Pool Playtime

It's no secret that I love the pool, right?  (I might have mentioned it once or twice.)  And that I'm kind of sad about our new backyard pool not being up and running yet?

Yeah.  That again.

But the good news is that we have a couple of friends with neighborhood pools who have been willing to share in the swimming glory recently.  And technically as long as our old house is still unsold, we have access to our old neighborhood pool too.  Which is finally open! (And has a baby pool! Awesome when the kids outnumber the grownups, such as the many many days I'm alone with Nathan and Anneliese.  That wasn't the case this weekend... but still.)

So anyway we took the kids for their first summer swim yesterday, in our old neighborhood. 

Nathan jumped right into the baby pool and played away, but was a little more hesitant in the big pool, clinging to a grownup the whole time (for the record: fine by me).  Towards the end, we did convince him to hold Daddy's hand on the edge and jump in, and he loved that.

But this was the first time we'd taken Anneliese swimming (besides the beach, which isn't exactly the same) since she's been mobile.  And she was a lot braver than I wanted her to be.  She kept trying to walk away from us, waist-deep in the pool, but she'd inevitably face-plant into the water and one of us would have to grab her and she'd sputter and cry.  But then she'd find a ball or toy and get back to splashing, and get brave again...

Soon she'll be strong enough to wade without us gripping her chest, or her gripping our fingers.  But maybe not this summer.

She loved the big pool, too.  Just like last summer, we could hold her on her belly and tell her to kick kick kick kick and she would do it!  Big splashes and big grins.

After we swam with the kids for a while, Mark fed them lunch and took them home for naps.

And then I got several glorious hours of grownup time in the sunshine.  Doze when I want, read when I want, jump in the water to cool off when I want.  Who doesn't love the pool?  (Besides my shoulders, which somehow got pretty pink despite the fact that I'm kind of a sunscreen nazi.)  The only thing that could make it better is if it were in my own backyard.  And maybe not quite a hundred degrees out.  Still, I'll take it.

(And seriously, the waterproof digital camera Mark got me for Christmas might be my new favorite thing of summer.  Every pool mommy needs one.  Really.)

Daddy, Nathan and the Mudcats

Last week we had tickets for a family outing to a Mudcats game.  (They're a poor man's Durham Bulls totally legitimate double-A minor league baseball team which plays in good ol Zebulon, NC, just a few minutes from the old house.) 

But.

Life got in the way.  Anneliese was fussy from a lingering cold, and Mark's car was broken down in Durham on the eve of a day trip to Charlotte that I didn't want to miss, so I opted to find some help and deal with those things while Mark and Nathan went to the game. 

And apparently they had a ball. (Pun intended.)

While Anneliese and I (and, credit where credit's due: Another Nathan) were sweating it out in Durham trying and failing to jump-start Mark's car, walking circles around a bank trying to get cash, then waiting on a tow truck, Mark and Nathan ate popcorn and fruit punch for dinner, met Muddy the Mudcat, danced in the stands, and Nathan got his very own foul ball (caught and gifted by a nice man sitting nearby). 


(If you can't see the embedded video, click here to watch Nathan's dancing on YouTube.)

And then came home at 10:30 at night.  (!!!!!!)

All jealousy aside, I'm happy they had a fun time together at the game (and, for the record, I was happy to deal with the car and sniffly baby, since it meant my Charlotte plans for the next day stayed intact), happy Mark got up with Nathan when the late bedtime resulted in a hot mess of an overnight, and happy that the car breakdown ended up being minor and inexpensive to fix.

But next time, Anneliese and I (and Another Nathan) are totally getting in on some stadium hot dogs and dancing.  ;)

Sexy Froggy Update

Well, we finally figured out what those frogs were making such a racket about:

Mark stumbled onto this scene a few nights ago when he opened the pool gate.  And by stumbled onto, I mean accidentally grabbed.

That's right: Mark touched frog sex.

And then went back for his camera. 

And then we posted the results on the internet.

And that's the story of how my husband became the first purveyor of fine frog porn* Anderson Heights has ever known.

*Bring on the crazy googlers who find this page and are sorely disappointed.

Praying Hands, v3.0

You've seen pictures of Anneliese doing this at least twice already.  But the habit persists into toddlerhood, and it just gets sweeter with time. 

