BlogaBunch: 06/01/2009

Savannah, Part 2: The Historic District

General James Oglethorpe arrived on the banks of the Savannah River in 1733, with 120 other colonists, to found America's 13th colony and first planned city. He quickly made peace with the Native Americans in the area, avoiding the conflict so many other colonies faced. This new land, inhabited by debtors brought over to begin a new life in America, also did not tolerate slavery...until it became clear that cotton plantations meant lots of money and the legalization of slavery might be convenient. In 1864, General Sherman marched through Savannah at the end of his "march to the sea." Instead of burning it to the ground , he decided it was much too beautiful and instead "gave" it as a Christmas present to Abraham Lincoln.

Savannah is known as the most haunted city in the United States. To celebrate this, we went on a late night ghost tour in the back of a hearse. It was very interesting and entertaining, to say the least. Unfortunately, I don't have that picture available...Just trust me, it 's funny.
The show "Ghost Hunters" has a famous episode inside one of the houses here in Savannah and I have personally seen one episode detailing the haunted hotel that sits on the river there...they have many guests leave in the middle of the night.

Furthermore...Savannah has been a site in over 70 movies, including Forrest Gump and Midnite in the Garden of Good and Evil. These few facts are just a taste of the interesting, beautiful city of Savannah because that is all we got last weekend! I look forward to re-visiting and exploring the history in more detail.

Where the Forrest Gump bench was - the actual bench is in a museum there.

The house on Ghost Hunters

The Savannah trees

The steeple where the feather started on Forrest Gump

Eating at Paula Deene's

Eating at Uncle Bubba's

Ella and her Pops

Sam and Ella

Savannah, Part 1: Tybee Island

We got extremely lucky this past weekend and were able to join Kevin's dad, stepmom and family on vacation to Savannah, Georgia. It was a last minute decision, and involved more than a little courage from me, considering I was on call the entire time and could have been called back to see a newborn or hospital patient at any time. I didn't even want to go because of that possibility, but Kevin made the decision that we were taking the chance...Am I glad he did! I did not get a single unexpected call and from Thursday until Sunday night, we spent time with family in beautiful Savannah. After taking a quick drive around Thursday night, we crashed and woke up Friday to head to the beach! Ella's very first trip!! Interestingly, we were stopped in traffic for about an hour...at the same red light...moving inches. There was a wreck on a narrow bridge on the main road to the beach, with no detours. We waited it out, and finally re-started on our final destination. Savannah looks like this:

We stayed in the Midtown area, near the historic / downtown district and drove to the beach (Tybee Island). So you drive about 30-45 minutes to the beach and hang out all day. We settled in at the very end of the beach as you see it below, past the pier :

The beach was wonderful. It is a strip with charming bright porch-wrapped cottages with hammocks overlooking the ocean. There is only one resort on the beach and I honestly don't remember seeing it - this keeps the feel more laid-back and open. There were sections that were quite crowded, especially in an area where a Miley Cyrus movie was being filmed while we were there, but it was easy to find pretty secluded spots. The water was bath-water perfect and I did not see any ocean animals, save a few fish, one starfish, and some crabs, thanks to Carla (The adventurous 10 year old cousin to Darlene, Kevin's step mom).

Ella, of course, LOVED the ocean and the sand. She crawled as fast as she could everywhere, including all through the shallow water near our "camp." Unfortunately, the sun was brutal. It stayed around 100-110 both days we visited the beach, making it necessary for Ella to stay in her pack n play, under umbrella, where she could feel the breeze but not the sun...at least not the DIRECT sun.

She was actually a very good sport, wielding her shovels and buckets sand-less.
Yes, she had a cute bikini, but if you were there, you would understand why fashion was no longer priority.

I, also, stayed mostly under cover and STILL got some pink on my shoulders. All in all, it was a great first trip to the beach.
The second day we got organized and made a pit stop at Wal-Mart to buy a big tent and some chairs. The tent was worth every penny, as the next day turned out to be even hotter. Ella and I ditched everyone else a little early to cool off in the car, only to find they all decided to follow us soon after.

