chattanooga

Yesterday we went to Chattanooga to have Love Bug's one year pictures taken. Our fantastic photographer now lives in Knoxville so when our schedules don't line up when she comes to Atlanta, we meet in Chattanooga. The weather could not have been more perfect. Blue skies and sunny. It was a tad bit windy, but she found some great spots where she could take pictures and the wind wasn't an issue.

After the photo session, we enjoyed the awesome weather and fabulous downtown Chattanooga by walking around, eating lunch, treating the kids to ice cream, taking in the sites, walking down by the river and taking The Mayor to see the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. I didn't bring my camera so I don't have any pictures but I don't think I will ever forget the look on The Mayor's face when he saw that big train. He was beyond excited and kept saying "Mom, look! It's a big train". He said this no less than a dozen times and when we bought him a train from the gift shop, he repeated "thank you momma, you got the train" randomly throughout the 2 hour drive home.

It was the perfect spring day. One that I hated to see end. The kids were in a great mood, the weather was perfect and everyone enjoyed just being outside.

And because I don't want to ever forget...a funny potty-training The Mayor story. The Mayor is a master at peeing in the potty. He doesn't have any accidents when it comes to peeing. But pooping...geez...totally another story. I am beginning to wonder if he will ever poop in the potty. He has gotten to the point where he will just hold it until he is in his nighttime diaper and then poop. On Friday, The Mayor apparently needed to poop and couldn't wait until bedtime, so he asked D to change him into a diaper and his PJs (apparently he thinks he can't poop in just the diaper, but the PJs must be on too). So D changed The Mayor, The Mayor immediately went to the corner, pooped and then asked D to change his diaper. About 5 minutes after D changed his diaper, The Mayor came over to D and said "thank you daddy for changing my diaper. Thank you for cleaning my hiney".

Yesterday, after we got home from Chattanooga, The Mayor asked to get into a diaper and his PJs. It was almost bedtime, so I changed him. The second I pulled up his PJ pants, The Mayor walked over to the window, grabbed onto the window sill, and started pooping. The Mayor tooted and said "oops, excuse me" and I asked him if he was done and he said no. Then The Mayor looked at me and said "mom, listen to me. Do NOT eat poopie. Yuck" Let me preface this by saying The Mayor has never once attempted to eat poop. We have never told him do not eat poop. We are just thankful it is a given in our house and our kids know not to eat poop (or play in it either). So I am not sure where this came from...but thanks buddy, I now know not to eat poopie. Yuck.

alone time

This morning, Aunt Nat, Uncle Tom, Trey and Luke were planning to go to Chattanooga for the day and visit Ruby Falls. They offered to take The Mayor with them. I was nervous but excited for The Mayor to get to spend time with his cousins. He just loves his cousins and I knew he would have fun. But I was nervous for him to be gone all day. They left by 11AM and were home by 7:30. And according to them, it was a great day. When The Mayor saw the waterfall at Ruby Falls, Aunt Nat told me he said "it's amazing". Precious.

With The Mayor gone for the day that gave me tons of alone time with my girl. We usually only have 4 hour blocks of alone time while The Mayor is in school Tuesdays and Thursdays so to have all day with her was awesome. She did wake up fussy and pulling at her ear, so I ended up taking her to the pediatrician...ear infection. But once we got some antibiotics in her and she had a great nap, she was her normal sweet and happy self.

Tomorrow is a school day for The Mayor so I get some more sweet time with my little peanut. Can't wait.

no more highchair...we have graduated to the booster chair...such a big girl!

an unexpected surprise

Uncle Tom, Aunt Nat, Trey and Luke are here!! What a great surprise! We got the call last night that their spring break plans had changed and instead of heading south to Florida, they wanted to head north to Atlanta. We couldn't be happier that they are here...especially The Mayor. His best buddy Luke is here.

We had a busy day. It was a school day for The Mayor, I cleaned the house while the kiddos napped and as soon as they woke up from their naps, the family rolled into the parking lot. Perfect timing. Dinner at a Mexican restaurant followed by frozen yogurt rounded out an awesome evening with the family. Looking forward to the week!

This week brings a lot of rain in the forecast, and normally that would make me so sad, but now we have something to look forward too!

could have gone either way

When you wake up to a cold and rainy Saturday, your day can go one of two ways. It can be a "I'm not going to do anything except crawl back into bed and hide under my covers, watch every cheesy movie on the Lifetime network and eat foods where the first ingredient is sugar...or chocolate" or it can be like our day. Everyone was in a great mood, happy, obedient, perfect. Not typical behavior when it is cold, wet and dreary. But I will take it.

After breakfast and some playtime in the basement, we decided to venture out and head to a covered playground a few miles away. Why not? The equipment will be dry and the kids can run around. I thought every other parent would have the same idea and it would be packed...there was not a soul there. We had the entire park to ourselves. It was fantastic. And then I was mad I didn't bring my camera. Because I thought it was going to be packed I didn't bring it because I didn't want to have to keep up with one more thing. Oh well, I took some pictures with the camera on my phone...so they aren't the best quality.

