My goodness sweet girl! It seems like time is just blowing by. I never want to compare you and your brother because you are each your own person, but man if it doesn’t seem like time is just going by so much faster with you. Between the chaos of having to keep up with both of you, I seem to have blinked and here we are with an 8 month old and a 2 year old.
You are still the sweetest snuggle bug. You’re going to bed easily at 7 pm every night now. You take a bottle and go down without a peep most nights. Some nights you’re back up at 10 or 11 for another feeding and some times you surprise us and make it until 2-4 am, but still not sleeping through the night. Daddy had his first weekend away from us. You did well but I was thankful to have Mina and Pop Pop to help out! We’re still working on eating solids, if I’m being honest it’s not going great. You are really not interested in eating and you gag on food so easily that it is really scary for us! At 30 weeks we could finally start to see your bottom two teeth peeking through, so maybe some teeth will help you start eating a little more!
Daycare is going wonderfully! You got a new teacher who you LOVE and we can tell she just adores you! At 31 weeks you started clapping and waving. I love seeing you clap for yourself and wave at us! You are ready to crawl and be able to chase after your brother, I can see it won’t be long! At 34 weeks you perfected sitting up from laying down. You are still loving swim lessons too!
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at the beach this month. We celebrated Graham’s second birthday. We had family photos taken. Our house is all decorated for Christmas. We have so much to be thankful for this time of year! I am extra thankful for our family! I love you big little girl!
31 weeks – enjoying the patio
31 weeks – Ellis Ann to the rescue!
31 weeks – snuggling
31 weeks – not interested in oatmeal but still the smiliest
31 weeks – a little pre Christmas carriage ride at Reynolda
paci’s allowed in the car… even though we gave them up months ago
straight to the park
Our house for Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving sunrise with my sunshine girl!
Baby in a turkey hat!
Beach hugs!
Dinner at Mini Jalapeno! No more leftovers!
Mina with the pitcher of margs!
Sun setting on a perfect trip to the ocean!
We had the most wonderful trip to the beach for Thanksgiving! We rented a house that was on the ocean at Holden Beach for four nights. Mina and Pop Pop joined us for the trip and there was plenty of room for all of us. The house was recently renovated and we all really enjoyed the location. Holden Beach was quiet, but had everything we needed. There was a nice park that we went to right as soon as we arrived in town, and it was also walking distance from our house. It was amazing to be able to go in and out of the house right onto the beach. I had not done that since I was a kid and it is just the absolute best to play in the waves, come in for a snack, go out and dig in the sand, come in for a nap, go back out and run and play ball on the beach, and watch the sun set over the ocean. We watched the Macy’s Parade, which was a tradition I always enjoyed with my Mom, so it was fun to see Graham start to show and interest in the big balloons and the music. We bought most all of our Thanksgiving meal premade again this year which is a tradition that is really growing on me. There wasn’t much cooking to do once we arrived and this turned out to be such a good plan. We really got to enjoy our time at the beach as much as possible and no one was stuck in the kitchen cooking. We only went out for one meal this trip, the last night we went to dinner at mini Jalapeno. We were all pleased with the food we ordered. I am also happy to report that both Graham and Ellis Ann did really well in the car going and coming from the beach!! We are already looking forward to our next trip to the beach!
Ellis Ann how can it be that a half a year has flown by just like that?? What a joy it has been to watch you grow! Our big milestone this month is finally getting you on a schedule. It is helping us all sleep better! We took your first big trip and spent a week at the beach. You loved the pool!! Jody and Penny came with us and boy were we glad to have their help. Traveling with two under two is no joke! Our week away, really helped us realize that you needed a bedtime routine to help you start sleeping better at night. You are going to bed around 8 now and sleeping until 3 or 4, wake up to eat and fall back to sleep for a few more hours with any luck. You’ve really perfected rolling over this month and now if we put you down on your back you roll right over to your stomach. This has also really helped at night with your sleep since you prefer to sleep on your stomach.
