old enough to go, and he cried to "stay with Sage" every morning that we dropped her off. He even tried to swipe other kids' name tags off the table, thinking that was his ticket to get to stay in the line. They were kind enough to give him a blank one because they thought he just wanted a name tag. He put it on and ran to get back in the line. It was as I thought. :)

As usual, we went back on family night on the last night where each grade performed a song that they'd learned. After that, they went to the "redemption center" in the gym where they spent their tickets that they'd earned for the week and picked up all the goodies they'd made at their classrooms. They really do so much with them. Sage was so proud of this candy airplane that she made, and she wanted me to pin this on pinterest. :)
She also made this and another similar magnet out of bottle caps.

In between the two shoots, I asked Travis to go Walmart and pick up a "baby pool" that I saw that I thought would be fun for the kids, since, as usual, our pool is still green. Um...btw, in case you're wondering, baby pools are crazy expensive these days. It didn't have a price on there, so I thought I was being generous in my assumption that it was probably around $25. It was $35! I'm sorry, but is plastic REALLY that much? They do have a blast in it. They usually have a routine of crying/complaining/fighting for the first 30 minutes or so depending on if it's fresh water from the hose (then it's too cold) or if we left water in there (then it's too dirty), but after that, they have a blast. So we did that pretty much every afternoon. Jaggar, in particular, loves it.

So while they were swimming, I'd open up all the blinds in the kitchen so that I could see and I'd cook dinner for them to eat outside. This worked out great each night. They were hungry from swimming, and my kitchen wasn't destroyed as they ate dinner in it. I thought this was a cute picture.

Jaggar is in full Christmas mode around here and has been that way for weeks. You know he loves his Rudolph toys, and they go up and downstairs, depending on where he is, all day long. And they are strategically set up where he's at. My new favorite thing that he's doing is when one will fall over that he's trying to sit up. He will pick it up, put it in his near his face so that he and the toy are eye to eye and scream, "YOU SIT THERE!" or "STOP IT!" Because that toy is deliberately defying him. It is hysterical, only not to him. He is serious.

This guy also has a new big boy bed, which I need to chronicle but I want his room perfectly clean before I take pics. With Travis being gone, I've just been trying to make it, so maybe this week I can get that done. He also got a new bookcase for his room, and here he is IN that.

Moving along, this past Saturday, the kids were invited to two birthday parties: Paisley and Kylie. Paisley's party was at the church, and they had a blast playing in the bounce houses and running through the gym. Kylie's party was a pool party, and since Travis was gone for the day AGAIN, my mother-in-law was gracious enough to take Sage for me because I really didn't think I could handle Jaggar in a big pool by myself. Jaggar and I went after he and I BOTH took naps. Here they are with Paisley.

And last but not least, Jaggar graduated to a new pair of glasses. :) Only it was very short lived because they are broken already, so it's back to old faithfuls, but he sure was cute for a picture. Notice that they are upside down. Phew! I think we are current now, minus Father's Day, but that was just yesterday! That's next.

Happy 2nd Trimester!!

To me...of course. It starts today!! Isn't that insane??? I still have good moments and bad of going from feeling great to not so great, but I think the latter is outweighing the former. I would like to think the worst is behind me. Oh, something interesting I read in some pregnancy app was that in pregnancy, your body drastically lowers its immune system (which normally attacks foreign invaders) so as not to expel the pregnancy because after all, baby is foreign. SO, that explains my back to back stomach viruses that occurred not long enough ago. Even though it's not obvious to the common stranger, I am starting to show. I can feel what feels like a softball in my lower stomach. There's a baby in there! And according to Sage, it IS a girl because she prayed for that and God told her. :)

Okay, so I got the new John Mayer album last week and I wanted to share some of my favorite songs. John has done it again. What I love about this album is that it's not angry like the last one was. Download it if you haven't. It's still different for him, but I like it.

Because...it does take a fool to love me, and I found just the one. :) LOVE this song.


I shared this one before the album came out, but the studio version is fantastic. Soooo nice. Both children walk around singing, "You gotta Show, show, show, show me..." It's hilarious.


I think this is one that we could all wish we could tell our younger selves and have them actually believe it, for one, and, if possible, understand it. But...it would've never happened. Cool song.


