The Day the Zebra Escaped the Circus

Seriously. I'm not joking. A zebra busted out of the circus and pretty much shut down I85 in downtown Atlanta. That was February 18th. Wade's birthday. Pretty crazy stuff, huh? Well, I should have taken it as a sign as how crazy my life was going to get.  Having two kids is hard. I mean, crying in the fetal position on the bathroom floor hard. I have to keep reminding myself that I am not the first woman in the universe to have two small children. They survived, and I will too. And now, at the three month mark, there is some glimmer of normalcy and routine, which to me, equal sanity. And to you, that means back to the blog! I have so much to write about... as so much has happened in these three months...non of which includes much sleep.  So, I'm going to do my best to get caught up and reacquainted with ya! Just hold tight and bear with. We'll start with the pictorial...k?

welcome wade!

Wade spent his first 24 hours in the NICU. I'll elaborate later... 

Leo and Wade in the NICU 

Beau meets Wade for the first time!

The Furlong brothers. Awe.

Wade's first photo shoot. 5 days old.

I adore this picture. Especially love Wade's pouty face.

Cuppy cakes I made for Easter. Pretty. If I do say so myself. And I do.

Leo and Wade - Easter

Beau with his bubble mower on Easter.

Just a random shot of Beau. One my faves, ever.

This is a cake I made for one of Lori's girlfriend's kitchen shower. Had to show ya.

My girlfriend Katie's wedding weekend in Charleston, SC. Rehearsal dinner. You can tell by the way I am clutching my wine glass, I hadn't had an adult beverage since I got pregs with Wade.  Funny story, too; Leo purchased some milk test strips for me since I am nursing to check the alcohol content of my milk. The gradation of the color chart goes from white (nothing) to light grey (safe) to dark grey (warm up the formula). The minute my milk hit the strip it turned the darkest shade of black there is. Black black. Just shy of whithering up and blowing away. Wade got a bottle. :)

Moi, the MATRON (I hate that word, by the way) of honor, Katie, and Lisa.

Me giving my heart-felt slash hilarious matron of honor toast.

You need a tee-tee break yet? Only about 20 more pictures to go.

Other than Leo's Zoolander face (above) and Popeye face (below) I love these. Beau is IN LOVE with trains and we have made it a habit to visit a park near here where trains go by all the time. Now that I think about it, not all that safe, to have a playground right next to railroad tracks... oh well.

And I'll wrap up this marathon photo extravaganza with these lovlies.

You're welcome.

Hi.

Sorry for the delay in the birth story. I seriously have been working on it. Here's my problem. And this is gross and embarrassing but since we are so close, I feel I can share... A couple days ago I broke out in a huge itchy rash on my belly. OK. Fine. Pulled up trusty WebMD, performed self-diagnosis, and started slathering on the Cortisone. Well, yesterday it started to spread. All. Over. My. Body. And did I mention how itchy it is? In between my fingers, in my armpits, behind my ears...what a nightmare. So Leo finally calls my OBGYN office for me and I talk to the doctor... Turns out she thinks I'm having an allergic reaction to my pain medication prescribed for my C-Section.  She then proceeds to instruct me to STOP TAKING SAID MEDICATION EVEN THOUGH I HAVE A HUGE OPEN WOUND ON MY ABDOMEN THROUGH WHICH AN EIGHT AND A HALF POUND BABY WAS PULLED OUT. Ok. No problem. Stop taking pain medication, and treat the allergic reaction with Benadryl.  So, I am already sleep deprived...hello, I have a 10 day old, and now I'm drugged on Benadryl. Let's all say it together: ZOMBIE. I still itch, by the way. And I'm hobbling around like a geriatric when 5 days ago I was practically swinging from the chandeliers.

I'm in a bad mood.

Table of Contents

Yikes...so...I've tried to sit and write this post about 10 times. Sometimes when an event is so exceptional, it's hard to get your thoughts together.

So I need to break it down.

So my head won't explode.

A mini-series.

Installments.  

Chapters.

Consider this your table of contents.

Prologue

Chapter One:      Happy Birthday Wade

Chapter Two:     The NICU and more

Chapter Three:   Coming Home; Big Brother Beau

...And Then There Were Four

Welcome, Wade Leybourne Furlong!

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

7:48 am

8 pounds, 8 ounces

20 inches long

We are all home and well! I hope to get a post written tonight with all the details, and yes, PICTURES!

The Acorn and the Tree

Whoa. I've tried to deny it...but I came across this picture of Leo today as I was doing some last minute organizing/nesting. Just check out this side-by-side. Maybe Tootles will come through for me...

Piano Man

Move over Elton and Billy. This piano man can really put on a show.
(click on picture to view the oh-so-famous Beau booty shake... and a short peek at Shawn's. Haha)

My First Baby: All About Beau

Watch out, ladies.


My baby is turning two on Monday. I just can't believe it.
One week from yesterday this little boy's world is going to be turned upside-down. For now, all I was to do is scoop him up and snuggle him and kiss him until his cheeks fall off.

This boy provides so much joy in my life. I literally laugh all day long. He loves choo choo trains, cars, animals and rocks. He loves playing outside. Sometimes he'll just stand at the back door and say "outside" over and over. Everytime I look at him I can't believe he's grown into such a little boy. And such a stereotypical little boy at that. Energy and Destruction should be this kid's middle name. It really sunk in how grown he is last week as we got him officially registered to start preschool in August. I was literally fighting back tears. I'm going to need a stiff one the day I have to drop him off for his first day. Who's in for a 9 am toddy?

