Ballin'

Basketball runs in the blood. I am convinced. There just has to be some gene in the Lohrey gene pool that is specific for basketball obsession. I had a feeling Malachi inherited this gene when he would literally watch almost the entire UCM game and follow that ball up and down the court, then whenever basketball was on the TV he would drop everything and stare, then of course the obsession with his basketballs (just counted, he has a million). Then yesterday happened. His fate has been sealed. Vicki was playing with him as he was crawling all over like a raging maniac with nothing better to do but rip apart the house (yes, this is an every day occurrence and I oddly enjoy watching it happen), when suddenly, as if it happened in slow-mo, Vicki picked up a basketball, Malachi's head turned slowly toward the hoop JUST in time to watch Vicki drop the ball through the basket. Then as if someone hit fast-forward, Kai SPRINTED like freaking Superman speed toward the ball, got up on his knees and tried to put the ball up through the hoop. Pretty sure my jaw dropped to the floor. He did it over and over and over and over and over and over. It was so stinkin' cute. The kid will be a baller. Prodigy. Period.

Away We GOOOOOO

This weekend the Lohrey clan took a drive to the Lake of the Ozarks for a long weekend! And by the Lohrey clan I mean: Brian, myself, Kai, Doug AND Vicki :) We had such a great time. We got there early afternoon on Saturday and met up with Coach Anderson, his wife Melisssa and their eldest son Ryan for a little boat ride. Kai was pretty indifferent about the ride and ended up falling asleep shortly after "take off", but Brian and I LOVED it!!! We now officially want a boat, a lake house and a million bajillion dollars :) No, but seriously, we had a lot of fun. Doug and Vicki arrived shortly after we got back and we went out for a nice little dinner at Wooly Boots BBQ. It was delish and Kai really enjoyed them good ole sweet potato fries. He was quite the trooper as he was completely off his schedule and pretty over stimulated, but he held it together in time for us to get back to the hotel room and put him to bed...WHERE he slept in the bathroom. What? Don't judge! It was the only place that was really dark enough where we would sleep AND where he couldn't see us if he happened to wake up in the middle of the night. Thankfully he slept AWESOME! Even for naps, which was quite the blessing as this kid might be the pickiest sleeper EVER and really only likes sleeping in his own bed. But seriously, who can blame him?!


The next day Brian and Doug went golfing at "the hardest course ever" (Brian) and I was sent on my way to enjoy a lovely massage at the resort spa. Is Brian not the bestest husband ever? It was so nice and I loved every minute...even the minutes that I fell asleep for haha! While I was off in la-la land getting my massage Victoria brought Malachi down to one of the many pools at the resort. Apparently he had a blast! Another family that was down there let him use one of their floats and Kai was just in heaven...from what Victoria told me. We then ate lunch and we ALL took a nap. After a couple hours I started getting antsy and woke Kai up and we headed back down to a different pool where the boys met up with us. There was one little pool where Malachi could crawl around in at his own leisure, and where he also found this blue/purple ball, which he has been attached to since he found it.For dinner on our last night there we went to this amazing restaurant called JB Hooks (I may be wrong, but I think that was it). Anyway, it had this fantastic view of the lake and the sunset was gorgeous! Malachi really enjoyed looking out the window, along with breaking up crackers to throw on the floor. Hey, anything to keep that boy from being fussy :) Brian and Doug both had a HUGE bowl of "peel me" shrimp, which neither of them could finish, but both their faces lit right up when the waiter brought them out. Kai wasn't too sure what to think of the "creatures", but he didn't have to eat them so got over it quickly.


The next day was somewhat of a relaxing day. We took our time in the morning and Malachi took his usual 3 hour nap before checking out and heading to the Outlet Mall for some quality shopping! We had a good time spending Doug and Vicki's money :) Seriously, they spoil us way too much and we can't thank them enough! By about 1 o'clock Kai was beyond ready for lunch and we went to this pizza joint called Imo's. It was different, but really good. Right as we were about to be on our merry way rain just started DUMPING on us, so we hung outside for a little bit under this overhang and let Kai try and get into the rain. Finally as it started to let up we made a run for it and headed home.

All in all it was a great trip! Very relaxing and great company. Definitely have to go for a little longer next year, and hopefully with Shanna, Aaron, Mel and G-Unit since they'll be living right down the street (it's a 45 minute long street!). Oh and just an update: Malachi is feeling a lot better and no longer looks like and underfed starving child. I think he's literally eaten a MILLION blueberries (some came out whole). EEEK.

Poor Nugget.

