Lola Visits the Boro and Hilton Head!

I remember finishing the last blog almost 8 weeks ago saying, it wouldn’t be another 7 weeks before i blogged again…. oops.

Anyway here was our first road trip with sweet Lola to the most special place on earth to us, our roots, the Boro!

Lola was dressed for the occasion in her “faily Vacation” shity and like every Boro trip we were excited and  hopeful we would have time to fit everyone in!!! Especially this time BECAUSE it was Lolas very first visit and we could not wait to show her around!

Lola slept the entire car ride home- hallalujah and Tucker and Milly were on their best behavior in the back! We got to mom and dads and Lola had her first gold cart ride given to her by her grampa!

That evening was the moment we had all waited for ;)

Her first trip to El Som!

Lola lost it as soon as we took the picture!

We went over to Taras after diner and Stephanie came running over to meet Lola in her PJ’s and all… i will never forget her saying “Umm ok if I come tonight to meet her I can still come see her again tomorrow right? This isn’t my time slot is it!?!” Too funny!

We were running the roads pretty much the whole time we were home, I felt like we were living out of the car! Lola was so worn out after meeting all of her visitors and her mommy was worn out from taking her to meet all of her visitors so we snuggled up a lot on that trip…

This is what happens when Lola falls asleep, Tara and Alex were “accidently” bumping her car seat dying for her to wake up to play with them! Ridiculous…

Originally this was expected to be a quick weekend trip until we got some terrible news on Friday night.... Mike fell in the shop and they were taking him to the ER to have him checked out… Initially they found a spot on his brain that was concerning and after several test, MRi’s, a dreaded 6 night hospital stay and brain surgery they discovered his fall was due to a seizure and the spot was cancer, Glioblastoma. Needless to say we were all in shock and devastated by the news… Mike was the one making sure we all stayed in good spirits and upbeat. Bless his heart… I put myself in his shoes and literally couldn’t breathe, I then imagined myself in Karens shoes and refused to imagine what that must feel like.

It was all just too much to bear. So we helped out as best we could and thankfully Alex has the sweetest boss in the world who allowed him to take the rest of the week off so we could be there for Mrs. Karen and Mike.

We spent most days with a lot of fear, stress and not a lot of answers- so we did all we could do which at this time wasn’t much more than “being there” for them. Even that was a stretch considering Lola was WAY too young to visit the hospital so most days we rode back and forth to Savannah splitting up our time with who could go in the hospital and who waited in the car with Lola for the remainder of our trip.

Lola was such a light in that scary state of mind but in a way loving her this much makes that type of diagnosis even scarier…

A few days Lou went by himself to savannah because it was just too much for Lola and I…Mom and I decided to take turns getting our nails done in the mall one day and Lola had a crying fit like no other right around the time Aunt Tara and Stephanie came to meet us… so we stripped the poor childs clothes off and she instantly perked up!

This also meant we had to have a photo shoot in the middle of Belk!

With our many Savannah trips to visit Mike we got to take advantage of a couple and let Lola meet Julian, Avery and Aunt Amber, lets just say they were all in love!

We also decided to take Lola on her first trip to river street in Savannah while we were there with my family!!

It was the most beautiful day!!

We had a little “Holy cow” moment when i realized this was My baby with me in savannah.. Alex and I have gone there for years, date nights, anniversaries, proms, parades you name it but it was so crazy to experience it with a baby- our baby!

Oh goodness!   Thanks photographer Tara!After all the excitement and visitors we were “home bound” the rest of the trip… Lola woke up Wednesday morning with one single cough.

It was a scary cough. I remembered it the entire day, called Nicolle and her doctors back in Atlanta. she didn’t cough again the rest of the day but that night she had a TRAUMATIC SCREAMING spell where I literally got the keys to take her to the childrens hospital in Savannah….

She cried off and on for hours.. she had done this one night a few days after we came home from the hospital which scared me but I didn’t know what to expect then so I really just blamed myself that night… this night i knew it wasn’t me it was Lola, she was acting different and something was wrong!

Eventually mom got her to calm down (Thank God for mamas) an I essentially stayed on the phone with an on call nurse throughout the night!

We took her to a doctor in Statesboro the next morning and turns out she had a “head and chest cold”.

I became a newborn mommy Nazi all over again! 

Needlesss to say we didn’t sleep for days, we stayed up with her to make sure she was breathing and I had to sleep on the couch to hold her at an incline allowing her to sleep on my chest the next few nights…

We made sure Mr. Mike and Karen made it home safely from the hospital and headed back to Atlanta with our sick little girl!

Lola recovered pretty quickly after lots of steamy showers when we got back home and I was SO RELIEVED!

She went to the doctor for her 2 month check up and had lots of shots!

It broke my heart but she was such a big girl about it and never had the slightest fussy spouts from them or anything! Whew, i think we had already been punished enough!

Lola was also weighing 11 pounds now and it was time for mommy to face the facts…. Lola could no longer fit into her newborn clothes!

So with the sadness of putting up her newborn clothes came the happiness of seeing her smile more often and we hit a lot of milestones rapidly!

  Around the same time Lola started sleeping 8 hours at night! Thank the lord!!

Our next mini Vacay was lolas first trip to Hilton Head for Nick and Lia’s wedding! I was SO excited to let Lola experience her daddy and I’s love for the beach!

The first day ended up being SO windy we went to the pool instead of the beach but the second day was a perfect beach day!

I was pretty much a nervous wreck having her out in the sun for the first time even though she was COMPLETEY covered (inclusive of a long sleeve bathing suit!)… but she did really well, slept a lot and didn’t get the least bit of sun- success!

We also had Lauren and Renee and their kids join us at the beach for the day and boy do Alex and I have A LOT to look forward to in the next couple of years with Lola… it was so fun and SUCH a hot mess….

This pretty much sums up our visit with them ;)

Harper was infatuated with Lola… a live baby doll!Ney was too as always!   

Just when we thought the beach couldn’t be any crazier we took all the girls to an early dinner (with no nap during the day) and lets just say we stopped at each table to apologize as we walked out the door!

Aside from that craziness we finally got to the main events!

On Friday, before Nick and Lia’s Rehearsal we took Lola to one of our favorite spots on the Island… Giuseppi's Pizza and then headed out for a walk to the marsh.

Alex’s went to rehearsal while Lola and I got ready and waited for Lolas baby sitters for the night Aunt Tara and Gigi to come over! I was preparing myself for weeks to leave Lola 2 nights in a row for the wedding and rehearsal dinner!

It helps so much knowing she is in the BEST hands ever and Lou and I were able to go out to a much needed night out and enjoy ourselves!

We are sooo happy for these too!

The next day was the big day, the weather was perfect and it was absolutely beautiful! 

Who would have known when these boys met as neighbors (still in diapers) that years later they would all 3 be in each others wedding and as close as can be today! I love that!

Lia was stunning and her dress was to die for!!

Oh Chicago, we hate that you took them from us but we love that they came home for the wedding! It was so beautiful as are they and we know they are going to make some pretty babies soon!!  We cant wait for many trips ahead with our little beach loving baby!