Nickerson News

Every parent dreads ER trips.

By Wed. night I was starting to panic since Abel’s 104 temp. was not dropping on Tylenol and Motrin. Of course, by that time every clinic close to us was closed and the only thing that was opened was the Outer Banks ER-one hour away. To top things off, Wed. night was the day of our mini hurricane. Driving in a storm at night and taking your baby to the ER just isn’t fun at all, but you do what you got to do. My mom, Seth, Abel and I prepared ourselves for the long night ahead.

Thankfully, everyone in the OBX ER is on vacation and so there wasn’t too many people in the waiting room. You could tell they were all beach/vacation related accidents. We only had to wait about 30 minutes (which if you don’t know is REALLY fast for an ER). They had an adorable children’s area in the waiting room. If there is anything that slightly looks like a car, Abel is all about it. (One day at Target he was obsessed with a lady in a wheelchair, because he assumed she was driving a mini car in the store. We had to follow her for awhile, that was interesting.)

The word “car” is about 85% of his vocabulary. He can say about 15+ words, but car is the one he says ALL of the time. Can we say, OBSESSED?  It can get a little old hearing “car, car, car” ALL day long.

You can kinda see how sick he is in this picture.

Surprisingly, even though we were at the ER for Abel, he was the one that kept us laughing. He truly is a HAM, even with a 104 temp. He laughed and had a ball at his first ER trip. You can see for yourselves from these pictures. Thankfully, our little guy is doing much better and thanks Abel for making our first ER trip with you somewhat fun.

(Keep in mind it is the middle of the night and Abel had not slept a wink!)

He is becoming quite the momma’s boy (or as he would say “nanny’s boy”). Yes, he still can’t say mommy! I’m definitely nanny…. I’ll take what I can get.

His famous “cheesy” chin! We all love it around here.

He gets his big mouth and long tongue from yours truly.

And for your viewing pleasure, check out this adorable video of him. Thanks to daddy Seth for always bringing the cameras along. (You can see I was totally out of it by this time, but Abel was still going strong.)


Nothing says “Back to Reality” like a flooded basement. All is well now, but what a nice welcome home greeting that was. It’s actually great to be home and back to “normal life”. We have been gone most of July and I am ready to be back in my home and church.

The OBX was FABULOUS as usual, but not without a few bumps along the way!

The highlights: Relaxing in a huge waterfront beach house (paid for by my lovely parents-THANKS MOMMY AND DADDY), watching Abel indulge in the sand, cuddling up in the hot tub with my hot husband, watching OBX sunsets, eating WAY too much yummy food, playing poker till midnight, kayaking, playing in the pool with Abel and my niece & nephew, and of course, being with my crazy family. It doesn’t get much better then our OBX vacations.

The downers: Seth hurting his tailbone only after a few hours of us arriving at our new beach home, hearing Abel scream the whole way home in the car, having a mini hurricane sweep through our little beach town and watching the grill fly through the air and hit our little Honda (leaving a nice dent), making a middle of the night trip to the OBX ER due to Abel’s EXTREMELY high fever. (I’ll save that adventure for another post).

I will say the highlights definitely outweighed the downers. I just LOVE the Outer Banks so much! I feel like I am in a little piece of heaven when I am there. I have so many great memories from year’s past and not to mention it is one of the most gorgeous, peaceful beaches in the US.

As usual, we took WAY too many photos. I was a bit disappointed since we only got one measly family photo of the three of us and I didn’t get a entire family photo….arugh! I was TERRIFIED to take our new camera on the beach so we didn’t get as many pictures as I had hoped for, even though you would never know it since this post is OVERLOADED with beach photos!

Enjoy some of the highlights from our OBX adventure. (wow, photo overload)

Who is that STUD in the sand?

We all know you can’t take a baby to the beach without this happening…

He truly indulged himself in the sand. Would you believe that just one month ago he was terrified of the sand, he screamed bloody murdered if his toes touched it….obviously, something changed. Talk about beach bum.

He would swim in the sand and do “snow/sand angels”. It was hilarious!

It appears that my child has red hair in this photo. He might be taking after his Great Uncle “Red”.

By this photo, he realized that the sand wasn’t worth eating.

Look at that beauty in the water. This girl has NO FEAR!

Abel preferred to watch cous’ in the water.

Time for a group photo of the kids…Sad but true, this is the best photo we could get of them.

The sweetest kid you will ever meet.

My boys..

Our beach backyard…if only real life was this good.

Our Kayak for the week. After this week, Seth and I realized we NEED to get a boat. We live one mile from the water (Potomac River) and it is just so much fun being out on the water.

We were welcomed by this lovely creature in our backyard the first morning.