Justin, sister Samantha, and Kevin - excited to be there =)

This is definitely a beach I will visit again soon. It is only a 6 hour drive (more than tolerable) and is laid-back, charming, peaceful and most importantly, has the backdrop of a historic city steeped in legend, mystery, beauty and even more charm. But that's the stuff of Part 2.

Summer is Fun

Sleeping in my crib. See - told you! See this Post !

Lightning

Tonight reminds me
of a hill
blue grass
bugs that fly
lights on their tail, leaving a trail
like the musk of children
wrapped around summer

and a girl who learned
even back-lighted bugs
need holes in the jar
...to breathe

My Flowers

Sleepin and Swimmin

Since Ella was about 4 months old, I gave in to the guilt induced by her cries and Dr. Sears' baby book and brought her into bed with me...also partly to get some rest as I had returned to work, but was still nursing throughout the night. Fast forward to 2 days ago, and I am still sleeping with Ella...however, it has moved from me and Ella in the guest bed to me and Ella on an extra queen-sized mattress in the floor of the master bedroom next to my real bed with my husband in it - He has never been in favor of the co-sleeping option because he is a deep sleeper and feels uncomfortable with baby Ella so close. I have been getting very restless sleep for 10 months now...well, we'll go ahead and say 1 1/2 years, if you count pregnancy. Gone are the days of waking up after what seems like 1 min. of sleep - I have several wakenings to remind me how long the night can be - and yet, in the morning, how short...

Last night, I hit my breaking point. I know many of you thought it would never happen. I had heard from more than one parent how to solve my problem. I had even heard the remedy from more than one book, but I couldn't shake the advice of Dr Sears...he says your baby only knows how to communicate with you through crying, and when they cry, they need you, and you should never deny that need. To do so is cruel. Well, cruel can also mean an overly tired mama who is so sick of screaming and crying and flailing that her nurturing instinct is going extinct. I blame Dr. Sears for reinforcing my fears of neglecting my poor scared, hurting, wanting-for-love baby. Not that I particularly look up to him...I just happened to buy his book and read the small section on co-sleeping...and it just happened to reinforce my own fears.

Ella is now 10 months old. She understands cause and effect well. She knows the power of her actions. Thus, she plays peek-a-boo over and over, not knowing exactly why it is funny. She thinks we think when a person puts their hands in the area of the forehead it is absolutely incredible...so she repeats. Same with her pitiful crying at night. With several moments of wakefulness throughout the night, she doesn't know what else to do but cry out. And until now, I have responded with picking her up and bringing her to my bed.

Last night, I let her cry. WE let her cry. We brought her to her crib, said good night, and shut the door. For 1 hour, she screamed. Hard enough to prompt my husband to ask if it was medically dangerous to let her scream so loud. Finally, silence. After much debating over whether I should, after all, go in and get her...whether I'm scarring her for life...silence. I creeped in her room and there she was, slumped between the crib bumper and rails, asleep sitting up. A sad, sad sight. I moved her comfortably to the middle of her crib, and there she slept the rest of the night, with a few scattered (some longer) crying sessions. This morning, I had to wake her by actually picking her up.

Today for her nap, I placed her in the crib at 1 and left. Less than 5 minutes later, silence. Tonight I read her a story, sang her a song, kissed her, gave her her dolly, and said I love you. I shut the door and 20 seconds later...silence. I tip toed in to see a baby lying in bed playing with her doll, eyes heavy and ready for sleep. She has been in bed since then and cried out once or twice.

Am I happy? Extremely. Is this less stressful? Oh yes. Do I feel like a bad mom? No. I feel good because she is getting rest. Do I miss her? absolutely.

Is this what it feels like when you send your kids to college?

Earlier today she swam in her very own pool for the first time:

Get ready for some pictures...

I got a new camera for my birthday. I've been a little excited. I haven't taken pictures (except the quick point and shoot kind) in a few years. Sooo...here are some pictures of our already very fun summer...some at Granny Taylor's birthday cookout - of course, many at Teddie's pool, especially since we all just celebrated my grandparents' birthdays there!! I opted for pictures of the kiddos and edited out all the group shots / corn hole action / pool action , in case you're wondering. But yes, there were a lot more people there that I did not find quite as cute as these guys:

A new corner to be explored and destroyed.