Beach Boys

Confession #1...I got really tired of seeing all these happy tanned people with their beautiful pictures of the beach and fun stories of vacation. I started feeling rather cabin feverish and needed a last minute getaway. We started looking a week and a half before we wanted to go, and let me tell you, pickings were slim! We ended up finding a really nice 1 bedroom condo at Phoenix VII in Orange Beach. The 1 bedroom made me kinda nervous having both boys there, but it all worked out.

Wait, let's backup a bit. It would NOT be a true vacation for the Yarbroughs without some sort of illness for Jonah B. This kid...I just don't know what to think. He came down with a temp of like 101.4 the day before we were going to leave. I called super quick before the doctor's office closed to make an appointment for first thing in the morning. Right after that, things went downhill. We were keeping the cousins for a few hours and things got NUTS! I was downstairs feeding Fisher when Derek texted me from the playroom that Jonah was super hot. I put Fisher to bed and checked on Jonah. He had risen to over 103. I took him downstairs, and in the next 30 minutes, I had him in the tub with his temp going up to 105.3! I was FREAKING OUT, to say the least. Nurse Nicole was gone...long gone. Panicked mommy was in the house. I was calling the PHIL nurse and ended up talking to a friend of mine who said if it went back up...time to head to the ER! We went so far as to pack a bag in case me and J had to head out. By that point he was in the 104 range, and thankfully, didn't get back up that high.

We went to Dr. Bill's the next day and found out that even though his throat looked very strep-like, it was viral. Story of my life. Jonah was a trooper, though, and we decided to head south...fever and all! It was actually a hard decision, because we felt bad for taking him while he was sick, but we all needed this! Plus we thought what if he's fine by the next day and we have a couple days of fever-free fun! Well, that's exactly what happened. We left on Thursday and his fever was gone by Friday morning. Woohoo! And thank the Lord, Fisher didn't catch the bug! Now back to the fun stuff....

Thanks to lots of Disney movies, the drive went pretty well. We just had meltdowns about 15 minutes out from the condo, so that's pretty good!

Fisher Cole said, "Get me outa here, now!"

We did stop for about 30 minutes to feed him, but then quickly got back on the road and hard charged for sun and sand!

I really loved our condo. It was so perfect for us. Plenty of room and so cutely decorated.

King size bed is a must on vacations, since Jonah B sleeps with us. He's a sweet snuggler, but also a kung-fu master in his sleep ;) I do look forward to vacations, since he doesn't sleep with us at home. Mommy likes to snuggle too, shhhh!

Confesstion #2, I fell in love with this chair and have tracked it down. I'll be placing my order next week at the latest, ha! For real though, I am ;)

Sweet baby man after his fever broke!

This picture is perfection. J running toward the beach so excited, Daddy toting all of our gear, and me falling behind and getting a photo opp out of it.

Oh how much he loves the beach!

Fisher was pitching a major fit, so Daddy the baby whisperer took him for a walk. Came back with a passed out Patty. Thanks daddy!

This just in....I have the cutest angel babies in the world!!! See pic above and below for proof :) Ahhh those smiles make my heart ache in the best way. 

Jonah had so much fun in the water with Daddy. He helped J "jump" the waves. We didn't get in very far since just a few days before we got there, the news put out a story about dozens of sharks just outside of the pass (right down from our condo). No thank you!

This was the best pic I could get with both boys. J never stops, plus he's come to hate having his picture made.

Pudgy baby brubby feet <3 

Fisher was very soothed by the ocean. When we were out on the beach, if he got fussy, I just walked right up to the water and magically, he was OUT!

Case in point...

I watched them play forever. J just loved the pool!

I mean come on...Fisher, you will see this one day and realize why Mommy basically could not keep her lips off of you :)

We bought J a new big boy float for the pool. I was a little unsure of how he would react to having to wear the thing, but he actually loved it. I don't know how many times he jumped off the side of the pool to his daddy.

He even did a little swimming!

Friday we woke up to rain and lots of it. We decided to head out for lunch and then the arcade, along with every other person at the beach! Rainy day activity, I guess. We did find a few things for J to do. 

Remember when I said J was a sweet snuggler?

I call these pics...J tries a lemon, haha! He actually begged for it. We tried to tell him!

Tacky Jacks...one of my favs :)

J's first FROYO! He had chocolate/vanilla swirl with sprinkles, and of course, loved it!

They found buried treasure

This is the look of my entire beach time. I wore Fisher every time we went out to the beach. He loved it and it kept him happy, so I was happy to do it!

 We had a great time even with a few meltdowns with Brubs. We did decide to drive back Saturday night at bedtime, so that we could drive straight through. I was really nervous, but it was great! We left around 8:30 and got home around 12:30. You can make great time when you don't have to stop to feed a baby and tame a toddler! Even though it was stressful at times, I'm so glad we went. We made a lot of memories as a family of 4. Thinking we need another last minute trip...next weekend, maybe???

3 Month Brubby update

 Well, as Derek pointed out...Fisher Cole is 1/4 of the way to a year old! I don't like thinking of it that way. I like to think he's just coming out of the "newborn" stage and into infancy ;) He's getting such a personality and I am EATING IT UP! He gives us smiles, such big smiles, and giggles, and ahhhbvveeehhhs! He's gonna be quite the little talker. His favorite thing is sitting in our lap looking at us while we talk or sing to him. He will just laugh and coo like he's trying so hard to communicate with us. He wears 3mo or 3-6mo clothes and barely squeezing in size 1 diapers (I'm just trying to use up the stock pile). We started Mom's On Call a couple weeks ago, mainly because he wouldn't nap longer than 30 minutes at a time during the day. He was only waking up once a night, which I really didn't mind that much. But the days were so long without good naps, this momma needed some help. He did really well at first. The first night, he woke up to eat around 3am, but after that he slept through the night for about a week. He still has some early mornings at times, but is sleeping through pretty much.