Mine and Sage's fave. Some of my favorite lines? "Don't be scared to walk alone. Don't be scared to like it." And "No, your fight is not within. Yours is with your timing. Dream your dreams but don't pretend. Make friends with what you are. Give your heart then change your mind. You're allowed to do it. Cause God knows it's been done to you and somehow you got through it." GENIUS.


Okay, and since we're on music that I like...I have to include this song. This is such an odd little song that I LOVE. What I like about it, aside from the fact that it's not ADELE OR KATY PERRY (Is anyone else tired of hearing them on 6 stations at a time???), is that it's so slyly MEAN. I think the hook is one of the greatest: Now you're just somebody that I used to know. I think that's one of the meanest things you could say to someone, and I love it. And I hate to admit that, but I just think of imaginary scenarios. Rather than telling someone you hate them or yelling at them, you just smoothly cut them out of your life...all to a weird Japanese like melody. I'm weird, I know.

In Case You Wondered...

Yes, Jaggar will still only wear THESE glasses. And yes, many times they are still upside down when he's wearing them. Still keepin' it real.

Time for the Dentist

On Thursday, one of the times that I hate most rolled upon us yet again: a trip to the dentist. The dentist doesn't really bother me THAT much. It's the money that I inevitably end up paying every time that I visit. The past few times I've been, I've taken both kids with me. Sage is always a patient too, and they don't mind to watch Jaggar, which is nice. But this time, Jaggar was going to be a patient, too, which could have gone either way. When I asked them if they wanted to start cleaning his teeth because he just turned 3 (that's when Sage started), they said that they'd do whatever he'd let them do without traumatizing him. So, off we went.

Thankfully, they got started on all of us soon and when one was waiting for the dentist, they'd start cleaning someone else. Thank GOD. I was not feeling my best and thought the taste of that paste could send me over the edge and that we'd have to reschedule, but it was okay. Sage is always first and always a pro. She can pretty much go back by herself now, but I brought Jaggar so that he could see what was going on. His interest lasted for about 5 minutes. I said, "Are they going to clean your teeth, too?" He said, "Ummm, no thank you."

This girl was new (to us), and she was just perfect for Jaggar. He refused to lay down, and I thought, "Hmm...this isn't going to work." But she didn't mind and just did it with him sitting up. Ha, look at his face.

Notice that he brought his Charlie in the Box animal. He told her, "It's Charlie in the Box. It's a misfit toy." She said, "My name is Charlie, too!!" Perfect. :)

She explained what she was doing to him and let him touch and feel before she'd start cleaning.

This was the suction, which she appropriately called "Mr. Slurpy" for Jaggar. He wasn't quite so sure about that, so he just spit on his own.

Amazingly, she got them all polished and was able to look in his mouth. I'd say for his first time and who we were dealing with, that's a huge accomplishment.

We were all good. Sage had xrays for the first time, and they saw 2 spots that he wasn't going to call a cavity YET but he said he's not going to say that he's never not going to have to fill them. Sigh...awesome. And they couldn't do xrays on me this time so they couldn't see anything obvious on me. Next time, I feel sure. I did schedule our next appointment a month earlier than normal because what is worse than going to the dentist? Going to the dentist a week and a half after you have a baby.

Last Stop: Strawberries

I didn't realize that we didn't take any pictures of the raspberries that we picked, but it was more of the same. We were all getting hot and tired, particularly me. Oh, but Travis and Jill weren't done. They had heard of a strawberry farm on the way home, which was actually pretty close to our house. Now I grew up going to pick strawberries and had the idea been introduced hours before, I probably would have been all for it. But I was tired. And even though I'd eaten my weight in berries, I wanted some food. Call me crazy. But it was fun and part of the experience, and now we have a freezer full of berries to make any kind of cobbler or smoothie you could want.

Here are some family pics of us right before we left Holmestead Farm to go to the strawberry farm, which was Watts Farm.

A miracle: TWO pictures with everyone looking!

Right up front at the strawberry farm was this HUGE chair. The kids just thought that it was the greatest thing ever. Jaggar even thanked God for it in his prayers that night. :)

Jill told them to pretend to be asleep. So cute.

Running to pick strawberries

This wasn't my cup of tea. Too much bending down. And when you picked a berry that was mushy, it looked like your hand was bloody.

But the ones that were good were REALLY good!

This little girl lived there, and she was thrilled to see kids her age. So she proudly showed them a chicken.

Kind of ugly in my opinion.

He was mad that he couldn't hold one. We had a great day, and it's definitely an experience that my kids will remember and do again.