Your daily Anneliese: more praying hands

And everybody knows I can't resist a good sleeping-in-the-car-seat photo op anyway.

Geek Pride Day

In college, my best friend David and I had a running argument about who, of the two of us, was dorkier.  (It was totally him.  Ask anyone.  Anyone.)  Several times I started to make a list "Reasons David is Dorkier Than I Am" (underlined twice) but before I could get very far into it, David would cite the list itself as trumping any reasons I could actually put on it.  And not in my favor.

Dang him for always being right.

But yesterday was (apparently?  according to the blogosphere? Mary said it, it must be true) Geek Pride Day.  I did not google it to verify.  Just go with it.

So.

Top Ten Reasons I AM A GEEK
(this one's for you, Schatz)
(underlined only once because that's what blogger will let me do)

1.) There is hardly any set of books that gets me more excited than the OED.  I know I'm supposed to say the Bible.  And yes, that's wonderful. {Insert predictable and appropriate and Christianese things -- which I really do believe -- here.} But, um... excited?  Nope.  Don't judge.  The OED it is.  Be still, my heart. 

2.) I think anyone who actually understands, listens to, and likes classical music gets geek points.  And double points if you ring handbells.  (I do both.)

3.) This one time?  At band camp?  I met my future husband.  (Again, you cannot make this sh*t up.)  I was, and always will be, a band geek at heart.

4.) There's that Sound of Music obsession I can't seem to shake.  And the fact that most musicals in general make me happy.  Including Glee which on some level I know is terrible but I can't not love it.

5.) When I travel, I've been known to go into museums.  And other historical sights.  And stalk the park ranger service for the insider scoop on the history of the place.  I wish I were kidding.  I'm not.  Ask Mark.

6.) The fact that I can't make any decisions without lots and lots of internet research, discussion, pondering, and then some more research.  Oh, and making charts and graphs.  I fancy myself spontaneous and fun-loving (and lighthearted and cute and sporty! there David, did I get all of them?) but... I'm totally not.  *sigh*

7.) The boy-short haircuts.  The glasses.  Oh, the terrible glasses.  {Photographic evidence intentionally withheld.}

8.) My wardrobe.  I want to be chic.  I do.  But at the end of the day I'm just a jeans and t-shirt kind of person. All the time.  Every day.  The confidence I get from looking cute, while nice occasionally, is never as good as the mindlessness I enjoy while wearing something I didn't have to think about.  The result of this attitude is a 30yo who dresses like a preteen tomboy.  A geeky preteen tomboy.

9.) When I dance, I look like a dork.  It's not that I don't or won't dance... it's that when I do, I do it dorkily.  I've made peace with it.  You should too.

10.) When I think of my imaginary happy place, it's... a library.  I might tell you it's a beach.  But that is a geek-cover-up lie.  Sure, beachiness makes me happy, and maybe in my imaginary happy place library, there are a few beachy noises, or beachy air outside the open window.  But make no mistake.  It's a library.  A beautiful one with shelves stuffed full of books in a round turret tower with a ladder that slides along the length of the room.  Yep.  Really.

11.) Mark says I'm also supposed to fess up to the internet that I think the Loch Ness Monster is probably real.  Which I do.  Which is a blog post for another day, I guess.

Last Day of School

Today Nathan had his last day of threes preschool, and Anneliese had her last morning of mmo for the year.  I would say it's bittersweet, but... not gonna lie, it's mostly just bitter.  I love school, I love my Wednesday mornings alone, I love my Monday and Friday mornings with just Anneliese, I love the funny things Nathan comes home and tells me about what he played with and what he colored, I love the sound of sweet toddler voices singing in chapel together, I love the sweet hugs I get when I go pick them up at lunchtime.

Yeah.  I'm a big fan.

And although we'll keep busy this summer, there are a lot of long hot months stretching out in front of us without much structure.  And those months end in labor and delivery.  (Which, um... yeah, not a big fan. Even though I'll be glad Sprout is the result.)

But we still marked the occasion with last-day pictures on the step outside the house:

(Anneliese is totally bummed about the end of the school year too.  Just kidding, she's battling a cold.  Of sorts.  Which means her last day was about forty-five minutes long and that was it.)