Absolutely everything is going straight for your mouth now. You’re drooling like crazy and we feel like some teeth have to be coming soon but still no sign of them. You had an ear infection last month that seems to be still hanging around this month. You are putting up with it really well, but I’m really hoping tubes won’t be in our future. You and Graham have really started to interact and play and I just love seeing you two together! We started swim lessons with you this month and you are loving it! You are still the happiest little joy, and go with the flow for almost everything! We love you big little girl!
21 weeks – headed to the ball game
22 weeks – vacation nap at the beach house
22 weeks – first boat ride
23 weeks – three Tar Heels testing the new stroller out
Bertie was so glad to have Aunt Jody with us, she never left her side.
Cooking fresh seafood at home
ice cream downtown
cute boy exploring
Neighborhood strolls!
Beach day!
Library fun!
Applesauce is life.
One last Provision Company meal before heading home
We had the best week at the beach! It was Ellis Ann’s first trip to the beach and I think she really enjoyed it. We are so lucky that Jo Jo and Penny were able to join us. We are in a stage of life now where the more help we have the more fun everyone has! I feel so grateful that the kids have Jody and Penny to vacation with and bond with since they will always miss out on the joys of their Grandma Francey.
We ventured out to the farm for an oyster roast to see Uncle Tim and the kids and all the animals. Their house is basically a kids paradise with all the space to run and play and all the animals and toys. Graham really enjoyed his afternoon here and it was great for Ellis Ann to get to meet so many people!
We spent a day at the aquarium. It’s funny how with kids you can build something up to be OMG SO MUCH FUN and then when the day of the event happens they are just not having it. Graham slept it and we had to wake him up and hurry to the ferry in his pajamas so we would make it to the aquarium, and it was like he just never quite woke up so he was very unimpressed with the aquarium. I think he did enjoy the ferry ride over, but on the ferry home both Graham and Ellis Ann were sound asleep.
We went for lots of walks. We spent time playing in the sand. We went out to eat. Ellis Ann had her first (and second) trip to Provision Company. We checked out the local library. We played in the pool. (The pool at Jo Jo’s rental house was a life saver!) We cooked fresh seafood from the market we can walk to down the street. We shopped. We ate ice cream. We played on the playground. We watched the boats. Just a wonderful week of beach things. We tried to relax and take it easy as much as possible, but that’s not easy to do right now!
Sean and I were able to get to one of our favorite restaurants to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary! It is absolutely wild to me how our lives have changed in the past three years. We are beyond lucky to have two beautiful children, a sweet puppy, a home, and now a second home to show for the past three years. It was a wonderful chance to celebrate all the things together!
We discovered the beauty of travelling in the off season. Our trip was in mid September, and while the weather was still plenty warm for all the things, it wasn’t sweltering hot and there were no crowds anywhere! It was really ideal with little kids! We can’t wait for our next trip back to our little house by the sea!
We spent a long weekend at the beach soaking up our last trip as a family of three. I was 34 weeks pregnant with sister and it was our last chance to get out of town! We had perfect weather all weekend! Graham is at an age now where it is so fun to see him explore and try new things. We had breakfast at our new favorite spot! We walked around town and checked out the shops. We had lunch on the water. We played and played at the park. We watched the airplanes. Aunt Jody and Penny joined us too! We got to go out for a date night, which was so fun but the new restaurant we tried was not so good!
The absolute best part of the weekend was watching Graham run straight for the ocean on the beach. The water was cold, but it was warm enough to play in the waves and the sand. Graham absolutely LOVED it! It was such a joy to see him splashing in the waves and digging in the sand. We spent most of the afternoon on the beach and it has me looking forward to summer!
We completed the weekend with Graham’s first happy meal and a McDonald’s parking lot picnic!
27 weeks – Beach trip meeting Aunt Brandy and the girls!
28 weeks – Celebrated Daddy’s first Father’s Day
28 weeks – Eating carrots
29 weeks – True Covid kid – your first trip to the grocery store
29 weeks – Getting pretty good at sitting alone
30 weeks first Fourth of July
30 weeks – Graham loves hats!!