Our poor little guy has been sick for the whole week. He's been sick before, but this was the first time that it's been for an extended period and my heart just broke every time I looked into his baby blues. I would have given ANYTHING to trade places with him. On Tuesday I ended up taking him to the doctor because he had a fever of 104.6 that just would NOT break. Fevers make me really nervous, especially when it lasts for 3 days! Unfortunately it was just a virus that had to run it's course :( All we could give him were Motrin and Tylenol...and lots of lovin'!! The part that scared us the most though was that he lost a lot of weight. When you only weigh 18 lbs (barely) and then lose a pound, you can really tell. SKELETOR! And to top it off he was refusing to eat. He drank milk and Pedialyte (he would only drink it while laying on the floor: see picture), but other than that it was a battle to get food in him (we're still battling). Today he finally has NO sign of a fever and has only had the ever so lovely hershey squirts twice. This week he's woken up every night with a blow-out, so only having them twice was a pretty big deal. But his energy is back just in time because the Lohrey clan is heading to the Lake of the Ozarks for a long weekend!!! WOO HOO first family vacation in...well, I think it's our first one EVER!

Take a Walk on the WILD Side.

I am officially using my "I'm a first time Mom" card on this one. I don't know what I was thinking. We bought Malachi a little cake for his birthday and obviously we wanted him to have as much fun with it as he could, but red frosting was a bad choice. Here is the proof...

He's had 2 baths AND he STILL smells like frosting...

ANNNND You're ONE!

Malachi from the moment your Daddy and I found out we were pregnant we just absolutely LOVED you...maybe a little in shock, but still absolutely in love. Your Daddy and I were terrified of being parents (sometimes we still are) and we had no idea where this journey would take us. Everything was so uncertain and life was a little crazy, then on this day, only a year ago, you showed up! Our world just seemed to stand still. The first time I held you in my arms nothing else seemed to matter. You were (are) perfect. Just thinking about you puts a smile on my face. I can be in a terrible mood or just be having a bad day and you crawl over and climb up on my lap and instantly brighten my day. You have made your Daddy and I smile and laugh every day since you were born. Sometimes you made us cry...but mostly smile :)

Over the year you have changed so much! Your little personality is amazing. You love laughing and chasing me around squeeling as loud as possible (which, for you, isn't very loud). The things you have learned over the year is almost jaw dropping. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. You are almost walking and are a professional at standing alone, especially when you have a toy in your hand to distract you. You are a typical little boy and love anything with wheels. When we were in Maine over the 4th of July you even chased down the FedEx man in the mall because his cart had big wheels on it. You aren't big on TV and it will only distract you for about 5 minutes (max). You love milk and water and absolutely love drinking my iced tea, though I do have to limit you. You are a stud with a sippy cup, but hate the ones that have handles...you're more of a water bottle type of kid. Along with the wheels you also love balls. You do your own version of dribbling when we say "dribble dribble" and sometimes even try to do it with things that aren't balls, which you think is hilarious. You love play "catch" and you really like when I hit you in the head with the ball. It usually gives you the giggles. If you're not playing with a basketball or wheels, you also LOVE playing with things that stack up or banging things together. You really like taking tops off of things and trying to put them back on or trying to put a straw back into the lid. You are analytical like your Dad, but you are hilarious like me :) You are a pretty down to earth little boy and this year has been so much fun! I am so very blessed to be able to stay home with you and watch you grow each and every day. I am sad that you are growing so quickly, but so very excited to watch you grow into an amazing man like your Dad. You are our stud. Thanks for making us laugh, smile, cry and take deep breaths. We love you!!

Don't Judge.

Soooooooo Malachi is almost one!! HORRAY HORRAY I cannot believe it. It is just crazy how fast this year has gone by and how much has changed! Wait, I'm being misleading, that is not really what this post was about. Anyway, since he is pretty much a year old, Brian and I have really stopped worrying so much about what he eats. Don't get me wrong, we make sure he eats enough of the right foods and it's not like we're giving him Snickers for dinner or anything (only for breakfast), but we'll let him try anything that we eat. Spicy, salty, sweet - you name it, he tries it. We have yet to give him peanut butter, honey or chocolate, but other than that, it's fair game. For instance if I'm sipping my coffee in the morning and he's looking at me with those baby blues, I'll let him have a sip. WOAH WOAH WOAH completely kidding. I mean, I do have my "limitations" and I am still a mom looking out for his best interest, so I guess not everything is fair game, but I don't really freak out if Brian lets him try some ice-cream...a few months ago I might have had an emotional break down and freaked out. So anyway, yesterday Brian took Kai on an adventure to the school and they returned with some nice refreshing Sonic drinks. One Vanilla Dr. Pepper coming right up :) And yes, just for giggles we let Kai take a swig (or 2) just to see his reaction from the carbonation. Surprisingly he kept chugging. The best part was, after I cut him off he let out a BIG burp. I guess you had to be there...but trust me, it was cute. Cutest burp I've ever heard. And you should have seen the grin on his face :) Don't worry, he won't be "trying" out soda again for quite some time.

