McChesney Memories

I sit here staring at the computer not knowing what to write or say really. I have tried to not think about my feelings all day, because I am a bottler and that’s how I get through things, but some things just need to be shared.

Let’s just start at the beginning. From the time I was young I always knew I wanted the husband, 2 children, and the white fence. When Lee and I got serious about dating, we talked about this and he also wanted the same things. Little did we know how much of a struggle it would be to make this possible. We always have a plan, but God has his plan and sometimes the two don’t match.

Those who know us well know that we struggle with infertility issues. When we began trying for Eli we embarked on infertility treatments, through many ups and downs, and finally, 15 months later, we got pregnant with Eli through IVF. With that process my Reproductive Endocrinologist was able to get 4 great embryos. 2 of which we transferred and got pregnant with Eli and 2 of which we froze for use at a future date. Because we knew how hard it was to get pregnant with Eli, we wanted to start a little earlier than our “life timeline” plan was laid out so we could have plenty of time for our second. So we started trying for #2 in August of 2010. We didn’t start any treatments right away, just hoping for a miracle. Although, my hope began to dwindle remembering my previous experience. So in January of 2011 I convinced Lee to go back in and start our Frozen Embryo Transfer. Those babies were waiting on us anyway, so of course it would work and we would have our little miracle for the second time.  After meeting with the RE and getting all my meds and needles and ice packs, we started the process to prepare my body for the transfer. The process was a lot harder than when we got pregnant with Eli. It was actually a shorter and less expensive one, but the road blocks were horrendous.

The plan was to refinance our house and that extra money would pay for the treatment. However, when our appraisal came in too low, that idea was dead in the water. Now we had to go into debt to pay for the transfer. That’s not at all what we had expected. Little things here and there just didn’t add up making things very difficult, but the biggest one that stands out to me was at the day of the transfer. The original plan was to take Eli to school and go to the office by 11.  However, God decided to send the biggest snow storm Texas had seen in years! However, we had to go through with the treatment because the medications are very regimented. I had to do it that week, and could not postpone it, and the storm was so big it had everything shut down the rest of the week. There was no way to move it. The RE’s office had already started defrosting our embryo’s and that couldn’t be reversed. It was now or never. So we asked Lee’s mom to drive to our house to keep Eli even though she lives 30 ish miles away and in very bad conditions. She made it to our house safely (thank God) and we left. In order to do the procedure I need to have a full bladder, so I had worked on filling it all morning and was ready to go. It only takes a half hour to get to the doctor, so I wasn’t worried. We choose to take the highways, thinking it would be safer than the back roads, and that choice was the WRONG one! None of the sand trucks were around because of the Super Bowl and every semi we saw was slid across several lanes of traffic blocking it. We slowly and carefully worked our way around most accidents, but we got stuck when we were half way there. I had to potty really BAD! It had taken us an hour to get half way and I was about to pop. I had to do the most embarrassing thing ever! Pee in a bottle! Ugh! It was awful.

We finally made our way through that and got on our way again. Thankfully, my bladder began to fill again so I was ready when we finally made it to the office TWO HOURS later! I was an hour late for the transfer! I should have known right there this whole adventure was going to end disastrously, but no, my stubbornness wouldn’t let me think that way. I was explaining away the pit in my stomach.

However, after the transfer I was elated and careful to not mess anything up. With Eli’s transfer I layed on the couch for 2 weeks and didn’t hardly move. Of course I couldn’t do that with this one because I had a one and a half year old running around. So I tried to rest as much as possible, but not as much as I wanted to. 10 days later was the pregnancy test and I was excited. I could tell my body was responding like it had when I got pregnant with Eli. I just knew it was going to be positive. I was hoping I would be pregnant with twins this time. So I go in and have my blood drawn and go home and anxiously await my results. After what feels like forever, I receive my phone call and my results are POSITIVE! I was pregnant and what’s even better, my number was in the 200′s. A really high number can sometimes mean twins. Lee and I were so excited! At this point it started the every other day blood draw to make sure the numbers went up. I go in for my next blood draw and find out my numbers didn’t double like they should have, and they wanted me to come in the next day for another blood draw. The fear was all over my face. I was scared to death. I went in the next day and found out that my numbers had gone up enough, even though they didn’t double, but enough for it to still be confirmed a pregnancy.

