What's My Name?

For the longest time, Charlie has called me Momma. Recently, that has all changed. Now I get called everything from Mommy to Mom, and occasionally he says momma with a bit of British accent. He even called me Mother the other day. What a little goober!

A little over a year ago, I was just praying to hear the word momma roll off of his little lips for the first time. Now I hear many versions of momma about a thousand times a day. No matter which name he calls me, I am just thankful that I am his one and only mom.

The above picture has little to do with the subject of this post, but I just love his beautiful face.

AG and Amanda Tie the Knot

Our dear friend Anthony got married to Amanda on July 10th in Roswell. AG, as we lovingly call him, and Nick have known each other since childhood. I met him as a Freshman at UGA. Nick and I were honored to have Anthony serve as one of the groomsmen in our wedding, and Nick was happy to return the favor last month.

The wedding ceremony was beautiful, and the reception was wonderful...great friends, good food, and lots of dancing. It was two nights in a row celebrating with some of our favorite people. We wish Anthony and Amanda all the best as they start their life together!

Pooh and the Girls

Pooh and her girls, Alex and Sidney, were here for a month. Unfortunately, it was right in the middle of the germ fest at our house. We did not get to see them as much as we would have liked, but we sure did have fun every time we could get together. The ladies all came over to play on their last day in town, and it was so nice having everyone together. Lisa and I marveled at the fact that we were sitting around watching our four babies playing together. We have certainly come a long way from our days in the dorm.

I had visions of taking a picture with all four kiddos, but it never happened. Someone was always taking a nap, eating, or just not in the mood for a picture. Here are some of the cute pictures that I did manage to get. How beautiful are these children!?!?

6 Months Old

Jack turned 6 months on July 22nd, and yes, I am three weeks late posting about it. Life was crazy around here for a while, and something had to give. I love blogging about our family life, but it takes time and brain power...both of which I have not had a lot of lately. Things are much calmer now, so I am going to try to back-blog about what we have been up to this past month. I figured the best place to start catching up was with our little man's big accomplishments.


This month brought a lot of changes and growth for Jackson. He finally rolled over from his back to his stomach, started sitting on his own, and his fine motor skills really improved. Jack reaches out to grab everything and wants exactly what we have. This kid is strong, and he will twist and turn to try to get where he wants to go. It seems like he just wants to get up and go. He enjoys sitting up and playing with his toys and will play on his own for long periods of time. His exersaucer is his favorite toy, and he loves to spin around and around visiting with all of his toys. All toys and objects go straight to his mouth, and I am shocked that he has yet to cut any more teeth since 4 months.


We had a GI appointment on the 21st, so I got all of Jack's stats. That was nice, because some how I manged to forget to make his 6-month well check visit with our pediatrician. Little man weighed in at 16 pounds, 3 ounces and was 26.5 inches long. His weight went down a little, but it could be due to the fact that I held off on solids until 6 months. We have since started solids, and this baby likes to eat and eat and eat.


Most of the month of July, Jack was sick. He had a bad cold that made him miserable with congestion and coughing. He then got and ear infection to add to the misery. To top things off, the 10 day antibiotic course for the ear infection tore his little tummy to shreds. During this time, Jack moved into our bed at night, and Nick moved out. There was very little sleep to be had by all, and it was just rough. All is well now, but Jack has totally regressed with sleep. He no longer falls asleep on his own, wakes up multiple times at night, and will not nap...sigh. I am trying to remind myself that he won't be doing this forever and that it will get better in time. I just miss my sleep and feeling like a functioning human being.


Now that he is feeling better, Jack is back to being his happy little self. He still loves Charlie and Samson and would watch them forever. His laugh is infectious, and I can't resist tickling him just to hear the squeals of laughter. We think he is trying to compete with Charlie for the loudest child award. He can be heard throughout the house when he is babbling. It is fun talking to him, because he definitely talks back and tries to mimic the sounds that we make.

Even though it was a rough month for health and sleep, it really was a month of enormous growth for Jack. He seems much less like a little baby and more like a big boy. We are so proud of all that he has accomplished in the last six months and love him more and more every day.

Sick AGAIN

The Shaw Family is sick again! Nick fell first, and Charlie and Jack were soon to follow. Even Mimi picked up some of our germs. I mean, really? Apparently the germs did not get the memo that it is NOT winter anymore.


Nick never felt horrible, but I made him go back to the doctor because he has been sick so many times since his bout with pneumonia last December. He is on a strong antibiotic and some other meds, but Dr. Mommy wants him to have another chest X-ray to see if the pneumonia is still lingering. Charlie had a runny nose and cough, but he is feeling much better. Jack, on the other hand, is pathetic. There is nothing worse than a stuffed up baby. He is generally happy during the day and just wants to be held more. As with any sickness, the nights are horrible. He has had three nights of waking up screaming because of congestion. The only way that I can get him to sleep is in my arms. So, last night (his worst) I kicked Nick and Samson out of bed so that Jack and I would have a more comfortable night. He was grumbling and thrashing around most of the night and even started running a fever around 2 a.m. Fortunately, he has been taking extra long naps to make up for the lack of sleep at night. I wish I could say the same for myself. At least I am not sick, right?


So, all of my boys are sick again, and I am over it! Not that we would be spending a lot of time outside considering it is up around 100 degrees, but we are missing out on a lot of fun play dates with friends. We have got to get better by next week, because Pooh and the girls will be getting back from Hilton Head, and we really want to spend as much time with them before they head back to LA in a couple of weeks.

