Oh, right, we have a blog!

If you forgot that we had a blog, don't feel bad...so did we (literally). We remembered recently that having our blog was a great way after moving to Cleveland to keep everyone up to date with Will stories and pictures, and here we are again halfway across the country. We'll be better now about posting.

We're all moved in here in sunny Myrtle Beach. It's definitely a change from Austin, Texas - the scenery, the accents, the stores, you name it - but so far we're having a lot of fun. There is so much to talk about that I'll have to give you all the summary and not the essay. Otherwise, I'd be typing for hours, and Will simply won't allow that!

First of all, I finally graduated! I figured that I shouldn't turn 31 and still be paying tuition, so I manned up and finished my dissertation, albeit in such a way as to take many years off of my life. What a stressful process - but in the end, I'm Dr. Fowler and that feels pretty cool. Our friends threw us a great graduation/going away party and then my folks threw me a special graduation party and it meant a lot to share those special times with so many of you. Christy even flew down with our cute little niece Casey to join us, and that meant so much to me. It feels so good to be done. I have started my postdoc here and am really enjoying the challenge so far.

Then we moved. Thanks to enormous help from my parents for making the drive with me, and to Whit's mother and aunt for flying over with Will and our annoying dogs, we all made it in one piece. The grandparents and Aunt Liney worked so hard to help make our new house a fun place for Will to come to, and it really worked. Will still calls it "new house" and is loving his new train table (thank you Grandmommy and Granddaddy), riding to the park in his red wagon (thank you Grammie and Grandpa), and playing with his bug collector and other fun toys (thanks Christy and Liney and everyone else!).

Will also already loves the beach and we've had some great times playing in the sand, finding shells, and sitting in the waves. We also have visisted one of the nearby state parks and had fun looking for crabs in the marsh (we saw two blue crabs, which Will calls "bwoo twab"), listening to the snapping shrimp (who ever heard of such a thing?) and enjoying the expansive, relatively tourist-free beaches there. Whitney and Will have already found their way into a music class and a mother's group and I hope they can make some good friends soon.

Last week our little man turned 2 years old. It's really unbelievable to think about how much he has already grown up, and how much change he's experienced too. We're glad that these moves have happened when he was too young to care a whole lot, and hope to really find some roots as soon as we can, wherever that may be. We know we're here for at least two years, so for now, this is our home and we're going to make the best of it. The beach is great, the seafood is unique, and we're ready for visitors anytime.

Sifting through all of our pictures and organizing them by theme seems like too daunting of a task for this Sunday evening, so here are a bunch of them, in no particular order.

A Scary Week for Buddy

   

Most of you know that our Will was very sick last week and had to spend a couple of days in the hospital. He is so much better now…and so now I feel like we can post about the experience.

Will had Croup, which I’d never heard of before but is apparently a common respiratory virus in toddlers. Adults can catch the virus but it doesn’t cause the same complications. The cough from Croup is very distinctive and sounds like a seal’s bark. He also sounded like he was having some trouble breathing, or at least was having some asthma or something. After one doctor visit we were told that not much was to be done except to wait it out, use a humidifier, and give him medicine for his fevers. The next morning, though, his breathing sounded much worse. I left for work and Whitney took him in to the doctor again, who noticed how forced his breathing had gotten. They checked his oxygen and found it to be quite low and called the ambulance. Whit called me then and we met up at the emergency room at the hospital.

Most of you who’ve met Will when he’s “in his element” would agree that he’s a really social and happy little guy, but for some reason he has developed a serious fear of going to the doctor. In fact, he even gets upset when the lady at the shoe store measures his foot. He just doesn’t seem to like strangers getting all up in his cheese whiz, as we say at the Fowler house! Needless to say, Will was really upset at the doctor’s office, in the ambulance, and at the hospital. Apparently they were able to calm him down a little bit in the ambulance by repeatedly telling him that they were in a “beep-beep”, which is what he calls my parents’ golf cart, and which he loves to ride in.

From what I’ve learned, they can give children steroid shots and/or a breathing treatment to help with the labored breathing, and of course they can give oxygen too. If I understood correctly, any of these usually work pretty quickly. Over the course of the next 24 hours or so they gave him two shots, two breathing treatments, and a whole bunch of medicine for fever, and he still sounded bad. They told us that it was about as bad of a Croup case as they see. What made it worse was that he got really worked up whenever they came to give him the breathing treatment, which in turn closed his airways more, causing his oxygen to drop. The whole visit seemed like this game where the doctors had to try and balance upsetting him and dropping his oxygen with getting him medicine which would help his oxygen. It was stressful and there was no calming him down. We will always remember holding the mask about six inches from his face and hoping the meds just shot in his general direction while he wailed. They obviously were monitoring his oxygen the whole time, so whenever we kept asking if he was breathing well enough (it didn’t really sound like he was) they would point to the oxygen monitor to reassure us. It was hard to listen to. Will has also gotten extremely attached to Whitney, and wasn’t too interested in Daddy, so poor Whitney didn’t get any rest, while Daddy was fortunate enough to piece together an hour here and there.