The Mayor, Love Bug, D and I went down the slides, ran around, let Love Bug play on the toddler slides and then D helped The Mayor climb up a 15 foot rope pyramid (and I almost had a panic attack). It was amazing to see my little 3 year old boy climbing this rope pyramid by himself. He listened to D when D told him where to place his feet and The Mayor scaled it like a monkey. He had no fear. And the few times he would slip, he caught himself, yelled at his feet (seriously, he literally said "come on feet"...hysterical), and kept on going. He got to the top and just smiled. And waved down to me and Love Bug. We were so proud.

Lunch, naps and some more playtime rounded out this surprisingly fun, rainy Saturday. Looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.

hold them extra tight

Today is what I would classify as a bad mommy day. Short fused, overly tired, wishing I could just crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head. And after the kids were asleep and I got to sit down and attempt to forget today, I read about a young couple from Brooklyn with an 18 month old daughter. The husband, Nathan, was diagnosed with stage 3 rectal cancer and 9 days later, his wife, Elisa, was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.

It made me stop in my tracks.

I bet they would do anything to change places with me. I am healthy. My husband is healthy. My children are healthy. At least today. So I need to be thankful for what I have been blessed with and work on not letting the stupid things, the little things, the nothing things get under my skin. Because tomorrow it could all change. I mean, really change. And I would be so mad at myself for being irritated at these stupid things and for not soaking in every single moment that I have with the 3 loves of my life. Today is a gift.

my loves

back in the swing of things

With the exception of thinking it was Monday all day today, we are getting back into the swing of things. It was a school day for The Mayor, tennis practice for me and mommy/daughter time with Love Bug. This afternoon we just laid low, let Love Bug nap while The Mayor played and I tried to get the house back in order.

I have no idea what we will be doing tomorrow but I do know this momma will be going to bed early tonight. I am worn out from the weekend, and since I had to be at the gym at 5AM this morning to work out with my trainer, my eyelids are getting heavy.

But it is so nice to be back home and on our way back to normal.

vacation?

Can it still be called a vacation when you have children? Vacation, to me, means relaxing, kicking back, taking a load off. Traveling with kids is none of those things. You are doing all of your normal day-to-day things just in a different location. And, at least for my children, they are worse when they are out of their element. They are such creature of habits and l-o-v-e their own beds, that everyone and everything is just a hair off when we travel.

We left Atlanta on Thursday after The Mayor got out of school. And we weren't 5 minutes into Florida when I smelled vomit. I looked over Love Bug's carseat and she was covered. We pulled over on I-75 and D had our daughter sitting on the side of the highway cleaning her off while I shoveled vomit out of her carseat. A quick 30 second conversation trying to determine why she threw up and we decided maybe it was car sickness? So we turned her carseat forward facing, prayed to Jesus that we wouldn't get into a car accident (she is 1 and just over the 20 pound but they are now recommending they are rear facing until 2!) and went on our way. 2 miles later, I smelled a blow-out. We pulled into a truck stop, changed the nastiest diaper from Love Bug, prayed that whatever was bothering her was finally out of her system and continued on our way. We made it Orlando with no more accidents.

Friday, we piddled around town and that night we went to a local Mexican restaurant. We were there for about 10 minutes and The Mayor threw up all over himself at the table. D and our friend Rich took The Mayor into the men's room, cleaned him up and I stood outside the restroom praying that this was the end of Vomit Fest 2011. Once The Mayor was done, he was fine. He actually wanted to eat. So we put him and Love Bug on the BRATT diet for the rest of the weekend. Better safe than sorry...

In other news...not related to vomit...the reason of our trip to Orlando, besides seeing our dear friends, was to go to a Braves spring training game. D was so eager to take his son to a baseball game. And The Mayor liked being there for about 5 minutes. Both kids just weren't feeling 100% and it was HOT this weekend. And the game was at 1:00 which is Love Bug's nap time and to be honest, The Mayor could have really stood to have been napping as well. We made it to the 2nd inning before I decided I was no longer interested in torturing the kids and I took them back to our friend's house. D stayed with our friends (he did offer to come home with me but I said someone from our family should be enjoying this game!) and me and the kids were off. Love Bug was asleep before I even got out of the parking lot and 15 minutes later when we were back home, both kids were sound asleep. They slept for 2 1/2 hours and were totally like new kids when they woke up.

The rest of the weekend has been up and down. Both kids are super tired and a little overwhelmed from being out of their element, but regardless of how much a roller coaster this weekend was, it was awesome. Being able to bring the kids to see our friends and to fun experiences like the Braves game (even though they only lasted 2 innings) was fantastic. D and I love making memories with our kids. And we can always try again next year.

And who needs a vacation that is relaxing? D and I had years where it was just us and we wouldn't have it any other way now. These days are going to fly by and before I know it, The Mayor and Love Bug will be creating memories with their own families. That's when I will kick back, relax and take a load off. Until then...bring on the chaos.

D showing The Mayor the field during batting practice...and trying to catch a home run ball

they caught one!

cheering on our friend's daughter at her soccer game