While You Were Away - Part 3

Dear DH and Mr. A,

Hope the torrential downpours that visited us here today did not even touch you!  We're hot and humid, but what else is new?! 

Today we managed to keep Miss M a little more occupied. She didn't seem to do as much damage as yesterday.  She loves her dolls and all of her animals.  When she woke up this morning she had to carry two dogs and the bear downstairs with her, crazy hair following.  Lola took her to Boston Market for their "gourmet" mac n' cheese and she could not have been more pleased. Tonight I took her to the pool and she was in heaven.  Jumping and "diving" all over the pool and dunking herself all over.  She took a tumble at the end of the swim, though, when she was playing on the stairs.  She tripped and couldn't quite get her feet under her so she sputtered in the water a bit and was a little scared.  It wasn't anything that some Goldfish and a Capri Sun couldn't help remedy, though.

Mr. A, I heard you took a nap for the first time in 3 days today.  I bet you're a happy camper today!  Thanks for smiling big in all of your pictures!  I also heard that you were super brave when Dr./Uncle D had to work on the infection on your big toe, even though Dad and Uncle Mike had to hold you down.  Hope your foot is feeling better today.  Good luck in the "Seamons Got Talent" Show tonight!  The Zach Brown Band will be so proud! 

DH, I'm jealous of your awesome cattle drive ride.  Hope you guys got some good pictures!  

In other news, my ankles are starting to disappear and my feet are starting to swell a bit more than normal. I feel like I wear the same thing every other day. Guess it means the end is near.  I'm going to finally get back to the gym in the AM after my almost week hiatus.  I ate some Gifford's Swiss Chocolate ice cream tonight to try to motivate myself. 

Love you both to pieces.  DH, I am really so glad that you're willing to take Mr. A to be with and play with his cousins, to tolerate his antics (I don't think I've talked to you once where you haven't had to say, "Mr. A!!  Get off that/come back here/get out of there/watch out please!"  I love it and know that he's creating some pretty great memories with you and with his cousins/aunts/uncles/grandparents.  Life really is about the constant pursuit of wonderful memories and shared experiences.  Make 'em great! 

xoxo,
W

While You Were Away - Part 2

Golfing and Box Canyon, huh?  Sounds like a great way to spend the day!  Hope Mr. A's foot is feeling better after Dr. D gets done with all of his procedures!  By the way, Mr. A, thanks for making my day today when you told me that "Mom, we need to stop here.  There's a situation." I guess that's one way to describe a construction scene! 

Miss M has decided that she has too much time on her hands.  Today she drew on the new stainless steel fridge with her orange crayon, emptied all of her dresser drawers and put the clothes all over the floor, and managed to scatter all of her dolls before 10 AM.  She was busy.  And then we turned on some music for a dance party and she showed us all of her moves. 

Oh, and she went pee pee on the potty!!  She did it for the first time last week, as you'll recall, but she's continued to do it a couple of times each week since and tonight she got out of the bathtub so many times to "go" that one of them was bound to work!  We cheered and sang a song and she loved it.  Hooray for her!

I also went to the dr. today.  He said that this baby will probably be a little larger than my other babies.  Grrreeaaat!!  Still measuring right on, but don't want baby to come this week!

While You Were Away - Part 1

Dear DH and Mr. A,

We miss you both mucho mucho.  That is, Miss M and I.  Mr. A, Miss M doesn't quite know what to do with herself.  She asks for you every 5 minutes.  Unlike you, she doesn't know how to be an only child!  She loves you so much and had the biggest smile on her face last night when you called her from Mack's and said, "Love you, Miss M!"  And remember how she replied, "Love you, Mr. A!" 

We know you two are having the best time with your family, DH, and we only wish the dr. had let me get on that airplane.  Alas, to no avail!  The newest member of our family will be here too soon to risk her birth on a 2-winged vehicle.  I guess I agree.

We'll try to keep you updated on the happenings back here at the homestead and hope you'll do the same!  Love you both!

In D.C. this weekend, we learned that:

• Miss M loves Rio Grande chips and salsa - her own bowl of it - she ate the whole thing (mama's girl!) 
• Miss M does not like birthday cake with yummy frosting (definitely not mama's girl!)
• Gifford's Swiss Chocolate ice cream is back and enjoyed by all
• DH, you'll be glad I saw "Eclipse" on my own - don't think you would have liked it
• Girl cousins and family never disappoint!

While you're gone, Miss M wanted to leave you with one last image (taken by the talented Lillian at PortraitParties in NC - thank you!! - for the rest of the pictures, click here:

Happy Birthday to You!