Seven months with you! What a joy! You continue to be the happiest baby around and are just so much fun! You had croup at the beginning of the month. We are lucky we caught it early and got on steroids for a few days, and had no issues at all with it. It is good to see you building an immune system but tough to see you get sick! Mom and Dad both caught your germs and ended up on medicine too! You are eating one meal a day at the table with us. You are Mr. Independent who wants to feed himself, and make a huge mess, so we are limiting it to once a day. You eat squash, carrots, avocado, and sweet potato. Sometime this month you started sleeping like a big boy, we don’t rock you to sleep anymore you’re able to put yourself to sleep in your crib! I’ll miss rocking you to sleep at night but it’s great to see you sleep on your own! We had two trips to the beach this month, probably our last of the summer. We celebrated Daddy’s first Father’s Day this month. He was sick so we let him celebrate in bed all day! At 28 weeks you started doing the cutest backwards butt scoot. You aren’t crawling yet but you are able to get around by rolling and scooting. You can sit pretty well unassisted now, you topple over after a bit so we are still close by. We celebrated the Fourth of July at the beach this month also. It’s always been a special time with lots of celebration going on at the coast, but for the second year in a row everything was cancelled because of Covid. Town was pretty quiet, and it was just us. We did continue our family tradition of dressing up in patriotic attire. We are looking forward to the years to come when it’s safe to celebrate with everyone again. It is so special to continue years of traditions with you! We love you big little one!
2020. What a year. What a ride. Because (fingers crossed) there will never be another year like this, here’s how our 2020 went down. While there were many lows and many unexpected events on this roller coaster of a year, we were fortunate to have many highs too.
January 3 – My last day at my job. I left work and went straight to get our Bertie girl.
January 6 – Started my new job. Beyond excited to have finally found a new opportunity using and learning new skills, and very hopeful for the future with the company.
January 17 – Bertie’s first trip to the beach
January 25 – Belated friends Christmas celebration. Everyone catches the flu and unbeknownst to us it would be the first and last friend gathering of 2020.
January 31 – Recover from the flu just in time to road trip to Morgantown, WV for the weekend. Bertie’s first night in a hotel. Front row seats to the basketball game.
February 18 – Fly to Destin, FL for training for my new job. My only air travel of 2020.
February 28 – Old Crow Medicine Show concert. Preceded by champagne and oysters and good times with friends. The last supper of 2020.
March 6 – Travel to the beach for the weekend. Blissfully unaware of what is happening in the rest of the world. Bertie’s first time in the sand.
March 10 – Travel by car to Macon, GA for my new job. Due to the rise in cases of Coronavirus my company has now issued a travel advisory for all employees so I’m unable to fly. To be honest, I shouldn’t even be there based on the travel restrictions issued, but my manager seems to think the rules don’t apply. While in Georgia the world seems to take a turn for the worst. COVID-19 is now rapidly spreading and we have no idea what’s coming. My last meal in a restaurant for months is at a Zoe’s Kitchen in Macon. My last trip to the gym in 2020 is also at a hotel gym in Macon.
March 17 – Last day working in the office. The world had changed almost overnight. We are now starting to realize we’re in a global disaster, but with a barrage of information both reliable and not so much, we don’t know what to believe or how bad things truly are.
March 20 – It becomes apparent we’re going to be on lockdown. We stock up on groceries and plan to be in the house for a few weeks.
Sometime in late March – The new job I had been elated to start has turned out to be a disaster. The lady I’m supposed to report to has died. My new manager is awful. After working from home for several weeks I’ve had no communication from anyone at the company about anything. As 2020 is taking a turn for the worst so is this job.
April 1 – I am convinced I am pregnant but refuse to take a pregnancy test on April Fool’s Day.
April 3 – I confirm my suspicion. I am pregnant. I am all. the. emotions.
April 17 – I am furloughed from my new job. In a short month the job has become almost intolerable. I love the work, but the people are miserable and I’m honestly relieved to have a few weeks away to come up with a plan.
Sometime in late April – With no communication from my new job and no clear end in sight for the furlough (and now knowing I’m expecting a baby and the situation with the pandemic is worsening) I ask for my old job back. Friends this is why they tell you not to burn bridges. You never know when a global pandemic will hit and you will be thankful just to have a job.
April 27 – My first big girl house is sold. After being on the market for less than 48 hours in the height of lockdown I received an offer. A few weeks later we go to the closing, and just like that, I’ve sold my first home I bought for myself.