And Nathan gladly smiled on the weekday school steps for me again, like he did in September.  Here are his first day/last day pics from three-year-old preschool!

As I was unloading him for dropoff this morning, he asked me one more time (just to be sure?) we do school one more time and then we're all done?  When I confirmed, he said I don't like that, Mommy.  Yeah, me neither, sweetie. 

Me. Neither.

And on that note, happy summer?  (Seriously, someone buy my old house so I can fix up my new pool!  Like, yesterday.)

Baby in a Box

One of Anneliese's favorite things to do when we're playing in the bonus room is to pile herself into the (empty) block box, and sit there and suck her thumb.

Your daily Anneliese: in the block box

I don't know why she thinks this is fun.  But she does it all the time.  And every time I see it, all I can think is hey, nobody puts baby in a box!

I know, I roll my own eyes a little too.

Class Party and Slide Bravery

Last Friday Nathan's class had their end-of-year class party, which I was signed up to help host.  Apparently the thing to do in these parts for end-of-year shebangs is have a gathering off-site.  Which means... no school that day.

 (I am very very sure that the original mastermind for this kind of off-site party was a teacher and not a parent.) 

While I wasn't thrilled about losing one of our precious last few days in this school year (don't judge; my mornings alone with Anneliese are usually awesome), at least since I was in charge, I could ensure that siblings were invited and the whole thing stayed fairly low-key and easy.  (That's an uphill battle at our church/preschool.  We do not live in the land of "low key and easy" -type moms.  Trust me.)

But you know what?  It was fine.  Fun, even. 

We met at a playground, the kids ate snacks, climbed on the equipment, played a few parachute games, ate cupcakes, and went home with a bucket full of favors (you could've guessed that last part was the work of another mom, right?  it totally was).

Nathan was so proud to show off his baby sister to all his friends.  He walked around holding her hand and introducing her.  This is my baby sister, her name's Anneliese, do you have a baby sister? I have a baby sister, this is my sister.  Etc. It was annoyingly cute, I must say.

Anneliese had only been really walking for about two weeks at that point, so she had a number of spills, and there was a fair amount of recovering and crying and snuggling with mommy, but she loved the playground equipment now that she can navigate it so well.  Even Nathan (about whom we hear lots of stories of playground and social timidness) played well and normally and seemed totally at ease with his friends.  I can't even tell you how awesome that was to see.

Anneliese decided she didn't need hand-holding on the slides anymore, and ended up with a faceful of dirt and a chin scrape she's still wearing proudly five days later.  But when she was still at the top, she was all smiles and confidence.

I guess Nathan couldn't let her be the only brave one, so he climbed up and went down a slide too!  (Wait, that really wasn't enough enough exclamation points for that sentence.  Nathan went down a slide!!!!  Voluntarily!  Happily!  A tall one!  A twisty tall one!  In a dark tube!) (!!!!!) He was all grins at the top but none of us thought for a second he'd want to slide down. 

Then suddenly he shot out the bottom, happy and ready for a hug.  His teachers were as shocked as I was.

It was a fun but chaotic and stimulating morning!  We left exhausted but in good moods.  I think Nathan's favorite part was the star-shaped sunglasses in his favor bucket from his friend Molly (yes, that Molly).  They're green!  And green is his favorite color!  (In case you missed it the first sixteen thousand times he says that anytime something new! and green! enters his life.)

"The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades"

Happy end of the school year!

Hungry Girl

When Anneliese is hungry, normally we hear a chorus of gung, gung, gung (which for at least six months we thought was go, but... no). She's moany and repetitive and single-minded when it comes to mealtime.  Sometimes she resorts to banging on her high chair in case we didn't get the message.

Your daily Anneliese

Last week, even after we got her up there, I was still having trouble making dinner happen very quickly.  She finally gave up on me and settled for Hattie and her thumb while she resigned herself to waiting patiently.

It lasted maybe a minute and a half.

Gung!  Gung!  Mommeeeeee!  Gung.

Strollerless Walk

The capital area greenway runs about a block from our new house, so Mark and I took the kids out for a walk a few nights ago, on one of these gorgeous warm evenings we've been having recently.  In a way, this particular walk felt like it belonged in bizzaro world. Want to know why?