My RE scheduled a routine sonogram the next week to come in and see the baby. I was still skeptical, so we decided not to tell anyone yet till we had the sonogram. My further blood draws went great, everything looked like it was coming along smoothly. I tired to continue to rest as much as possible the next week and even took an at home pregnancy test to make sure everything was going good. It’s also the only time I can get a positive on one of those things! Those that struggle with fertility know the feeling of excitement to actually get a positive sign on a pregnancy test.  The next week came around and we went to the sonogram. I got in the chair and was over joyed to see my tiny dot of a baby in that sonogram! Everything looked great.

I found out my due date was Oct. 20 and was 5 weeks 4 days along. The RE went to find the heartbeat and was unable to, but assured us that it was probably still to early and we would have another sonogram the next week to try again. It is easier to find when you are 6 weeks or further along. We also found out there was only one sac (which we had assumed from the way the numbers went). He printed out some pictures and we were finally believing this was actually going to happen – that we were finally pregnant and going to have this baby! There was constant talk about the future.

Since we had the pictures now we decided we would go ahead and tell our families. We went and bought Eli a big brother shirt  and started to talk to him about being a brother and the baby in mommy’s tummy. I had still had a little reservation since we hadn’t heard the heartbeat, but something kept saying just trust in God that he will take care of you and this baby. So I went ahead with the plan. We saw my family Saturday and put on Eli’s shirt and told everyone. We were all so elated. We talked about the due date and the baby plans. Then that night we took the sono picture to Lee’s parents house and told everyone there. It was such an amazing time.

Sunday Feb. 20 was my first day to sing in the church choir. As I was standing in the choir loft, with my heavy robe on, I start to get really hot and a little weak in the knees. I just needed to sit down, but didn’t because no one knew I was pregnant and I would look silly. So I toughed it out and continued on. I don’t remember the sermon that day, but I remember it really spoke to me and I finally said “Okay God, you can have it. I am done worrying about this baby. I know you will take care of this miracle you gave me. I turn it over.”

That afternoon I get home and I am really tired, but trying to fight my nap. I was just sitting on the couch. Then I suddenly have to go to the bathroom. I get up and go and when I wiped I noticed I had started bleeding, a lot. I just thought oh GOD NO! I got up and went to the living room crying and so scared. I told Lee and started to call my RE’s office. I hadn’t even been to my OB yet. Of course I get the answering machine and leave a message. I don’t know what to do. I went and sit back down and just worried nonstop. I had to go to the bathroom again and when I went I sat down and then there were the clumps. I stood up and looked down and saw a giant clump in the bottom of the toilet and burst into tears because I knew that was my baby. I wanted to scream for Lee, but Eli was asleep, so I just flushed.

To this day I will regret that decision. I can’t get over the fact that I feel like I flushed my baby. I just went and layed in my bed and sobbed while Lee held me. I went back to the living room, and of course my doctors office called while I was in there, so I call back and get someone. They say to go to the hospital, so Lee wakes up Eli and we head for the hospital.

I get there and they do a sonogram first, that they won’t let me see. The tech won’t tell me anything, but Lee says he didn’t see the sac he had before at the last sonogram. They take my blood and the numbers come back really high. Right on level for how far along I was. The doctor does an exam and says that seems like I didn’t, so he concludes that it was a false miscarriage and sends me home to check with my RE in the morning. That night I just prayed and prayed and prayed. I laid on the couch and hoped to God this was all a nightmare and everything was still okay.

Th next day I go to the RE’s office for another sonogram and got the most crushing news of all, that the baby wasn’t there anymore and that we indeed had a miscarriage. I just broke down. The most devastating news I had ever heard. Then the blame started. It was all on me. Why hadn’t I taken it easier? I drank too much caffeine. I didn’t take my prenatal vitamin consistently. I worried too much and put too much stress on the baby. All kinds of explanations streamed through my head one after another. This was a nightmare I couldn’t escape.