Our Favorite

Dad

Husband

Fix-it Man

Landscaper

Outdoors Adventurer

Swaddler/Rocker (in about a month again!)

Partner

Friend

Hard Worker

We appreciate all that you do and love that you let us celebrate you even when you don't want us to! :)  We're so glad you were born.  Happy Birthday, babe!

Before I Forget

1.  How a 4 yr old views the world:
Mr. A: "Mom, when will you be home?"
Me: "In about 5  minutes.  I went to see the dr. today so he could check on the baby."
Mr. A: "Oh, Mom.  That's great!  Which sticker did the dr give you??!  Spiderman or Dora?"

2. Miss M likes to take off her pajama pants after she's been put to bed and falls asleep in her crib pants-less.  Good thing we check on our kids before retiring for the evening.

3.  While running around the house the other day I asked Mr. A what he was doing.  Came his reply: "Mom, I'm just running errands." 

4.  My Miss M is as mischievous as they come (and probably deserving of her very own mischievous post).  Unlike her brother, Miss M delights in stealth trouble...getting into my makeup and putting it on her eyes, drawing on everything possible (my house is her canvas - walls, furniture, windows, cupboards, you name it) with crayons and the occasional stray marker that she finds, carrying her name stool over to our dresser so that she can reach my jewelry box and take out every piece of jewelry and scatter it on the floor.  And today's lovely mischief: closing herself in the bathroom, unrolling all of the toilet paper, putting it in the toilet to wet it, and then removing it from the toilet and plastering it like beautiful paisley wallpaper all over the bathroom wall.  She is a true delight, but she is an independent, feisty, opinionated, high-energy, antagonizing, mischievous little girl.  I have no idea where she gets it from.

Dear Friends

I have been blessed with wonderful friends throughout my life.  I really feel so lucky.  I have one friend, however, whom I have known since we were 5 years old.  This might be normal for some, but since I never lived anywhere longer than 3 years growing up, I had to make new friends quite often and work to keep in touch with others.  Many I lost touch with, but this one I did not.  Almost 29 years later and we only ever lived in the same city for 5 of those years (once in California and once in college).  Pretty amazing and pretty stinkin' lucky on my part.  Love you, Darce. 

Miss M's Big 2

Miss M now has 2 whole years under her belt.  More to come later, but here she is yesterday getting ready to start her festivities and telling us she's two.  Love her.

Fighting the Bad Guys

There's a good pre-summer lightning and thunder show raging outside.  Rumble.  Rumble.  Craaash!

In preparation for the storm, Mr. A decided he needed to fight the bad guys tonight.  The weapons: light sabers (aka unsharpened pencils).  The venue: in front of his mirror.  His assistant: his 7 months pregnant mother sitting on the side of his bed (because standing to fight the bad guys just isn't as easy as it used to be) with her two light sabers as well.

"Mom, sing me my song, while I fight the bad guys."

"What song do you want tonight?"

"Freckles."

I proceed to sing Freckles, the same sweet tune that my Grandpa Barlow sang to my mom and me, that my mom and dad sang to me, and that my Mr. A now loves and has taught to his dad.

I finish the song.  "Ok, Mom.  The bad guys are all gone."

Rumble.  Rumble.  Craaash!  Goodbye, bad guys.  We gotcha!

Mother's Day

I love my babies.  I love being their mother.  I loved my Mother's Day cake with the most delicious frosting from my favorite bakery.  I loved the black raspberry Handel's ice cream that I ate with the cake.  I loved that they went to sleep after this picture...and so did I.  I loved that my sweet husband let me sleep for a long long time while he made his super burgers...which I love.  I love that he took a picture without my double chin (there aren't that many of them these days).  I love that I got to share the day with my own great mother, my sister, Nancy, and the 2nd mother to us all - Lola Fely (those pictures didn't turn out so cute - sorry).  Thanks to all of you for a great day.  Love you!

Whatever

Mr. A has a new favorite phrase - "Whatever, Mom."  He likes to use it when I ask him to do things such as picking up the pillows he's built into a fort on the floor.  He replies with "Sure, whatever, Mom."  Smiles.  And then watches for my reaction. 

Tonight he even followed it with, "I'm not whatevering you, Mom."

I have decided that I will not react or respond to this phase (or phrase), and am hoping that's the right course of action instead of correcting him everytime.  All you super-parents: am I doing the right thing??  Opinions welcome.

PS - on Saturday night, he used "whatever" in his prayers.  it went something like this, "Dear Heavenly Father, whatever."  again, i said nothing, but couldn't believe it had seeped into the prayer vocab!  who teaches him these things??!!