Naps are another story. The first few days he was taking 1 1/2-2 hour naps. After the first couple days...it was back to short naps. I've tried various things, but have decided that it's best for us to just do the best we can with napping in the bed, but if the baby wants to be held and rocked back to sleep, I'm going to do it. I understand needing them to be comfortable in their bed in order to sleep better and blah blah blah, but sometimes my baby wants Mommy to rock him. I will gladly do it! I miss the days of rocking Jonah to sleep at night and wishing so much that I could be the one to take care of him and rock him during the day when I was at work. I'm so blessed to be with Fisher (and Jonah) as much as I am. Once I came to this realization, our days became a lot less of keeping a schedule and more of just doing the best we can and having good, sweet, fun days. Lesson learned :)

Cute? Who, me???

When we started MOC, he was still in the swaddling stage and really liked it. Last week, we changed over to sleep sacks. He's doing great, but he did look so cute all swaddled up!

He is really loving exploring his new toys with so many lights and sounds. 

Lashes...for...days!

He has the cutest little happy happy smiles!

Roly Poly!

He has been getting baths laying in shallow water lately and he loves it! He will just splash with his arms and legs. I think he likes the freedom!

This was an afternoon that he napped in the bed for about 30 minutes, then another hour snuggling with Mommy :)

Silly boy!

Oh, he has also been introduced to Baby Einstein. He has a very fussy time from about 6 until bedtime (usually around 8). The worst thing about it is that's when we are trying to cook, eat, clean up, then start baths. We finally figured out to pop that sucker in, strap him in the swing, and voila! He is silent other than the occasional giggle :)

Mommy update: I am down 30 pounds since D-day as of today! 20 pounds came off in the first few weeks. I have worked hard for the past 7 weeks to lose the other 10. I've been doing some running and trying to eat better. I'm proud of how I've done so far, but I've still got about 15 to go until pre-baby!

We have a number of nicknames for Fisher...

Fisher Coley, Fisher wisher, Fisher-man, Brubby, Brubs, Brubbykins, Brubbawub, and Squirt.

There are probably more, that's just all I can think of now! I just love the nicknames, and it's super cute to hear Jonah call him "Fisher Cole" and "Brubbykins"!

Other fun stuff...

I love having so many boys around. Even if it does get kinda gross at times. 

Them legs!

We went swimming one day and Jonah had a blast! 

His "swimming"

They are just the cutest little buddies!

Oh my, the potty training has started. Well, it did for a couple days, anyways. I decided to just try it to see if he was really ready. They say the most important thing is to not push if they don't seem ready. Well, the first day, I let him pick out his undies (Cars, of course) and he immediately hated having them on. It took about 15-20 minutes before we went back to the diaper.

The next day was much easier getting the big boy undies on! He looked so cute in the little briefs! He did go in the potty a few times, but also had a few accidents around the house.

Blackmail for later in life :)

The worst time was when I was feeding Brubs and Jonah peed in the floor 3 different times in about 10 minutes. At that point, we went back to the diaper. I think I will just wait a few more weeks and try again. I really don't think he's ready, and I certainly don't want to push him too hard right now. He'll get it.

One Saturday we were looking for something fun to do and we landed on the zoo. Well, I haven't been on a Saturday in forever, so it shocked me how packed it was! We had a good time, though. J even got to pet some goats and feed the giraffe! 

How cute are these Sunday School Studs??? Fisher has now been to Sunday School twice. The first time, he slept in his carrier the entire time. The second time, he was awake when we dropped him off, but went right to sleep with a little rocking and was asleep in a swing when we came back to get him. Good boy Fisher-man!

Jonah has been doing really well, too. This past Sunday, he helped us drop of Brubby, then walked to his class, opened the door, walked in, and waved bye to us! Proud moment with no tears!

Oh, I made J some yummy popsicles out of strawberries, kiwi, and coconut water. He was a little thrown by how cold it was, but he loved it and was covered in sticky goodness by the end!

Today I decided to be super mom and take the boys to the splash pad. Last year Jonah had no interest. He would put a hand in only if I was holding him on my hip. This time, I put his shades on him and said "go play" and he ran right off! It was the cutest thing. He literally did laps around and through everything that was spraying water about 30 times (see video, ha!). He did fall down or got knocked down and skinned his knee and elbow. He cried a little, but kept on playing. I see many more splash pad visits in our near future!

Brubs passed right out in his little carrier as soon as I got him buckled in!

Jonah probably would have stayed for hours, but I was really afraid Fisher was getting too much sun, so we left after about 45 minutes. Poor Fisher had rosy cheeks from being snuggled up to mommy!

To my angel boys: Your Mommy and Daddy love you in a way you will only understand when you have little angels of your own. You fill our hearts with so much happiness and love. We pray with/over you every night thanking the Lord that we are able to hug and kiss you everyday. We are so thankful that you are happy and healthy, not to mention unbelievably cute! One day you will read this (hopefully) and see how crazy your mommy was/is with the camera. It's only because you both are growing so fast that I want to capture everything so I can remember forever. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you have taught me. I love you as far as the stars!