We didn't bring a stroller.

Um, whaaaa?  Who are we?? 

Are we the parents of children old enough to take walks, like... themselves?  Without being pushed?  I can't even remember the last time I'd been on a walk without pushing a stroller.

(While it was super sweet to see Nathan and Anneliese walking together, my arms did feel strangely empty and I had a pang where I realized I am really really ready to have Sprout riding in a stroller in front of me, and it made me smile to be reassured I'm not done with the baby years just yet.)

Walking with Anneliese was funny.  First she wanted to push Nathan on his bike (which was surprisingly helpful, seeing as he doesn't so much buy into the notion of pedaling and riding himself **sigh**). 

Then when we abandoned the bike, we kept her moving forward by throwing a tennis ball for her to toddle after and pick up.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Yes, we basically made Anneliese play fetch.  Like a puppy.

What?  It worked.  She loved it.

Mark and Nathan got some energy out by running for a while.  Amazing, the stamina a three-year-old can have when he's trying to keep up with Daddy's run.

Such a fun way to spend an evening together.  :)

Tiny Little Huge Frog Noises

So.  One thing we didn't notice during the cold daylight hours of a late winter and early spring renovation, and has only come to light now that we are living in the new house, is that the dirt and grossness pit in our backyard (which will someday be a real pool) is apparently the home of a menagerie of loud creatures.  Mark says they're frogs.  Okay then.  Frogs.

On warm muggy nights (read: almost every night in eastern North Carolina from April to October), we are serenaded (I mean that in the absolute loosest definition of the word) through the evening by loud frogs.  Really really loud frogs.  Like, turn-up-the-volume-I-can't-hear-the-movie-over-the-frogs loud.  LOUD.

Loud enough that soundproofing the doors and windows along the back of the house wouldn't be totally crazy. 

We've had a few nights where the frogs are pretty quiet.  When the weather is sixtyish or below (usually happens after midnight).  Deck lights and flood lights will make them quietly cautious for a few minutes.  Turning Bowden loose in the pool area sometimes does the trick. But despite what Mark told me (and what I might or might not have believed in a somewhat gullible moment), dumping a bunch of ice in the pool to cool things off and shut them up isn't a real thing.

Mark went exploring a few nights ago and found some of our loud pool squatters.  And you know what?  They're tiny.  Unless you've seen the size of the bricks on our pool deck, you won't have much sense of scale from this picture.  But they're small.  Like, an inch or two.  Tiny. 

I can't believe something so small, even in a group, can cause such a racket.  (Somewhere out there, my parents are knowingly smiling and nodding their heads.  You know, because they raised Ashley.  The only loud one of the three of us.)

The internets tell us we're lucky because frogs mean no bugs.  And let's be honest, the pool is pretty much a swamp these days.  The bugs could be out of control, but right now they're manageable.  I guess we have the frogs to thank for that, so I won't "chlorinate" the pool (read: run in a mad frenzy from the laundry room with several gallons of household bleach to put those suckers out of our misery) just yet.  I choose noise over bugs, for sure.  I just wish those danged frogs would eat more and talk less.*

*Also something I hear myself saying to Nathan three times a day.

The Requisite Spaghetti Picture

Once a month our church has a big spaghetti supper that we can all show up to, pig out, and then go home full and happy without having done any cooking or dishes.

It also provides ample opportunity for the requisite baby-eating-spaghetti pictures. 

Your daily Anneliese: utensils are SO overrated

Difficult

So I haven't dealt with this topic much on the internets, but in real life it's been almost as consuming as our house renovation.  Nathan has been in a difficult season.

I don't want to detail any painful scenarios here.  I think if I start putting words to keyboard it could spiral downward very quickly.  And I will feel bad later for admitting some of my darker thoughts on parenting in such a public forum (believe me, God and Mark and my very closest friends are ears enough already). 

It'll have to suffice just to make note that a hard season has come and (mostly) gone, we learned (and are still learning) a lot about our child and our parenting, and we love Nathan more every day. 

After several months of potty drama, mood swings, tearful breakdowns, independence assertions (some appropriate, some not), mega-transition, interruptions to his routine, trial-by-error parenting (poor first baby has to be the guinea pig for the rookie parents in every stage), and yes, to be fair, lots of happy laughy learning-from-this days as well, it seems things are finally back on a better trajectory with him. 