Gorgeous as usual.

Fun at the pool.

Abel, what’s that on your lip?

These two usually were fighting at any given moment. They have such a love/hate relationship.

The back of our beach house. A view from the kayak.

Love this one.

The “annual” mommy and Abel beach photo.

Hi Alison and Graham!

Some of Seth’s great nature shots.

The ONLY family photo we got.

Corolla is known for its wild horses. If you can stomach the drive on the bumpy sand, then you will be blessed with seeing these beautiful creatures. They obviously aren’t starving to death! Look at that belly!

Babies…can you stand it!

Awww….nursing colts….too cute!

Seth was able to capture some great shots of the horses. This one needs to be on a horse calendar.

This one too!

Abel’s ER trip was long and exhausting. He is fine now, but was having a reaction to the Chicken Pox vaccination he received last week, which turned into Roseola. He also has another ear infection, which is why he graced us with his loud screams the whole way home from the beach. (Hospital pictures coming…of course, daddy Seth brought his camera to the ER! You have to see our child on high doses of Mortin!)

It is that time again, PRAISE JESUS!!!

We LOVE our beach week! I’ll be gone for a few days relaxing by the pool and enjoy some family time, so don’t be expecting a post anytime soon.

I can’t believe how much Seth and I have aged since this photo taken 6 years ago! This was his first trip to the beach with my family. You would think he was bored to death by looking at this photo.



Abel last year at the beach. Something tells me things will be TOTALLY different this year.

This old picture makes me miss the chubby infant stage…

While searching for old beach photos, I found this one of my mom. love it!

This is one of Seth’s favorite pictures of us and I just told him that I would like to re-create it every year at the beach. Before we know it, Abel will be taller than me and I will have to lean up to kiss him.

We had to bathe him in the sink. Look how huge my child was at 9 weeks old. We called his chin-”the Jabba the Hut” chin.

Off to go pack!

Thursday was definitely Health Check-up day for me. By noon I was already done with 3 health appointments, one being for Abel. I refused to have him get all his shots at once so I split them up. Thankfully, his pediatrician is super cool about it. They see us often since I don’t let him get more then 2 shots at a time. For all you moms out there that are worried about the shots, I totally recommend splitting up the shots. I have definitely noticed a difference in Abel when I don’t let them shoot up his leg with a zillion shots. All offices have to allow you to do this. You may have to pay a little more and get a bitter nurse, but it is so worth it.

It just so happened that I was do for my 6 month dentist check-up and also a friendly check-in at my Primary doctor since I noticed a new, possible mole on my shoulder and I freaked out. Abel and I have been spending most of our days at the pool, so I immediately wanted to get it check out before we head to the BEACH SATURDAY!

Oh yes, it is that TIME again. OUTER BANKS HERE WE COME!!! We can’t wait to watch our little man eat-i mean-play in the sand. He got a slight taste of the wet sand on his toes at a nearby lake up in Mass. and he was IN LOVE with it.

As for the mole, it seems like my new mysterious spot is nothings serious as of yet. I ran into an old friend and she told me she got moles after pregnancy. Super! Another new physical change to tack on to the rest of my physical changes that happened after pregnancy.

And to top things off to my day, I was editing photos and my phone rings. It’s from Kaiser (our health provider) and was a recording telling me a pap smear is more fun then going to the MOVIES!!! Excuse me, I needed to hear more about this. Usually, I hang up on recordings, but this was one for the books. The lady goes on to say how at the movies you get popcorn thrown in your face and have to listen to loud teenagers, but when you get a pap smear you get to just lay down and relax. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Is this REALLY a FOR REAL recording!!! Apparently, it was Kaiser’s “cool” way of saying it is time for my annual check up and they are trying to convince me that it is so much better then seeing a movie these days. The sad reality is that I have actually had my girly parts checked more recently then I have seen a movie! Guess it is time to see a movie!

And more of my gorgeous man from the wedding weekend.

This is one of my most favorite pictures to date. Thanks to daddy Seth for capturing it.

OH MY GOODNESS, doesn’t it just melt your heart!!!! Stay away girls, he is mine for the next 20+ years.

Delicious water! I couldn’t keep his sticky fingers out of this bucket.

“I don’t know what everyone else is doing, but they obviously don’t realize how cool these sticks are!”

“YAY Auntie Shauna got married!”

“I wonder if I should eat this?”

This is very typical of Abel when I try to get a photo with him. He runs away…

Seth’s parents’ adorable neighbor, Bob. He let Shauna and Gabe use his car for their wedding pictures.

If you’re looking for an adorable ring bearer, this guy knows how to put on a show for your guests.