Then we had to tell our families. I don’t really remember much else from that day or week, just holding Eli a lot, and trying to spend as much family time as possible and crying buckets.  The most crushing, devastating thing I could think of, happened. The next several weeks the RE’s office had to monitor my HCG levels to make sure they went down all the way to ensure that all the matter had dissolved or come out. For awhile it had been great, but a little piece of me wished I could get pregnant again right away and then the numbers would go up! After a few blood draws my numbers did go up! I was a little excited, but it turned out that was a bad thing. They did another sono and found nothing, but numbers continued to go up. This nightmare just wouldn’t end.

I was frustrated, out of money, and just exhausted by it all. After 3 sonos to prove nothing was there I was told I needed to get a shot to kill anything that might be in my uterus. My RE thought that my second embryo (that didn’t stick) might be an ectopic. Of course we couldn’t see it because it was so small, but it was a possibility. Since the numbers weren’t showing another viable pregnancy, I got the shot and sure enough, my numbers began to go down again. They finally got to zero and I was back at square one. We were out of money for more treatments and still paying on the FET and medically I had no hope of getting pregnant. I just didn’t have the energy to even think about where we were.

I was angry at God for taking our baby from us, I pleaded with him to get me pregnant again right away, but nothing.  I finally started to hear God talk again and he had many things to say and lessons for me to learn from all this, but I still struggle with most of it. We had a great sermon over patience recently and I will never forget the quote ” what you will learn while you are waiting, is worth so much more than what you are waiting for.” There are days when I am like, “Hurry up God and teach me so we can move on and I can get pregnant again”, and there are other days I have a lot more patience.

A friend let me borrow the book Heaven is For Real by Tom Burpo and it gives me a different view of my child now. If you haven’t read it, you must, but keep a box of tissues next to you. I love the idea that I do have 2 children, just 1 lives on Earth with me. I really miss my baby. Our time was really short, but I loved you from the day you were conceived and will love you forever. I can’t wait for the day when we get to meet and I will hold you close to me forever.

It’s now been 14 months since we were first started trying for our second child and I am still in limbo not really seeing a clear course for God’s plan. Maybe that’s the learning curve. 2 things I struggle with are that I don’t want Eli to be an only child, and I don’t want Eli to be 4 or more years apart from his sibling. 2 things I hold very dear to my heart and struggle with turning over to God.

This past week we embarked on the one thing about young children I dreaded since before we even started trying to have our own child. The one reason I don’t work with 2 year olds in child care…. potty training! I hate it with every ounce of my being! When Eli was born I started listening to stories, praying and researching ways to get Eli through this transition that I knew would be the death of me.  As he got older and it drew nearer I had all these theories and ideas of how it was going to go, because I deal with stress so much better when I am prepared. However, God had a different idea of how this was going to go. I knew I needed to wait till Eli was good and ready, but what does that look like? How would I know for sure? When he turned two I started praying hard that God would just give me a definite sign that Eli was ready. Well, the saying “be careful what you pray for” rang true when, last Monday, Eli started begging me to go potty.

He had already been kind of asking and showing some signs like pottying every night in the bath, taking off his diaper in bed and other various signs, so we had bought a potty seat and would let him go before bath and when he asked after seeing us go, but nothing real serious. SO I was kind of prepared, but not even close emotionally.

Monday at the park he heard his friend ask his mommy to go potty, and since there wasn’t a bathroom, she let him go on a tree. Eli watched all this and I think it sparked his interest. The rest of the day he was asking and I was thinking “No, you aren’t even 2 and a half yet, we still need to wait. There is no way you can be ready, right?” Well Tuesday morning he woke up and the first thing he asked was can I go potty? I thought we can just go try, no big deal. Well, he went pee twice and also pooped! I couldn’t believe it! Then he didn’t want to put his diaper back on, so I just let him run around without it. He had already gone so I didn’t see the harm. I put it on Facebook and one of my friends responded that was how she potty trained her son was to let him run around naked. Click! The light bulb went on and I knew this was the way to go. So for 2 days he ran around with no diaper or underwear, except nap and bed.

The Plan: Wait till he was 2 1/2, use pull ups, have money, cancel all plans for a week and get stock piled on patience

What actually happened:  only 27 months, cold turkey into underwear, a week full of plans and not emotionally prepared AT ALL!

