Hurricane Florence

Florence, you were a nasty and monstrous beast. None of us truly expected what damage you would cause.  

You made landfall at Wrightsville Beach on Friday, September 14, 2018 shortly after 7 am.  Then you decided you enjoyed our coastal area then you stalled going 2-3 mph for several days.  You were ugly and everybody has been ready for you to leave completely.  You caused horrible devastation.

We made a very hard decision to evacuate knowing it will take a while to return home.  We originally were going to drive to Mississippi because B's parents were suppose to get hit as well, but made the decision to stay closer to home. 

I have been a nervous wreck worried about friends who stayed, what the condition of our home would be and what would happen to our beloved town.  

Thankfully our home was spared, a magnolia tree fell into our yard and everyone I know was safe.  

It will take years for Wilmington to rebuild and we are so ready to return home!!  

Pre-K3 for Joanna

JoJo's turn starting school and she was so happy to go back and see all of her little buddies.  She has the same Pre-k teacher as Vivian for the 3 year old class, Mrs. Lori.  She's also the only little girl again, but she doesn't mind.  She can hang with the boys!  

We entered the 3 year old class potty trained and sleeping in a big girl bed.  Two very big milestones!

Like Vivian, the school year started short because of Hurricane Florence.  Hopefully school will start back in a couple of weeks.  I know a little girl who's ready to be back in school!

Kindergartener

My sweet sweet Vivian.  I cannot believe you are an official kindergartener.  I remember thinking back when you were an infant seeing friends little ones starting kindergarten and thinking, we will be there before we know it.  

So far you are loving it, but you keeping telling me, 'Mommy, it's really a long day' HA.  Welcome to big girl school kiddo!!

After the 2nd day of mommy walking you to your classroom in your new big school, you were ready to be dropped off in the car line and walk in all by yourself.  That moment actually made me teary-eyed.  Tiny little girl wearing a backpack as big as you walking down the hallway all by yourself.  You are so brave one!

Along with going in your school by yourself, you are riding the school bus home which you love.  So cute watching you get off the school bus.  JoJo loves waiting for you, especially days when she see's Mavis.

I hope you continue to love school sweet girl.  You know you are going to rock kindergarten!!!

I wish we were still in school right now, but unfortunately school was canceled due to Hurricane Florence.  We evacuated on Tuesday, Sept 11 and headed to your nana and papaw's.  The hurricane is suppose to make landfall close to Wilmington Thursday night.  I pray we are able to return home.  Just know mommy and daddy are keeping you girls safe!  

Traveling With Young Kids

We took our first "official" family of four vacation this summer with our 5 and 3 year olds.  I wasn't so much worried about my 5 year old like I was about the 3 year old.

JoJo has been to Mississippi once when she was 13 months old (we stayed a month) and spent a few nights in South Carolina at my in-laws during the holidays, but never a "true" vacation.

We were changing two time zones, going from eastern time to mountain time, two flights, then a 5+ hour drive from the airport to Glacier National Park.  To say I was stressed was an understatement.  

Joanna stopped taking naps in the car when we napped/sleep trained at 14 months old.  Only napped in her crib.  Yes, my 3 year old was still in a crib.  I knew there was no way she was going to nap in the car and knew there was going to be zero napping during our 10 day vacation, and I was right.  The only time she did nap was our first travel day driving to Glacier when she finally fell asleep, but for only 30 minutes because we had to stop in Helena and pick-up our Walmart order.

The day before flying out, we drove from Wilmington to Raleigh to spend the night in a hotel.  We booked two hotel rooms.  B stayed in the the room with the girls, and my Mom and I stayed in another room so we could get up and dressed without disturbing anyone.  We were able to fit Jo's pack n' play in the bathroom.  She did not love it when she went to bed at 6 pm, she didn't nap in the car driving to Raleigh and the next day we had to be up by 5 am to catch the van at 5:30 am to the airport.  

Poor Vivian didn't sleep much that night because she was under the weather.  She was up coughing a lot during the night.  I even had to give her cough medicine at 3:30 am.  Jo woke up crying at 5 am.  B went to get her and she wanted nothing to do with him.  Good thing she had to be up by then anyway.  Poor kid said she saw a snowman trying to get her.  I think it was the toilet paper rolls that she saw.  I did dress the girls in the clothes they were going to wear the day we traveled to avoid having to change out of their pj's.

Our first flight to Denver was 3 hours long.  We brought along lots of new toys.  We did our entire vacation without the Kindle.  No movie watching or screen time. I was impressed with ourselves!!

Even though Jo didn't nap the entire trip, she was in great spirits the entire time.  We kept our bedtime routine the same and she was in bed by 6:30 pm every night we were there and slept 12-13 hours. Even though our cabins had several rooms, we put her pack n' play (BabyBjorn Travel Crib that we borrowed from my MIL)in the bathroom instead of sharing a room with someone.  We didn't want to create any new habits that would be hard to break when we returned home. 

Our flight back was a tough one.  We were suppose to land back in Raleigh by 9 pm then back in Wilmington by 12:30 am, but our flight out of Bozeman was delayed, which caused us to miss our connection in Chicago.  We didn't arrive in Raleigh until 12:30 am and back home shortly after 3 am.  Poor Joanna didn't sleep on the flight home, Vivian passed right on out, and during the last 30 minutes of the flight she cried.  Hard.  The pressure was really hurting her ears.  We tried getting her to drink something, suck on a sucker, chew gum, but she refused everything.  She was worn slap out since she had been awake since 7 am.  Thankfully she did pass out in the car driving home and went straight to sleep after waking a short moment when I brought her inside into her crib.  I dressed both girls in their pj's to wear on the plane coming home so they didn't have to sleep in the clothes they wore all day.  

I did wake her at 8 am to get her back on schedule.  She begged for a nap at 12:30 that day and we went back to napping.  

I really was stressed over nothing.  The kids handled everything like a champ, especially those long travel days!  We did counter check both car seats instead of having them on the plane or gate checking them.  We bought travel bags for the seats to protect them on the plane.  No damage to either seats.  

We made sure we had plenty of snacks on hand, drinks, entertainment for the kids.  Each girl had their own backpacks filled with books, coloring books, a few toys, crayons, glue sticks, stickers, treats, new colored pens, card games.  They were never bored.  It worked well for us.

Happy travels!!!