Memorial Day Weekend in Virginia

Early Friday afternoon, our little family joined the millions of others who opted to pay nearly $4 p/gallon for gas and headed up to Virginia to spend the holiday weekend with the Mechlings, minus brother Ben who couldn't get away from school in Utah. It was a jam-packed vacation!! On Saturday, we visited the Virginia Zoo with our friends the Felty's, spent time at the beach and had evening dinner with friends.

Sunday was church and, Ok, lots of relaxing. Whenever we were hanging out in the condo, Cady loved just playing around with her cousins Sydney and Trace or watching Sleeping Beauty (again with Sydney and Trace). In other words, Cady loved having some little buddies to play with that can hold their own ... Maddy still isn't quite up to Cady's speed!

(someone kindly dug a ginormous hole and left it for our kids to enjoy!)

On Monday, we all drove up to Williamsburg, VA to spend the day/night at the Great Wolf Lodge. What a great place for families with kids!! Water slides and pools for all ages. Our kids enjoyed splashing around in the wading pool the most. Ray went down all the water slides for the "grown-ups" and even convinced me to go on The Tornado with him once. We spent the next day at Busch Gardens Europe. It was lots of fun, not TOO hot and the little kids were troopers. By that, I mean that the 3 older kids had a blast but Maddy and 3-month old Nash were troopers, riding around in strollers all day long. Maddy did ride a few kiddie rides and Cady rode everything she could. Daddy was bummed that she wasn't QUITE tall enough to ride the Big Bad Wolf because Mommy is a wuss. One time was enough for me!!

I **heart** naptime!

Both girls are napping right now and, lemme tell you, after our drive home from Virginia last night, I'm loving the quiet. Poor Cady was trying to sleep from about 9 pm on, but Maddy was so excessively overtired from back-to-back days of family fun at the Great Wolf Lodge and Busch Gardens that she couldn't sleep. Isn't it crazy that babies are like that ... the more over-tired they are, the worse they sleep? Anyway, she slept in little snatches for a few hours then pretty much cried continuously from Charlotte until we got home. It was brutal and all the girls (including me) slept in this morning. Poor Daddy had to be at work at 7 am!

Pics and posts to come about our fun times in Virginia!

A trip to the DMV

Today, I finally broke down and did something that I've put off as long as humanly possible ... I got South Carolina license plates for our car. So I guess we're officially official residents now. Yippee.

A Reading Mother

There are many things for which I hope that my girls express gratitude someday. One thing I hope that they learn to appreciate is the power of the written word and the sheer joy of losing yourself in a good book, although I hope that they have more willpower than I do to put that good book down! I pray that they may someday be thankful for a mother who read to them. Since I sometimes find them sitting alone in their rooms "reading" a book, I hope we're already on that path.




I stumbled across a poem the other day called "The Reading Mother" that expresses this perfectly. Here's a verse from it:

You may have tangible wealth untold

Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.

Richer than I you can never be.

I had a Mother who read to me.

Current favorites for the girls include "The Cat in the Hat" (Cady) and an Elmo lift-the-flap book about Balls and any book with pictures of babies in it (Maddy). As for me, I'm always on the lookout for a good book. I like historical fiction, biographies, and mysteries (Ok, Mary Higgins Clark is my guilty pleasure!). I DON'T like profanity, science fiction or books that take way too much mental effort to plough through. After all, I am reading for PLEASURE!

Some of my recent favorites have been:

1. The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz -- this is non-fiction that reads like fiction


2. Sunflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See -- love, love, love this one!


3. The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven both by Barbara Kingsolver -- both follow the same main character, good stuff about life and love, especially if you've lived in Arizona!


4. The Chronicles of Narnia -- I try to read the whole series every year
   

If you have any recommendations, put it in a comment and pass it along!

Who will be the next American Idol?

Ok, if you're not an American Idol fan, you may want to pass on reading this one, but Ray isn't home from work yet and the girls are in bed and I need to debrief!!




That was one of the best finales I've ever seen on AI, although I thought all the boxing stuff was lame and overdone. I'm really glad that it came down to the Davids. Unlike the past two seasons, there was actually a true competition tonight. I'm really more of a David Cook fan but I have to admit that Archie whipped his bum tonight. Cook definitely sings more the type of music I like, although a small part of me has rooted for the little Mormon boy from Utah. Cook just didn't do what he does best, which is taking a known song and totally "making it his." Like Simon said, he should've sung "Billie Jean" or "Hello" for his last song. Either way, whoever wins will deserve it (unlike Taylor Hicks!). Where do YOU weigh in?

The "Big Girl Bed"

I broke down today and put together Cady's toddler bed, even though there has been no pooping on the potty! She was so excited , hopefully not so excited that she won't sleep a wink tonight. I've tried to emphasize that she may not get out of her bed until the sun comes up in the morning but I'm downstairs typing and I've already heard some pitter-patter of feet above my head.

