Catching up...

Wow, it's been a week and a half since my last post. I think that's a record!
Things have been pretty wild around here and only promise to get wilder... check out the following video from this morning and you'll see what I'm talking about!



So, the countdown begins... I'm sure we're only days away from having our first walker in the house! Holy cow, I don't think I'm ready for this. But something tells me it's a ready-or-not-kind-of thing! I don't know, just a hunch... ;)

Anyway, so let me give you a quick list of the Ball family "headlines" from the past week and a half and we'll then delve into the details of each event:

1) Tanner throws-up in the car
2) Tori gets her other ear re-pierced
3) A Whirlwind Weekend to Austin and the farm
4) Tanner throws-up in the car... again!


The first two events go together so keep reading, you'll see. I had an appointment for Tori to have her ear re-pierced at 1:30 last Friday afternoon. Hold on, let me back up a bit and preface this story by telling you that I've never gotten into the habit of keeping a change of clothes for the kids in the diaper bag and luckily, I've never had an incident..... that is, until that day! So, the kids and I were heading out to Grapevine to Dr. Tran's office for Tori's appointment. As I was exiting the freeway, Tanner started fidgeting in his seat and fussing. I was thinking he just wanted out of his seat, so I said, "It's okay baby, we're almost there." About that time, I turned around again to smile at him and try to keep him entertained and he was throwing up all over himself.... and again..... and again..... and again! Three times, HUGE amounts of curdled, sour milk and parts of lunch are spewing forth (how do you like the imagery here? can't you just smell it? I still can! ewwwwww!!!!!) So, I'm thinking, "GREAT! I have NO burp cloths with me, a very limited amount of wipes and NO change of clothes for Tanner. That's okay, I'm a go-with-flow-type gal, right? We'll be fine. So, as I'm pulling up to Dr. Tran's office, it begins to rain, then pour! Big, huge, COLD raindrops! Our appointment was only ten minutes away by this time, so I proceeded to dive in and just get the process over with. So, I opened Tanner's door and started to assess the damage. The poor kid was covered in vomit all over his arms, legs, face, car seat, you name it. By this point, I was kind of laughing at the humor of it all. What else could I do? So, I wiped up as much as I could with the wipes I had so I could unbuckle him and get him out. I made the executive decision at that point that he was just gonna have to go in naked, so I stripped off his outfit and used it to wipe up as much more as I could and threw it in a plastic bag (which I happen to keep stowed in the car for trash, thank goodness!). Keep in mind, all this time the poor boy and I were getting drenched by the rain still and all I could think of was having to take my soaking wet, naked child into the freezing cold, air-conditioned doctor's office. So, I began looking for something to cover him in the stroller with and I spotted our restaurant highchair covers, so I grabbed his for him to use as a blanket. Tori was just watching curiously from her seat the whole time and beginning to fuss about still being in the car. I got her strapped into the stroller and we finally headed in to the office. Her piercing went off without a hitch (she finally has TWO earrings and looks adorable!) and Dr. Tran even sent me home with a clean t-shirt for Tanner to sit on so he wouldn't have to ride home in a pool of vomit. Wasn't that sweet of him? When I told him what had happened, he just had to laugh at me with a look of pity on his face. We made it back home just fine (accompanied by a not-so-pleasant aroma, mind you). After I put the kids down for a nap, I proceeded to rip Tanner's car seat out of the car. I managed to strip all the fabric off the seat and get it into the washer (on the two-hour "Sanitary" cycle!). So, I thought I had learned my lesson and I had extra clothes with us all weekend while we were away.

Apparently I DIDN'T learn this lesson quite well enough... Fast-forward to this past Tuesday and would you believe it happened again?!?!!! More on this after I update you on the fun whirlwind weekend we had:

Last Saturday morning, we loaded up the 'ole Mommy-mobile (complete with our roof cargo box) and set out on an adventure to Austin to visit my brother who just moved there. When we travel with our cargo box (like we did back in July to Kentucky), we feel like the Griswolds, you know, from National Lampoon's Vacation?



So, we jokingly call ourselves the Gris-Balls! LOL! See for yourself........
HA! That thing is about as big as the car itself! We look like a rocket flying down the freeway in it. Brad even suggested attaching red and orange flames to the back of it... can't you just picture it? It would be hilarious! Maybe next trip....