Day 1: He did great! He told me when he needed to go, no tantrums, fully initiating everything! I was in full shock mode! We didn’t start with rewards because the praise was enough to continue on. We called everyone and told them so they could praise him. I still wasn’t sold that we were going to be doing this! Thankfully we didn’t have any plans that day so we just stayed home and near the potty.  I called Lee and told him with our last bit of money to go get Eli some underwear. He had run around all day with nothing on. During dinner he needed to do #2 and started pushing and I picked him up and rushed to the potty and said don’t poop in my floor! Go in the potty!

Day 2: NIGHTMARE!  Eli woke up and didn’t want to go potty,  when pushed he sat for 5 seconds and got up without doing anything. I tried to put him in his underwear and he wet them. I really wanted to take him to the last story time at the library so I wanted him to potty so I could take him in his underwear. After he wet them again, I got really frustrated and basically ripped them off of him and said you can’t be a big boy I am done, you are going back in diapers like a baby! ALL THE WRONG THINGS! I was done, patience gone, potty training over! This sent Eli into a tail spin tantrum laid out on the floor, screaming to put his wet underwear and bathing suit back on. Story time was starting about this time and Eli was naked, screaming and laid out on the floor!  I took 5 minutes to calm myself then worked on Eli. He finally calmed down and I convinced him to put his diaper on to go to story time. We showed up late, but made it and we were both flustered! Thankfully some friends invited us to lunch and I was able to have some mommy time and he got to play (since we had been stuck in the house for a day and a half now). We came home and had nap and I debated not going back to training when he got up, but God had other plans! As soon as Eli woke up he asked to go potty again! Ugh! I took it as a sign and prayed to God to get me through this! And he has! He got up and played a little on it and then I said okay, I have to go, so he moved and watched me and then sat down himself and actually pushed to get it out! Then it did and that’s when he learned how to control the feeling of going instead of it just happening to him! The rest of the night I left him naked and we had no accidents and this is when I started the rewards system. If he went #1 he got a pickle and if he did #2 he got candy. This helped us a lot on the days to come!

Day 3: He got up and we took off his diaper and stayed naked for awhile and then we tried the underwear again. I canceled our plans for the day so I wasn’t feeling rushed to get out of the house, and he did great! There were a few times when he made a wet spot as big as a half dollar and then came to me to go potty. I didn’t count those as accidents, because I was trying to stay positive and he still got a reward for going in the potty.  This is the first day I noticed when he woke up from nap his diaper was completelydry. So far we hadn’t had any #2 accidents (which is the biggest nightmare I dreaded) because I had always caught him or he told me, but that afternoon was different. He was sitting in his chair and I was making dinner and Lee wasn’t home yet, and all the sudden he stands up and says potty! He starts his accident walk towards me and I say “Did you have an accident?” He says, “No?” I said, “Let me check you.” Then he says, “No don’t!” That is the cue that he had an accident. I look and it was the worst thing I could think possible, POO! Yuck! Once again I don’t respond correctly and get very agitated, take him in the bathroom and clean him up all the while trying to control my explosive anger. I didn’t want another day 2 episode. Dinner was burning and here was this poop falling all over the floor and all over his butt in his underwear. It was a disgusting mess!  I just kept saying Eli you need to put your poo poo in the potty. I think he felt my feelings and you could see the distress in his face so I just kept it at that. I was once again ready to give up! I was like “Forget it!” I left him naked until Lee got home and we had dinner.  I had calmed down and put him back in underwear and he stayed dry the rest of the night.

Day 4: By now I was telling God, if he has accidents then he just isn’t ready and we will stop and resume when he is older. I couldn’t believe how far we had come, but I really didn’t have the determination I needed to get through this!  We were suppose to go to the pool with friends this day and I canceled because of the previous poo accident the night before. If we were going to do this, then we were going to do it all the way, there wont be any going back into diapers for this or that.  It was all or nothing. Number 1, because I didn’t want him to think I can pee in this, but not in underwear and that seemed confusing, but also number 2, I didn’t want the frustration of having to change him!  SO since I wasn’t confident he wouldn’t have any accidents, I decided to just stay near the toilet.