May 4 – The first doctor visit. Beyond relieved to see that our little nugget is thriving. Still feeling all of the emotions.
May 15 – After nearly two months in the house and going absolutely crazy for a change of scenery, we hit the road for West Virginia prepared to tell Sean’s family our big news. On the way we call and FaceTime my family members to let them in on the secret.
Sometime in late May – Things finally start opening back up. What started as a two week “safer at home order” has now surpassed two months. I’m finally able to go back to work part time at my old job. With millions of people out of work I’m thankful to have the chance to go back to work.
May 22 – We decide to brave it and head for the coast for Memorial Day. With the car loaded down with food and essentials we make it with no issues. While we can’t venture out much, it’s wonderful just to be somewhere besides our own house.
June 3 – We go back to the doctor to check on our nugget. Everything looks perfect and we elect to have genetic testing done. We will be able to find out the gender early from this testing.
June 5 – Our trip to the coast the previous weekend went so well, we decide to do it again this weekend. This time we celebrate Sean’s birthday with our friends at their house in South Carolina. We spend the weekend by the beach and the pool and enjoy takeout from some local spots. Because I’m still not working full time and Sean has some extra time off we extend the trip and head to our beach house for a few days. While Covid has upended everything, it’s nice to have the extra time to relax.
June 8 – We’re in the car driving to pick up takeout for dinner and the nurse unexpectedly calls with our test results. She says the genetic testing came back perfect and that she has the gender. I put the phone on speaker, and in the most uneventful way we find out we’re having a boy as we drive down the road. We’re both elated to find out he’s healthy!! We spend the evening eating our takeout and calling family and friends to share the news!
June 26 – Having not seen friends in months we head back to the beach to meet up with my college friends. Over the past weeks it’s become clear that socializing outdoors is much safer, so we spend the day on the beach with them.
July 1 – Back to the doctor to check on the nugget. We have our anatomy scan that confirms he’s a boy and he’s healthy!
July 2 – We head back to the beach to celebrate the Fourth of July. What’s normally a rowdy weekend, with the town full of tourists, a huge festival, partying, and fireworks turns into a quiet weekend on the deck with just the two of us.
July 24 – We go back to the coast for the weekend. I’m now halfway through the pregnancy and we’re ready to make our news public.
July 31 – We close on the beach house. While it’s been in my family for years, and we’ve had the good fortune of being able to enjoy it basically whenever we want. It is now ours. And this feels good. To be honest the beach house has been a huge part of our sanity up to this point in 2020 and I can’t imagine not having this safe escape this year.
August 4 – Four days after closing on the house a Category 1 storm comes ashore. We did nothing to prepare since we’ve made it through Category 5’s with no damage. The storm spun off a water spout that came onshore as a tornado and made its way directly up our driveway. We were fortunate to have only a huge limb across the deck, but the town saw more damage than I’ve seen in 20 hurricane seasons.
August 28 – I am 25 weeks pregnant and celebrate my 36th birthday by going out to eat at a restaurant for the first time since March.
September 21 – We celebrate our first wedding anniversary with P.F. Chang’s takeout and Gigi’s cupcakes at home.
October 3 – We celebrate the baby Zoom style with Sean’s family. The perk of the Zoom celebration is that the family from across the world gets to join us.
October 8 – Back to the coast! We stay several nights and decide this is our “babymoon.” It’s not the trip to Hawaii we imagined, or even the back up trip to Arizona or Colorado we thought would be possible when covid first hit, but we’re thankful to still have a healthy nugget and a happy place to get away to. We enjoy our second meal out at a restaurant since March. I can’t believe it has been nearly a year since we were at our favorite beach restaurant, and we’ve essentially missed their entire season this year.
October 24 – We celebrate the baby with our friends at another Zoom shower along with a drive by shower. We had hoped to have a small celebration in our backyard, but with everything opening up cases are rising and it’s just too risky. Luckily we found a way to celebrate somehow!
October 29 – Hurricane Zeta comes ashore at the Gulf Coast and makes its way north. Because it’s 2020 they’ve run out of names for the storms and started using the Greek alphabet. It’s nearly November and we’re without power for almost two days from a hurricane.