So, on our way down to Austin, we stopped off in West at the Czech Stop & Bakery to buy a dozen kolaches.... so yummy! (My mom would bring these back for my brother and I a lot when she would take weekend trips with friends, so we've developed quite a love for these treats!) We thought it would be nice to surprise my brother with a stash of kolaches for breakfast at his new apartment. The day we were there, they happened to be having "West Fest" so the whole little town was CROWDED! There were cars everywhere and people everywhere. The line inside the bakery stretched from the cashiers all the way around the store and out the door... it was nuts! So, needless to say, it turned into a 30-minute stop, which delayed us a bit getting down to Austin. We continued on our way and were able to make it all the way to Round Rock (North Austin) before stopping for lunch. It ended up working out great because Chris met us up in Round Rock and we were able to go shopping for his apartment at IKEA after lunch (part of the reason for our visit was my brother wanted my mom and I to help him arrange and decorate his new place, so we had some shoppin' to do!). We finished our shopping spree, including the awesome outlets there, and headed to our hotel to check in. We stayed at a La Quinta just down the street from Chris's apartment. We got everything unloaded at the hotel just in time to leave again for an awesome Mexican dinner at Baby Acapulco's! After dinner, we were all pretty pooped from the long day and it was way past time to put the kids in bed, so we got back to the hotel, put them in their jammies, turned on their Lullaby CD, put them to bed, and..............

PARTY TIME!!!

They were jumping up and down in their cribs and squealing and laughing at each other when, I kid you not, just the second before these pictures were taken they were rubbing their drowsy eyes, yawning, etc. But they got their second wind as soon as they got in their beds and had to jump around and burn off some more energy for the following 10-15 minutes before they finally crashed. So silly.... my little party animals! Hey, we were in Austin - guess they caught the fever!

On Sunday morning, we had "breakfast-in-bed" (we got our continental breakfast to-go and brought it back to our room so we could eat in our jammies and make a big mess)...
Here we are "clipped" to our hotel room table in our travel high chairs (notice the expression on Tori's face... I think she was probably squealing and kicking her legs under the table!)
"Hey brother, isn't it a lovely morning?"
"It sure is sis, can I get more food please?"

After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and headed over to Chris's to help him with his apartment. We decorated above his kitchen cabinets, gave him ideas on where to hang his pictures and the kids played in their new igloo play tent that Grammy got them at IKEA. After eating lunch at Chris's, we loaded up the car again and headed for the 4C Ranch (aka Maw Maw's house!).



(I can't believe I didn't get a single picture of Chris's apartment!)

So, we arrived at my grandmother's in time for dinner and had a very enjoyable evening and Labor Day with her! Here are the only pictures I took while we were at her house.... why are they always pictures of eating?!?!!


Check this out - I think there's more food UNDER them than they actually got in their mouths! (Thank goodness Maw Maw keeps a plastic sheet down there because it was a MESS!)

We left Maw Maw's house shortly after lunch on Monday (Labor Day) and arrived back home around 5:00. The kids were so ready to be out of the car after a weekend spent in their car seats, they went straight to their playroom and played like champs together while we unloaded everything.

Well, that was our crazy weekend.... on to the next event.

So, you read it right, Tanner threw up in the car AGAIN this past Tuesday evening. I was driving to meet Brad and his Dad for dinner and right as I pulled in to the restaurant parking lot, I heard a strange sound coming from Tanner but I couldn't see him very well because he was directly behind me. Well, I started smelling a terrible sour smell so I knew what was up. Right about that time, Brad was calling to see if I was at the restaurant yet and I said I was but that Tanner had just thrown up and I needed to take him home because I didn't have anything to put him in. Come to find out, I had driven to the WRONG restaurant, so after I cleaned Tanner up as best I could with wipes, I drove to the correct restaurant and Brad had stopped in at Target and picked up a new outfit for Tanner.

Bless his little heart. He hasn't seemed sick at all and definitely not feverish or anything. I'm wondering if he is starting to have a little motion sickness, because both times were right after he had eaten. Last Friday was right after lunch so he was really full (and a lot more came up!) and this past Tuesday it was soon after he had a snack - cookie and juice - so I wonder if it isn't just car sickness??? I don't know, but I hope it doesn't happen anymore. As of today, I "officially" have a change of clothes in the car AT ALL TIMES for BOTH kids!!! I think I've learned my lesson!

I think that about does it on the updating for now. For those of you who made it this far, thanks for sticking with this mile-long post! We'll be in touch soon.

Have a great weekend,
Leah