That morning he didn’t have any accidents! He went through another nap time dry in a diaper and woke up with no accidents that afternoon. We had to run an errand that night so I thought this was a great opportunity to see if he could make it in the car with clothes on with no accidents. I packed a ton of underwear and extra shorts for a 30 minute errand. Right before we left the house we went, and again when we got there.  He made it the whole time with no accidents!

Day 5: Lee was home and could help me with this day, but Eli had it down pretty good by now! No accidents and we tried nap in underwear since he had been dry the past 2 days. He made it all the way through nap dry! Then that afternoon we had planned to go to Hawaiian Falls the water park. I debated putting him a swim diaper or not. We decided to let him hang free and took him in just his bathing suit. If he had any #1 accidents I don’t know it, but I was really worried about a #2 accident. If he needed to go he must have held it because he only peed in the potty while there!

Day 6: Church day! I was really nervous having him with someone else going potty. Would they know to praise him after he went? What if he went#2 and wanted some candy? They wouldn’t know what to do! He didn’t go before we left the house so I told his teacher and she said she would take him a half hour later.  After we got out of SS, I was to nervous to leave him in there any longer so we went and picked him up. He had actually gone potty during SS with his teacher! Then another nap time was dry! That evening our church was going to a Rangers game so we took Eli and spent most of the game going up and down the stairs going to the potty, but no accidents!

Now: We still have our moments when he has an accident, like if he goes to long without telling me and I forget to ask, but for the most part he is doing really good spending all day in his underwear! Today he almost pooped in them again, but we made it to the potty before it all came out.  He is still learning his own body cues, but I am so glad the hard part is over and now I can dream about all the money we will save on NOT buying diapers! Since this wasn’t a planned session, we have a new package of swim diapers and a whole unopened box (125) of diapers! Trying to figure out what to do with that, but looking back I don’t think this could have gone any smoother! This process with a tantrum throwing two year old is the worst idea ever, but somehow it all works out. God’s plan is always perfect!

Two years ago I gave birth to our little miracle Eli. There were days I didn’t think it would ever happen, but God had better plans in mind for our little family. We celebrated the day this last Saturday with family and friends. The theme was Barney mixed with dino fun. Eli absolutely loves Barney and I coupled that with his newest love for dinosaurs with some dinosaur activities. All the children played at the playground for awhile at the park.

Then we had a Dino egg hunt with dino eggs.

Even though there were a ton of eggs, it didn’t take long for the children to find them all! After that we had a dino dig for fossils in the sand.

After all the dino fun was over we sat and ate dinosaur chicken nuggets, pretzels, and apples. YUM!

Then we got to eat purple dino cakes (I missed getting a picture of that) and opened presents.

Thank you everyone who came. Eli had a lot of fun and enjoyed having you all there!

2 YEAR STATS: 26 lbs and 34 inches

For the first year of Eli’s life he didn’t have much trouble with ear infections like so many children do and I thought we were kind of out of the rough year for needing ear tubes put in, but I was TOTALLY wrong!

Last fall he started suffering from chronic ear infections, about 1 a month.  It coincided with him starting school for the first time and it could possibly be a coincidence, but probably not. He was picking up more germs and getting sick more often. He’s always had sinus problems making the problem even worse. However, I don’t regret starting him because the benefits have been so much greater than not.  Finally our pediatrician mentioned the awful “tube” word. I was filled with dread of my baby having to go under when we don’t know if he would respond well to it. These were the first thoughts I had. I also was pretty ignorant about the procedure, even though several around us had gone through the exact same thing. I was afraid there would be cutting and stitches and a long recovery. So after the new year we went and met with and ENT. We really liked him and he said they recommend that if a child has had 3-6 infections in 6 months then it would be best to get them. Eli had only 3 at that point (in 3 months) and his hearing was still good so since he was border line we decided to wait and agreed that if he had 1 more we would go ahead. The very next week he got a very aggressive ear infection causing him to go through dreadful antibiotic shots to cure it. I was kinda kicking myself at this point thinking we should have gone ahead when we met with the doc, but we could’t look back, only fix it and continue forward. So I called the ENT and scheduled his surgery.