Like I mentioned in a previous post we got Beau all moved to his new room over Christmas/New years. He is doing great and loves it. When we first moved him, I was sleeping in there with him in the other twin bed, thinking that would help and ease the transition. Whenever he would get out of bed (which was up to 60 times a night...ugh!) I would just get up and put him back.  No eye contact, no talking. Oh yeah, this went on for nap time, too. Torture for anyone, especially a large 7-8 month pregnant girl. One night about a week or two in, I eventually got so worn out and frustrated with him I laid him down, put up a baby gate, and left the room. Low and behold, the boy went to sleep and didn't move until I saw his little angel face in the morning. Turns out, he just wanted some privacy. Goes to bed like a champion. Me too.

Also, over the past couple months we have started speech therapy at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. I wasn't really on board at first because: 1) it is INSANELY expensive and 2) I was not convinced he really needed it. (still not, really...) But there is no denying that he has made progress. Plus our sweet therapist, Rowena, has really taught me and Leo a lot of things, too. We started out with a little bit of sign language, along with spoken words, and I'll tell you...the first time you see your almost-two-year-old sign and say "more"... it was really one of my proudest moments. Now, he is pointing to things we pass in the grocery store and naming them all on his own. He is still technically "behind", but everyday is getting better and better. It is so great to finally hear that sweet voice!

This boy may eventually be an athlete, but he just loves loves anything musical. He sings all the time. He could hum recognizable tunes before I ever heard him speak a word.  He loves my mom's piano and can keep a beat way better than his father could ever hope to... You should see his dance moves. Hysterical. One night we were out with our great friends the Yeagers at a Mexican restaurant. There was a mariachi band and Beau was shaking his little booty to the music. So funny.

I wish I could sit here and recount all the things that make Beau, Beau. Like the way he impersonates Cookie Monster when he meets a new friend...like it's some kind of awesome opening line or something. Or like when I caught him standing on Leo's laptop bag stealing cookies from the kitchen counter. Or the way he separates his broken crayons from the whole ones everytime we color. Like when he cracks up everytime he burps...

Everyday I wake up to Beau singing in his bed. And it starts my day with a smile. He is funny, quirky, and the sweetest boy a mommy could hope for. He is going to be a great big brother and I am so excited to see how he embraces this new role in his life.

No Valentine's day will ever pass where I won't think back on that day in 2008. Labor. All day. 24 hours. Long. Hard. Labor. But sooooooooo worth it at 6:57am the next day. I fell in love like never before.

What Decade Is It?

Happy 2010!  This is what it has felt like here in Atlanta for most of the month. But luckily we all survived the "Great Blizzard"...1/4 of an inch of snow/ice that literally shut down the city for a couple days. Seriously, schools were closing before the first snowflake even fell. Gotta love the south! We ain't used to such conditions!

Sooo... I hope everyone is enjoying their new underpants they asked for from Santa. Way to start a new decade! And you're welcome.

Mkay, clearly I'm a bit behind.  A lot has gone on this past month and a half. I'm going to give you the brief run down. First of all, Beau has been moved to his "big boy room". (Don't forget to say it they way I taught you.) I will give you all the gory details in a post following this one, as there are many details to share. It was long, and hard fought battle by both sides.  Final score: Mom- 1, big boy bed- 0. Insert evil laugh here.

My baby boy is turning two in less than a month. I had to type it for it to really sink in. Oh yeah, and not to mention that for his second birthday he's getting a little brother. Craziness is about to take residence in the Furlong house...even more than usual.

On to the holiday recap, shall we? Geez, I feel like the winners in my neighborhood who still have Christmas decorations up. Newsflash: It doesn't matter if you don't plug in your light up candy canes on your porch... I can still see them. And what was cute and festive a month ago is doing nothing but screaming I'M LAZY! now. It's time to pack it up.

Here is our Christmas card from this year. There was no way I was going to be in any picture, fearing people might mistake me for the holiday ham, so, I decided on Beau's Santa picture. It makes me laugh because he was so unsure of what he thought about Mr. Claus. This is the best picture we got...the others Santa is getting the stink eye from my precious angel.

Mooooving on....So, my mommy turned *cough* sixty *cough cough* on December 14th. I had everyone over for brunch that Sunday. For some reason I have just had the itch to cook and entertain these past few months. My first big ta-da being Thanksgiving, I conquered all the traditional Turkey Day fixin's. Anyway, I made what I considered to be a pretty impressive brunch spread (if I do say so myself, and I do) with the piece de resistance being this bad ass cake. (If you so much as ask me what those things are on top I will reach this screen and scratch your eyeballs with my crazy growing pregnancy fingernails. CLEARLY they are pinecones. Pinecones made out of almond slivers. That had to be arranged one by one. Painstakingly. No? Well try squinting a little. It helps.)

Well, we here at the Furlong residence drug out the celebration of Christmas for about two weeks. We went to about 101 different places. We just have such a darn big family, and I'll be danged if we didn't have Christmas with just about each and everyone within an 83 mile radius. But of course it was wonderful to celebrate with everyone.  Naturally, in my current "condition" I forgot the camera and/or forgot to take pictures of these events. Ugh. Poor guy. A million photos up to this point in his life, then mom gets preggo brain and it all dries up.  He'll be ok. I'll pay for his therapy.

I did get these few on Christmas morning after Santa came.

My favorite thing I got from Santa? A cleaning service. (My Kitchen Aid mixer a close second). Sooooo nice of Santa. Seriously, the combination of my OCD, my hormones, and my nesting instincts are driving us all insane. Things can not be organized enough or cleaned too many times. It's so nice not to have to worry about the major things like baseboards, blinds and toilets. I'm going to write a post to fill you guys in on what I have done to this house since Thanksgiving. Not one item escaped a Clorox wipe and a labeled tupperware box. From the attic to the garage. I'm not kidding. Just wait.

Now if I could just hire someone to keep my blog updated...