BBQ, Banana Pudding, & Baby Deer

I hope every one had a great Memorial Day weekend!

Of course I would like to thank all of the men and women who gave ALL for our country. Can you even imagine where we would all be if it weren't for the amazing brave soldiers that have served our country?! Secondly, I'd like to thank all active and inactive service members for their sacrifices they have made for us as well. Thanks to my brother in law Matt, both of my grandfathers, my father-in-law, my BFF's husband James, my cousins Jay, Michael, and Wesley, and many many friends who have given their time at some point (and still are!) for our country!!!! I wish that everyone was as thankful as y'all deserve.

We celebrated this weekend at Santee State Park with our favorite camping buddies! Christopher, Austin, my mom, Kea (her dog), Becky, Kevin, W and N (their boys, 5 & 3, that I do not have permission to post their names yet lol), Carolyn and C (who is 9).

Friday night we went up to Lonestar. Y'all have no idea how fabulous this place is. It's in these old old stores and is some of the best BBQ ever. They have tons of antiques for sale and on display. There was a Bluegrass festival this weekend so it was PACKED, but that just meant great music and and even bigger assortment of food than normal. I'm a picky eater, but I love this place. I piled my plate with ribs, BBQ, chicken, macaroni and cheese, rice, green beans, watermelon, pickles, and OMG the BEST banana pudding EVER on the face of the EARTH.

Austin enjoyed some green beans, watermelon, and banana pudding (which I kind of regret... Pudding has milk doesn't it?). He loved it and it was evident in his diaper...

Saturday we just relaxed and enjoyed the day. Christopher, Austin, and I took a walk... I took a nap with Austin... Christopher took a nap with Austin... We walked to the lake and put our toes in... We hung out around the pool... Relaxed on the hammock... Made smores (well, I let Kevin and C make my 2)... Ate junk all day... Hung out around the campfire (which Austin was AMAZED by!)... Attempted a shower with baby (all of you Twitter folk that says that's easy? You're lying)... Played games with the boys... Rode bikes...

ooooooooooo fiiiiirrrrreeeee

The pool. Pretty much the smartest most amazing idea ever for camping with small children.

Relaxing (?) on the hammock

This morning we all lounged around and ate breakfast, then it started thundering and looking very dark so we all scurried around as fast as we could to pack up before it started to rain. Sure enough as soon as we packed the very last thing, the sun broke through the clouds... Austin was extra cranky (being out of his element, not able to get good naps, it was hot, I was too lazy to entertain him, etc) so I stuck him in the Beco and he finallyyyyy crashed. I stuck him in the car seat while we finished up, still in carrier, because I was not wakin' his butt up for anything!

All in all it was a great trip. There were a couple of hiccups, like last night I had some dark twisty dreams. I hate that. And Friday on our way to Lonestar we were in our caravan. Becky, Kevin, and their boys were in the front, then Carolyn and C in their car, and then we were holding up the back. All of a sudden we see Becky stop in the road, and then pull to the side. Carolyn stops in the middle of the road, and so I stopped behind her. Kevin gets out of the van and walks to the opposite side of the road and leans down and touches something. I thought it was a huge snake, but why in the world would he be touching a gigantic snake? My mom thought it was a bird, and then it came into focus and Christopher jumped out. It was an hours-old baby deer. It was just laying on the side of the road. I was heartbroken thinking it was hit. All of a sudden it jumped up, ran into Christopher because it was not stable on its little spindly legs at all, and ran into the woods. I jumped out of the car because I wanted to grab him. He was all alone! What happened to his mom?! We should take him to the park ranger is what I was thinking. Carolyn said to leave him and she went on her way, but I just couldn't. Christopher and I tried to find the baby, but by then he was perfectly camouflaged in the nature, and we would have never found him. I was so so so so sad. Then we got the full story at dinner. Becky said she saw the mom standing there with the baby. When they came around the corner the baby collapsed and the mom took off across the street and into the woods. Becky couldn't leave the baby on the side of the road. It's a busy-ish road and people go wayyyyy too fast. Kevin was going to try to pick him up and take him to the other side and into the woods a little where his mom went but he was worried that if he touched him the mom wouldn't want anything to do with him anymore. Then the fawn got up and ran away to opposite direction of the mom. Carolyn said that when danger comes the mom deer will run away and the baby will just collapse and not move or make noise since he blends with the enviroment and the mom will find him. If I had known all of this (that the mom was present at one point, we didn't see her at the back of the caravan, and that this is deer instinct) I wouldn't have spent 3 minutes looking for him, possibly scaring him farther away.