I was a little irritated going to Arlington Memorial this morning, because after talking to the pre op nurse on the phone, I was told we would be the very first of the day and to get there at 6 am. We showed up right on time and there were already 2 other families sitting at admissions waiting to get in. Therefore they got into their surgeries first and got going right away this morning while we waited for 2 and a half hours! Ridiculous! This didn’t start the morning off well. Eli was cranky because he wanted some breakfast and milk and couldn’t have any! However, I was kinda pulled out of my funk when his ENT came and found us in the waiting room and brought us back to our room himself. He was really great. He went over some post op instructions with us and I was dreading not having to get ANY water in Eli’s ears for months after the surgery, but  he told us we could just put a cotton ball in them for the next 3 weeks, till our post op appt, and then he would be fine as long as we weren’t dunking his head under water. It’s gotten much easier to take care of since my nephew had it done a few years ago. After he left, the nurse came in, and Eli would not sit on the bed (he was traumatized from the antibiotic shots were he was held down on the office bench to get it), we had to hold him down to get the hospital bracelet around his leg,  he did not want them taking his temp because they use the old fashioned thermometer under his arm pit when he is used to the one that swipes across his forehead, and he absolutely would not put the heart monitor on his finger! They just had to watch his chest to get the respirations. I slowly was able to get him to change into his hospital gown however!

After waiting some more, the anthesteiologist and his nurse came in to take him to the surgery. He went right to the nurse and let him carry him out NO problem! After he had been such a bear all morning with us, now he is ready to go to a stranger and run away from mom and dad! It was probably better that way anyway because as soon as he left, I lost it!  I was thankful they didn’t make him ride in the bed, but as soon as he got back there he started SCREAMING! I could hear him scream for next 2 or 3 torturous minutes of my life! I was bawling! It makes me want to cry just thinking about it. I know once they got back there he had to go into the bed he hated, and the had to force on the mask for the gas, and put that dreaded light (heart monitor) on his toe. Finally it stopped and I know he was asleep.  I sat there for about 5 minutes composing myself and got on the computer to distract myself for about 5 minutes and then they were coming to tell us he was almost done. IT WAS THAT FAST!  I had a friend tell me it was fast, but I thought what might seem fast to her, is probably going to feel like an eternity for me, but it really wasn’t! A nurse called our room to go back to recovery and meet Eli so we got some stuff and headed back. When we got there many people were standing in the room and the nurse who was picking him up as he was waking up, was fabulous! She was just enamored with him and thought he was so cute. I literally dropped everything as she was handing him to me and then he started trying to get down and WALK! He barely had his eyes open, but he wanted so badly to walk! I wonder if it was because he went under in such a state of flight that when he started to wake up he subconsciously was still trying to do that. I managed to hold him in my lap as he flopped around coming back into consciousness, then he saw the monitor on his toe! He stopped everything and concentrated on getting that monitor off his toe. I mean, really???? The nurse was getting the biggest kick out of him by now and I heard another nurse telling a training nurse that this isn’t usually this easy. Usually kids are screaming, bitting, hitting, and kicking. She said this was not normal at all! LOL! Leave it to my little man! He got the monitor off and they let us go back to his room. He was still trying to get down, but I let daddy carry him so it was easier.  We sat down in his room and still couldn’t let him down, the nurse had left at this point but warned us to not let him walk, and this made him start to cry hysterically. She heard him and came back in and said WHAT? You were just fine, what happened? We got him a popsicle and it didn’t help, then some ice (he loves to play in ice) and nothing could console him.  We just had to give him some time. After about 5 minutes of screaming he was fine and started watching Diego on the TV.  Then we gave him back the popsicle.

He started acting like my little Eli again, just as silly as his daddy! He would feed us his popsicle and teased daddy with it a little. We were all laughing at this point! We waited for awhile afterwards to get his ear drops because there was some thick fluid behind the left ear. We also got a few post op instructions for the day and we left there about 10 am.

I know this was more traumatizing for mommy than it was for Eli and after a 3 hour nap he has been up playing the rest of the day! This will be really good for him, but the thought of that doesn’t replace the fears and pain I had watching him go through it.  I am glad he was almost two and not under one. I think all his paperwork said he was just 1 and then everyone was continually surprised by how well he could walk. I had explain that he was actually almost two over and over again. (This is why it is god to go by months till they are 2.)