It goes without saying that we NEED to get healthy around here. I am pretty sure my pediatrician's office suspects that I enjoy visiting them on a weekly basis. Pretty soon, I will be having girls' night out with the office staff, be planning shopping trips with the nurse practitioners, and will be inviting the docs over for dinner parties. I certainly spend enough time with them to make them my new besties!

Patriotic Pals

Playgroup was at our place last week, and I thought it would be fun to have all of the kids dress in red, white, and blue and try to get come pictures of the little cuties - easier said than done, we have learned in the past. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get six toddlers to sit still long enought o take a picture??? It's been a few months since we last tried a group shot, and this time around the mommies discovered that bribery will get you far at this age. It was the best photo shoot we have had since they were three months old. We even managed to get some pictures of the three new additions to the play group. Aren't these kiddos cute in their 4th of July outfits?!?!

Stars and Stripes

Our 4th of July celebration really started on Friday this year. Nick had a four-day weekend, so we have been spending a lot of time together as a family. We went to the pool yesterday and had the entire place to ourselves. Jack took his first dip and loved every minute of it. He lounged in his little baby float and sucked his fingers peacefully. Charlie had a fun time too playing with his water cups and balls and swimming with Nick and me. It was such a relaxing trip to the pool, and I have no pictures to share because I forgot the camera...oops. After our trip to the pool, Auntie Vicki and Uncle Justin came over with Cousin Rylee, and we grilled out steaks, potatoes, and corn on the cob. Dinner was so yummy, and we were thankful for the extra time with Vicki and Justin.

Today we spent some more quality time with Vicki, Justin, and Rylee. We had grand plans to take pictures of all of the cousins in their 4th of July outfits, but Jack napped pretty much the entire visit, Rylee was exhausted by the time Jack woke up, and Charlie refused to take part in the photo shoot, and yelled, "No pictures!" while we tried to take pictures of Rylee and Jack. Oh well, right?

After nap time, we headed over to Baba and Mimi's house for a cookout and fireworks. Dinner was so yummy, but Charlie was much more interested in desert. He was in heaven eating his ice cream out of the special 4th of July bowl that Mimi got for him. After stuffing our faces, I stayed over to see fireworks with Charlie, and Nick took Jackson home to go to bed since he probably could care less about fireworks this year. Charlie was happy to be up past his bedtime, and enjoyed playing with glow sticks, looking for the moon (which was hiding), and seeing the stars. He did not really care for the fireworks, however. Shortly after the show started, Charlie announced that it was "too scary" and wanted everyone to go inside. I had a feeling that he was not going to love the fireworks, so that is why we did not take him to a full blown fireworks show this year. After our mini-fireworks show, Charlie spent the night at Mimi and Baba's, and I headed home. It was a busy, fun day with our family! Our day was spent with the people we love, and I could not have asked for any more! We hope your family had a great holiday, too!

We Will Miss You!

Goodbyes stink! Today we had to say an especially stinky goodbye to Charlie and Jack's Auntie Vicki and Uncle Justin. They are on their way to New Orleans so that Justin can get his Masters at LSU. We are so proud of Justin and know that this is a wonderful accomplishment, but it does not make it any easier to see them leave. Charlie and Jack are so lucky to have Vicki and Justin in their lives, so we are already thinking about when we can plan a trip to visit them in their new home.

Vicki and Justin,

We love you both and wish you all the best as you start this adventure together! You are beginning a wonderful, new chapter as a couple, and we are certain that this experience will create a lifetime of special memories and friendships. Have an amazing time in New Orleans! Just don't have too much fun...We want you to come back, of course!

We love you and will miss you!!!

Love,

Nick, Lindsay, Charlie, and Jack

Pooh is Here!

We have been anxiously awaiting my best friend Lisa's (aka Pooh's) arrival from LA. She visits once a year during the summer and stays for a few weeks. This trip is extra special because we are meeting Sidney, Lisa's baby girl who was born one week before Jack. Because we were sick, we had to hold off on seeing Sidney and Pooh's oldest daughter, Alex. Lisa was able to come over to meet Jack and play with Charlie, but we had to steer clear of the girls to keep them healthy. I was disappointed to say the least.

After waiting for a few days until our rash cleared, we were finally able to see everyone over at Lisa's parents' house. It was so nice having all four of our kiddos together and finally meeting Miss Sid. The kids played, ate, and did very little napping. It was definitely a lot more chaotic with two more children in the mix, but it was amazing seeing our beautiful children all in the same room!

Our second day together was spent at the Georgia Aquarium. Jack stayed home with my mom so that Charlie and I could have a mommy and me date with the fish. Much like our last visit, Charlie was less than impressed with the exhibits. He was more interested in Grandma (Lisa's mom) and going through her purse. The highlight of his trip was when Grandma gave him a part to an old pen. He held onto it like it was gold and called it his present. Go figure!

The Boy With the Curl

You can't really see it very well in this picture, but Jack has one curl on the top of his head. I know it's still early to tell if his hair will be curly like mine. I just can't help hoping that he gets my hair. There are only a few physical attributes that I hoped to pass onto my boys and good hair is definitely one of them. It's just so much fun to see a little bit of yourself peaking through in your babies. Everyone seems to agree that Charlie is a little mini-me of Charlie, so I am enjoying the fact that Jack seems to favor his mommy.