Slack Attack.

So I've been a little MIA. Cut me some slack...we've been TRAVELIN'. And after vacation it always takes me a little while to get back into the swing of things, meaning, I take a mini vacation from my vacation. Got it?

So not a whole lot going on in the MO, but Kai and I just had an AWESOME visit with my family in Maine and then our "extended" family in Dallas. I'm a little disappointed in myself because I took absolutely NO pictures of my friends in Dallas. Really not happy about that, but not much I can do.

Okay, so first, TO MAINE! Trip went well, Kai is a pro traveling stud. Seriously, never cried and was only really squirmy toward the end because the poor kid had to be on lock down for about 6+ hours. I'm pretty sure people would not have appreciated me letting him crawling and "visit" up and down the isles. Poor kid was ready to get some energy OUT. And once we landed he was on the go. Unfortunately it took him about 3-4 days to get used to his new surroundings, so sleep wasn't exactly great. I had to let him cry himself to sleep a couple times, which always breaks my heart...until he passes out, then I know I did the right thing. There were a couple nights where I let Allison snuggle him until he fell asleep. Typically they both ended up passed out on the bed, which was adorable. This kid gets plenty of loving from the family. Okay, okay. So in Maine we took Kai to the ocean for the first time: HATED it. He didn't mind the sand and eventually got to the point where he enjoyed playing in it, but the water was just too cold. I honestly think that as soon as his feet hit the water his lips turned INSTANTLY blue. He is his father's son. Wimps :) We took him shopping (and by shopping I mean my mom went crazy and I will no longer pack him any clothes when we go because I know she will just buy him a bunch of new stuff he can wear), he had his first ice cream, ate his first cookie, and we went swimming MANY times. He did a lot better in the pool because it wasn't as cold, and he laid on me on a float. OH and we also got his one year pictures done professionally (jennygironda.com ---->love her). Malachi met a lot of my old friends from high school too and had a lot of fun just being outside. All in all we had a pretty great trip....THEN TO DALLAS!

Okay so the trip to Dallas was a little (okay, a lot) hectic. We flew in Friday afternoon, had lunch with friends from GuideStone (where I worked) and then played around at the office for a little bit. This poor kid went through hell on this day. He was up at 3am, flight was at 6am, landed in Atlanta at 8:30, flight from Atlanta to Dallas at 9:30 (delayed, left at 10), landed in Dallas at 12, didn't sleep (maybe and I mean MAYBE an hour), fell out of the car (it was parked...he was playing in the back seat and BOOM fell), and then was hit with a bunch of new faces. Poor kid. So after finally letting him stretch his crawling legs out at the office for a bit we went to Mary's (Tilger not Flicker) new house for a bit. Mary is one of my friends from the office, MFlick was not home yet so we went to Tilger's house to visit. I tried to lay Kai down for a nap since she had a crib, but he cried and cried and cried (overtired much?) so we finally just gave up and drove around in the car praying that he would fall asleep (thankfully he did). So then we were off to the Flickner's!!! Kai had a lot of fun playing with Isaiah and Ruthie. He was laughing and screaming and I think he was just happy to be out of the car/plane! He even got to splash around in the tub with Isaiah! Thankfully the poor kid fell asleep fairly quickly and had a decent night's sleep. Brian and I, however, sweat like pigs in a butcher shop. I love the Flick's, but DANG. AC does not mean 82 :) The next day Malachi met a lot of new faces: Avery (future wife, already has the BLING), Matt and Lindsey, LindsAy Thomas, Jess, Kallie and then he saw Mary T again. It was a busy, busy day and one that went by WAY too quickly. It was nice to see everyone, but next visit is going to have to be a lot longer (I'm thinking a week at least). That night Brian and I went to the Williams' new house. I love love love it. Seriously jealousy filled my whole body. But jealousy that was also super happy for them. We ate dinner, put the babies down (that took a little longer, but hey, they're babies!) and played spades and Shanghai rummy. Just like old times...but with babies :) I really miss them. We had a lot of good laughs...like always.

The next morning we were off to the Flickner's to get our stuff and hit the road. I was thinking, really? Back to MO already? Considering it was an 11 hour drive, Kai did amazing. He only really got fussy the last hour or so, then he ended up falling asleep. I can't complain about that.

It was all in all a great trip. I always love seeing my family and old friends. I love seeing people after you haven't seen them for awhile and it's as though you never left. It's good to know that some friendships really don't change :)