Nathan is a joy.  He is empathetic and compassionate beyond his almost four years, he is bright and articulate and inquisitive (oh so inquisitive) and even on days with multiple freakouts, he's extremely affectionate.

Here's to turned corners!

Hattie Dress

I noticed last week when I was having Anneliese's 18-month pictures taken that the dress she was wearing seemed awfully familar.

Turns out?  It's quite similar to Hattie's dress.  Which is actually kind of sweet, I think.  So when she was wearing the dress again and brought Hattie up in the chair to read books to her (speaking of sweet) after church, I couldn't not take pictures.

This is right after she threw the book on the ground, and right before she threw Hattie on the ground.  Neither was as hilarious as she thought it was.  We do not throw, remember?

Also try not to notice how much Hattie needs a bath.  Instead focus on that sweet smile and how much Anneliese looks like my sister.  All you people claiming a Nathan lookalike are clearly not seeing the Bumgarner I see!!

Crawfish Boil

Before Opa and Oma took Nathan back to their lake house for a visit last weekend, they were here in the triangle to celebrate Barbara's graduation from her MSW program.  Nick threw her a big southern crawfish boil, and yeah... it was delicious.

That could be the pregnancy talking.  Or it could be that Nick and Barbara just have mad culinary skillz.  Or both.

If you've never done it before, a crawfish boil (which I do not pronounce "crawish bowl" no matter what certain midwestern friends insist... *ahem*) involves dumping a bunch of crawfish* into a huge pot of seasonings and water, boiling them, and then dumping them onto a picnic table covered in newspapers.  Then everyone stands around and drinks beer, while pulling the crawfish apart with their hands to eat the meat and toss the heads and shells into a big pile.

What?  Doesn't sound classy enough for you?  Then you probably live somewhere where they call them crayfish anyway.  And you're missing out.  So there.

Nathan wasn't brave enough to try one (we thought we could convince him they were shrimp, but... notsomuch) and Anneliese thought hers was more for playing with and driving around than eating.  They both stuck to veggie lasagna (also delicious).

After we were all full, Anneliese showed off her new shoes and her new walking skillz to anyone who would applaud for her.  (Which was almost anyone.  She had three grandparents there, for starters.)

Happy crawfish bowl boil and congrats to Barbara!! :)

Nathan at the Lake

Nathan has spent the better part of the past week down in Lake Wateree with his Opa and Oma.

As usual, I have to glean information about what he did based on pictures, because the most information he gave me was I pooped on Opa's potty! and I sleeped on lightning mcqueen (a sleeping bag) and we sang a song like this: dum dum da da dum.  Uh, okay.  Great.

It looks like he also got to drive the boat:

... and make s'mores with Opa at a backyard campfire:

Mark and Anneliese drove down there to pick him up and stay for a short visit themselves (leaving me wonderfully blissfully home alone -- an extreme rarity in these parts), and apparently there was a joyful brother-sister reunion.

They played together in the yard:

And took her for another ride on the boat:

And Mark drank in some Daddy time:

**this picture makes me smile so much**

Thanks for the visit, Opa and Oma!  For more pics of the trip down to the lake, click here for the photobucket album.

Renovation: Finishing Touches

So technically this is Renovation, Days 57-69.  But seeing as there have been a lot of down days in there where no work was done, and there's really only about a half-day's worth of work left to do before the official renovation account runs dry, yet still years before the house is really done up exactly how we want it (but isn't that always the case?)... we're just calling this, here and now, The End. 

A "month-long" project turned seventy days.

We're in.  We're getting settled.  And whenever we sell the old house, we will have a fantastic renovated pool as the icing on the cake.  (Ooooooh let's fill it with icing!  No, cake batter! *saysthepregnantlady*)
So, this is The House That Love Built* -- our new home:

Since the last reno update, the new siding (replaced due to the termite damage, of course) has been painted to match the rest of the house.  We have freshly repaired dormer windows in all the upstairs bedrooms (look ma! no more rotted wood!)... Oh, and the whole exterior got a good pressure washing.