November 1 – We celebrated our Bertie girls first birthday!
November 5 – My coworkers surprised me with another shower for baby boy! It was really special since it was the only real “party” we got to have for him!
November 7- Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are finally announced as President and Vice President elect. I cry buckets thinking about what this means for little girls everywhere!
November 10 – I have surgery to remove basal cell carcinoma from my forehead. Keep it coming 2020. Skin cancer are you serious!? Wear sunscreen friends.
November 16- At 36 weeks pregnant I am offered a new job. I cannot believe it.
December 6 – Our baby boy, Graham William, is born. He is the spitting image of his daddy and perfect in every way. We are so lucky to have had this bright light to bring us through 2020.
December 22 & 23 – Christmas comes early this year in the form of a COVID vaccine. Sean got his the 22nd, and I got mine on the 23rd. I cried happy tears getting my shot!! We waited all year for this and to be among some of the first to get it is a huge relief! It seems fitting that my first solo outing with Graham was to get my shot!
December 25 – We celebrate our first Christmas with Graham! He gives us a Christmas miracle and sleeps well the night before. We enjoy our day at home, with just the 3 of us and of course Bertie. We’re in the thick of the newborn phase so we have boxed macaroni for Christmas dinner!
December 31 – Graham goes on his first road trip. We ring in 2021 at the coast with steak and lobster takeout from our favorite restaurant and drink champagne we brought home from France. Graham sleeps through dinner and I don’t know of a more perfectly 2020 way to end the year than at our favorite place, reminiscing about past trips and celebrating what’s to come for our new little family of 4.
I am looking forward to 2021. While 2020 was a tough year for everyone I feel so lucky to have had the greatest joy of all to close out the year! Wishing you and yours a better 2021!
It’s been awhile since I checked in around this corner of the internet. WOW! Has 2020 been a weird year or what?!?!
Here’s a quick update on what’s been happening in my neck of the woods this year.
We got a puppy on January 3rd. She has been the absolute best thing of 2020 so far.
I started a new job on January 6th. I did all the training and traveling and all. the. things. for the job from January until March. The job had not been at all what was promised and honestly turned out to be sort of a dumpster fire. On March 18th I came home to work from home and have basically been in social distancing mode ever since. A couple weeks after working from home I was placed on temporary furlough, and with the job really not shaping up to be what I had hoped, I asked for my old job back. I was beyond lucky to have left on a good note and I was offered my job back. I do not take for granted how many people are absolutely not in this same situation now.
For about the last five weeks I have been working one to two days a week at my old/current job. As things *hopefully* get better I will be able to work in person in the office more and more. Right now things are still a complete mess where I live and only getting worse. As a side note, if you are someone who is opposed to wearing a mask in public I would like to know why you never protested having to wear shoes into Walmart?
I have painted almost my entire house. Planted a garden. (It’s mostly dead now but who’s counting?) Gone for MANY walks. And eaten all the junk foods! But y’all I am OVER. IT. Don’t get me wrong I’m still mostly staying home and following all the rules, but I sure wish I didn’t have to anymore.
In mid May we started to feel comfortable traveling by car to our beach house again so we are VERY lucky to have had the option of changing scenery. It’s obvious that we aren’t alone in needing a new view as I have honestly never seen so many people at the beach. We are able to find a place to keep to ourselves when we go out on the beach and have avoided going inside bars and restaurants so we feel like we are being responsible.
I feel beyond lucky that 2019 was our epic year. We did so much travelling last year and even had a destination wedding go off without a hitch in the middle of hurricane season in Jamaica. I can’t imagine what we would be going through if 2020 had been the year for all of that. I feel for anyone who has had to cancel big trips they planned for months. Planning a wedding was a true nightmare in best case scenario so I feel for you if 2020 was your year!
I had hoped to use all my new found free time catching up on last years trips and photos here on the blog, but we’re officially four months into quarantine and I’m just getting started. Honestly, it just felt so depressing looking back at photos of us travelling and having the time of our life when going to the grocery store now feels like the closest I’ll get to a vacation this year.
Okay, gather round closely, because I’m going to say something controversial here. Are you ready for it?