He got to come home at the end of the second day, very tired, very fussy, and still running a fever, but on a major streak of adequate oxygen levels. They said they weren’t likely to do anything else for him apart from treat the fever, so they booted us out. Fine by me as long as the buddy was okay! Will was feverish for a couple more days, and clingy/fussy/sleepy/not eating for several after that. In the past day or so he’s finally started eating normally again, and we can definitely tell that his signature tummy has receded a little bit. We’re working on plumping it right back up for all to see. We also have heard since then that Croup is going around Austin. Wash those hands and be careful if you have little ones.

I also want to say thank you to my parents and to Whitney’s mother for being there for us last week. In the big scheme of things it ended up being minor, but we didn’t know that and needed a lot of support. Thanks for being there when we needed you.

Here are a few pictures from last week. I chose the cute/happy ones.

Zonked out after the first shot and breathing treatment, still not breathing well, still holding Dad’s ER sticker (this kid LOVES stickers, or “dih-dih”) proudly:

Will’s first smile came in the ER when Daddy ran home to get overnight bags and toys for Will. Elmo and NayNay were important commodities last week and we thank them dearly.

Will sporting his purple gown and sleeping on Grandmommy:

This last one is a wonderful picture that I took a couple of days after we all got home. I would have loved to join them but I’m not sure there was any more room. What do you think?

Will's First Hike

Today we went hiking with Will for the first time and had a blast. Whitney's parents got us this very cool backpack over the holidays and we've been waiting for the right weekend to start using it. Thanks Grandmommy and Granddaddy! Today was a gorgeous day in Austin and we went to a park in the hills. Will seemed to really enjoy the scenery and was very talkative as we passed the creeks, trees, and other people with their kids and dogs. Will also really enjoyed it when we handed him sticks and rocks and let him drop them into the water. Mama even tried wearing the pack for a little while. Enjoy the pictures!

A fun day at the park with Daddy

On Saturday, I got to spend some quality father-son time with Will. I got some great pictures at the park, but this one is my favorite.

 

 

The Neverending Weenie

In this old mid-yawn picture of Penny, she looks just like Gmork from The Neverending Story.

 

By a strange coincidence, we have said for years that Polly looks like Falcor when she's sleeping! I don't have a picture to prove that connection, but trust me, it's there.

As promised...

Whitney soaring through the air and her husband making goofy noises behind the camera...

Our Special Getaway

  

Johnathan and I haven’t taken a trip by ourselves in many years, so I decided to plan a secret getaway for last weekend. Will stayed with his Grammie and Grandpa for his first overnight without Mommy and Daddy. He did wonderfully and had so much fun! He even learned how to flex his muscles and now says the word “muscles”! Thank you again, Grammie and Grandpa! We love you.

I found a beautiful old cabin to stay in near Wimberley, Texas, a small town in the Texas Hill Country. The cabin was built in 1859 in Missouri and was bought by a husband and wife who moved it to their ranch in Texas. It was completely renovated and decorated beautifully. The front porch had two comfy rocking chairs and a swing and there was a hot tub next to the cabin. We had so much fun looking up at the stars from the hot tub!  Johnathan and I had the nicest, most relaxing time at the cabin and will definitely be visiting again. Here are some cabin pictures:

Pretty cabin

Fun Porch

 

Relaxing in the living room – there’s a small twin bed in the corner as well as a big bed in a loft upstairs

 

Picture of loft from downstairs

On Saturday afternoon, we went on a Hill Country Zipline Adventure!  We had such a blast zipping through the air between the hills and over trees and creeks. What gorgeous views!

I will post a video later tonight of me riding the Zipline.  I look pretty dorky.

Needless to say, we had a wonderful time on our weekend away and hope to return to Wimberley soon. We are thinking about a day trip with Will next time. We are also eager to show others our special little town, so you may get invited sometime, too! :)

And finally, some pictures of our precious Will.

With Grandpa on the porch

   

“I’ll race ya!”

Chatting with Grandpa

At the neighborhood park

Drums are fun

I’m little and cute

“I’m not so sure about riding in your golf cart, Grandpa.”

Adorable Will-Will