Sunday, August 23, 2009

Holden Beach Wrap-Up

We just got back from spending the last week at Holden Beach, NC with my family and had a great (but exhausting!) time! The trip started with an extremely long plane ride with the boys on our laps. Thankfully we both were able to get them to sleep on us (which never happens anymore!) for about an hour of the flight, but the rest of the time they were bouncing, climbing, fussy and not easily distracted. We had a very quick layover in Charlotte and headed on to Wilmington where my brother picked us up from the airport.

Most of the week was uneventful, except for the fact that Owen developed a horrible cold and started teething all four of his top teeth. He was a slobbery, snotty, coughing mess for most of the week, and is still dealing with it all now. He was kind enough to share his cough/congestion/sore throat with me, Charlie and Eli, so we've bought stock in Kleenex to offset the amount of tissues we've been going through. Eli is also teething his top four teeth, but it doesn't seem to bother him as much. It figures that they couldn't have started before we left when I still had the chance to pack bibs for them. They spent most days either wet from the ocean/pool or soaked in drool. I'm sure they loved it.

There was one night that Owen was completely inconsolable. He was screaming for hours, wouldn't nurse, and wouldn't calm down even when we were holding him. We tried everything, but at 3am, Charlie loaded him into the car seat and drove him around -- for three hours. Thankfully he fell asleep, but Charlie spent the next day trying to recover from a sleepless night.

Elise, Kirk, Charlie and I were also able to go out to dinner for a date night. That part was great - dinner at a seafood restaurant, homemade hush puppies, time away from the kids - but the downside is that we're pretty sure our parents, Jeff, Kelly and Leah will never babysit for any of us again. All four boys were terrible! They wouldn't eat their dinner, threw tantrums, cried most of the time and were generally unhappy that their parents were nowhere to be found.

The upside was the beach - the water was the perfect temperature and the waves were great too. We also had the pool to use at the house, which was a home run all the way around. By the end of the week, we'd sit the boys on the side of the pool and count to three and they would throw themselves into the water as if they were jumping in. They even went under! It was great to have the pool as an option because the boys' snot-fest usually resulted in sand being caked to their faces - very unpleasant.

We celebrated the boys' first birthday a couple weeks early and made a crocodile cake. They shared with with Blake, who turns 3 two days after they turn 1. Owen practically went face-first for the frosting; Eli was much more reserved and would only take bites of cake off a fork.

Owen started waving and saying ni-ni this week and Eli seems to be getting the hand of the high five. They are both standing consistently and eating everything in sight. They also figured out how to nest their stacking cups, so they sit there for a really long time testing out which cups will fit and which ones won't. Their new favorite toy is the one with the five doors that pop up when you turn a knob. It's like it's a personal mission to keep them closed at all times. I'm thinking that might be a winner of a birthday present.

We flew home on Friday night. We took off from Wilmington on time and had an uneventful flight to Charlotte. We were supposed to leave again at 8:30p, but the monitors showed that we wouldn't be taking off until 10:55p. We set up a barricaded playpen type area for them with their toys and made the best of it, but we were secretly praying the whole time that there would be empty seats on the flight home so we could keep the boys in their car seats. Praise the Lord, there were, and they both slept the entire 4.5 hours home. We got home from the airport at 1:45a (which was really 4:45 eastern) and seem to be fully adjusted to the time difference already. The boys slept from 7:30p to 8:15a last night!!

Charlie left Saturday morning for WA for his grandma's memorial service with his mom's entire family, so we won't see him again until Monday, but we're doing well, resting up and hopefully getting healthier by the day. It was a great week, but thankfully we won't have another cross country flight until around Christmas.

1 comments:

Shaloma said...

Hey Beth, the teething tablets I told you about are Hyland's Teething Tablets. They're really awesome. They are homeopathic and way better than Ora Gel. I totally forgot to bring them with me the last time I saw Charlie on Sunday so hopefully you can find them there. Good luck with the teething!!!
http://www.hylands.com/products/teething.php