This was Friday night. It is now Monday night and I am STILL heartbroken. I really really really really hope that the mom found her baby. What if she didn't?! She'll be so so so sad and that baby would never make it. This morning Christopher told me they were probably enjoying milk and berries right at that moment and I needed to stop worrying. Or that may be the mom was a bad mom deer and went and got crack and a opossum and wise-cracking owl found the baby and are raising it.

If anything, he'll always keep me laughing.

So that was the adventures of the weekend. Someone tell me that the mom found her baby... Anyone know anything about deer?!?!

The winner of the Pooters pocket diaper is Jenn and the winner of the $10 Pooters gift certificate is Janelle! Congrats y'all!!!

Also, please email your questions for me to answer! Ask me anything that you have been curious about or something really really funny like Natalie and Beth have done. This vlog will be full of laughs! :)

The Kind Of Mommy I Am

When I decided what kind of mom I wanted to be, I just listed off things I like. I like to hold my baby, I like cloth diapers, I think slings are cool, and breastfeeding is really cheap.

I love holding Austin. I tried a year and a half to get pregnant with him, lost 2 babies, feared my entire pregnancy that I would lose him, had to leave him in the Level 2 NICU for 2 weeks... Why in the WORLD would I ever put him down? You can't spoil a newborn right?!
Consider Austin the most spoiled rotten little cutie you have ever seen in your life... But I don't care. I spoiled him and I will continue to. He's going to be 40 weeks this week, he's allowed to be born now, so may be I'll stop carrying him since my uterus isn't supposed to be anymore! Or may be I'll just keep waiting for Christopher to get home to shower and brush my teeth ;)

I love cloth diapers. They are cheap. They are super duper cute. I don't know why everyone doesn't use them... Throw them in the washing machine at dinner, hang them up to dry over night... Done... So easy. It's not like I'm doing anything but holding Austin all day anyways! I have time for one extra load of laundry every 1-2 days!

I love slings. I hate those stupid bulky heavy infant carriers. I love holding my baby (as discussed above...) so my Baby K'Tan sling is perfect. It keeps my little man snuggled up to me and keeps us both pretty warm! It's so easy in the store and I can cover his face so that he doesn't get germs. People don't ask to hold him when he's in it, and if they were to and I didn't want them to, I could say "sorry it's really hard to get him in and out" (which it is kinda) (BTW this is for back when he was really early and I was more afraid of germies than I am now!). There are a few other baby carriers out there that I long for, but for now my Baby K'Tan is perfect!

Here I go, I will admit it... I did NOT want to breastfeed. I thought it was weird. I thought something sucking on my breasts was going to be odd and strange. I decided halfway through my pregnancy that I would give it a try. Why in the world would I turn something down without trying, especially since it is FREE?! I went to a breastfeeding class and BAM I was sold. Watching those little babies nurse was so heart warming and gave me fuzzy wuzzys! When I had Austin and he was in the NICU pumping was all I could do for him. That was the only thing that I had that I could give him that no one else in that place could and it made me feel so incredibly special and like FINALLY I was helping him. When I look down and he's all droopy eyed, falling asleep, so content... My heart melts. I don't know what it is about it, but I really love it. Plus it's cheap, and I now weigh 10 pounds less than my prepregnancy weight, and I chalk it all up to breastfeeding!

So far everything I had hoped and wished for has worked out for us really well! There are labels I could use (attachment parenting, crunchy, etc) but instead I'd like to just be Katie, Austin's mommy!

In Bumble B news,
Austin is getting so big. He smiles and he squeals when he's excited. He squeals at me and Christopher when we're playing with him and tickling him and being silly, and he squeals at his seahorse. It's so so funny! He's a pretty happy baby. I wish more of his awake time was during the day and less the middle of the night. I feel bad for making him go to sleep or leaving him awake and going to sleep when he's wide awake, but what can ya do?

His eyes are getting bluer (I hope they stay!), he's smiling with gorgeous dimples, he has the most beautiful skin, he's picking his head up and turning it, he's grasping things, and his fingernails grow faster than anything I've ever seen!

Here is Austin talking to Mr. Fussels :)