(Look at the poor, abandoned crib in the background)

Ok, I wrote the previous paragraph 2 days ago and I have to say that Cady has done pretty well sleeping in her new bed! She didn't actually go to sleep until almost 10 pm the first night -- a little jack-in-the-box going on -- but since then she's actually gone to sleep just a quickly as she was in her crib. Of course, the crib is still a menacing prescence in her room, and I've told her that if she won't stay in her new bed, then back to the crib she goes! After we take the crib apart, I may have a different story to write!

Making brownies

This evening, after dinner, we decided to make brownies. It was a group effort, with Cady pouring ingredients into the bowl, Maddy throwing spoons and measuring cups on the floor and me supervising the whole glorious mess. The best part, of course, was licking the spoon ... and then the bowl! You can see the sequence of events below ...

"They grow up so fast!"

In the past few days, we had some humorous firsts around here.

Yesterday morning, for some reason, it seems that we were taking a bit longer to get ready for the day. I was showered and dressed, Maddy was dressed but GUESS WHO was dragging their feet?? Yes, Cady has decided that 3 hours at school is "too long" each day, so sometimes can be a little passive aggressive in her resistance ... I have NO IDEA where she gets that from!! Anyway, Maddy decided that she was hungry and

wasn't going to wait any longer, so

she turned her little self around,

scooted downstairs on her tummy,

busted open the cabinet where the cereal is

and took matters into her own hands!

When I came down several minutes later, this is what I found in the living room:

(that's Rice Chex in the Rubbermaid container)

The other first was really a "second" since Cady sucessfully attempted this yesterday. What happened was this ... tonight I was in one of those places mothers get to where I WAS DONE, DONE, DONE. The kind of done where I say "OK, you are going to bed now because I need a BREAK!" So, with the little ones tucked into their cribs, a little earlier than usual, I headed outside the sweep the front walk in peace and quiet.

Ahhhh.

After a while, I hear a little "Mommy?" from the front door. I turn to find Cady, who inquires about one of her blankets, which I had put in Maddy's room. "Mommy, where is my big blanket?"

Now, this is not a story about a blanket ... it's a story about our 3-year old mastering the skill of CLIMBING OUT OF HER CRIB!!! Since she did it yesterday too, I think the fat lady has sung on this one. We have had a toddler bed for her since Christmas, but I made the blunder of making it an incentive for going poop on the potty. Apparently, she needs a bigger incentive because it's not working!!

Some Mother's Day musings ...

Am I the only mom that ...

doesn't ever get to sit down through an entire dinner? I wish. More juice, please, Mommy!

isn't really bothered by not having "me time" in the bathroom anymore? in fact, I often forget to close the door now ... what's the point?

wonders how many more years I am going to have to referee between my kids? It's going to be until they move out of the house, isn't it? That's exhausting, just thinking about it.

didn't expect my 3-year old to be so SMART?? Before I had children, I thought that 3-year olds were only a step above babies, so I'm constantly amazed at how much Cady knows. It's not that I think my kid is brilliant (well, OK, I do!) but that it's just amazing that a 3-year old could know so much. She knows a lot of stuff, including exactly how to push Mommy's buttons!

is pretty impressed with the "mom ears" that you develop? It's incredible to me that you can hear nearly any sound around the house and know instantly what is was ... a pacifier being thrown out of the crib and hitting the hardwood floor ... a chair being pushed across the floor to assist in reaching the cupboard that the bag of marshmallows is stashed in ... the list goes on. Of course, the scariest noise of all is SILENCE. I heard that from Maddy's direction the other day and found that she had discovered Mommy's make-up. I wish I'd had the camera!

Well, I may add some more musings as the day goes along, but those are just some random thoughts on motherhood from one who is still pretty new at it. I'm so grateful that I have such a wonderful mother and a fantastic mother-in-law to learn from and, of course, Ray is pretty great too. I wouldn't be the mother I am without him.

A day in the life ...

Sometimes I feel like there's nothing "noteworthy" to chronicle here but I guess that, in the life of a young family, it's the little things that are the most noteworthy. Maddy is rapidly expanding her vocabulary from pretty much "Daddy", "ball", and "car", to include "more", "bird", "Cady" (daydee), "teeth" and more. Of course, "car" is any loud motorized vehicle that she hears or sees, like lawnmowers, trucks, helicopters and airplanes. And how could I forget my FAVORITE new word, which she has picked up from her older sister, "NO!"



Cady announced to me during the same car ride today that she wants to be a duck when she grows up, as well as Spiderman. Interesting combo. Her current love is the classic Disney movie, The Jungle Book, which I'm very glad about. It was my all-time favorite when I was a kid (who doesn't love "The Bear Necessities"??) and, as noted in my previous post, I'm not a huge fan of the princess movies, especially if I have to watch it every day! Cady has a love/hate relationship with the apparently British tiger Shear Kahn. She always says she likes him, but when he's about to appear on the TV screen, she summons me for emotional support. I just had to pause my typing because she said, "Mom, take care of me, Mom, Shear Kahn is coming!!" and dragged me off to the sofa to sit with her.


I love my girls!

Life is good.