We have several new entrance doors (they're all in now, but a few are still waiting to be painted):

We've also properly fenced off the pool from the rest of the yard:

We can now get from the house to the deck, the guest house, and backyard without worrying about the pool -- which is behind a very kiddie-proof (read: Erin-proof) latched/locked gate. 

I am so happy that we found a way to fence the pool off while protecting easy access to the guest house and yard.  Really.  It seems like a small thing, but I am very pleased with the setup we worked out.

So. Buy new house? check. Renovate new house? check.  That's all, folks.

Yet... we're far from done.  There's the whole renovating of the pool, of course.  And someday we'll stain the fence.  And clean up the wild area in the backyard.  And remodel our bathrooms.  And put a door on the laundry room.  Put knobs on all the cabinet doors.  Replace the ugly brass light fixtures.  Screen in the back deck.  And soon, fix the leaky toilet line so we can use the kids' bathroom upstairs again.  (And there's still that pesky business about selling the old place too.)

But I get exhausted thinking about all that, so today I am just going to sit back and enjoy all the work that's already been done.  On this new home, which I love.  And be happy with things how exactly how they are right now.

*Hey, when you don't have enough money to just throw some cash at the problems, a labor of love is also required.  (Labor of love almost always means elbow grease.  True story.)

Picture Face!

It's recently (ok, in the last year) been brought to my attention that I make the same face whenever someone pulls a camera out and I think I'm being hilarious (lighthearted, fun-loving). 

Mostly these pics get deleted, because it turns out my picture face... is not particularly attractive.

Exhibit A: karaoke wednesdays

You might remember I've even been guilty of it with my own little Nathan behind the lens:

ANYWAY.

All that to say, the not-as-cute-as-I-think-I-am Picture Face habit has been passed on to Anneliese.  Who is apparently convinced that when a camera comes out, she has to do this:

Um. 

Eyes squeezed shut?  Half-puckered mouth showing lots of teeth and gums?  Not hott.  Funny (aggravating, when I would rather just see her gorgeous sweet smile), but not hott. 

Who has she seen do this?  Why does she think this is what people do in front of cameras?

I hope someone talks her out of this before she's thirty.

There's Hope for His Athleticism Yet

Look!  He can hit the ball!  And run the bases!


(If you can't see the embedded video, click here to watch it on YouTube.)

Try not to notice that he runs them backwards.  Or how much effort it takes him to actually get the ball onto the tee.  Or that this is yet another manifestation of my children playing in the front yard in their PJs.

We're working on it.  We'll get it together soon.  Promise.

Itti Bitti Fluffy Mail

My new ups guy has officially gotten a taste of my fluff-stalking crazy.  I might or might not have been anxiously awaiting a package for days, and I might or might not have bolted out of the house and down the driveway as soon as I saw his truck outside.  (Thank you to my sweet husband who thought it very necessary to take a picture.)

I would sing the praises of the diaper sprayers I have been waiting on (you know how much I love me a good diaper sprayer) but even more exciting than that is the freebie diaper I got with them!  The Itti Bitti diapers were kind of a big deal (in diapering circles) (yes, there are diapering circles) when they came available in the US a few months ago, but they weren't on my must-try list because the snaps seemed sort of complicated.

But for free with a purchase of something I needed anyway?  Yes please.

And y'all, it's gorgeous.  (Is it weird to say that about a diaper? Oh, who are we kidding, nothing I say about diapers is weird anymore.)  And so soft.  And because it's from Australia, the packaging says nappy all over it instead of diaper.  Which makes me like thirty kinds of happy. I don't know why.

This is the Tutto version of Itti Bitti, which is a one-size nappy (see what I did there? nappy?  good job, me) which means it grows with baby.  The soakers snap in, instead of stuffing a pocket like most of our stash.  With all the soakers in, it's still trim (hemp is like that, apparently), and it held Anneliese through a loooong nap.  Even before prepping.  I know you're supposed to prep new diapers to make them more absorbent, but I am one of those straight-from-the-mail-to-the-bum kind of moms.  Don't judge.

But yes, the snap system is kind of complicated.  It made a lot more sense after watching this video tutorial.  It's a good system, once you get the hang of it, but I'm not sure it's helping the whole "cloth is as easy as disposables" cause.  This one isn't.  But that's ok.  It can be a mommy diaper, and dads and sitters can reach for the velcro ones.  Doesn't break my heart to have a variety. 