We went to Hilton Head Island, and we didn’t love it.
It was fall, so it was off season, which may have affected our experience. But y’all I don’t know what all the hype is about.
We stayed at the Marriott SurfWatch property, which really couldn’t have been nicer. We had a really nice room with a view of the ocean. The rooms are actually more like condos, with a full kitchen and living room area. I think they would be great with a family. The resort had really nice pools and a beautiful beach area. Even in the fall we found that the water was still warm enough for the outdoor pool. There was a beach bar with good drinks and decent food. The resort is also conveniently located to grocery stores and other things on the island. I think our mistake was leaving the resort property. We like to go out adventuring and check out the local restaurants when we visit somewhere new, and this is where things went downhill.
We headed out to see the famous Hilton Head lighthouse. The lighthouse is in the Sea Pines Resort community. We didn’t realize we couldn’t just drive right up, the community is gated, and they charge an $8 dollar (cash only) fee for a day pass. They advertise this as a luxury gated golf resort, and while there were some gorgeous homes it was mostly condos that were built in the mid 80’s and nothing special.
We finally made our way to the lighthouse and found a bunch of kitschy t-shirt shops all selling the same thing in the area. For an additional $4.25 per person you can climb the 90 foot lighthouse and take in the view (and another t-shirt shop at the top). We opted not to do this, instead walking around and checking out the scene. We drove around the resort area and checked out several different shopping spots and restaurants hoping to find something less cheesy, but no such luck. We did make our way onto the beach here, and it is beautiful. The beach is wide with plenty of room for running and playing, so that’s a pro!
We ended up having lunch at Fishcamp on Broad Creek after leaving the Sea Pines area and doing some driving around the island. This was probably our best find of the trip. The atmosphere was great, we sat outside, the weather was perfect and the food was good.
Based on the recommendations of several people we made a dinner reservation at Il Carpaccio. I’m not going to go into to much detail about this place, because some people clearly love it, but we left. After they served our bottle of wine and salad. We paid for it and wasted a full bottle of wine. I have never ever left a restaurant after placing my order. EVER.
We found ourselves in the parking lot of the restaurant starving and with no plan for dinner. OKKO, a hibachi restaurant was close and seemed like a safe choice, so we went for it. The food was standard hibachi, good but nothing special. The family at the table with us were locals and they told us about the Purple Cow Bakery next door, so we picked up a slice of cake on the way back to the hotel. We figured we had earned it. It was really good cake, which we obviously ate for breakfast the next day.
After returning to the hotel, we discovered what was probably the best part of the trip. The island has what appears to be very strict lighting codes, so when you’re out at night it is super dark. When we ventured out onto the beach at night, we realized this made for the BEST stargazing. We sat out on the beach for a long time enjoying the fact that we could see so many stars.
The next day we ventured out looking for some other things going on on the island, and mostly found more t-shirt shops. We decided to abandon looking for the fun spots on the island and head back to our resort to just hangout. We rented bikes from the resort and rode down the beach and had a great time. We spent the afternoon at Sea Salts, the resorts beach bar, watching college football and eating. We had planned to venture out for dinner again, but after striking out so many times, we decided to order Carraba’s take-out, because it was right at the entrance to the resort, and at least there would be no surprises.
While the beaches at Hilton Head were beautiful this really just wasn’t our scene. We loved the resort, and had we gone in with a different mindset of just hanging at the resort and relaxing instead of trying to explore somewhere new, this may have been an entirely different experience.
Here’s the thing… I think if you planned to golf all day there may be a lot for you here. If you have a family and you plan to stay in and cook, there were plenty of nice resorts with big pools and beach access and you would never have to leave. Sometimes hanging at a nice resort and stargazing is just what you need, so it definitely isn’t all bad.
However, there really is not much in the restaurant scene, which is probably one of our top things about going on vacation. Hilton Head is VERY commercial with all the chain restaurants you can imagine and a huge outlet mall with ALL the stores. Obviously, this sounds perfect to many people, or it wouldn’t be such a popular spot. So to each their own I guess.
Have you been to Hilton Head? What did you think? I’d love to know!
Chelsea's Postcards 