Time will probably change my mind, but I still wish he was one of those kids that didn’t get infections and didn’t need them! Thank you everyone for your prayers and support through it all!! You all mean the world to us!

I reluctantly gave in to Eli liking Barney when he was real little. I had grown up with a generation that thought Barney wasn’t “cool” and I gave into that thinking, although I have no idea why. As I watched my child’s love for the big purple dinosaur grow I began to open my eyes and see all the good in what he and his friends teach! So we sank in and I looked into all the different options to watching Barney and I found that he still does live shows! I knew I had to get us tickets as soon as I saw it. This year was his 20th birthday (yeah he’s been around that long so he must be doing something right) and the show was called Barney’s Birthday Bash.  I was surprised to see that the music, decorations, and everything was a lot more up to date, modern, and hipper than I’ve ever seen Barney to be!  Eli LOVED IT! He couldn’t stop dancing or take his eyes off! The lady in front of us even commented that he (Eli) really liked this! It was a total blast! We couldn’t afford or thought it appropriate for Eli right now to to the Dino part where you can go get pictures with Barney and the crew, but I hope someday that we can do that also!  I, too, have jumped on the Barney train!

For those who haven’t witnessed it yourself, I don’t know if you really know the gravity of the statement, Eli likes to dance! Here is a sneak peak at his School Christmas program, where sitting down was NOT an option! 2010 School Christmas Program1.mpg and 2010 Christmas program2.mpg

Since the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) it has been everything Christmas in the McChesney household! From decorating the house, inside and out, to Christmas cards and Santa galore!

Eli has had a blast through it all and its like Christmas for the first time all over again because he doesn’t really remember last year. Since he was so young it was easy to get Santa pics because he hadn’t started fearing others yet, but this year I knew it would be a different story. He was scared of the Easter bunny and when he first saw the real animals this past fall he was terrified. I thought oh, here we go! However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that after many encounters with the animals that Eli began to enjoy and love to pet the animals. Maybe it was only after seeing the animals 3 times, or maybe it was because  he saw his friends at school enjoying them and knew it was okay to let his guard down. I don’ know, but the last time we saw live animals at the Thomas the Train weekend he was over the moon excited to get to pet the animals, and it has been all animals ever since! So I took that knowledge and devised a plan to take Eli several times to see Santa Clause so that he wouldn’t seem like such a stranger and that, even though he was big and fluffy, he would know Santa wouldn’t harm him. So we started taking him in the evenings when we knew it wouldn’t be busy or during the day when most kids were in school, but what I hadn’t planned was finding a Santa walking around the lit trees in Downtown Fort Worth where we took Eli to enjoy. This Santa wasn’t surrounded by a throne and all the decorations most malls have around their Santa. This Santa was walking and talking and acting like a normal human man. Then, to my surprise, he picked Eli up and Eli didn’t freak out!

I was amazed, that not only was he letting Santa hold him, but that the plan was working! I was so excited! Good thing too, because we were getting closer to Christmas and I didn’t want to wait to much longer to get an official dressed up picture. I didn’t want to wait till the last minute when EVERYONE is trying to get their pictures too. Eli doesn’t do well in lines yet. That kid has no patience!

The next night we went to a Christmas program at my sisters church and they also had a Santa! I was holding my 1 month old niece, so when it came our turn to go see him, I put her in his lap first and then Eli hopped right up there on his lap and watched his cousin (and stared at Santa’s beard).  I was so excited, Monday I took him and his older boy cousin Drew to see Santa at the mall again and Eli watched Drew get up there and talk to Santa. So that night I knew it was time.  We got him all dressed up and let him walk up to Santa and give him a high five, and then I picked him up and put him in his lap. It took him 5 seconds and he was putting his arm out for me as a security, but looking at Santa the whole time. He sat with him for about 30 seconds and we got some good pictures! Even though his hand was out the whole time, I call it a success because he wasn’t crying and throwing a fit! It was worth the effort to me!

Now to get out Christmas cards and finish shopping! I love Christmas!

This was Eli last year when we went to the state fair. He ate his first bite of sugar and cotton candy! This year we ate way more junk food, but that’s what the fair is for! I was really excited to take Eli this year because I knew he would enjoy it much more than last, and he did. We had so much we wanted to do we thought it would be best to try and push Eli’s nap later and later. We enjoyed many new things like the Helping hands farm.