Especially when they're this cute.  (Isn't that always what it comes back to?)

First Steps!

So technically Anneliese took her first two steps last weekend, on our first day here in the new house.  But she hasn't even come close since then.  I think she knows how much we wanted it.  And she was playing hard to get.  True story.

But today her mood* changed and she stood up and walked over to Nathan -- like six steps in a row!! -- and went for a car he was holding.  Of course it was to Nathan.  Of course.  :)


If you can't see the embedded video, click here to watch it on youtube.

And then she did it a bunch more.  My sweet girl is turning into a toddler big girl right in front of our eyes.  Oh man she's walking.  (Also, she really is freakishly tall.)

Ok.  Deep breaths.  Here we go.

*That, or she was in so much pain from the several dozen splinters Mark found in her legs and feet last night that she just couldn't bear to crawl anymore.  Too much playtime on the porch perhaps?  Poor baby.  :(

My Mommy (Nathan's Perspective)

Nathan's preschool class had a mother's day party yesterday, a tea party for all the mommies, complete with frosted cookies and goldfish and pink lemonade.

They sang songs for us (even Nathan sang! he got called out specially -- even Nathan is going to sing, right? ...awesome) and gave us flowers they had made out of tissue paper and pipe cleaners (Nathan was quite insistent I wear mine in my ponytail), and heart magnets for the fridge (Nathan colored his yellow and green, my favorite color and his, and yes it made me tear up a little). 

And then they gave us papers with questions they had answered about each of us.

Potential yikes moment.

On the official Embarrassing Truths, Outed By Our Children scale, mine lies somewhere between the mom who apparently likes to eat chips and beer and sleeps while her kid is in school, and the mom whose favorite food is carrots and spends her free time exercising.

Nice to know our kids' impressions of us, huh?

I can't wait to see what he says about Mark next month.  In the meantime, I'm off to consume some chicken and coke.  What can I say, it's kinda my thing.  Apparently.

Anneliese at Eighteen Months

You wouldn't think that a child sporting a mullet, crooked teeth, and an awkward gangly height would add up to the most beautiful little girl in the world.  But somehow it does.  It totally does.

Your daily Anneliese:
a year and a half of *awesome*

Have I mentioned recently that she's everything I hoped she would be, and more?  And that if I love her any more, I might explode?  But that I'm going to keep loving her more anyway?  Ok good, just making sure I'd said it.

Bonus Room Plus and Minus

The dangerous part of having your laundry room attached to your "lots of space for random messy whatever things" bonus room is that you might not stay as on top of the laundry as you keep promising your husband you will:

But the awesome part of having the "lots of space for random messy whatever things" bonus room in the first place, is that all the toys and children and random messes can stay mostly contained without encroaching on the grownup living space, but also still within earshot (this is a big thing for me):

I did some fancy ErinMath and added these things together, divided them and subtracted them (and then took the derivative of that) (heck yes I am a calculus rockstar, especially in ErinMath)... and it looks like the bonus room mess totally nets out as a win.

Last Last Trimester

Yesterday was my half-birthday.  It was also the first day of the last trimester of my last pregnancy. 

I celebrated with a really early church service... and morning sickness.

{sigh}

Someone remind me to drink in every bit of the next three months.  I don't think I'll ever be pregnant again, so I want to appreciate it now and remember it later.

And one more photo, because Nathan wanted me to take a picture of his belly after he took a picture of mine.  (His baby is a red gummy bear.  And while Sprout is coming after Nathan's birthday, Nathan's red gummy isn't coming until after Anneliese's birthday.  In case you were curious.)

Happy third trimester, Sprout!  We can't wait to meet you in three short months!!! :)

Still Classin Up the New Neighborhood

Yep, that's a rolling cooler.  A poor man's "push toy" if I ever saw one.

Yep, she's definitely wearing PJs.  Ill-fitting ones at that.  At 5pm.  Outside.  Out front, to be specific.  And to the likely and continued horror of our new neighbors.

This is the kind of thing that's totally going to undermine me as a Real Housewife of Anderson Heights.