He got to pick seeds and corn and veggies and take them to the farmers market and sell all his items. Then he got a fake dollar and got to buy some fruit snacks with them. It was fun, but Eli was scared to death of the fake cow and would not milk it! Then when we got to the tractors his feet could not reach the pedals so I pushed him along. He really liked it. Then we went and saw the World of Strings show that had puppets and puppeteers directing it. Eli could not take his eyes off! We also did many other things, like the dog show, and the pig races, and  Big Tex’s sand box, but the one thing we all had the most fun at was the Children’s Aquarium was having a preview day. We got to feel and touch some underwater creatures and feed the sting rays! It was fun!

Back in July when we had our first family vacation and decided to go to Sea World for a day, we found out that the cost of a fun card was only like $10 more a person than a one day pass. The fun card allows us to get in any time until the end of 2010.  I told Lee that if we bought these cards then he had to promise me we would go again before they expired. We were going to go in August, but things didn’t work out, so we wanted to go for sure in September. As our schedules quickly filled up for every weekend, as it usually does, we noticed that this last weekend was our only completely open weekend to go.

So Friday I checked on hotels and ended up getting a GREAT deal on Priceline so the trip was definitely on!  As soon as Lee got home Friday evening, after working late (of course) we left for San Antonio. Surprisingly Eli traveled a lot better than he did back in July!  We got to our awesome hotel at about 11:30 and settled in for the night. Eli woke us up at 8 the next morning. We got ready and headed out. 

I was so glad we got to do some things that we didn’t get to do on vacation and one of those things was to play on the amazing park they have there. We had a little more time and I knew Eli would really enjoy it. The first time we had to much to do to play on a park, but I am glad we took the time this weekend, because he LOVED it!

Then we headed to our first show. This was more of an informational show about Sea Lions and their training and it informed us that we could feed the Sea Lions and seals. We were really excited to hear that and as soon as the show was over, we headed to the back to feed them. I think this was Eli’s favorite part. He couldn’t take his eyes off the animals.

As soon as we were done feeding we noticed the Lorikeet cage right behind us. We found out that if we buy nectar we can go in and feed the birds. When we are at the Ft. Worth zoo he loves feeding the birds, so we knew this would be a hit. So we bought some nectar and headed in. Here’s what happened.

It was a lot of fun and no one was pooped on! After we left there we went to watch Shamu.

Soon after that Eli started spinning downhill into a meltdown because he was tired and hungry. At this point we realized we had lost one of his snugglies (bound to happen) and things started spinning out of control quickly.  We finally got him everything he needed and we hung out at the hotel for the afternoon. After we had all taken a good long nap we got ready to go to downtown to the Riverwalk to a Mexican restaurant we knew would be good.  I was excited to let Eli have an up close and personal time with the ducks and we got exactly that.

Then on Sunday we headed back to Sea World for some more half a day fun. [ Read more ]

The McChesney family has been busy little bees the past few months. Not on anything in particular, but running from one thing to another. Recently I had started a scrapbooking club as a chance to get out of the house and get to have some adult conversation. This last Saturday, while I went to the club, Lee decided to have a daddy son day at the zoo. Lee and Eli had a blast and had some great time together!

After that we went to our nephews, and Eli’s cousins, birthday party. It was a train party and his mommy did a great job making everything and setting it up!

They had a bounce house also, but Eli cried the whole time he was in the house. He enjoyed playing in the sand box and running around the backyard. Inside he did nothing but push around a little play vacuum cleaner! On Sunday we went to church and got to spend lunch with my family at my favorite restaurant, Hoffbrau! Afterwards I was excited to spend some time at home just hanging out! Previous weekends we’ve enjoyed the circus, swimming parties, water parks, and baseball games! Like I said it has been busy, but we are really enjoying our summer.

Now it is coming to a close and I am getting super excited about starting my new job at South Oaks Baptist Church. It will be great to get out of the house 2 days a week because I’ve spent the last year closed in the house all day long. You can get quite the cabin fever living a life like that, but now Eli is older and ready to be around more people and make friends! I am really excited about the next year!